We Are The Young

by Moonmoon_baby

Summary:

A long story following the next generation of wizards attending multiple years at Hogwarts post-war with Voldemort, and an outsider's perspective on the Weasley/Potter family.

Chapter 1: Prologue

Summary:

First introduction to our main character, giving you an insight on her home life before she attends Hogwarts

Notes:

Apologies if it doesn't upload perfectly, it's my first time using Ao3 and this story is mainly for my own enjoyment :)

Also, disclaimer I don't support JK Rowlings views, nor do I own any of her characters or story settings. This is purely just for fun.

Hope you enjoy!!

Saturday August 29th 2015

Cressida often wondered why she had ended up the way she had. If she tried really hard, she didn’t have to think for very long. She was barely five feet tall, the shortest in her class. Her mum was a nervous wreck, with no dad to stick around and help. She lived in a council flat filled with crazy people or drug addicts in a small town called Conwell, in the middle of nowhere in the vallies of Wales. Despite only being eleven, she knew her prospects for life weren’t looking good.

Which is why discovering she was a wizard came as a bit of a shock to her.

The letter had arrived earlier in the summer. She had been out wandering the streets for entertainment all day and returned to find an owl sitting on her window ledge. She had never even seen an owl before, having one deliver an official looking letter made the situation even more bizarre.

Never being a patient child, Cressida ripped open the letter straight away.

‘Dear Ms. Knightly,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1st September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Head Mistress, Minerva McGonagall’

She had thought it was a joke, perhaps the boys across the stairway had written it to be funny, but her mother’s face fell once she rushed into Cressida’s tiny room to see what she was yelling about.

Apparently, her mother had been suspecting Cressida was a ‘witch’ for a while and decided not to say anything. Cressida still couldn’t believe it was happening. Her mother made her promise not to tell anyone or even bring it up again unless they were completely alone. She called it their little secret. Cressida agreed, knowing she and her mother had many ‘little secrets’ over her childhood.

She had reread the letter numerous times ever since it arrived, keeping it safely hidden under her pillow like it might disappear if she didn’t have eyes on it at all times.

There was a second letter concealed behind the first that she had also memorized, that listed and contained all the necessary books and equipment she would need for the year. The last line of the letter stuck out in her mind more than the rest:

‘Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad.
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK’

She felt like that sentence would not be up for debate, and felt like it was yelling at her off the page. She also wondered what happened to make that rule explicitly noted down in the acceptance letter.

But she knew for definite there was no way the two dimwitted boys across the hall could make something this complex and detailed up just for a joke. She had to accept it, no matter how bizarre it seemed, that she was a witch. Looking back, some of it made sense. Cressida had always had a talent for luckily getting just what she wanted or tricking people into doing things she wanted them to with a simple thought. Perhaps all her innocent luck had been magic this whole time.

Her mother’s reaction had been more than strange when she found out about it and she was still acting strangely now nearly a month later. The two had had an argument a few weeks ago after Cressida had asked if her magical abilities had anything to do with her dad at the dinner table. It was one of the few nights her mother’s boyfriend, Gareth, wasn’t present and so Cressida knew this was her only chance to bring up her father.

“Of course not!” Her mother snapped in an unusual tone. “You’re father… he… um-” She had faltered then, a dazed look spread across her face as she tried to think clearly. “I should make some tea,” her mother decided, leaving the conversation hanging in the air.

Her mother never spoke about her father. It was like she couldn’t remember a single thing about him whenever Cressida asked. Cressida, obviously, had never met him or sought him out. She had no information to seek him out with apart from the fact he had been only 18, just like her mother, when Cressida was born. Apparently, he had been at her birth, sometimes her mother changed her mind about this detail, and that was all she knew.

She only knew one other thing, she had her father’s eyes. Her mother had deep brown eyes but Cressida had steely grey ones. Sometimes she imagined what her father looked like but always came up empty apart from that one facial feature. Everything else about her appearance was the spitting image of her mother, right down to her thick eyebrows, straggly blonde hair and the beauty mark on her left cheek.

She told herself she was okay with not knowing much about her dad. It hardly affected her current life in any way. Loads of kids from her primary school had only had one parent raising them. She hoped the same was said for wizard kids.

“CRESSIDA!” Gareth’s voice called from the living room.

Cressida rolled her eyes and shoved the letter she had been reading for the thousandth time into her jeans pocket.
Reluctantly, she got up from her tiny bed and wandered out into the living room to find Gareth slumped in his normal chair drinking a beer.

“It’s only nine in the morning,” she muttered when she noticed it. She thought to herself that Gareth had to be one of the worst boyfriends her mother had picked up over the years. The nice ones never stayed for long.

“Don’t be cheeky with me!” He lectured, pointing a fat finger at her. “Your mum’s running late, she said not to forget your chores.”

Cressida leant against her bedroom door frame, crossing her arms. She hated when her mum ran late on the night shift, it meant Gareth made her do all the chores he could easily help out with. “What do you want me to do first?”

Gareth lit a cigarette. “Run down to the shop and get some sausages and beer.”

“I’m eleven,” she reminded him.

He exhaled and looked at her. “Right,” he said as if he had completely forgotten how young she was. “Just the sausages then, you can cook them when you get back. Then you can do the dishes from last night and take the rubbish out.” He puffed on his cigarette again before sending a slimy smile her way. “I want this flat spotless before she gets home. She deserves it.”

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “You know you don’t live here, right?”

He put out his cigarette and sat up in the chair. “Watch the cheek, Cress!” He warned slowly. “And stay out of trouble,” Gareth added on.

“I’ll do my best,” Cressida replied stonily before grabbing the leather jacket from the back of her bedroom door and walking out of the flat, grabbing a pack of cigarettes lying on the side discreetly as she did so.

Once she was outside the block of flats, she allowed the sun to warm up her face. She knew summer was coming to an end and she didn’t know whether she was glad or disappointed. She liked not being in school and having all day to herself to explore every nook and cranny of her small village but she also liked the idea of disappearing away to boarding school where no one knew her, more importantly, she wouldn’t have to put up with Gareth every day anymore.

Forcing her eyes open again, she started making her way through the alleyway towards the shops, having her usual Saturday morning routine waiting for her arrival. It didn’t take long before she found the exact people she was looking for.

Just outside the small line of shops on the only main road through town, was the usual group of older boys lingering like they had been all summer. They were only fourteen, not that much older than Cressida herself, but they acted as though they were the kings of the village. Cressida knew that it was all a show. If they were really the kings of the village they wouldn’t rely on an eleven year old to get their cigarettes on a weekly basis.

“Little Knightly!” Albie greeted her with a yellowed grin. “What have you got for us today?”

Cressida silently reached into her pocket and produced the packet of cigarettes she had stolen from Gareth. The older boy examined them and then nodded to his companion. Butchy, a much fatter and stockier boy, handed Cressida a ten pound note. “Buy yourself some chocolate or something,” he said as she took the money. Cressida only offered him a small smile in return. Butchy had always been her favourite, he didn’t show off as much as the others.

Cressida pocketed the money and addressed Albie again as he handed a cigarette to each of his friends. “I’ll be gone until Christmas. You’ll have to find someone else to get your cigarettes.”

Albie lit his cigarette clumsily and it wagged in his mouth as he spoke to her. “We’ll miss you, Little Knightly. If those posh boarding school kids give you any trouble, you know where to find us.”

“Yeah, ‘course,” Cressida replied stepping around them to go into the shop, only rolling her eyes once they couldn’t see her. She knew the gang of boys would be useless if she ever needed them for a real fight.

Having done her cigarette deal and the breakfast run in good time, Cressida paused outside her block of flats again. It had only been twenty minutes since she left and the thought of going back inside to cook Gareth breakfast made her wish boarding school was starting even sooner.

Taking a moment for herself, she removed the letter from her back pocket and started reading it again. She told herself this was the last time she would go over it word for word, she knew she’d probably have to stop reading it in two days’ time once she was actually at the school.

Her moment of peace was quickly cut short by a burst of snorting laughter coming from above her. Cressida craned her neck upwards to see two familiar faces leaning out of the third floor flat. Mitch and Lee Powell, two horrid and spotty ginger boys that lived opposite her, were armed with water bombs like they had been for the majority of the summer.

They were dropping them to the ground and laughing manically as it splashed all over the concrete. That was when Cressida realised they had a target. There was a tiny black and white kitten trying to hide from the water bombs under a dilapidated couch set out for the skip man at the front of the flats.

It was poking its head out every few seconds to hiss at the wet intrusion. She recognised the kitten from the previous month of the summer, it always just seemed to be around, but no one seemed to own it.

Cressida stormed forward and narrowly avoided being hit with a water bomb herself. The two brothers paused in their throwing once they saw Cressida, but she didn’t bother to look up to see why.

She went onto her hands and knees, coaxing the kitten out. It hissed at her momentarily and retreated further into the safety of the couch until Cressida opened her leather jacket out. She supposed in the kitten’s mind his less than fearsome meow came out as more than the high pitched rasp that it was. “Come on, buddy,” she whispered to the kitten. She knew the brothers wouldn’t stop throwing water bombs at the poor creature any time soon, but she could at least take it somewhere safer.

Slowly, the kitten crawled forward until it was close enough to be scooped up. It gave a raspy meow of protest to being picked up, and instead crawled out of Cressida’s hands and dug its claws into her shoulder. Cressida didn’t mind and let the kitten perch on her shoulder comfortably as she prepared to get to her feet again.

“What’s this?”

Cressida spun around, clutching at her back pocket when she realised the two brothers were now behind her. Once she was facing them, she saw Mitch, the oldest brother by one year, was holding out her Hogwarts acceptance letters.

“Give them back!” She warned.

“Or what?” Mitch countered holding them out of her reach.

Lee snatched them from his brother to look for himself. “What are they, anyways?”

Cressida rolled her eyes as she watched the two boys struggle to read the cursive writing clearly. If she truly was a witch she imaged turning those horrid boys into toads then and there, but she knew that was unlikely to happen.

While they were distracted, Cressida grabbed the kitten, getting another raspy meow in retaliation as she did so, and set him on the floor for him to make his escape. Annoyingly, instead of running away, the kitten slinked back under the sofa, poking his head out to keep his green eyes on Cressida.

“They’re my school acceptance letters,” she admitted tearing her eyes away from the stubborn kitten.

Both boys looked at her confused. “Aren’t you coming to Conwell Secondary with me and the rest of us?” Mitch asked.

“No,” Cressida snapped. “I’ve got better places to be than that dump-hole.”

“Conwell is the only option for kids like us, Knightly,” Lee told her. He was right of course, but Cressida had been given a way out, she was sure as hell going to take it.

Cressida tried to reach out and snatch the letters back, but Mitch tucked them into his jeans pockets instead and gave her a cocky grin.

“I bet everyone would love to hear about how Knightly scammed her way into a posh school,” Mitch threatened. “Did your mum get with the headmaster or somethin’?”

Feeling anger rising in her chest, Cressida reached out and banged their heads together in one quick movement.

“What was that for?” Lee cursed, rubbing the side of his head in pain.

“Give me my letters or I’ll do a lot worse,” Cressida threatened.

“Like what?” Mitch asked concerned.

Cressida smiled sweetly at them, a look she had nearly perfected in her short lifetime. “You know Albie and his boys?” The two brothers nodded. “Guess who their cigarette dealer is."

Both of their eyes widened in fear. “You wouldn’t! You’re bluffing!” Lee blubbered.

“Try me.” They stood glaring at each other for a moment while they considered this. Just when it looked like they wouldn’t give in, Cressida hardened her eyes again and suddenly the two boys were buckling under her harsh glare.

“Fine,” Mitch agreed, handing her the letters back reluctantly. “But I’m still telling everyone you scammed your way in. There’s no other way you’d get out of going to Conwell Secondary.”

“Yeah,” Lee agreed pathetically while hiding behind his brother.

Cressida pocketed her letters again with a careless shrug. “Tell them whatever you want. I won’t be here to hear it anyway.”

With that, Cressida started making her way back up to her flat to face Gareth.

Chapter 2: Diagon Alley

Summary:

Cressida has her first taste of the wizarding world

Sunday 30th August 2015

Cressida was woken up by her bedroom door swinging open. She sat bolt upright at the disruption to find Gareth in the doorway. “A package has come for you,” he said before disappearing again.

Cressida pushed her blonde hair out of her face and pulled on her slippers before rushing into the kitchen to find her mother sitting at their tiny dining table. “Morning, Cress,” she grinned, sleepily kissing Cressida on top of the head as a greeting. She still smelt of the nursing home, giving away she had been late coming home again.

Cressida hugged her mother back quickly before looking inside the large box that had appeared. “What is it?”

Her mother seemed to brace herself on the side of the table. “Your school stuff. The Head Mistress said she’d send some stuff to you because I didn’t have the money to buy it all. We have to find a way to London to get the rest of it today.”

“Can’t Gareth drive us?” Cressida asked.

Her mother rubbed her eyes tiredly. “No,” she said stonily. “He’s already started drinking. He said the postman woke him up and annoyed him.”

Wanting to change the topic, Cressida reached into the box and started pulling out various books and items. To her horror, a black pointed hat was included. “There’s no way I’m wearing this,” she told her mother dropping the hat back into the box.

“I’m sure all the fashionable witches are wearing them,” her mother replied unsurely. Cressida could see how uneasy it all made her. She was checking the kitchen doorway every twenty seconds in case Gareth came in.

“Have you told him yet?” Cressida asked in a hushed voice.

Her mother fiddled with the end of the laminated table cloth. “I’ve told him you’re going away to a special boarding school.”

“But not about the magic?”

“No,” she sighed. “I don’t want to freak him out.”

Cressida bit her tongue. “Do you think I’m a freak now?”

Her mother’s eyes snapped towards her, realizing her mistake. “Of course not, Cress!” She said instantly, pulling Cressida into a tight hug. “I just… I don’t know, how do you explain to someone like Gareth that magic exists?”

“You seemed to accept it easily,” Cressida reminded her. The ever-present daze seemed to descend over her mother’s eyes.

“It just made sense… I can’t remember exactly, but I think I saw something once… there was-” She faltered and looked down. Clearly, whatever thought or memory she had tried to conjure up had fizzled away. “Anyway,” she said quickly recollecting herself. “Come on, we’ve got to go to London.”

*

She and her mother had managed to catch a coach to take them all the way to London in order to do all the necessary shopping for her new school. She thought that there would be more than one wizard high street but apparently, wizards liked to be awkward.

After a long four hour journey on a crowded and smelly bus to London, her mother had the map pulled up on her phone in order to find the landmark ‘The Leaky Cauldron’.
“Over here,” her mother, Alice, said heading off in a random direction. Cressida strolled casually behind, hands in her leather jacket pockets, taking in the sights. She had never been to London before, it was a lot busier than she would have imagined. Cressida had never been a big city fan, she liked her quiet Welsh town where she knew everyone and could navigate the back streets like the back of her hand.

Evidently, the pub was the meeting point for a lot of people. Through the masses of people passing by, there was a congregation of families along with their children trying to get into the old building.

After a lot of shoving, Cressida and her mother were stood inside and it was like being teleported back in time or visiting the oldest pub in her village. The walls were high and made of stone with wooden beams running across. Masses of people, some of them dressed in the strangest clothes Cressida had ever seen, were sat at elongated tables and benches cheersing their beer tankers together merrily.

“Through here,” Alice hurried Cressida along before she could take in the full sight. “This is Diagon Alley,” her mother said glancing at her phone. She tapped the screen a few times only to realise she no longer had an internet connection and she swore under her breath.

“It’ll be okay, mum,” Cressida smiled reassuringly, she wanted to relieve her mother’s amount of stress as best she could. She produced the list of things they had to get from within her pocket. “We can find our way around by ourselves.”

Her mother stared about the busy high street. She had a dazed expression on her face again like she was struggling to remember something. “They sent me enough special money for everything else you need… cost me fifty quid in the end,” she was muttering to herself. “I wish I knew where to start.”

Cressida took her mother’s hand and started leading her in the direction most children her age seemed to be going. “Over here,” she said. She looked up at the narrow and shabby looking shop with peeling gold letters over the door of the shop read: ‘Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.’

Alice didn’t protest and let Cressida pull her inside. The shop was tiny, empty of all furniture except for a single, spindly chair in the corner. Thousands of narrow boxes containing wands were piled right up to the ceiling of the tiny shop, and the whole place had a thin layer of dust about it. Students and their families flitted about the room pointing at various boxes and objects contained on shelves, chatting happily.

“Garrick Ollivander,” a kind voice spoke up behind them. Cressida and her mother turned to face an old man, very old, smiling at them sweetly. “I suspect you are a muggle-born, yes?” He asked.

“Muggle-born?” Cressida repeated confused. “What’s a-”

“I’m a muggle, yes,” her mother answered with a strange sense of certainty.

“Very good!” Ollivander grinned looking down directly at Cressida. “Let’s find you a wand shall we, Miss?”

He beckoned for Cressida to follow him through the shop and she did so, keeping a tight grip on her mother. Ollivander stopped at one side of the wall that rose high up to the ceiling, with rows and rows containing slender black boxes. He waited as if Cressida knew exactly what to do.

“Well, go on,” he encouraged kindly. “Pick one out, see how they feel.”

Cressida took a deep breath to calm her growing nerves and reached out her hand to touch one of the boxes. Pulling it out she examined what was inside curiously. A long wooden wand was encased in fabric with beautiful vine-like details etched into it. “I like this one,” Cressida admitted. Ollivander said nothing but watched her closely. Sensing she was supposed to keep doing something, she carefully pulled the wand out of its casing and held it in her hands. It was heavier than she expected and her face frowned involuntarily.

Ollivander took the wand from her hands in an instant and replaced it on the shelf. “Oh no, that won’t do,” he tutted. “Clearly that wand isn’t right for you. Try again.”
Cressida pursed her lips and grabbed another one at random. She gripped a thicker dark wood wand in her hand and noticed a bunch of numerals and symbols carved into the base of the wand. It felt easier to hold as she moved it up and down in her wrist as if it was moving on its own accord.

“Holly wood and dragon heart-string, 113/4"… how does it feel?” Ollivander prompted her. Cressida shrugged indifferently as she examined the wand more closely. It was a nice wand but Cressida wasn’t sure what the markings meant and it looked too expensive for her taste. With a thoughtful murmur, Ollivander took the wand off her once again. “Well, that’s no good. You have to be sure.”

Cressida had the sense that none of this would make sense to her. Shrugging, she closed her eyes and stuck her hand out letting her fingers trace along the range of boxes on display until she got the sense to stop. When she opened her eyes again, Ollivander was beaming. “I like your style, Miss!” He laughed lightly. “A witch’s intuition is very powerful indeed.”

Cressida grinned as she opened her randomly selected box. Inside was a longer, nearly black, and more bendy wand than her first and second selection. There were no intricate markings on it, instead, there were two raised bands indicating where her hand would hold it. She pulled it out of the box and moved her wrist. Golden sparks flew out of the end of the wand and ricochet off one of the many shelves. A chorus of good-humoured laughter spread around the shop as all eyes turned to Cressida.

Alice was wringing her hands nervously as she looked between Cressida and Ollivander, panicking that they would have to pay for any damage done or be thrown out of the shop completely. Ollivander, however, seemed thrilled as he took the wand from Cressida and examined it for himself. “Sycamore wood with a phoenix feather core, 123/4" and surprisingly swishy flexibility,” he said. “Perfect for a young witch such as yourself.”

Alice let out a breath of relief at Ollivander’s calm reaction. Cressida and her mother followed the old man over to the till and he wrung up her wand. “That will be 7 Galleons.”
Alice handed over the necessary amount of the strange currency and the two left the shop promptly, wand in hand. Once they were back out in the busy street, Alice started glancing around searching for the next big crowd to follow.

“How do you know what to say?” Cressida asked slowly. Her mother glanced down at her in between counting the remaining money. “When that man asked us a question, you answered even though I’ve never heard that word before.”

Her mother turned her attention back to the street. “I don’t know,” she said. “I suppose I had just heard the word somewhere before and remembered it.”

Cressida didn’t ask any more questions as they both set off through the crowd. She knew pushing her mother for answers would only end in an argument, especially if she pushed her in a crowded place.

Cressida’s eyes fell onto a shop that seemed to be bursting with people. The sign read, ‘The Magical Menagerie’.

She checked her mother was distracted tallying up their purchases and how much money they had left before moving away from her. Walking closer she peered into the window and found an array of creatures contained inside the shop along with students picking out animals as pets. There wasn’t much room inside from what Cressida could see. Every inch of wall was hidden by cages. It seemed smelly and very noisy, the occupants of the cages were all squeaking, squawking, jabbering or hissing.

The door gave a pleasant jingle as it was pulled open and Cressida’s attention snapped towards it. A boy her age passed by showing a large brown owl proudly on his arm. “I’m going to name him Barnabas!” He grinned at his father and mother as they trailed behind him arm in arm smiling happily.

“Barnabas is a better name than Pigwidgeon,” the dad grinned. His wife lightly hit his arm in response. He nodded a hello to Cressida as he and his family passed. His son had already started running off, the owl hooting happily. “James Sirius, slow down!” He yelled running after his son with his wife in toe laughing.

After him came a taller girl accompanied by her stern looking mother dressed in a sari. The girl had a pout on her face as she looked over her shoulder back into the shop. Her mother reached back, grabbing her arm to hurry her along.

“Jacqueline, we cannot have a pet. I said you could look and now you've looked so let's go!” Her mother said continuing down the cobbled path.

The girl lingered beside Cressida, watching her mother continue rambling unaware that Jacqueline had stopped following her. Cressida stared at her curiously, wondering what the girl was about to do next when, to her surprise, the girl looked toward Cressida.

“Of course, I have the only dad that's allergic to everything imaginable,” she sighed. “Are you a First Year too?”

Cressida found it hard to believe the girl who was at least 5'5 already was a First Year like her, she found it even harder to believe she was trying to engage Cressida of all people in conversation.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” Cressida answered after a short pause. She got a better look at the girl now she was facing Cressida straight on. She had broad shoulders but a friendly face, short curly brown hair with brown eyes to match, and was clearly of Indian descent.

“JAQUELINE!” Her mother screeched from up ahead. Jac jumped slightly, turning towards her mother, her shoulders suddenly straightened out with perfect posture.

“Coming!” She called back to her mum before looking at Cressida again. “Good luck picking out a pet in there. They're going like wildfire, especially the kittens,” she said to Cressida before rushing after her mother and getting lost in the crowd.

Alice now stood beside Cressida peering into the magical pet shop and sighed deeply. “Cress, you’re only eleven, you don’t need a pet… besides, you know Gareth will go mad if we show up with a pet. He hates animals.”

Cressida silently thought that was all the more reason to get a pet but bit her tongue. She watched as the pet shop door opened and another young boy walked out with a fat toad held in between his hands, grinning happily as he and his parents wandered off.

“How can Gareth be mad about something that’s not even around him for most of the year?” Cressida asked cleverly.

Alice started to recount the change in her hand after Cressida caused her to lose her place. “You know what he’s like, Cressida. He won’t understand where I got the money to buy a pet from.”

“You’re the one with the job, your money shouldn’t affect him at all,” Cressida muttered but Alice had heard it and stopped counting altogether.

Cressida chewed her lip guiltily, wondering if her mother was about to tell her off for bad talking Gareth in front of her. To Cressida's surprise, her mother tapped her lovingly on the shoulder, steering her away from the shop window.

“Let's get back to Conwell, shall we?” She asked distantly. “The Chippy will be shutting by the time we get back.”

Chapter 3: First Year: Hogwarts

Summary:

Enter the Potter/ Weasley clan

Tuesday 1st September 2015

Cressida had packed everything she could think of. All of the school supplies that had magically turned up went into her provided trunk, along with the ones she had bought from the wizard high street. She threw in some of her normal clothes and her favourite pair of slippers and dressing gown. She knew she couldn’t take her phone with her, technology apparently didn’t work at Hogwarts, which also meant she’d have no way to listen to any of her favourite songs. She hadn’t realized how much she used her phone for music and communication until this very moment, but in the back of her mind, she was glad to be leaving it behind. It was an old second-hand phone from her distant aunt, and she was worried everyone at Hogwarts would have been given the newest models by their parents.

Looking at her entire life packed into one rather large trunk Cressida suddenly realised how little she had. None of her clothes were brand new, all of her shoes had at least one hole in them or had been badly patched up. Her dressing gown and slippers had been hand-me-downs from the older girl from the flat above.

She thought that her mother’s leather jacket was perhaps the nicest thing she owned. A knot twisted in her stomach, Cressida knew they didn’t have much money but she had never thought of them as poor before. She reached into her leather jacket and rummaged around for any loose change. £5.24 was all she had left, but she knew that would buy breakfast at the café for one person.

Checking Gareth wasn’t passing by her bedroom, she put the money under her bed pillow, knowing her mother would find it when she changed the sheets on Wednesday morning. Hopefully, she’d have the sense to buy herself something nice.

She had brushed her hair and shoved it back into a ponytail, thrown on her comfiest and least tatty looking clothes and threw her jacket on top in case she got cold on the journey. That seemed unlikely as the weather seemed particularly nice for the beginning of September, but that only made her miss the summer that had just passed more.

There was a gentle knock at her bedroom door and her mother stepped in. “Are you ready, Cress?” She asked but stopped when she saw the jacket around her tiny frame. “Are you seriously taking that old thing to school with you?”

Cressida shrugged and readjusted it on her shoulders protectively. The jacket went everywhere with her, but it wasn’t actually hers. The old leather jacket belonged to her mother, although it was two sizes too big and Cressida had never seen her mother wear it herself. “I think it suits me.”

Alice crossed the room and kissed Cressida lovingly on the head. “It looks better on you anyway.”

Her mother held her for a moment, clearly feeling emotional at the thought of sending her only daughter away. They had never been apart ever since the moment Cressida was born. Her mother worked long hours and sometimes send her to other people’s houses for a night but she had never been away from her for more than twenty-four hours. She tried not to think about it too much, if she did she was sure she would start crying and never make it on the train to go.

“I got you a present!” Her mother blurted out after a moment, quickly wiping the tears from her eyes. She revealed a hobo style bag from behind her back and handed it to Cressida. “I thought it would be good to carry your books around in. I’ve already packed some stuff in it for you for the journey until you get there.”

Cressida examined the bag in her hands, it looked practically brand new. “How did you get this?” She asked, now conscious of how much money had been spent on her for the new school already.

Alice shrugged her concerns away. “I called in a favour with Kayla at the charity shop. She owed me £20 from when we worked at the bar together.”

Cressida threw the black fabric bag over her shoulder gratefully. “Thanks, mum.”

“Come on, we haven’t got all day!” Gareth called from the hallway. He was less than thrilled he had to drive Cressida to London to board the train at King’s Cross Station.

“For God’s sake, Gareth! We’re coming now!” Alice called. Cressida resisted the urge to shout back herself, but her mum quickly kissed Cressida on the head before helping her with her trunk. “Don’t let his bad mood ruin your first day, Cress. He’s just mad he can’t drink until we get back.”

Alice helped Gareth load up the back of his van with her stuff while Cressida lingered by the doorway to the flats. A tiny meow came from the ground and Cressida bent down to see the tiny street kitten crawling out from under the sofa towards her.

She scratched the kitten on the head and laughed as he tried to climb her leg. As she stared down at the tiny kitten attempting to climb onto her shoulder again, something in her brain clicked. People were going to be bringing cats to Hogwarts, no one would know that Cressida didn’t buy the kitten herself, and the kitten had no one proper to take care of him. Besides, it was unfair to leave the kitten behind to be tortured by the Powell brothers in her absence.

An idea conjured in her mind within seconds. She glanced at her mother and Gareth finishing up with her things and, without thinking, scooped up the kitten and placed him in her bag.

“You’ll be safe with me,” she whispered to the kitten. “Just stay quiet and it’ll be okay.”

The tiny kitten seemed to sink lower into the bag as if he understood the importance of her instruction, giving only a tiny raspy meow in retaliation. The van door slammed shut and her mother was beckoning her over. Sending one last glance up at her block of flats, she saw two familiar ginger boys leaning out of their window watching her departure. They had a water balloon in their hands again but had clearly decided against throwing them at her for the first time in history. Sending a quick rude gesture up at the boys she turned away, she heard them laughing at her as she got in the back of the van and slammed the door shut.

*

It was 9:35 when Cressida finally arrived at King’s Cross Station. Why did everything have to be London based?

Gareth parked the van and decided not to join the two of them to watch Cressida’s departure. Cressida and her mother were both relieved at this, despite it being done as an act of defiance from the middle-aged man.

Her mother had been a bag of nerves all night, and unfortunately for Cressida, so was she. They glanced around the busy platform looking for the number 9 sign, and by retaliation, the 93/4 sign.

Cressida spotted a few oddly dressed people she now recognised as wizards and pushed her heavy trolley forwards. “Are you sure about this, Cress?” Her mother whispered as the both of them watched a family of wizards run headfirst into the brick all and disappear.

Cressida gulped nervously not knowing whether she would have the courage to run full throttle into a wall. They watched another family laughing as they ran through the barrier like it was nothing. A familiar voice was behind them and Cressida turned to see Jacqueline approaching with her mother in toe complaining about the lack of modern technology at Hogwarts.

“Hi,” Jacqueline waved at Cressida when she spotted her. Cressida relaxed slightly seeing a familiar face. She was used to fending for herself, but in this bizarre situation, she was just glad to have someone else there to talk to.

“Jacqueline, right?” Cressida greeted her.

“My mum calls me Jacqueline. You can call me Jac,” she said shaking Cressida’s hand.

“Cressida,” she introduced herself.

“Do you know what we’re supposed to do?” Jac whispered.

Cressida gestured as yet another wizarding family ran straight into the barrier like it was nothing. Jac and her mother’s faces fell at the sight of it.

“We are not running through that!” Jac’s mother proclaimed.

Alice stepped towards the other mum smiling. “Alice Knightly, I’m a muggle too.”

“Shari Redwick,” she introduced herself shaking Alice’s hand gratefully. “You have no idea how nervous I am about sending Jacqueline away to this school. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. Since when are wizards a real thing?”

“It’s a big shock, I’ll give you that,” Alice laughed lightly. “But I’m sure it’s what’s best for our girls in the long run.”

Shari faced the barrier thoughtfully. “I suppose. I just didn’t expect her first day of secondary school to include running face-first into a barrier.”

“We can all do it together,” Jac spoke up cheerfully. “That way if it goes wrong we won’t look as stupid.”

Shari and Alice glanced at each other before nodding their heads in agreement. Cressida and Jac lined up their trolleys facing the barrier and gripped the handles tightly.

Cressida took a deep breath and turned towards the barrier. “Are you ready?”

“No,” Jac answered truthfully. “But I’ll go if you do.”

Cressida nodded. “Three… two-” she counted down. On one both girls accompanied by their mothers ran headfirst at the barrier and emerged on the other side to something more marvellous and wondrous than they could have imagined.

A bright red stream train was already pulled into the station waiting for the students to load onto it. Families of witches and wizards, accompanied by students of all ages, filled the magical platform talking to one another or amongst themselves.

Cressida and Jac had looks of awe spread across their faces, their mother’s however still looked like their nerves were getting the better of them. There was a commotion from behind them and the small group moved forward out of the way to watch as a long line of wizards and witches came running through.

First was the boy Cressida recognised from the pet shop, his owl still perched proudly on his arm as if he had been there every moment since being bought. Behind him came his parents, accompanied by a younger boy and an even younger girl. Behind them came a blue-haired teenage boy dressed in yellow robes, laughing happily as he jokingly hit the first boy over the head while passing by them. After him came a young ginger girl accompanied by her serious looking ginger father. Then came a more fun looking ginger, looking incredibly similar to the first ginger man, accompanied by his beautiful dark skinned wife and their striking looking son. A third ginger man appeared, older than the other two ginger men and covered in white scars, accompanied by a stunning teenage daughter who moved with the grace of an angel compared to the rest of the group.

The large group were very obviously together as once on the platform they swarmed back together all laughing and talking happily amongst themselves. All eyes on the platform seemed to turn to their appearance and soon even more people had started crowding around the group.

“Who are they?” Jac asked curiously as the two girls and their mothers moved even further out of the way of the descending crowd.

“No idea,” Cressida answered.

The whistle on the train blew and students started loading onto it and bidding their parents goodbye. Alice took Cressida into her arms and hugged her tightly, peppering her head with kisses so much she felt like she resembled a kitten getting licked clean by its mother.

Jac and her mother handled the goodbye with slightly more grace. Jac and her mother gave a quick hug and peck on the cheek to each other before Shari stepped back allowing Jac to start getting on the train.

Cressida clawed her way out of her mother’s grasp and realised she was crying. “It’ll be okay, mum. I’ll be home for Christmas in a few months.”

“I’m just going to miss you so much,” she cried.

“I’ll miss you too.” Cressida smiled at her mother, giving her one last kiss on the cheek before turning to board the train alongside Jac.

“I love you!” Alice shouted as the two girls disappeared on board.

“Is your mum always like that?” Jac asked as the two girls shuffled their way along the train's narrow hallway attempting to find an empty compartment.

“It’s just me and her. She doesn’t like to leave me alone that much,” Cressida explained. It wasn’t a lie, in Cressida’s opinion, it was just her and her mother in the long run. No man ever stuck around, and she hoped the trend didn’t end with Gareth staying forever.

The two girls found an empty compartment and slipped inside to get settled. The train lurched forward and Cressida ran to the window to wave to her mum as they passed by and took off towards the mysterious school. Her mother was crying even harder as she became a dot in the distance and Cressida sat back on the lumpy compartment sofa. She held her stomach nervously, knowing she often got travel sick on most vehicles but this time she couldn’t tell the travel sickness apart from the regular nerves bubbling in her stomach.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two girls. Making friends at home had always come naturally to Cressida but keeping them tended to be the problem. She simply preferred to be alone in most circumstances. Her mother told Cressida she was liked by all but close to none, just like her. Cressida has always been proud of that phrase, but now she was older and embarking on a new journey, she wondered if that was such a good thing. She thought having a close friend would be preferable over popularity or being alone.

“Did you get a cat after?” Jac asked bringing Cressida out of her daze. Noticing the confused look on Cressida’s face, Jac elaborated. “From the pet shop, I mean?”

Cressida checked there was no one else around, another bad habit of hers, before opening her hobo bag and revealing the tiny kitten hidden inside. “He’s not from the magic shop. He lived on my street and I just took him without anyone seeing.”

Jac’s eyes looked up to stare at Cressida. “You stole a cat?”

Cressida pulled her bag back protectively. “I didn’t steal him. He didn’t belong to anyone… he deserved a home more than the cats in the shop.”

“Does your mum know?”

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “Does she need to?”

Jac seemed amused by her attitude towards the secret kitten. “She might notice when you go home for Christmas.”

Cressida shrugged indifferently. She’d deal with that when the time came. “It’ll be our secret until then, I guess.”

Jac considered this for a moment and then nodded. “Does he have a name?”

Cressida lifted the kitten out of the bag and stared at him thoughtfully. As usual, he meowed rebelliously to being manhandled. “Rasper,” she decided in an instant.

“I like it,” Jac smiled reaching over and scratching the kitten on the head.

The two girls descended back into silence as the train clacked along. Cressida thought she may as well test the waters of friendship with the only friendly face she had seen so far. Besides, Jac was already sat in front of her and knew one of her secrets.

“Are you nervous about all this?” Cressida asked finally.

“Bricking it,” Jac admitted with a laugh. “Where are you from?”

“A small town in Wales, Conwell. What about you?”

“Bristol!” Jac grinned back. Cressida was surprised she hadn’t picked up on the accent sooner.

The compartment door slid open and a boy with sandy blonde hair tumbled into the small space startling the two girls. “Sorry,” he apologised straightening up. Cressida noticed his Irish accent straight away. “Everywhere else is full.”

Jac moved over to make room for him instantly. “Jac Redwick,” she introduced herself as the boy slumped down beside her.

“Cressida Knightly,” she said when the boy turned his eyes on her.

“Felix Finnigan,” he introduced himself to the two girls. “How exciting is this?!” He beamed. When the two girls didn’t look as enthused his face fell slightly. “Don’t tell me you’re muggle-borns?”

“I think we are…” Cressida admitted. “Our parents aren’t like you, anyway.”

Felix shrugged and got more comfortable in the seat. “Being muggle-born ain’t a big deal anymore anyway. It just might take longer for you to figure things out.”

“So you’re a proper wizard?” Jac asked curiously.

“My dad is Seamus Finnigan. He helped Harry Potter in the war.”

“War?” Cressida asked. “What war?”

Felix’s eyes grew wide in realization. “You don’t know about the second wizarding war?”

“I wasn’t even aware of the first one,” Jac told him.

Felix ran a hand through his dirty blonde curls. “Merlin! So you don’t know who Harry Potter is either?” Both girls shook their heads. Felix sat forward, resting on his knees like he was telling them a very important story. “You saw that group of people all come through the barrier together… and everyone kind of flocked towards them?” He asked. Both girls nodded. “That’s Harry Potter and the clan! There’s bloody loads of them now. Dad says it’s the Weasley gene, they can’t help but multiply.”

“What’s a Weasley?” Cressida asked confused.

Felix threw himself backwards laughing. “You really are a muggle, aren’t you? If you see a ginger wandering around Hogwarts, the bets are they’re a Weasley.”

Cressida and Jac shared a glance and silently agreed not to ask any more questions. Rasper jumped across the compartment and landed in between the two new faces, sniffing them.

“Cool cat,” Felix said. “I got myself a rat… dad made me leave it at home though, he said I better not take it to Hogwarts with me. Rats have a kind of a bad reputation there now.”

“I’m sure they do,” Cressida muttered under her breath sarcastically. Felix seemed to be speaking nothing but nonsense from the moment he arrived.

The compartment door slid open and two girls stood in the doorway. A stern looking ginger girl and a smaller, black-haired girl who looked on the verge of tears.

“Can we sit in here?” The ginger girl asked already taking a seat beside Cressida. “My cousins are being absolutely foul as usual.”

“You’re a Weasley?” Cressida guessed noticing the ginger hair.

“My dad is Percy,” she sighed as if Cressida had any clue who that was.

“Ministry guy, fought in the war,” Felix whispered to Cressida.

“My name is Molly, the second Molly Weasley in fact,” she introduced herself shaking everyone’s hands in turn primly. They all repeated their names back to her.

“Who are you?” Felix asked looking at the dark haired girl still standing in the compartment doorway. Cressida caught glimpses of her slightly Asian features hidden underneath her hair.

“Margo Smithers,” she answered quietly as she awkwardly put herself beside Molly on the sofa. Her accent was incredibly posh and soft-spoken.

“Margo lives next door to my family,” Molly explained. Cressida noticed Molly had a stern, uptight look about her, but other than that she was rather beautiful. “What houses are you all hoping to be sorted into?” She asked taking over any conversation that had previously been happening before her arrival.

“I don’t care really,” Felix answered first. “Dad said he doesn’t care where I end up as long as I don’t get expelled during my first week.”

“I’d quite like to be in Ravenclaw,” Margo said indifferently. “All my family before me though have been in Slytherin though so I’m not sure where I’ll end up.”

“Well, I want to be in Gryffindor like my father and the rest of my family,” Molly said confidently. “If I’m lucky I’ll make Head Girl too. What about you two?” She asked looking at Cressida and Jac.

“They’re muggle-borns. They didn’t even know who Harry Potter is,” Felix explained as the two girls looked at Molly blankly.

Molly’s face softened slightly. “Don’t worry about being from muggles, stick with me and you’ll know the ins and outs of the wizarding world in no time.”

Margo leant forward to look at Cressida curiously. “Are you sure you’re muggle-born with a name like Cressida?”

Cressida shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I’m muggle-born. I only know my mum and she’s definitely not a witch.”

Rasper jumped up into Molly’s lap and the ginger girl instantly started cooing over the kitten excitedly bringing a halt to the conversation. Cressida smiled to herself as Molly and Margo took to playing with Rasper while Jac and Felix engaged in small talk. All her nerves were gone, she suddenly realised. Perhaps, Hogwarts wouldn’t be so different from a normal school after all.

*

Several long hours later and the Hogwarts Express was pulling into the station at 5:58 in the evening. Cressida quickly swooped Rasper back into her bag as everyone else gathered their things. The train ride had been pleasant and Cressida was glad to realise she hadn’t gotten travel sick from it like she first feared.

The group in the compartment had stayed together for most of the journey talking and getting to one know another. Margo and Molly had disappeared during the ride to visit her cousins further down the train but Molly returned moments later looking in a foul mood as a pink substance dripped from her hair. Cressida decided against asking questions as she watched in awe as Molly performed a spell to make it disappear within seconds.

“Out yer come, First Years!” A voice boomed in a thick West Country accent from outside the train.

“That would be Hagrid,” Molly explained as she led the group off the train onto the small platform. “He’s the groundskeeper at Hogwarts.”

“He also knew Harry Potter,” Margo added on.

“Everyone knows Harry Potter one way or another,” Felix commented.

“Did I hear my father’s name?” A cocky voice called from up ahead. Through the crowd, the first boy from the platform and the pet shop revealed himself standing alongside the blue-haired teenager and two other boys. “What rubbish are you talking now, Weasley?” He asked Molly in a good-humoured way.

Molly sighed as the two groups met in the middle. “These are my cousins,” she explained to the group haughtily.

“James Sirius Potter,” he grinned shaking everyone’s hands. “This is Fred the second,” he said gesturing to a darker skinned boy to his side. “This is Thomas Wood, no relation,” he said pointing a thumb towards the second boy at his side with shaggy brown hair.

As Cressida looked at all of Molly’s cousins and their friends in turn she realised just how rough the kids from her village were. Everyone on the platform in front of her looked perfectly presented and smart, apart from James who purposefully seemed to ruffle his hair as he spoke.

“I’m Teddy Lupin.” The blue-haired boy swooped in, introducing himself before James took the chance. “I’m not related to the Potter-Weasley clan either.”

James scoffed. “You might as well be. You practically live at our houses.”

“First Years, follow me!” Hagrid’s voice boomed again.

The blonde teen girl from the platform sauntered past giving eyes to Teddy Lupin as she passed. “You coming, Lupin?” She asked in a slightly French accent.

“That an invitation, Weasley?” He smirked at the older girl watching her walk ahead. Teddy turned and ruffled James’ hair playfully before starting to follow the older students in a different direction. “Stay out of trouble while I’m gone!” He called to the group of First Years as he backed away.

James laughed and tugged on his robes cockily. “Stay out of trouble,” he repeated mockingly. “Who does he take me for?”

“Come on,” Molly spoke up. “Let’s go before James starts causing a scene.”

Jac, Margo, Cressida and Felix followed after Molly figuring she was the better option if they didn’t want to get left behind completely.

All of the First Years followed behind Hagrid as he led them along a shady path that led to a fleet of small boats. “Into the boats, ye go!” He told them cheerily, taking up a whole boat by himself.

Molly, Felix and Margo climbed into a boat unphased and Jac and Cressida followed suit. “Do we sail ourselves across?” Cressida asked.

“Of course not,” Molly laughed.

“They’re magic. Almost everything around here is magical,” Felix explained amused by the girl’s innocence.

“This is going to take some getting used to,” Jac whispered to Cressida and she silently agreed.

Beside them, James, Fred and Thomas were rocking their boat back and forth so much it was starting to cause waves, knocking other boats off their balance as well.

“Knock it off, you three!” Molly lectured them from their own boat. James looked up grinning, seeming to rock the boat even harder now he knew people were watching him.

The boats suddenly lurched forward and James fell into a pile with the other two boys as the they took off. Molly folded her hands neatly in her lap and smiled smugly after watching her cousin fall flat on his face.

The boats started sailing them across the Black Lake at a relatively fast pace towards the school in all its glory. It would have been a defining moment in Cressida’s life, she thought, if she didn’t feel so queasy. Evidently, her immunity to travel sickness didn’t transcend to the boat portion of the journey.

“Are you okay, Cressida?” Jac asked noticing the odd shade of green she was turning.

All eyes on the boat turned to look at her and Cressida got suddenly embarrassed. “It’s nothing,” she lied. “Just don’t travel well sometimes.”

Molly reached out and turned Cressida’s body by the shoulders to face the side of the boat in case she was going to be sick.

“We’re nearly there, try and keep it in,” Felix told her nervously. “Plug your nose or something!”

Cressida leant over the side of the boat and tried not to focus on the movement of the water under her. She took deep breaths and kept telling herself she could keep it in if the rest of the short boat ride was like this.

“Row, row, row your boat gently through the lake!” A chorus of voices were singing, coming up beside them. Cressida lifted her head slightly to see James Sirius Potter, standing at the front of his rowboat with his hand saluted to his forehead like he was looking out to the horizon while the other two boys sang the song mockingly behind him. “Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily- Hogwarts all the way!”

James turned his attention to their boat as he passed and saw Cressida threatening to barf over the side any moment. “Merlin!” He laughed. “Molly your friend doesn’t look so-”

She heaved over the side of the boat with everyone watching her. Jac was quick to rub her back in a soothing way. James quickly averted his gaze to look forward again. “Onwards, men! Nothing more to see here!” He said awkwardly and their boat picked up speed and left them behind.

“Ignore them, Cressida. They’re just a bunch of idiots,” Molly said rolling her eyes as her cousin and his friends departed. Margo had turned green at the sight of Cressida being sick and within seconds she was also over the side of the boat throwing up. “For Merlin’s sake,” Molly sighed rubbing her friend’s back dutifully.

“I don’t think the giant squid is going to appreciate this,” Felix muttered as he watched the two girls throwing up in slight horror.

Cressida lifted her head long enough to look at him. “GIANT squid?!”

“Maybe that’s a factoid for another day,” Molly decided, glaring at Felix. Ten minutes later the boats all stopped and arrived at a small landing stage near the base of Hogwarts Castle. Cressida and Margo were the first to be hurled off the boats onto firm land after their sickness fiasco.

Hagrid’s large and hairy body towered over them. “Had a rough journey, did ye?” He asked. “Oh well, we’re 'ere now,” he said clapping Cressida on the back so hard that she stumbled forward and Jac had to catch her. “On we go then!” Hagrid continued on merrily having not noticed.

Inside the castle, the First Years were herded into a small waiting room where they were greeted by a tall, stern-looking witch with grey hair drawn into a tight bun. All of their bags and trunks had magically disappeared and Cressida hoped that Rasper hadn’t been too startled at everything going on from inside her bag. “Good evening First Years! I am Professor McGonagall, your Head Mistress and Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” she smiled in a nice Scottish accent as the group all clambered into the entrance hall together.

Cressida and her already established group stuck together while they awaited what was about to happen next.

“Psst!”

Cressida looked over her shoulder to see the three boys looking at her. “Sorry we made you throw up back there-”

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat pointedly and the group split to reveal who was talking. James straightened up and offered the best innocent smile he could muster as McGonagall stared at him for a moment. “Your name?” She asked.

“James Sirius Potter,” he answered, unphased by the number of people staring at him.

McGonagall let out a deep sigh. “Merlin save me, the day has finally come,” she muttered to herself looking up to the heavens. “Well, Mr Potter, I would appreciate it if you could listen for just a moment longer before you start causing trouble.”

James grinned at the teacher as he put his arms around Thomas and Fred pulling them into a boyish hug. For a moment, a look of nostalgic happiness seemed to flutter across the old witch’s face before she continued. “You are all about to embark on our school and make names for yourselves in many different ways and show off your many different talents,” she told the group of First Years. “But first you must be sorted into your appropriate house. These houses will become like your family and you should want to represent your houses proudly.” She paused for a moment allowing her words to take root in their young minds. “Well, then,” she grinned moving towards the large door. “Let’s begin the ceremony, shall we?”

“I always love this bit,” Hagrid smiled excitedly at the back of the crowd.

The doors flew open with a brilliant flare and McGonagall led the line of First Years into the Great Hall. Cressida had to remind herself to keep walking and not stare in amazement. Four long banquet tables stood in the middle of the hall filled with students cheering for them as they entered. At the very front of the hall stood a long table where teachers were sat also clapping for the arrival of the new students.

Looking up, the ceiling above them wasn’t really a ceiling at all, instead, it reflected the beautiful night sky and showed thousands of candles floating in mid-air.

“It’s cracker, isn’t it?” Felix beamed at the group of girls. All Jac and Cressida could do was nod in response, hoping cracker meant good.

McGonagall gestured for the First Years to wait at the back of the hall as she walked up to the front. They all watched in anticipation as she produced a stool and a crinkled old wizard's hat was placed upon it. Cressida jumped in surprise as the hat seemed to come to life and start singing from the seams.

“There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be!”

“The hat sings,” Cressida said in disbelief.

“Of course, the hat sings,” Jac laughed back sarcastically. “Why wouldn’t the hat sing.”

McGonagall started calling students up by alphabetical order and placing the hat on their heads. Every single time there was a short silence before the hat yelled out a house and the First Year went to their allocated table.

Felix Finnigan was the first of their group to be called forward. “Good luck,” Molly whispered to him as he made the trip up to sit on the stool in front of the whole school.

There was a short moment, Felix’s face looked completely lost inside the large hat, and then eventually it proclaimed, “Slytherin!”

McGonagall removed the hat and Felix headed towards the green brandished table with an indifferent shrug.

“Oh, that’s a shame,” Molly sighed disappointedly. “He seemed so nice.”

Before Cressida could ask what she meant, another name was called and she quickly returned to watching the ceremony.

A few more students passed and then it was Cressida’s turn. “Cressida Knightly!” McGonagall called encouragingly. Cressida sent a nervous glance to her group and then carefully made her way up and sat on the stool. McGonagall lowered the hat onto her head and, similarly to Felix, it fell over her eyes.

“Hmm, yes indeed.”

Cressida jumped, startled to hear the hat talking to her inside her own head like it was a person.

“A strong intuition… oh and what’s this?” The hat asked excitedly. “A good will to get people to fall in line. Overly well liked… but a bad temper. A single parent… hmm, your parentage…” The hat seemed to falter. “Who is your father?”

“I don’t know,” Cressida answered the hat in her mind.

“Very well. Where do you wish to be placed, Miss Knightly?”

“With my friends,” Cressida thought.

The hat made a pleased noise. “Slytherin!”

The hat was removed from her head and her eyes had to adjust to the bright light of the hall once again. There was a series of claps for her as she removed herself from the stool and wandered down to sit beside Felix at the Slytherin table. When she sat beside him, Felix let out a breath of relief. “Thank Merlin for that! I know I said I didn’t care where I ended up but I didn’t want to be the only one to get Slytherin.”

Two more students passed before James Sirius Potter was called forward. He strode towards the stool and sat down confidently. The hat had barely touched his head before he proclaimed “Gryffindor!”

McGonagall seemed to be clapping the loudest as the boy bowed dramatically and made his way to the red branded table being embraced by the other students as if he had always been at the school. Teddy Lupin stood up from his seat at the Hufflepuff table and poked his tongue out at his younger companion amongst the loud cheers. “Traitor!” He called over.

“I am but a Potter!” James called back. “Potter’s belong in Gryffindor!”

“Yes, quite,” McGonagall beamed before shushing the hall to call up the next student. “Jacqueline Redwick!”

Jac walked up to the hat and it sat on her head for longer than some of the others. Eventually, it proclaimed, “Slytherin!”

Jac practically ran over to fill the space beside Felix and Cressida on their table. Margo Smithers was next and within seconds she had also joined the Slytherin table. This seemed to come as a surprise to everyone in the hall at how many students were being affiliated with the Slytherin house.

The next two students were sorted into Ravenclaw and another went to Hufflepuff. “Fred Weasley II,” McGonagall called with a slight lump in her throat.

Fred walked up to the stool and sat down. “Come on, Fred!” James yelled at his cousin as the hat was plopped onto his head. As expected, within seconds he was joining James at the Gryffindor table with another chorus of loud and obnoxious shouts.

“Molly Weasley II,” McGonagall called forward.

The ginger girl walked up to the stool with her head high and allowed the hat to be dropped on her head. James and Fred were now slightly raised out of their seats as they awaited their third cousin’s placement.

“Slytherin!” The Sorting Hat bellowed.

McGonagall removed the hat slightly surprised by its decision. James and Fred stared at Molly in shock as she calmly got up from the stool and sat at the opposing table.

“You alright, Weasley?” Felix asked carefully as she sat down. Jac and Cressida got the sense something unexpected and unnatural had happened.

“It doesn’t matter what house I’m in, I suppose. My father will understand,” she said, although her voice was slightly hitched. She looked toward the group sat around her and offered them a small smile. “At least I’m not on my own.”

Margo moved forward and hugged Molly comfortingly. Molly tapped her lightly on the arm once the hug was done and returned to watching the last of the sorting ceremony in silence.

“Thomas Percival Wood!”

He was the last remaining First Year to be sorted. James and Fred tried to compose themselves and offered their friend encouraging thumbs up as he approached the stool.
“Gryffindor!”

You could see the relieved look spread across James and Fred’s faces as they jumped up in their seats cheering loudly for their friend as he joined their table.

McGonagall removed the hat and the stool and took her place behind the owl podium facing all the students. A quiet hush spread over the room as she cleared her throat.
“Welcome students, old and new, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!” She boomed over the hall which was met by a round of applause. “I am glad to welcome many new faces with familiar names to our school this year. No doubt they shall hold up to their successors' reputations… Merlin help us all… as well as even more young witches and wizards who I am sure will make a credible name for themselves in their several years here at Hogwarts. Firstly, I should like to introduce and welcome our Heads of House.” She turned slightly, extending an arm to the table full of teachers. “Professor Longbottom!”

A slightly dumpy looking wizard got to his feet shy and waved, the Gryffindor table erupted into cheers and shouts at their Head of House.

“Professor Slughorn!”

An old and merry looking wizard dressed in brown, expensive robes stood and boxed his head towards McGonagall as he was met with cheers from the Slytherin table surrounding Cressida.

“Professor Sprout!”

A short and plumb old witch waved happily at her table of cheering Hufflepuffs.

“And Professor Flitwick!”

A tiny, smart looking wizard, stood up on his chair to be seen over the table full of teachers. He offered a grateful bow to his Ravenclaw Students and then one at McGonagall before sitting back in his raised chair.

“Is he a dwarf?” Cressida asked Felix quietly.

“Part goblin actually, but good guess,” he replied casually.

McGonagall took everyone’s attention back to her and cleared her throat with a sense of seriousness. “Our school may have faced many hardships in years past, but I know that together we can still make the wizarding world a happy and hopeful place with the help of the students sitting before me. You are the next generation, you are in charge of your own destinies, and I hope you take that responsibility carefully.”

There was a tense silence over the room as these words seemed to resonate with the students. McGonagall gave them a smile to ease the mood. “Now that’s over with, I present your feast!”

McGonagall spread her arms out and the largest array of food appeared on the four tables that Cressida had ever seen. Roast beef was the main course, along with every trimming and side you could wish for accompanied it.

“I could get used to this!” Cressida beamed as she started loading up her silver plate.

“Welcome to the wizard way of life, my friend,” Felix grinned already stuffing mash potatoes into his mouth.

Molly didn’t seem excited about the meal and instead loaded tiny portions of everything onto her plate and then stared at it. No one else seemed to notice apart from Jac.
“Everything okay, Molly?” She asked.

Molly glanced up. “Fine, thank you. Just not very hungry,” she answered tightly.

Margo noticed her bad mood now, and her fork clattered to the table as she tried to swallow the heaps of food already in her mouth. “It’ll be alright, Molly. At least you’ve got me!”

Molly sighed and picked up her own fork finally. “I suppose.”

The meal passed by quickly and by the end of it, Cressida was sufficiently stuffed to the brim with food, along with every other student at Hogwarts it seemed.

McGonagall dabbed the corners of her mouth with a napkin and stood up, the other teachers followed suit. “Students!” She called getting everyone’s attention. “It is now time to follow your Head of House to your dormitories. First Years are to follow the Head Boy or Girl accordingly.”

There was a loud uproar of chatter and noise as people started to get up to leave the Great hall at McGonagall’s dismissal.

Professor Slughorn made his way over to the Slytherin table. “Good evening, students!” He grinned at them, tugging on his robes proudly. “I am Professor Slughorn, your Head of House. Now I know Slytherin has had its negative connotations over the years but let’s try and move past them, shall we? Onwards and upwards after all!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cressida whispered to Felix.

Felix shifted awkwardly as they all got to their feet preparing to leave. “I’ll explain later.”

An older, smart looking boy had appeared at Slughorn’s side brandishing a silver badge on his robes. Slughorn clasped the boy on the shoulder and then looked at the First Years.

“This is Gabriel Monty, if you’d like to follow him he will show you to the dormitories,” Slughorn explained before smiling at them again and then disappearing amongst the crowd leaving the Great Hall.

Gabriel turned his eyes to the First Years and sighed. “Come on then, First Years!” He said before turning and leading them out of the Great Hall without a warning. Cressida and her new group of friends had to rush to catch up before they lost sight of him.

Once outside in the main entranceway again, the group ran into the tail end of the Gryffindors being led to their own common room. “May the best house win, Monty!” The Gryffindor Head Boy laughed at the Slytherin equivalent. Gabriel rolled his eyes and continued on without acknowledging the Gryffindor house.

Fred, Thomas and James hung back as the rest of their group followed the Head Boy up the stairs. They were clearly trying to catch Molly’s attention but her eyes remained fully forward as if making a point to ignore them. Cressida watched as James’ shoulders slumped and he whispered something to his entourage before all three boys rushed after their group.

“Come on, Cressida!” Jac urged as their own group had started moving without her noticing.

There was a door on the right side of the Entrance Hall that the Head Boy led them to in a single line. Behind the door was a set of stone steps that descend deep into the dungeons and the all First Year Slytherins seemed to make the descent nervously.

“The entrance to the common room is located behind a bare stretch of stone wall,” Gabriel told the group as they reached the bottom of the stairs. The Head Boy gestured for all the First Years to crowd around him. “You need a password to enter. It changes every few weeks and the updated password will be shown on the notice board. Do not give this password to anyone outside of Slytherin house or there will be consequences,” he told them strictly. He turned to face the bare wall. “Thestral’s breath!”

There was a rumbling sound and the bare wall fell apart to reveal a passageway into the common room and Gabriel hurried them all inside.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them which a group of older students already sat around happily chatting.

“What’s up with the windows?” Jac asked noticing the long panes didn’t show anything above the ground, but instead a murky and greenish view.

“The dungeons extend partway under the lake,” Molly explained.

“What do you do if it gets stuffy in here?” Cressida asked. The group all looked at her. “It’s not like you can crack open a window without threatening to drown everyone.”

“She does have a point,” Felix agreed amused.

“It doesn’t get stuffy,” Margo tutted as if it was the stupidest question she had ever heard.

Cressida shrugged Margo’s remark off and looked around the common room again. Evidently, now Gabriel had shown them how to enter the common room, his job was done and he had disappeared.

The common room itself had lots of low backed black and dark green button-tufted leather sofas and dark wood bookshelves and matching tables. One of the wooden tables had a Wizard's Chess set on it. The room was decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures of famous medieval Slytherins as well as multiple portraits hanging along the stone walls. The only face Cressida recognised among the wall was that of her new Head of year, Horace Slughorn.

“Who’s that?” Cressida asked spotting one of a handsome young looking wizard.

Felix moved forward and read the plaque on the bottom. “R.A.B.”

“Regulus Black,” Molly told the group not having to look at the plaque to recognise him. “He looks just like his brother, Sirius.”

“What did he do?” Jac asked curiously.

“Something to do with the Horcruxes Uncle Harry had to destroy during the war,” Molly shrugged, turning to look at the perplexed expressions on the two girl’s faces. “You wouldn’t understand.”

There was a familiar meow and Cressida looked down to see Rasper sprinting across the common room to get to her. She gladly bent down and swooped the kitten into her arms and, for the first time, he didn’t protest to being picked up.

“Shall we find our dorm room?” Margo asked excitedly.

Molly seemed grateful for an excuse to keep moving. “I believe they’re through there,” she said pointing to an archway leading to a different corridor.

The four girls started off towards it then stopped. Felix remained frozen in place, looking rather lost.

“Are you going to be okay, Finnigan?” Jac asked.

Felix waved a dismissive hand through the air. “Don’t worry about me, just trying to take it all in.”

He got distracted by a group of Third Years playing exploding snap and he quickly departed, looking excited once again.

Molly looked at the boy curiously for a moment, before turning and heading towards the dormitories, Margo and Jac in toe. Cressida held back slightly and only Jac turned around and noticed. “Aren’t you coming?”

Cressida shook her head. She wasn’t tired and she was no longer in the mood for small talk. “I want to wander around a bit first.”

Molly stopped walking and looked at her momentarily. “Just be back before curfew,” she said before carrying on.

Cressida nodded in response and tried not to pull a face. She had never had a curfew before. She waited until Jac had followed them as well before perching Rasper on her shoulder and turning to leave the Slytherin common room completely.

*

Cressida had come to realise wandering around alone on her first day of school was a bigger mistake than she first thought. This was like her tiny village of back streets on crack. Everywhere she turned there was a new corridor or path to follow. Everything either moved when it wasn’t supposed to or looked like it had been around for centuries.

She had only been wandering for two hours but already she felt incredibly lost and couldn’t remember how to get back to the Slytherin common room. Plus, it was incredibly dark after hours, making everything harder to remember. In addition to Hogwarts’ aversion to technology, they apparently also had an aversion to modern lighting.

Rasper seemed happy enough to remain on Cressida’s shoulder or trailing behind her as they wandered, excited to explore just as much as Cressida herself.

Trying to retrace her steps, she rounded a random corridor somewhere on the Third Floor and spotted the blue-haired boy from the train station, Teddy Lupin. Once he saw the First Year, he concealed something behind his back guiltily and Cressida did the same with Rasper out of habit.

Cressida quirked an eyebrow curiously. “What are you doing here?”

The older boy seemed amused by her confidence. “I could ask you the same thing. First Years shouldn’t be wandering the corridors… especially on their first night here.”

Cressida shrugged and glanced around the empty hall. “I wanted to look around.”

Teddy hardened his eyes on her thoughtfully. “Are my lot around here somewhere?”

“Why would your cousins be with me?”

Teddy was still looking at her as if a million thoughts were swimming around in his head. “My cousins love a bit of trouble.”

Cressida smiled innocently at him, revealing the kitten from behind her back. “What makes you think I’m trouble?”

Teddy smirked and revealed the bottle of alcohol he had been concealing behind his back, evidently coming to the conclusion Cressida wouldn’t tell anyone. “I better take you back down to your common room before Slughorn catches you… or worse, Filch.”

Cressida was slightly relieved he had offered before she had to ask him. She silently followed behind the older boy as he strode ahead, taking a swig of his drink but knowing better than to offer it to the eleven-year-old. “There’s a party somewhere, isn’t there?” Cressida asked knowingly.

Teddy glanced over his shoulder at her. “You’re very observant for an eleven-year-old,” he grinned. “The Ravenclaws are throwing the first one this year to celebrate being back, but I have to do my Head Boy duties before I can join in the fun.”

“Does the Head Boy often drink on the job?” Cressida quipped as Teddy seemed to lead her down a shortcut.

“He does when he has to catch up with a bunch of wizards who started drinking on the train this morning,” he laughed as they appeared in the dungeons out of nowhere. Cressida tried not to show her confusion on her face at their sudden change of location. “See you around, kid,” he saluted her before disappearing again.

Once she whispered the password and entered the common room, she was relieved to see it was completely empty. Everyone seemed to have obeyed the curfew apart from her… that or some of the older students had snuck off to the party Teddy Lupin would inevitably end up at. “Come on, Rasper-” she whispered to the kitten yawning in her arms, “-I think it’s time for bed.”

Chapter 4: First Year: First Day Of The Next Seven Years

Summary:

The group of Slytherins manoeuvre their way around Hogwarts and suffer a mishap in Herbology

Wednesday 2nd September 2015

Cressida awoke in her four-poster bed and gasped, momentarily forgetting where she was. She sat up straight, startling Rasper who had been asleep on the pillow beside her. The little kitten darted through the drawn curtains of Cressida’s bed and was met by coos from Jac instantly on the other side.

Cressida imagined when she woke up it would have all been a dream- the train, the school, the singing hat and all the magic. The whole of the previous day felt like it passed in a blur and now she was waking up, she couldn’t remember even going to bed.

Running her hands through her hair, she stretched and prepared herself for what was about to come. Her first day at Hogwarts. The first glimpse at what would be her life for the next seven years.

There was a knock on her wooden poster bed and Cressida pulled the tassel to open her emerald green bed curtains. Jac was standing on the other side, cradling Rasper in her arms. “Morning,” she grinned coming over and sitting on Cressida’s bed. “How did you sleep?”

“Better than I expected,” Cressida replied with a yawn. She couldn’t remember the last time she fell into such a deep sleep as the one she just had. Usually, her nights were spent tossing and turning but Hogwarts seemed to put her to sleep instantly. She glanced around her new bedroom for the next seven years. It was very green. Cressida wasn’t a fan of green.

The walls of the room were made of stone, similar to most of the walls in the school. The floor was made of white marble tile but a large green and intricate looking rug covered the majority of the flooring so they didn’t get cold feet. All four beds were the same, made of dark wood and brandishing emerald coloured curtains for privacy, and matching green bed sheets. At the end of each bed lay their trunks containing all their objects, they each had a wooden dresser nearby their beds as well. Two comfy green chairs were placed opposite each other in what appeared to be a skylight letting in some natural light that the common room was lacking, or maybe they were just slightly closer to the surface of the lake. Cressida tried not to think about sleeping under a magical lake too much, she worried she’d never sleep well again if she thought about the implications of it.

Molly was already awake and dressed in her green robes and uniform, moving books from her trunk into her book bag with her wand. Margo was stood at her dresser looking into a mirror she had brought from home.

Cressida assumed she was lucky to have Molly, Jac and Margo as her roommates. She imagined it would have been much harder to settle if it hadn’t been for them all stumbling into the same compartment on the train.

“Aren’t you going to get dressed, Cressida?” Margo asked turning around.

Cressida went to look at her phone and then remembered she no longer had one. She glanced at the clock hanging on the wall instead. “It’s only half seven. Lessons don’t start until nine.”

“We have to get breakfast first,” Molly told her once her bag was packed to the brim with books. “And we’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up.”

Sensing this was more of an order than a suggestion, Cressida pulled herself out of her bedsheets and walked into their shared bathroom to start getting ready.

*

Cressida emerged into the common room along with the other girls to meet Felix who was waiting for them. “What’s wrong with you?” The sandy blonde boy asked when he saw Cressida’s less than amused face.

“This uniform is stupid,” she answered bluntly. Her grey pleated skirt went past her knees making her look short and dumpy. Her white blouse and jumper kept riding up out of the hem of her skirt whenever she moved. It had taken her ten whole minutes, and the help of Jac, to figure out how to put the green and silver lined tie on properly. On top of all that, she had to wear a black robe that skimmed the floor as she walked. She looked completely lost in the oversized clothing. She supposed she should have been grateful for the school giving her the uniform for free, but she silently wished it would have fit her better.

“It’s not that bad once you get used to it,” Molly told her as the group of five started making their way out of the common room for breakfast.

“Easy for you to say,” Cressida grumbled. “You all look fine.”

Molly and Margo knew what to expect and had picked out the perfect sized clothing items, right down to their knee high socks. Jac was taller than the rest of the girls so filled out the uniform decently. Felix was the only other one that didn’t look smart in the uniform. He didn’t have his tie on correctly, and the top button of his shirt was still undone, but he didn’t seem to care as he walked beside the girls with his hands in the pockets of his robes. Cressida had the sneaking suspicion he made the uniform look that way on purpose.

“Wizards wear clothes like this all the time,” Margo said. “And they’re not that uncomfortable if you get the right size, to begin with.”

Cressida thought this was a jab and looked to Jac for confirmation. The taller girl rolled her eyes in response as they entered the Great Hall.

The room was already filled up with students from every year chatting happily over breakfast. As they passed by the Gryffindor table on their way to their own, Molly poked her chin out a little more, refusing to look in their direction. Fred, James and Thomas stopped whatever they were talking about and watched the group of Slytherins pass silently.

“Aren’t you going to talk to them?” Felix asked as the five of them took their seats at the breakfast table.

Molly started pouring everyone a cup of tea. “Why should I? They’ll only make fun of me for not making it into Gryffindor like them.”

Cressida took her cup of tea from Molly gratefully. She wasn’t sure she could eat a single thing after the amount she had eaten the night before, but when she saw hash browns that quickly changed.

“They’re your family, Molly. You have to talk to them eventually,” Margo said carefully.

Molly glanced over to the Gryffindor table at the other end of the hall for a moment. The blue-haired boy from Hufflepuff was leaning over the trio of younger boys stealing pieces of all of their breakfasts jokingly. “I will talk to them. Just not yet.”

There was a loud screeching noise and Cressida looked up to see an array of different sized owls flying in through an open window. A tiny brown owl was the first to dive onto a table right in front of James Sirius Potter, producing him with an envelope. Molly gulped as they all watched him open it.

“That’s his mother’s owl,” she told the others. “Probably sending him congratulations for making the house they expected him to be in.”

James’ grin and cheering as he waved the letter about to his friends confirmed Molly’s suspicions. Fred was opening a letter too, evidently getting the same reaction from his parents.

An intimidating screech owl landed on the table in front of Molly. “Hermes,” Molly greeted the owl, patting him on the head fondly before taking the note attached to the owl’s leg.

The group watched silently as Molly read the note and then shoved it into her book bag. She went back to eating her breakfast, giving a tiny bit of toast to Hermes before he took off again.

“What did it say?” Felix asked curiously with a mouth full of toast.

Molly poured herself another cup of tea. “Congratulations from my parents. Dad says he expected me to be in Slytherin because of my resourcefulness and not to listen to James or Fred if they give me any trouble.”

“That’s nice of him,” Margo said in an attempt to lift her friend’s spirits.

A white barn owl swooped onto the table indelicately in front of Felix. “It’s from my dad and Dean!” Felix grinned reading the note the owl produced. “They said to say hi to
Professor Longbottom when I see him.”

Jac and Cressida looked to Margo expecting her to receive an owl any second, but after the flurry of owls started disappearing, that seemed very unlikely to happen.

“It’s okay,” she shrugged at the others, trying too hard to look unbothered as she watched the last owl depart through the window. “Mum probably just forgot to send one on time.”

A bell rang and the students around the hall started getting up to head to their lessons. “What lessons do we have first?” Cressida asked as she followed the crowd.

“Astronomy,” Molly said leading the way. Clearly, Molly was going to be the leader of their little group, whether they wanted her to or not.

*

Nearly a whole day of lessons had passed and still, Cressida seemed to be amazed or confused by every little thing. The portraits hanging on the walls spoke to you, the knights lining the hallways sometimes moved, ghosts were rumoured to be roaming around. People kept warning her to lookout for Peeves, whoever that was. She felt like her head was about to explode.

She, Jac and Felix had lost sight of Molly and Margo sometime after lunch so they were left to find their way to Herbology by themselves.

“I think it’s somewhere in the East Wing,” Felix told them unsurely as they descended down the Grand Staircase. The multiple staircases in the Grand Staircase led from platform to platform and went as high as the Seventh Floor where they came to an end. Cressida could see every inch of wall that didn’t contain a doorway or arch leading somewhere new had a portrait hanging from it. The school looked much more impressive in the daylight than it did in the dark.

The stairway was mainly empty now as the trio were already running late for their final lesson of the day. Suddenly, Cressida stumbled as the ground beneath her seemed to start shaking. Felix braced himself on the bannister.

“What’s happening?” Jac asked anxiously.

“The stairs are moving!” Felix warned them. “I was beginning to wonder when this would kick in. Dad told me they love to show off on the first day.”

The two girls followed Felix’s lead and gripped the bannister as the direction of the staircase changed completely.

“How can stairs love to show off?” Cressida asked, watching in slight horror as they got completely turned around.

Laughter erupted from below them. Cressida glanced down to see James and Fred leaning over the edge of the bannister as if it was a highly amusing ride at the funfair.

James glanced up and saw Cressida looking down at them. “Stairs don’t make you travel sick do they, Knightly?” He called up with a wicked grin. “If so, we’ll get out of the splash zone!”

James and Fred were knocked off balance as their staircase came to sudden a halt leading to a new corridor.

“Serves them right,” Jac huffed as they watched the two Gryffindor boys stumble back to their feet.

“It would, except that’s the corridor we need to go down,” Felix told them as their staircase came to a stop at a different corridor facing the opposite direction.

The three rushed off the staircase in fear that it would start moving again. Cressida glanced around the abandoned hall disheartened. They were never going to make it to Herbology on time now. If Molly had been with them they would probably already be on the correct path or know exactly what to do next.

Taking charge, Cressida started walking forward.

“Do you know where we’re going?” Jac asked her as she and Felix followed her lead.

“No,” Cressida admitted. She looked up a different hallway to her right and saw a familiar blue-haired boy. “But he will.”

Cressida walked towards the older boy and cleared her throat, making him turn around, revealing the beautiful blonde that had flirted with him at the train station. “Can I help you?” He asked, trying not to look annoyed at the interruption. When he saw it was Cressida, his face softened slightly. Cressida was impressed the boy didn’t seem to have a hangover.

Felix and Jac stepped back letting Cressida do the talking. “We need to make it to Herbology,” Cressida said bluntly. “Can you help us?”

The teenage boy glanced back at the girl looking for an excuse to stay talking to her. “They’re lost, Teddy. I’ll still be here once you’ve helped them,” she smiled sweetly at him.
“Victoire Weasley,” she introduced herself outstretching her hand to the group.

They all shook her hand in turn. Felix turned red as he stared at her wide-eyed.

Teddy clapped Felix on the shoulder and turned him around. “That’ll be the Veela in her, mate. It happens to everyone,” he laughed. “Follow me, I know a shortcut.”

“Thank you,” Jac said gratefully.

“Don’t make a habit of asking me for directions,” he said over his shoulder to Cressida in particular. “It’s easier once you figure it out for yourself and I won’t always be around to bail you out.”

The trio followed behind Teddy as they re-joined the staircase. Teddy seemed to know where to go off by heart as he lead the First Years along the maze of stairs.

“Watch out for the trick step!” He warned as he hopped over a particular step. The group followed his instruction and jumped over it as well.

“What happens if you step on it?” Felix asked curiously.

“You sink through and someone else has to pull you out,” Teddy explained.

“This place is a death wish,” Cressida mumbled as Teddy led them off the stairs and down a corridor.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Teddy laughed darkly.

They arrived at the greenhouses within a few minutes and Teddy left them at the door to go back to Victoire. The three walked into the classroom and everyone stared at them as they entered, the lesson having already started. Molly and Margo glanced back at them from the front of the crowd.

“What time do you call this?” James spoke up from the crowd of students surrounding a table filled with various plants.

“It’s very irresponsible to be late you know,” Fred shook his head mockingly at the three of them. Thomas stood between the two boys trying not to laugh and keep his head focused on Professor Longbottom.

“No need to cause a scene,” Professor Longbottom smiled at the three late students as they joined the crowd. “I got lost on my first day as well. What are your names?”

“Felix Finnigan!” Felix said to the Professor after Jac and Cressida had introduced themselves. “He and Dean say hi.”

Professor Longbottom smiled shyly. “Thank you, Mr Finnigan. Send them my well wishes… now back to the lesson. Today we are learning about Puffapods. If you’d like to pair up I’ll give you each a plant to study!”

Jac, Felix and Cressida glanced at each other. As expected, Margo and Molly had paired up instantly.

Seemingly, the trio of Gryffindor boys faced the same problem. Professor Longbottom appeared and saw the two groups of three and gestured for them to move closer and pair up amongst themselves. “No need to be shy, I promote inter-house pairing,” Professor Longbottom encouraged as he passed by.

Sensing where this was going, Fred grabbed Thomas and disappeared in a pair leaving James before he even realised what had happened.

James spun around searching for his two friends confused about where they had gone. “Traitors!” He yelled at them once he realized they had left him behind.

Cressida turned to Jac and Felix. “You two pair up. I’ll go with Potter.”

They didn’t need any more convincing before they disappeared with a plant of their own as well.

James settled his attention on Cressida and sighed. “Guess it’s me and you, Knightly,” he said grabbing a plant under his arm and walking to the only free space while Cressida reluctantly followed behind.

Professor Longbottom explained the focus of the lesson while he wandered around the various groups. “The Puffapod is a magical plant that produces large pink seed pods full of shining beans, which will instantly flower when they come into contact with any solid object!”

James and Cressida stared down at the egg-shaped plant. “What are we supposed to do with it?” She asked.

“I want you to trim its green leaves without disrupting the beans inside the pods. Be careful not to touch or open the pods as the spores that will release can cause dizziness,” Professor Longbottom explained to the class. “Afterwards, we will discuss its potion properties and how they can be used effectively.”

They all took to picking up some garden scissors and carefully tried to manoeuvre the plant to trim its leaves. James rested his chin on his hand as Cressida did the majority of the work. Cressida had to admit, this was not what she expected wizard school to be like. She doubted trimming plant leaves was high on the list of priorities for magical folk, and she had yet to turn anyone into a frog, which she wanted to learn how to do more than anything. Even with her limited knowledge on witches and wizards, she knew gardening was something any normal person could do.

“This is boring,” James complained after ten minutes.

“What did you expect us to do?” Cressida asked. She trimmed a leaf a little too close to the bulbs of seeds and got nervous about what would happen.

James flicked a leaf with the tip of his finger. “I’ve seen Puffapods before. Teddy had a stash of them a few years ago and he threw them about at the dinner table once. It was really funny until we realised he ruined our Sunday lunch and we didn’t get pudding. He’s been banned from using them ever since.”

James sat bolt upright all of a sudden. “What are you doing?” Cressida asked furiously as James produced his wand and tapped it to one of the bulbs spilling beans everywhere.

“I just wanted to take some so I can rub it Teddy’s face,” James answered.

The beans rolled off the table and started sprouting into bursts of pink and purple flowers as they came into contact with the floor and every other object on the table. James and Cressida jumped backwards and bumped into the table behind them causing them to knock the bulb of their own plant which had a similar reaction.

Cressida watched in horror as a chain reaction of beans being spilt and purple flowers sprouting instantly spread around the greenhouse classroom.

Molly and Margo’s plant got involved and the ginger witch rounded on her cousin. “Potter! I was nearly finished trimming my leaves!”

“It was an accident!” James defended himself.

Longbottom appeared behind Cressida holding the sides of his face stressfully. “Merlin’s beard, they’re just like the rest of the family. I’m doomed,” The Professor muttered so quietly Cressida wondered if he meant to say it out loud.

Thomas and Fred purposefully tapped their own bulbs to get them to explode and sprout just to join in the chaos.

Professor Longbottom now stood in the middle of the room watching silently as nearly every single Puffapod had been sprouted.

“Well,” Longbottom said once silence had descended over the room. “I think that brings us to our written portion of the lesson. Mr Potter, I expect you to stay behind and help me clean this up after class.”

“Yes, Professor,” James replied.

“We’ll stay too!” Fred called out. Thomas nodded eagerly beside him.

Molly held her head in her hands undoubtedly whispering curses towards her cousins as her head started to feel dizzy from all the released spores.

Professor Longbottom took a deep breath. “If you’d like to follow me I’ll take us somewhere more equipped for writing,” he said gesturing for the class to leave the greenhouse.
James ran over to his friends and the three were among the first out of the room. Cressida lingered beside Professor Longbottom as he collected some supplies from his desk.

“So, the Potter family,” Cressida started asking. “Are they all like that?”

Professor Longbottom braced himself on his desk and let out of laugh. “Oh yeah, and this one is mixed with a Weasley. We don’t stand a chance.”

Chapter 5: First Year: Defence Against The Dark Arts

Summary:

Cressida learns she's not perfect at everything

Wednesday 9th  September 2015

So far, considering Hogwarts was a magical school, she had used very little magic herself. Everything around her was magic, she could almost sense the magic in the air in some parts of the castle, but Cressida herself still felt extremely ordinary. Even the people around her seemed to be using magic for almost anything when Cressida hadn’t realised magic was even an option.

Cressida was still just as lost and baffled as she had been from the moment she arrived. Luckily, she felt like she was slowly starting to pick up on certain things.

There were ghosts that wandered around during meals, Cressida had briefly seen one at the breakfast table and Jac had nearly fainted from shock. The portraits that were hung up were sometimes of real people that had attended Hogwarts and you could ask them questions about their lives before they died. Nobody spoke badly about Professor McGonagall. Hagrid and Professor Longbottom were well-loved amongst the wizarding community, for what reasons she wasn’t sure yet. All of the teachers at Hogwarts annoyingly seemed to have a soft spot for James Sirius Potter and his cousins. The stairs moved at random intervals and apparently so did some of the classrooms.

One thing she knew for sure; nothing at Hogwarts actually made any sense.

Facing the fact it would take more than a few days to understand her way around the massive castle, Cressida tried to stick closely to Molly as she seemed to be the only one in her group that had any idea where she was most of the time.

Her newfound group of friends proved easier to make sense of than her surroundings. Felix’s dad had been a Gryffindor at the same time as Harry Potter, and Dean Thomas lived with them in Ireland. He didn’t seem to have a mum, and if he did, he never spoke about her. Cressida didn't pry on that subject. She didn't much fancy someone trying to ask her about her missing dad, so she let the mystery of Felix's mum remain as such.

Margo’s family were proud and mostly pure-blood, Cressida had come to learn that meant her family were mainly all wizards, but they didn’t seem to pay Margo much attention at all.

Jac’s family was the most normal. She had a muggle mum and dad, who Jac said were constantly on the verge of divorce, and an older brother who attended Cardiff University.

Molly’s family still proved an overwhelming topic to try and make sense of. Every time Cressida tried to ask her about it, Molly mentioned a new cousin, or uncle, or a person who wasn’t really her uncle but a close family friend. After she told Cressida about someone called Mad-Eye Moody who had died in the second wizarding war, Cressida gave up trying to learn the full extent of her family.

Cressida currently found herself sitting in the Great Hall having dinner with her newfound friends. Margo and Molly were engaged in a conversation about the latest gossip from the first week of lessons. Jac was eating her pile of mash potatoes covered in gravy while Felix rambled on about something called chocolate frog cards.

Across the hall, the table of Gryffindor boys were all looking towards James, who was practically kneeling on the table to be taller than everyone else as he dramatically acted out a story. Teddy Lupin was lingering near the Ravenclaw table, shaking his head at James and whispering sweet nothings to Victoire who was sitting with her house.

The Professors all sat at the front of the hall. McGonagall was engaging in pleasant conservation with Professor Longbottom and Slughorn.

Cressida remained perfectly silent and unnoticed. She was watching the hall patiently.

“Penelope McFadden came to my birthday party once!” Margo boasted although none of the group seemed to be listening apart from Molly. “It’s a shame she got sorted into Hufflepuff, we could have been good friends.”

Felix stopped showing Jac the stack of cards he had pulled out of his robes and turned towards Margo. “Yeah, because McFadden is going to want to be friends with us of all people.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Molly snapped defensively. “Our families are more known than hers are.”

“Not everyone cares about lineage anymore, Weasley. Penelope wants to hang out with pretty and popular people,” Felix told her.

“We can be pretty and popular if we want,” Jac said through a mouth full of potatoes. “Don’t you think, Cressida?”

Cressida tore her eyes away from the hall to look at her friends all awaiting her answer. “I suppose... but it seems like a lot of work for little reward.”

Margo rolled her eyes dramatically. “I knew you wouldn’t get it.”

Jac’s eyes hardened on her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Margo looked to Molly for help, but Molly simply looked down at her dinner silently. Faltering, Margo turned back towards Jac and Cressida. “I just meant that Cressida hardly cares about appearances or linage. She’s a muggle-born with a second-hand uniform. She hasn’t got any standards she has to live up to.”

Cressida subconsciously threw her knotted blonde hair over her shoulder, regretting telling the girls about her gifted uniform. Jac went to open her mouth but Cressida beat her to it. “I’m sure Margo has her reasons for wanting to be pretty and popular,” she said calmly. “Everyone always wants to be something they’re not.”

Felix choked on his cheesecake from laughter and Jac had to turn away to hide her growing grin. Molly glanced up at Cressida the same way a scolding parent would, but said nothing verbally.

Cressida smiled innocently at Molly in response while Margo turned bright red before returning her attention to the hall full of students. Once Cressida looked away she could hear the faint whisperings of Margo and Molly.

Jac leant closer to her. “What are you staring at?”

“I don’t know yet,” Cressida answered.

Cressida felt like she spent most of her life watching or waiting for things to happen. That’s all she did in her small home town village. That’s how she knew everyone’s secrets.

Doing that at Hogwarts was slightly more challenging. People were smarter here, more sneaky. They put on a show and never let their image falter if they could help it.

James Sirius Potter was stood on the bench of his table now, using a baguette as a sword in his dramatic storey re-telling. Everyone on Gryffindor's table and the surrounding Ravenclaw table seemed to be watching him adoringly, laughing at his monologuing and movements. Penelope McFadden on the Hufflepuff table was even looking at them intrigued.

Fred jumped up on the bench beside him, his own baguette sword in hand, challenging him to a duel. People moved back on the benches as the two sides stepped up and down the small space on the benches threatening to knock the other off. Thomas stood beside them, throwing apples at them as distractions.

Cressida tore her eyes away from the chaos to look at Molly. She was glaring at her cousins, stone-faced as she stabbed the last of her meal with her fork. Once she saw Cressida watching her, she forced her face to loosen up and acted like nothing was bothering her.

“Mr Potter! Mr Weasley!” McGonagall shouted, raising in her chair slightly. “Would you sit down!”

“Allow me to help, Professor!” Teddy said producing his wand, a wide grin on his face.

McGonagall looked panicked. “Mr Lupin, I beg you to not-”

“Flipendo!”

James and Fred were sent flying across the banquet table, spilling more food everywhere. The hall was silent for a moment until James sat upright, cheesecake plastered to his face, and gave a thumbs up to Teddy.

Fred got to his feet, pulling James into the spot beside him, bowing like it was the theatre. The hall erupted into applause and laughter at their performance. McGonagall was holding her head in her hands, undoubtedly muttering to Longbottom about their punishment.

The group of Slytherins all turned to Molly, who seemed to have finished her dinner without dessert and was impatiently waiting to leave the hall.

“If you really want to be popular you should try and talk to your cousins,” Felix laughed. "They're cracker."

Molly got to her feet, unable to keep her face controlled this time. “My cousins are not popular, and they're especially not cracker!” She snapped. “Come on, Margo.”

With that, Molly practically dragged Margo out of the hall undetected amongst all the cheering for her cousins.

 

Friday 11th September 2015

 

It had been another day of lessons but the last one was highly anticipated. It was Defence Against the Dark Arts, something Cressida thought sounded very ominous to teach to a bunch of eleven-year-olds.

“Let’s see if the curse is still hanging about,” Felix said with the hint of a joke as they stepped onto the Grand Staircase.

“What curse?” Jac asked while Molly rolled her eyes at the comment.

“A stupid superstition from when Uncle Harry was here,” Molly answered.

“Every year he was here the teacher for this class turned out to be evil-” Margo chimed in happily, shoving Felix aside slightly to be next to Molly.

“Apart from Lupin!” Felix interrupted her pointedly, falling in line with Jac and Cressida instead. “Dean says Lupin was the best teacher they ever had.”

“Wasn’t he still a monster in the end though?” Margo reproached.

Felix’s eyes hardened on her. “You keep talking like a bigot, Smithers, and see how far it gets you-”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Molly interrupted them both with a bored sigh. “Margo didn’t mean it like that, but the point still stands. Lupin still tried to kill Uncle Harry, purposefully or not, but there is no such thing as a curse for this position.”

Felix opened his mouth to continue arguing when suddenly he disappeared from view, yelping in pain.

All four girls paused on the Grand Staircase and looked down to see Felix halfway through the steps.

Cressida and Jac tried not to laugh as Felix attempted to pull himself free to no avail, meanwhile, Molly sighed like she was bored as people continued passing by on either side.

“I heard there was a trick step by here,” Margo said, not bothering to do anything other than stare down at Felix as he squirmed uncomfortably.

“You could help me out, you know!” Felix chided. Cressida and Jac threatened to double over in laughter at the situation.

“Grab an arm each and pull,” Molly instructed, reaching out a hand to help Felix. “I don’t want to be late for the lesson.”

“Thanks for your overwhelming concern,” Felix muttered dryly as the four girls pulled him out of the staircase.

Once he was free, he readjusted his tousled robes and they set off for their classroom once again. Felix fell back in time with Jac and Cressida who were still hiding laughter behind their hands and fake coughs.

Felix glared at them both for a moment but then eventually cracked a smile in good humour.

“Teddy did warn us about the-” Jac started.

Molly rounded back on the trio in an instant. “You’ve spoken to Teddy?”

Cressida faltered for a moment. She had learned quickly that Molly’s family was a touchy subject, especially if the family member currently resided in Hogwarts with them. “He showed us the way to Herbology,” she answered.

Molly looked forward again but stared at the stairs deep in thought. “I’ve hardly seen him. Victoire stopped to ask me how I was the other day but nothing from him.” Molly looked up again, not allowing the awkward silence that was about to fall. “Not that it matters, he’s not really my family anyway and he always did prefer the boys' company.”

She gave a definitive shrug which signalled the conversation was done in her mind just as they came to stand outside of their Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

The old wooden door opened and a young looking teacher stood in the doorway, combed back hair on top of his long face. “Afternoon students. Come on in, we have a lot to learn indeed!”

With that, the teacher disappeared as quickly as he appeared. The group all glanced at each other before joining him in the large classroom along with the Ravenclaws also attending the class.

“I am Professor Mickledge!” He proclaimed from the front of the class as the students took their seats. In this particular class, Cressida and Felix got roped in with some Ravenclaws as they sat down. “Today, I have decided to teach you the wand lighting spell. It’s very useful indeed. In fact, I figure most of you may know this spell already but I wanted to get stuck in with something practical straight away… so produce your wands please!”

Cressida thought Professor Mickledge was the most energetic and cheery man she had ever met. Every action or movement he made seemed highly animated.

She, along with the rest of their class, produced their wands as instructed and waited.

“I’ve always been rubbish at this spell,” Felix whispered beside Cressida.

“I’ve never even heard of it,” she replied.

Felix shook his head at her in disbelief. “You really need to start reading through your books. Half the time it’s like you forget you’re even magic!”

Cressida gave a half smile in return. The truth was she often did forget she was magic despite being surrounded by it. She hadn’t even tried to attempt a spell yet or read through any of her assigned books.

Professor Mickledge tapped his wand on the board to get everyone’s attention at the front. “Hold your wand out as such-” he held it upright in his hand “- and say prominently… Lumos!”

A beautiful white glow emerged from the tip of his wand lighting up the room slightly. The rest of the class followed the demonstration, and the room was filled with muttering attempts at the spell.

Cressida gripped her wand tightly in her hand, thinking hard about the light emerging from her own wand. “Lumos!”

Nothing happened.

“Lumos!” She said more clearly.

Felix looked at her confused, failing to complete the spell also. “Maybe you’re overthinking it. Dad says that’s why I can’t do half of the spells he tried to teach me.”

Cressida stared at the wand in between her fingers doubtfully. “Maybe,” she said. She refused to admit that she didn’t feel like anything would ever happen whenever she held her wand. It just felt like a stick or a toy in her hands. She had always been good at everything she tried straight away, always been the smartest person in the room, but then her experience so far at Hogwarts wasn’t like that at all. She didn’t know anything or half of what anyone was talking about, she especially didn’t know how she was supposed to do spells so easily.

She glanced around the room and saw Molly producing an excellent white glow from her wand proudly, alongside Jac. Even Margo seemed to have the faint beginnings of a glow spurting from the tip of her wand.

Doing what she did best, she turned to Felix for a distraction. “You try again.”

Felix adjusted his grip on his dull brown wand carefully. “Lumos!”

A spark fired out of the tip of his wand, briefly bringing everyone’s attention to them at the tiny pop, but eventually, a yellow glow was spitting on top of his wand.

“Close enough!” Professor Mickledge praised him from the front of the classroom.

Cressida suddenly felt very inept and sank low into her chair when a snigger emerged from beside her. Cressida’s attention shot sideways to the Ravenclaw girl covering her mouth and laughing at Cressida’s failed attempt to do the spell. The girl had a particular look about her; slender blue eyes, and freckles covering every inch of her face but perfectly straight dirty blonde hair giving her a certain classic look. Once the other girl knew Cressida was watching the Ravenclaw girl cleared her throat pointedly and produced her wand.

“Lumos!”

A brilliant white light emerged from the tip of her wand causing everyone to look their way, even Molly’s wand light looked dim compared to hers. The Ravenclaw girl seemed to be soaking in every bit of attention she was getting, and sent Cressida a smug sideways glance.

“Well done, Miss Chauncey. Five points to Ravenclaw!” Professor Mickledge praised from the front of the class.

“Thank you, sir!” The Ravenclaw replied politely. Cressida tried not to let her face screw up in annoyance.

Chapter 6: First Year: The Burden of Peeves and Eleven Year Old Boys

Saturday 12th September

Cressida had an awful night's sleep. Evidently, the warmth and comfort of her new Hogwarts bed was starting to wear off and she was developing back into her usual habit of tossing and turning all night. She had always been an awful sleeper. She was convinced her mind always worked better at night than during the day.

She forced her eyes open when she heard voices beyond her bed curtains and pulled them open, altering the other girls to her presence. She wasn’t surprised to see them all already dressed and milling about the room. Molly was sitting on her bed in casual but smart clothing, doing homework. Margo was once again, looking in the mirror. Jac was dangling a piece of string off the side of her bed while Rasper pounced for it.

“Cressida! You’re finally awake!” Jac said gladly when she noticed Cressida stirring. “Molly’s going to show us how to play wizard chess today, do you want to join?”

Cressida felt childish but she was still in a glum mood from failing to complete the spell the previous day and she doubted chess would do anything to improve her mood. In fact, she desperately felt the need for some alone time. She glanced at her mother’s leather jacket led across the trunk at the end of her bed and her stomach sank slightly.

“No thanks. Chess isn’t really my thing,” she replied moving to sit on the edge of her bed. She debated picking up the jacket to wear but decided against it, it didn’t feel right to wear her home staple in Hogwarts just yet.

Jac’s face fell slightly but the other two girls didn’t look bothered by Cressida’s rejection to play chess.

“We’ll be in the common room if you want to find us. Will you be joining us for dinner?” Molly asked from her own bed.

Cressida was making her way across the room towards the bathroom. “It depends how lost I get.” She stopped short of entering the bathroom and turned to face Jac, feeling slightly guilty. “Will you take care of Rasper for me while I’m gone?”

Jac’s face lit back up instantly as she swooped the kitten into her arms. “He’ll be safe with me.”

Cressida smiled at the other girl before locking the bathroom door behind her.

*

It had been a few hours since Cressida had left her dorm room in the morning. She was sure she had missed lunch as well but she wasn’t overly bothered. She wasn’t really hungry anyway. She thought she would have explored the whole castle by that point, but it turns out it was still bigger than Cressida could ever imagine.

To her surprise, people weren’t milling about the castle’s corridors as much as she thought they would. Evidently, everyone had somewhere better to be during the first weekend of the school year. Cressida found it strange to see everyone in their normal clothing since arriving at Hogwarts. It made her miss home more than normal.

She was glad, however, to finally not have to wear her school uniform or robes whenever she went somewhere. She had never been more relieved to put on normal shorts and a t-shirt in her life.

Eventually, Cressida found herself alone in a corridor somewhere on the sixth floor after her hours of aimless wandering. There was a window ledge that she could curl herself into and she sat for a while, watching the sun rolling over the hills of Scotland. 

Somewhere far into the distance was her tiny Welsh village with her mum and Gareth, probably relishing in the fact they had the flat to themselves without her presence. Gareth would no doubt be loving the new arrangements, but she hoped her mum missed her as much as Cressida missed her. She made a mental note to figure out how to use owl mail, but then she wasn’t sure whether owl mail would be something she had to keep a secret from Gareth.

She thought having some music to listen to at this precise moment would have fixed everything.

A burst of laughter brought Cressida out of her thoughts and her head snapped up to see the Ravenclaw girl from Defence Against the Dark Arts and internally groaned. Her failure in Defence Against the Dark Arts was still fresh in her mind, getting her back up slightly before the other girl even said anything.

She tried to sink back into the seclusion on the window hoping she wouldn’t be spotted but much to her displeasure the girl’s voice was getting closer, and she had company with her.

“Look who it is!” The girl’s voice called out when she spotted Cressida. Cressida reluctantly removed herself from the window ledge and stood in front of the girl. She was taller than Cressida, and the boy behind her was even taller still. “Sorry I showed you up in class yesterday, it’s just I have a natural talent for this sort of thing you see,” the Ravenclaw girl was bragging. Cressida noticed the boy behind her roll his eyes in boredom. “Arabella Chauncey, a pleasure I’m sure,” she said offering her hand. “This is my older brother Declan.”

Cressida set her eyes back on Arabella unimpressed. “Cressida Knightly,” she introduced herself without acknowledging the outstretched hand.

Arabella’s mouth tightened and she retracted her hand. “Let me guess, you’re a muggle-born, am I right?”

Her brother seemed to become intrigued as to where this conversation was going but remained silent. 

“How did you know?” Cressida asked.

“Well, you must be if you're struggling to produce the simple magic we were using in class,” Arabella laughed. “I’m practically a pure-blood… my Grandmother was the first one who married a muggle.”

Cressida noticed her brother raise an eyebrow at her as he awaited her reply. “Half the class couldn’t do the spell properly, it wasn’t just me,” Cressida replied hotly. “Besides, if it’s such easy magic why do you feel the need to brag about it so much? Molly got the spell before you and didn’t brag, yours just happened to be brighter so you got all the credit.”

Based on Declan’s expression, he was impressed with her comeback. Arabella turned red and opened her mouth to snap something when her brother cleared his throat. “Come on, Bella. We have better places to be than interrogating a muggle-born who can’t do magic.”

Cressida turned her glare on him but he didn’t seem to care as he turned with his hands in his jacket pockets. Arabella looked like she was debating saying something else, but ultimately decided against it and turned after her brother. 

Cressida didn’t loosen her glare until the two siblings were completely out of sight, but once they were she slumped back against the wall. She had to do something to be better around here. She had to be good at something .

No longer feeling like sitting on her peaceful window ledge, she set off wandering again in the opposite direction to where Arabella and her brother had gone.

Cressida turned and started walking through the maze of corridors. She didn’t know where she was going, she never really did at Hogwarts, but she knew she would end up somewhere. 

She eventually broke away from the crowd and started walking down the Grand Staircase when, to her dismay, it started moving as soon as she stepped foot on it. This was the third time this had happened to her since arriving at Hogwarts and each time was as annoying as the last, but she knew to just let the stairs take her whenever they decided instead of trying to fight it.

Finally, the stairs came to a grinding halt and Cressida exited them somewhere on the third floor. Shrugging, she carried on moving forward down the seemingly abandoned corridor.

As she rounded the corner, she was surprised to see it wasn’t abandoned after all. The familiar blue-haired boy was running, Victoire Weasley in hand, towards the direction Cressida just came from.

“Kid!” Teddy came to an abrupt stop to avoid crashing into the significantly smaller First Year.

“I’m not a kid,” Cressida shot back grumpily.

“Are you with my cousins?” Teddy asked pushing past her comment.

“Why do you always ask that?” 

Victoire stepped forward, addressing Cressida calmly. “We’re just trying to warn you.”

“Warn me?” Cressida repeated.

Teddy gained a wicked grin, glancing back over his shoulder. “Peeves is about. James has been searching for him since he arrived, to no avail.”

“Peeves?” Cressida asked, getting even more confused the longer the conversation went on. She had heard many warnings about whatever Peeves was but so far had come up blank on what Peeves actually meant.

Three Third Years came running around the corner, and Cressida couldn’t tell if they were about to laugh or cry based on the expressions on their faces. “That would be our queue to go,” Teddy decided, pulling Victoire along behind him.

“Stay safe, Cressida!” Victoire said to her as they departed. “If you want my advice, I would avoid Peeves at all costs. He loves messing with the First Years.”

Cressida watched the couple disappear around the corner with her eyebrows narrowed. She looked ahead knowing whatever everyone was running from was down there and felt an overwhelming curiosity to see what was causing such a stir.

She glanced around the hallway and slowly realized it was completely abandoned now Teddy and Victoire had left her. 

“What  is  Peeves?” Cressida asked out loud wandering further down the corridor. 

“ME!”

A pie had been shoved directly into Cressida’s face before she could blink just as she rounded the corner.

Wiping the cream away from her eyes angrily, she saw a little man with wickedly slanted, orange eyes, dressed in loud, outlandish clothes including a bell-covered hat and an orange bow tie gloating in mid-air. He was holding his stomach and laughing at her.

“Tiny little Knightly, Peeves made your face screw up all tightly!”  He sang flying around her.  “Tiny little Knightly. Tiny little Knightly!”  He started mocking her in a fit of song-filled laughter.

To make matters worse, a familiar trio of boys rounded the corner and stopped dead when they saw her. 

“What is this thing?” Cressida asked them as they ran over to her.

“That would be Peeves,” Fred grinned up at the little man.

“He’s a poltergeist,” Thomas explained.

“Finally!” James exclaimed excitedly.

“Doth my eyes deceive me?” Peeves asked over dramatically rubbing his eye sockets. “A new Weasley  and  a Potter. Mayhemers of mischief for decades! I bow to your heritage, bad sirs!” Peeves removed his jester hat and bowed to the two boys.

“Of course, it loves you three!” Cressida snapped bitterly.

“He clearly has excellent taste then,” Fred boasted.

James puffed his chest out proudly at the attention from the poltergeist. Peeves straightened up and blew raspberries in their faces before disappearing with a pleasant pop. Cressida was still furiously trying to wipe cream out of her hair.

“I’m beginning to really hate this place,” she cursed. “Why is nothing ever straightforward?!”

James grinned at her. “Is Hogwarts proving too complicated for your muggle mind, Knightly?” He teased. 

“All I did was ask what Peeves was!” She defended herself.

“ Everyone  knows not to ask who Peeves is,” Thomas laughed.

“No wonder you got pied in the face,” Fred said.

Cressida grunted angrily before she turned and stormed away from the boys who were still laughing as she departed.

Cressida was suddenly determined to know the ins and out’s of this godforsaken castle even if it killed her. No longer would she get stuck on a moving staircase. No longer would she invoke a weird tiny man that shoved pies in her face. No loner would James Sirius Potter, Fred Weasley II or Thomas Wood catch her looking stupid.

After only getting lost once, Cressida eventually stormed back into the common room and found her friends sat together around a chessboard.

“I don’t imagine that expression can mean anything good,” Jac spoke up as Cressida stormed towards them. 

Molly looked up from her chessboard, a hard to read expression on her face. “What happened?”

Cressida wiped the cream from her hair irritably. “I got pied by Peeves and your stupid cousins saw all of it.”

“I was wondering when he would show up,” she replied nonchalantly.

“Good luck living this down,” Felix laughed. Cressida flicked the cream on her hands onto Felix’s face in retaliation.

“I told you, my cousins are show off's… someone should just put them in their place now so we can all move on with our year,” Molly sighed, moving her chess piece.

“I will!” Cressida decided instantaneously.

Molly looked up from her chess move intrigued. “How?”

“By being better than them!” Cressida said. Margo gave a snort of laughter until Cressida sent her a glare. Once Margo had returned to staring firmly at the chess board, she continued. “By knowing this school and all its stupid tricks like the back of my hand!”

Molly went back to moving her chess piece with a new grin on her face. “Let me know if you want any help in the matter.”

“How are you going to learn about this place?” Jac asked her. “It’s so huge I doubt you’d be able to learn  everything  about it.”

“That’s not exactly true,” Felix spoke up. “Have you ever read  Hogwarts: a History ?”

“Of course, she has,” Margo answered for her. “Everyone’s read that.”

Jac and Cressida looked at each other, both silently confirming neither of them had read it. “Where can I read it?” Cressida asked ignoring Margo’s shocked expression.

“The library will definitely have a copy,” Felix said. 

“But there’s no way you’ll learn everything in one night!” Margo said surely. “And we shouldn’t try and go against Molly’s cousins-”

“Watch me,” Cressida said determinedly standing back up. “I’m going to have a shower.”

 

Saturday 19th September 2015

 

Cressida was ashamed to admit it was, in fact, impossible to learn everything about Hogwarts in one night, and now her entire weekend had been spent cooped up in the library reading through  ‘Hogwarts: a history .’

But still, she didn’t let this discourage her, and looking back she had learned an incredible amount already. She had learned that Hogwarts was hidden from muggles, that muggle technology couldn’t be used within Hogwarts grounds, that the ceiling and almost everything else around the school was enchanted in some way or another, and of the origins of Hogwarts as a whole.

However, none of this really gave her a way to outsmart the trio of Gryffindor boys, or the stairs, or Peeves, or anything else that had caused her trouble. It didn’t tell her how to actually perform magic either, which she would have been grateful for some tips on as she had still yet to produce a single useful piece of magic correctly.

Shoving the book away from her, she sank down in the chair she had been sitting in for hours and sighed. Just as she was about to give up and leave completely, Jac and Felix appeared in the library, offering her a chocolate frog knowingly. 

“What are you two doing here?” Cressida asked them sitting back up.

“We were bored of listening to Margo, and Jac doesn’t know how to play wizard chess, so we decided you were the most entertaining thing left,” Felix said slumping into a chair opposite her.

“I’m flattered,” Cressida replied dryly, but she was secretly glad of the company.

“Plus, it’s nearly curfew and Molly was starting to get agitated about when you’d be back,” Jac added on.

Cressida sighed and glanced at her pile of books again. Two days over the last week Filch had caught her sneaking back to the common room after curfew. She knew if he caught her a third time, she’d get detention.

“How’s the research going?” Felix asked changing the subject away from Molly.

“It’s hopeless. I’m never going to understand this school,” Cressida said taking a bite out of the frog’s head gratefully.

“Maybe you’re looking at it from a muggle perspective,” Felix suggested. “Fighting magic with logic will only get you so far. Leaning into the magic will often give you surprising results.”

“But I don’t know any good magic yet,” Cressida reminded him.

“Not true!” Felix argued back. “You just need more practice and I bet if Molly and I taught you some other useful spells you’d be even better.”

Madame Pince, the librarian who resembled an underfed vulture greatly, rounded the corner. “This is not a place for talking!” She lectured the trio. “If you’re not here to learn from my books, get out!”

“Sorry, Madame Pince,” Jac apologised. “We’ll keep it down.”

She didn’t look like she believed them but sulked off anyway. Cressida whispered over the table to Felix. “Would you really help me learn some more spells?”

“Sure, I’m great at spells,” Felix boasted.

“Like what?” Jac asked curiously.

“Well… like… the tickling spell, and the tongue-tying spell,” he answered. “Dean taught me both of those, they’re really good if you want to mess with someone.”

“Anything else?” Cressida asked.

Felix thought hard for a moment. “I also know this one,” he said getting his wand out and pointing at a random book in front of Cressida. “Avifors!”

The red leather book transformed into a parrot sitting on their desk, squawking loudly and flapping its wings.

Madame Pince rounded the corner to see the cause of the disturbance. “Is that one of  my  books!?” She yelled furiously.

“Time to go!” Cressida said to the others as they all scrambled to gather their things and run out of the library, while Madam Pince sent vague but horrible threats to them the entire time for transforming her book into a bird.

Once they decided they had crossed half the castle to avoid Madam Pince’s fury, they stopped to catch their breath. “Maybe we shouldn’t use that one,” Jac panted leaning on Felix.

“Hey, at least it worked!” He panted back. “I’ve never actually gotten that to work before.”

They were nearly back in the common room when Cressida realised she had left her Charms homework in the library in the chaos of running out. “I’ve got to go back.”

Jac looked nervous. “But Filch is going to be out looking soon-”

“I’ll be okay,” she reassured them both. “I can outsmart him this time. You two go back without me.”

Even Felix looked unsure. “Fine, but I’m not being the one to tell Molly we left you behind.”

With that, the three spit ways again, with Cressida retracing her steps back to the library as the castle grew darker and quieter.

Luckily she had managed to sneak back into the library concealed behind a group of sixth years getting the last of their revision books before heading in for the night. 

Apparently, only the older students dare be seen in the library this close to the curfew deadline, or they simply had a better excuse to be out this late. Even so, Cressida only counted three students in total remaining in the library, and even they were on their way out with Madam Pince’s watching eyes following their every move.

Relieved it hadn’t been taken in the ten minutes she had left it, she grabbed her bag and started weaving back through the shelves making her way out of the library. 

She had to be aware of Madame Pince’s heels clicking along the floor to alert her of her presence.

Cressida had the door in her sight from behind a bookcase, but to her horror, Madam Pince was situated at her desk right in front of it. She would definitely be caught.

“Thanks, Madame Pince. I’ll get those books back to you by tomorrow,” Victoire’s melodic voice called.

Cressida thought this was her one chance. She had to sneak out behind Victoire, and if she was anything like Teddy Lupin, she would be helpful.

Thinking quickly, Cressida started pushing books off the shelf and causing them to clatter to the floor on the other side of the shelf she was hiding behind.

Madame Pince and Victoire looked towards the disruption confused.

“Are your delinquent friends hiding back there?” Madame Pince accused.

“No, I’m the last one in here,” Victoire said clutching her books closer to her chest. She glanced around and finally saw Cressida, barely peeking out through the shelves. Cressida didn’t have to signal to the older girl before she turned back to Pince. “Maybe you should double-check, I’ll help you.”

Madame Pince looked sceptical to leave her station by the door. Victoire smiled sweetly at the old librarian, a smile that could make even the coldest heart crumble. “We wouldn’t want anything happening to your precious books, now would we?”

With that, Madame Pince reluctantly walked back into the shelves accompanied by Victoire. Cressida took her opening and darted towards the door. She quickly glanced over her shoulder to see Victoire ushering the librarian further down the stacks of shelves, then caught her eye giving her a thumbs up.

Cressida nodded gratefully to her before disappearing out of the door, not thinking to catch the door before it slammed shut behind her.

She took off running towards the Grand Staircase, hoping Victoire could talk her way out of the bang Cressida had caused.

Slowing down now she was a safe distance from the library, she just prayed she could make it back to her common room before Filch started doing his curfew rounds. Luckily, at this time the castle was usually quiet and devoid of any students who wanted to stop on their journey to wherever they were going. 

“Oi, Knightly!” A voice whispered loudly from behind her on the staircase.

Cressida spun around, surprised by the interruption, only to find the trio of Gryffindor boys running down the staircase towards her. Apparently, she wasn’t the only First Year who was cutting it close to the curfew, although she doubted the trio took any notice of the curfew anyway.

Groaning internally, Cressida tried to ignore them and keep walking. She was hardly in the mood to deal with the trio of Gryffindors at this hour. She felt a balled-up piece of parchment hit the back of her head and she spun around again.

James and Fred were directly behind her grinning, Fred already balling up another piece of parchment to throw in case she ignored them a second time. Thomas had stood beside them, but once he saw Cressida’s glare, had backed off slightly in fear.

Knowing they wouldn’t leave her alone until she acknowledged them, she reluctantly gave in. “What is it, Potter?”

James hopped down the step until he was only one above her. “We’ve not seen you around this week, where’ve you been?”

Cressida was slightly surprised the trio had even noticed her departure from lingering in the halls with her usual group of friends. 

“Yeah, James hasn’t found anyone better to annoy into a rage yet,” Fred teased, nudging James with his elbow.

Rolling her eyes, Cressida continued walking down the staircase, knowing it would inevitably start moving again soon. 

James and his friends were quick to follow her but always remained one step behind. “Are you mad at us for the Peeves thing?” James asked, not getting the hint she didn’t want to talk. “If it makes you feel any better, he got loads of other First Years as well.”

Cressida kept walking, ignoring the endless blabbering from the Potter boy, but then she realised where they were. Cressida had come to recognise the staircase with the trick step well after being told about it by Teddy Lupin and warning Felix about it relentlessly. Suddenly, a cunning plan conjured in her mind. A new way to show the trio of boys up before her real plan was ready.

“Where have you been hiding all week, anyway?” Fred asked curiously, talking over James. 

Cressida smiled to herself as she continued, counting the steps carefully in her mind. “I’ve been in the library.”

“The library?” James repeated with distaste. “Why would you waste your time in there?”

“Reading up on Hogwarts,” she said over her shoulder. “I hear there are a few mysteries around this old castle and I intend to know all about them.”

All three of their eyes widened with interest. James smirked as he and Thomas strode towards her even more. Fred hung back looking at Cressida suspiciously. He was always less trustful than his two best friends it seemed, even when he was interested in what she had to say.

“Mysteries?” Thomas asked excitedly. “We love mysteries!”

Three more steps,  Cressida told herself in her mind. 

James tugged on the sides of his robes proudly. “Luckily for you, Knightly, we happen to be connoisseurs of mysteries and knowing the ins and outs of this castle.”

Cressida kept facing forward trying not to give anything away as the two boys followed her. The situation couldn’t have presented itself in a more perfect way.

She discreetly jumped over the trick step and smiled smugly to herself when she heard a yelp from behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw James and Thomas halfway through the staircase while Fred laughed hysterically beside them. 

“Don’t just laugh at us. Help me up!” Thomas was yelling at Fred.

James tried to lift himself out of the trick step to no avail. Realizing he was well and truly stuck, he cast a glare at Cressida as she smiled down at him. “What’s the problem, Potter?” She asked mockingly. “ Everyone  knows about the trick step. Surely a  connoisseur  such as yourself would have seen that coming.”

She had been waiting to throw those words back in his face since her interaction with Peeves and now she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

“You cunning little-” James started then stopped himself. “If you think we’re going to help you with any secrets around Hogwarts now, think again!”

Cressida gave a mock pout. “However will I cope without your wisdom?” 

Glancing up at Fred, she could see he was trying not to look impressed at her outsmarting his two best friends so easily. Feeling a new spring in her step emerge after her week-long brood, she threw her hair over her shoulder and continued on her way to her common room.

However, once she reached the long stretch of corridor, she found Filch waiting for her, Mrs Norris meowing dutifully at his ankles.

“My, my…” he drawled. “Out of bounds, are we?”

Cressida silently cursed the trio for making her get caught. She had told Jac and Felix she could avoid this. “I was in the library, sir. It won’t happen again.”

“This is your third strike, Miss Knightly. I do believe that constitutes detention,” Filch grinned mercilessly. “I shall inform your Head of House by the morning. Do try and be in bed before curfew from now on,” he said hobbling down the hall.

Mrs Norris remained sat in front of the entrance to the common room, her red eyes seemingly glaring up at Cressida. 

Cressida went to move around the old cat when she hissed. Cressida checked no one was around before hissing back at the cat. Mrs Norris got to her feet and sprinted after Filch in retaliation as Cressida entered her common room for the night.

Chapter 7: First Year: Flying High

Summary:

The groups first flying lesson doesn't go as planned

Tuesday 22nd September 2015

 

The remainder of the weekend and every day since had been taken up with homework or spending time with her group of friends, but she didn’t mind that so much. It kept her busy and gave her a chance to catch up on all the homework she was behind on.

The Tuesday had been rather uneventful so far. Their usual lessons included Astronomy, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and History of Magic, but everyone was anticipating their final lesson for the day. 

“We used to love flying around the Burrow, do you remember, Molly?” Margo was asking as they made their way down the Grand Staircase together to head to the grounds.

Molly gave a faint grumble in reply to Margo’s question. If Margo had noticed Molly’s unwillingness to take part in the conversation, she completely ignored it. “Fred was always the best flyer until Thomas started coming over in the summers. He’s incredibly quick. Harry Potter said he gets it from his dad but-”

Jac and Cressida had noticed Molly’s face get more stormy with every word. “Shut up, Margo,” Felix said, noticing as well but being the only one who would tell Margo to stop so bluntly.

Margo’s mouth fell open as if she was about to argue back but then she saw Molly’s thunderous face for herself and huffed slightly. Molly seemed to snap out of her silent glaring, remembering she was with company. “Fred wasn’t the best,” she muttered. They all looked at her surprised that she was engaging in the conversation about her cousins. “It was James. James always had to be the best, but Thomas is still better.”

They all glanced at each other unsure what to say next. Felix opened his mouth to continue talking about it until Jac elbowed him in the side. Molly looked at them for a moment once Felix yelped in pain but then sent Jac a grateful look before continuing on.

The four Slytherins followed Molly’s lead and walked behind her as they emerged out into the pleasant September sunlight and joined the rest of the First Years learning how to fly. Already, Cressida could see James, Thomas, and Fred huddled together laughing and she rolled her eyes. She dreaded to think what they would be like let loose on a flying object. They had already made a name for themselves around Hogwarts and it had only been a few weeks.

“Gather round, students!” A witch yelled, huddling all of them together. “I am Madam Hooch and I will be teaching you how to  safely  fly and navigate a broom today.”

“Nothing about this seems safe,” Jac muttered beside Cressida as Madam Hooch lined them up.

Brooms started moving from a pile to line themselves up in front of each student in turn. “Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up.”

Madam Hooch had spiky grey hair which was cut short and had piercing yellow, hawk-like eyes and Cressida had the sense to not act up in front of her. 

James, apparently, lacked this sense. He had already sat on his broom and it was bucking around like an overexcited pony.

Molly was holding her broom by her side, glaring at her cousin. “He’s such an idiot,” she muttered.

Madam Hooch produced her wand and aimed it at James, causing him to slide backwards off his broom and land on the grass with a thud. “Name?” Hooch demanded to know.

“James Sirius-”

“I should have known,” Hooch interrupted him before he could finish. “Ginny Weasley's child?”

James seemed surprised to be recognised for his mother for once. “Yes, ma’am.”

Hooch smiled as a much higher quality wand flew into her waiting hand. “Skilled witch, she was. Plays for the Holyhead Harpies now, I was very proud. Your father was quite skilled too. He’d have been even better if he could have got through a match without getting knocked unconscious.”

James grinned. “I’ll give them the feedback.”

“Right then!” Hooch said blowing her whistle and turning back to the group as a whole. “On you pop. We’re going to attempt laps.”

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other as everyone else rushed to sit on the rickety looking brooms. “Just don’t overthink it,” Felix told them as he bobbed up and down on his broom beside them. “It’s not as scary as it looks.”

Margo was thrown backwards off her own broom by accident. “Don’t grip them too hard!” Hooch shouted over at her. 

Molly mounted her broom and waited patiently with her usual expertise.

Carefully, Cressida hoisted a leg over and uncomfortably sat on the thin broomstick. Wobbling slightly, she lifted her feet from the floor and locked them around the foot stirrups. She was only floating a few feet above the ground but already this felt too high for her liking.

“Remember our matches on the Burrow pitch, Weasley?!” Fred shouted over to Molly, leaning back on his broom comfortably. 

“Yeah, you nearly beat us once!” James added on, hovering beside him. “You won’t ever get that lucky again.”

Molly’s face turned as hard as stone at her cousin’s antagonising comment.

“Just ignore them,” Felix whispered over to her. “I bet you could run circles around them.”

Once everyone was on their brooms, Hooch blew her whistle again. “I want at least five laps from each of you. This isn’t a race so mind your speed, just use this as a chance to get your confidence up. Go!”

As soon as she blew her whistle a second time, James and Fred shot off on their brooms long before anyone else had the chance. Molly crouched down low on her broom and set off after them. Clearly, it was a race to them.

Felix was next to set off, which he did somewhat easily, along with the rest of the class. Margo and Jac seemed to be sticking close together knowing that Molly wasn’t going to hang back for their sake.

Cressida followed everyone and leaned forward, trying not to grip the broom too tight in case she got thrown off like Margo. She surged forward and nearly collided with Thomas Wood, who moved his broom up to avoid her.

“How did you see me coming?” She asked him as he lowered his broom back down to fly beside her casually.

“I’ve been flying my whole life. You get a sixth sense for when someone is about to collide with you,” he explained. Cressida wobbled unsteadily on her broom. Thomas checked his friends were still far ahead of him before flying closer to her again. “Keep your shoulders loose,” he instructed her. “Fly with your hips, not your arms.”

“Why are you helping me?” Cressida asked sceptically. 

Thomas shrugged and sped in front of her slightly. “You looked nervous. I wanted to help.”

Cressida felt a twinge of guilt as Thomas sped ahead so quickly he overtook the majority of his class to catch up with Fred and James. Margo and Molly were right, Thomas was incredibly fast on a broom, and looked more natural flying than he did walking.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to follow Thomas’ instructions. She untensed her shoulders and shifted forward in her seat so her hips were more centred on the broom. She instantly felt the change and the broom levelled out nicely.

As she tried to do with everything around Hogwarts, she tried to relate it to something in her normal life. Riding a broom was slightly similar to riding a pony at the beach, except there was no one holding it by a leading rein to stop it from going out of control, and it was more uncomfortable and less predictable. 

Evidently, flying was evidentially going to be added to the long list of magical things that felt unnatural to her.

“On your left!” Fred whirred past her, followed closely by James laughing manically, and then Molly cursing at them both.

No one else was on their second lap yet so Cressida didn’t let their passing discourage her. She risked going a bit faster and eased into the flying more. Thomas passed by her now, slowing down slightly. “Now you’ve got it!” He complimented her before zooming off again.

Cressida glanced back over her shoulder to see Jac and Margo tailing at the end of the group, but they didn’t seem to mind. Felix was somewhere in the middle of the class, having no need to speed or prove his talents.

Feeling her confidence raising slightly, she risked going a few feet further from the ground. 

“Yes! Well done all of you!” Madam Hooch was encouraging them, circling above on her own broom. “Weasley, slow down!”

Cressida wasn’t sure which one she meant as Molly and Fred were now neck and neck with James slightly behind.

They were curving their way around for their fourth lap at immense speed, and with a daunting realization, Cressida noticed they were heading straight towards her and a group of other students.

“Pull up!” Pull up, Weasley!” Hooch yelled down at them.

Thomas was coming up behind them now, his head low to gain more speed. He flew directly under Fred’s broom and pushed the other boy upwards to avoid a collision with the students in front.

“Good skillmanship, Wood!” Hooch praised him.

Unfortunately, that didn’t stop Molly from crashing into the back of Cressida and sending them both spiralling towards the ground together. 

James was on the scene now, manoeuvring underneath the girls hurdling uncontrollably towards the ground. He outstretched his one arm and grabbed Cressida around the waist hoisting her from her broom just before it crashed to the ground and broke in half.

If she had any clue what was going on, she was sure she would have been screaming, but everything had happened so quick.

James’ broom tumbled to the floor with the unexpected weight of Cressida and the two rolled across the grass in a pile. Molly crashed to the ground slightly ahead of them. Fred and Thomas hovered nearby not knowing what to do next.

Cressida propped herself up on her elbows opposite James as he spat grass and mud from his mouth. “You saved me,” she breathed, feeling slightly dazed.

James rolled onto his back holding his ribs in pain. “Don’t mention it.”

There was a sharp whistle alerting everyone to come to a stop. Hooch landed beside them and she didn’t look pleased. “Alright, Potter?” She asked.

“Top notch,” James replied sarcastically. “Knightly used my body to break her fall.”

Hooch extended an arm to help him stand up. “That was brave of you, Potter. Stupid, but brave.”

“He’s not a Gryffindor for nothing,” Fred joked, hovering nearby on his broom. The rest of the class landed around them in a circle now.

Madam Hooch rounded on Molly as she got to her feet and tried to wipe the grass stains away from her clothes. “And you, Weasley, are you okay?” She asked. Molly only nodded in response but looked rather embarrassed. “Good.” Hooch summoned all the brooms back to her side in a pile. “What on  earth  were you thinking!?” She asked them. “I said it was  not  a race, and what do you do? You race! Not only did you race, but you could have seriously injured several students in the process!” She lectured Molly, Fred and James specifically. “If Potter hadn’t removed Miss Knightly from her broom I dread to think how many bones might have been broken!”

“I’m sorry, Cressida,” Molly apologised sheepishly.

Madam Hooch checked her stopwatch and sighed. “Ten points from Slytherin and Gryffindor accordingly. That will be all for today, I think. Go and get cleaned up!” She ordered. “I expect better from you next lesson if I ever let you lot near a broom again!”

The majority of the students sulked off in search of the changing room showers. James walked forward and offered a hand to Cressida who was still sitting in the grass. She took his hand and allowed him to pull her up. 

“You owe me now, Knightly,” he grinned but he was still holding his ribs. “I just saved your life.”

“James,” Fred nudged him in the side and he yelped in pain. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “But look-” Professor McGonagall was storming towards them across the grass.

“That can’t be good,” Thomas mumbled.

“I’m heading for the showers before she starts shouting,” Fred said before disappearing in an instant. Thomas seemed to be silently debating whether to follow Fred or stay with James as he awaited McGonagall’s wrath.

Madam Hooch was the first to reach the Head Mistress but the group couldn’t hear what was being said. After a short moment, Madam Hooch left and McGonagall was heading toward them again.

“You-” she said pointing a long, boney finger towards Thomas. Evidently, he hadn’t made his decision to escape fast enough. “You’re Oliver Wood’s son, yes?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Thomas gulped nervously.

“That was some of the most quick-thinking flying I have ever seen from a First Year. How you avoided all those students on your way to Mr Weasley, I have no idea,” Professor McGonagall praised him smiling brightly. “Welcome to the team.”

“But I haven’t tried out yet?” Thomas blinked in surprise. “And I’m only a First Year!”

“You don’t have to. I know for a fact Wood would have put you on a broom before you could walk,” McGonagall explained. “I know some Third Years who couldn’t pull off what you just did, Mr Wood.”

Thomas didn’t disagree and looked rather proud of himself. 

“How did you see any of that?” Cressida asked. She knew for a fact McGonagall wasn’t on the grounds when the collision had happened, she would have noticed.

“I am never far behind, Miss Knightly,” McGonagall said mystically. “Not much happens around this school that I am not aware of and it would pay you students to remember that.”

“What about me?” James asked rushing forward, clearly over his injured rib. “Can I be on the team too? You let my dad on the team in his First Year.”

McGonagall sighed deeply. “James Sirius Potter,” she said. “I dread to think about the talents you possess but, undoubtedly, Quidditch is one of them. Although you’re not as graceful as Mr Wood here, you demonstrated great control to try and save Miss Knightly from her crash landing.” She let her words hang in the air for a moment. “If you can prove you have restraint I’ll allow you on the team with Mr Wood,” she said.

James thought hard for a moment, staring at the old witch. “I’ll take it.” 

“And you-” McGonagall said looking at Cressida. “Are you affiliated with these bumbling band of boys or are you smarter than that, Miss Knightly?”

Thomas and James looked at her awaiting her reply as if yes was a possible answer. “I just want to get through the school year,” Cressida said truthfully.

“Very good,” McGonagall smiled at Cressida. She turned her attention back to the two boys, losing her smile pointedly. “Restraint, Mr Potter. I’ll be watching closely.”

“Of course, Professor. I won’t let you down!” James grinned innocently.

McGonagall turned away shaking her head. “Merlin help us all,” she muttered as she departed.

Once she was gone, James laced an arm around Thomas’ shoulders. “What exactly  is  restraint, Wood?” He whispered.

Cressida rolled her eyes and headed for the showers herself. She knew there was no way James had any sense of restraint in him from what she had seen.

Chapter 8: First Year: Motion In The Ocean

Summary:

Jac lets Cressida in on a secret

Notes:

Songs mentioned in this chapter are all from McFly's Motion In The Ocean Cd

Tuesday 29h September 2015

 

With the first month at Hogwarts drawing to a close, Cressida felt like she was slowly starting to get into the swing of things, despite her lack of magical ability still. 

Breakfast was one of Cressida’s favourite parts of the day at Hogwarts. She had never been a big breakfast person at home, mainly because her mother was a terrible cook, but breakfast at Hogwarts was a whole other situation entirely. The group had fallen into a good routine of meeting Felix in the common room and then going to the Great Hall together. Cressida would pile up her plate with her favourite foods and drink two cups of tea if she could fit them in. Then she would watch the owls flying overhead through the window to deliver the mail to the other students.

She hoped one day an owl would come for her, but she knew she would have to explain this bizarre method of communication to her mum in detail before that would happen.

The teachers passed by the long tables and greeted them with a good morning. Professor Longbottom was by far her favourite teacher so far. He was always polite and slightly confused, but Cressida found him comforting. She had spotted him in the corridor a few times in between lessons and he always made a point how saying hello to her and every other student he passed.

Argus Filch was the worst person she had ever met so far, as well as his terrible cat, Mrs Norris. She had another run-in with the caretaker the previous afternoon as she was trying to find the girls’ bathroom, and instead of helping her, he sneered something about First Years and then walked away with his cat in his arms like a baby. Luckily, a portrait of a fancy looking lady had been nearby and directed Cressida to the bathroom instead. 

She wasn’t particularly good at anything like everyone else seemed to be though. She noticed Felix was particularly good at the written aspect of Defence Against the Dark Arts, he had gone on an hour long rant about trolls and gargoyles one afternoon. Jac was rather good at Herbology and would sometimes stay behind to help Professor Longbottom clean up after the lesson. Margo seemed to know everything about Astronomy and Molly seemed perfect at everything. She tried not to let this dishearten her. Jac had tried to cheer her up by saying she still found it all bizarre as well.

It had been yet another busy day of lessons for Cressida. Breakfast had been the same as every other morning; they’d wait for the owls, Margo would pretend she didn’t care she hadn’t heard from her parents, the trio of Gryffindor boys would act obnoxious on the other end of the hall, Felix and Molly would talk about something in the wizarding world that Jac and Cressida didn’t understand, and then they would all go to lessons together.

Despite the five Slytherins always being together, it was very clear there was a slight tear in the group. Molly and Margo were clearly best friends. Felix and Margo had already gotten into a few arguments with each other. The three of them sometimes got frustrated that they had to explain everything to Cressida and Jac if it hadn’t been included in Hogwarts: A History  or one of the other random books Cressida had read over her week long mission to know as much as possible.

Cressida tried not to think about it too much. She knew they weren’t all going to be best friends straight away, they had only become friends through circumstance in the first place, but she and Jac seemed to have formed their own little duo amongst the group. Being the only two not from full wizard families, they were the only two that knew the most about the modern world and so had their own array of inside jokes while the rest spoke about wizard stuff. Trying to explain Vine to Felix had proven to be a mind-numbing venture. It took up an entire afternoon and even then he still didn't seem to understand the jokes. Jac was practically wetting herself re-telling him her favourite ones and acting some of them out.

Cressida was extremely grateful for Jac over the first month at Hogwarts, she knew without her the experience would be utterly tedious and lonely.

After another full day of lessons and spending all afternoon watching Molly try and teach Felix Wizard Chess, Cressida was lead staring up at the cloth ceiling of her four poster bed. 

It was late into the night, she knew this based on the owls hooting around the grounds. She had come to realize the dungeons were incredibly quiet at night allowing her to hear almost everything happening around her. Currently, the most distracting and loudest noise in the room was Margo’s snoring, but Cressida tried not to let that bother her.

She rolled onto her side and saw Rasper stretched out on the pillow beside her. Smiling to herself, she scratched the top of the kitten’s head and he gave an appreciative purr but didn’t wake up.

This was hopeless, she thought to herself. She had always been a terrible sleeper. Her mind had always seemed to work better at night compared to the daytime, there were too many distractions, but at night the world seemed still. 

Unfortunately for her, with nothing to distract her in the late hours of the night, Cressida’s mind tended to wander. The fact she hadn’t been able to perform any proper magic since arriving had continued to wear her down the longer the days dragged on in Hogwarts. A lot of their introductory lessons were coming to an end now and they would be moving on to more practical lessons soon. She was dreading the fact that she may not be able to keep up with everyone else in them. She just couldn’t figure out what she was doing wrong, surely a witch should be able to just  do  magic.

Sensing this could be an opportunity, she sat on the edge of her bed and grabbed her wand from the floor. She supposed she should take better care of her wand given how important it was, but in her mind, it was still just a stick. Still, she stuck the wand into her tied up hair for safekeeping as she got to her feet. She tiptoed around the dark dorm room searching for her hobo bag and slung it over her shoulder.

Molly stirred in her bed and Cressida froze in the middle of the room. Cressida knew Molly would probably lecture her for being out of bed or ask where she was going, and the truth was Cressida had no idea where she was going.

Thankfully, a tiny snore gave away that Molly was still fast asleep and Cressida relaxed, stepping towards the door again. As her hand reached the iron handle she felt something nudge her ankle and looked down to see Rasper walking between her ankles and meowing.

Panicking, she picked Rasper up into her arms and left the dorm room completely so the kitten didn’t wake anyone up.

In the hallway outside her dorm room, there were green torches lining the stone walls making it look incredibly eerie. She often thought that the whole Slytherin common room felt slightly eerie but she couldn’t figure out why. Perhaps it was the fact everything had a strange green hue.

Rasper gave another small meow, sensing Cressida’s unease, and she soothed his head. “It’s okay, buddy,” she whispered to the cat as she carefully walked barefoot towards the common room. “We’re just going to practise some magic.”

Cressida opened her bag wide enough for Rasper to crawl into and the cat led down on top of all her books comfortably, poking his head out the top to see where he was being taken.

Cressida came to a stop once she was in the middle of the common room. It felt alien to be here at night and completely alone but she figured this was a better use of her time than tossing and turning in her bed.

She slumped down on one of the many green sofas and placed her bag carefully beside her to not disturb Rasper’s position too much. She pursed her lips and thought for a moment about what to do first. She grabbed her wand out of her hair and twirled it in her fingertips. 

After a moment she held the wand upright and focused all her attention on it. “Lumos," she whispered.

Nothing happened. Rasper lifted his big green eyes at her. 

“Lumos!”  She tried again, and once more after that.

Still nothing.

"Sodding Lumos you piece of crap!" She swore at her wand.

“Having trouble?” A voice called out to her.

Cressida jumped to her feet and rounded on where the voice had come from, her wand out straight as if would somehow protect her.

Jac was leaning against the archway leading to the dorms with a raised eyebrow. Cressida instantly relaxed, feeling stupid, and threw the wand onto to sofa beside her.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said as Jac came to stand beside her. “I thought I’d be able to sneak out without waking anyone.”

“My brother used to sneak out all the time, plus our room has a creak in the floor,” Jac smiled. She started sifting through Cressida’s pile of books that Rasper had previously been lying on. “What were you going to try and do?”

Cressida shrugged. “Magic.”

“Obviously,” Jac laughed. “But what kind of magic?”

Cressida slumped back onto the sofa and Rasper instantly ran into her lap wanting to be scratched behind the ear. “I don’t know. Whatever magic will come out,” Cressida admitted.

Jac sat beside her understandingly. “It still feels weird to me too.”

“I thought I’d start to feel more magical by now,” Cressida continued. 

“Maybe you’re thinking about it too much,” Jac suggested. Cressida looked at her curiously. “When I try and do it, I just relax my whole body and take a deep breath and see what happens.”

Cressida picked her wand back up in her hand doubtfully. “Somehow I don’t think that’s how it’s going to work for me.”

Jac bit her thumbnail, thinking hard for a moment. “You’re a stubborn person, right?” 

“I’m not stubborn!” Cressida huffed. Jac waited patiently and Cressida rolled her eyes, giving in. “Fine, maybe I can be a bit stubborn.”

“Exactly,” Jac continued. “So maybe forcing your magic out isn’t going to work either and that’s why you can’t do it.”

“So what am I  supposed  to do?” Cressida asked helplessly. She had never asked for help before. Everything else had always come naturally to her.

Jac turned to sit cross-legged, facing Cressida. “What do you normally do to relax?”

Cressida thought hard for a moment. She didn’t exactly have any hobbies per se, she mainly just wandered around and watched people. She did miss her phone and music library terribly though. “I listen to music.”

Jac grinned wildly. “I may be able to help you with that,” she said mystically.

Cressida leaned closer to her. “How?”

Jac tapped the side of her nose. “You have your secrets, Knightly, I have mine,” she laughed. “I’ll have it ready by the weekend, just trust me.”

Cressida stared at her sceptically for a moment. Trusting people didn’t come easily to her, but if she had to trust someone, Jac was the person that seemed most logical.

“Okay,” Cressida agreed. “You have until the weekend.”

Jac got to her feet and extended a hand to her. “Come on, we should get back in our dorm before Molly wakes up and gives us a lecture. She’s still mad at you for your detention last week.”

Cressida took Jac’s hand and let herself be pulled up. “Molly needs to give up trying to tell me what to do.”

Rasper jumped into Cressida’s bag as she picked it up to sneak back into the dorm room.

 

Saturday 3rd October 2015

 

The remainder of September had passed in a blur of parchment paper, chatting and lounging about now that almost everyone was settled into the Hogwarts routine. This meant that weekends were greatly appreciated as a time to relax without lessons and assigned homework being added to the pile.

Cressida was woken up earlier than she would have liked by the voices milling around the shared bedroom. She was begrudgingly getting used to being awoken by the girl’s morning chatter, even on the weekend.

Jac bounded over to Cressida’s bed lying beside her instantly. “Finally! Do you ever wake up before ten on the weekend?” 

“Not if I can help it,” Cressida replied groggily.

Rasper jumped up onto the bed after Jac and curled up in Cressida’s arms. Molly looked up from her homework and offered a smile to Cressida. “We didn’t want to wake you… I hope you don’t mind but we’ve already had breakfast.”

“Margo wouldn’t wait for you this time,” Jac whispered to Cressida.

Margo rounded on them while brushing her hair, having clearly heard Jac. “I’m not about to wait until noon to eat the most important meal of the day!”

Cressida soothed the top of Rasper’s head. “No one would expect you to, Margo,” Cressida shot back slightly harsher than she meant to.

Molly sensed Margo would have a counter comment any second now so slammed her book shut and got to her feet. “It’s a lovely day out, shall we wander the grounds today?”

Jac sighed dramatically, glancing at the pile of books beside her own bed. “I’d love to but I’m already behind on homework.”

Cressida noticed Jac clear her throat and send her a pointed look. “And me,” Cressida said catching on quickly. Although it wasn’t a complete lie, she hadn’t done a single piece of homework all week and now realised that was a critical mistake, but that could wait until later.

Margo glanced from the two of them to Molly. “I’ll wander the grounds with you, Molly.”

Molly smiled at her friend and then looked at the two girls, hiding disappointment. “If you two struggle with your homework, you know where to find us,” she offered.

Jac and Cressida watched as Molly and Margo grabbed their jackets and promptly left the dorm room, leaving them to sit in silence for a moment.

“We’re not going to do our homework  now … are we?” Cressida asked relaxing back into her cushions.

“At ten in the morning, you must be joking,” Jac snorted. Cressida was glad Jac seemed to be on the same wavelength as her for the majority of their conversations. 

Jac was usually a bubbly character amongst the group, but this morning she seemed to be bursting with energy. “I thought it was time I showed you  my  secret,” she said mysteriously, jumping off Cressida’s bed. Cressida watched curiously as Jac went over to her own bed and knelt on the floor to reach under her bed. “I’ve been dying to listen to this since we arrived but I didn’t know if Molly and Margo would approve.”

Cressida raised an eyebrow. “But you trust  me ?”

“Of course I do,” Jac laughed as if it was obvious. Cressida smiled at the surprising heart warming comment. “And then you said that you listen to music to relax and it seemed perfect, I just had to get you alone.”

She watched as Jac pulled out an old portable Cd player. Cressida leapt across the room to join Jac on the floor. “Is that what I think it is?!” She asked excitedly taking the portable device into her own hands. It was clearly from the early 2000s and well used. “I thought we weren’t allowed technology at Hogwarts.”

Jac opened her trunk and pulled out a Cd case. “It’s my brother's old one from when he was a kid, I figured he wouldn’t miss it if I brought it here. If I can’t have my phone with all my music on, I was going to try this instead… but I only had a McFly album to bring with me.”

“Me and mum used to have loads of Cds at home. She sold some of them a few years back, but I’m sure there is some leftover that I can bring back after Christmas,” Cressida offered happily, glad to have any source of music at all.

“Let’s see if it even works first. I brought my iPod with me as well but that busted as soon as I pressed play,” Jac said. She opened the plastic Cd cover, it was McFly’s ‘Motion In The Ocean’  album and placed the portable device on her bed and the two sat cross-legged on either side of it as it loaded the Cd. They waited with anticipation as the old Cd player whirred to life.

The beginning chords of the song started, followed by the heavy guitar.

‘Listen!

We've got a situation

They're always putting us down

We are the generation

Can't keep us underground

Is it my imagination?

Or do you feel good?’

Cressida and Jac laughed relieved as the music filled the room. Rasper joined them on the other bed and pawed the Cd player curiously.

“You know Molly and Margo will probably hate this,” Cressida said over the music.

“We’ll only play it when it’s the two of us. It’ll be our secret,” Jac replied. The two girls sat on the bed listening to the music in elated silence for a moment. Cressida felt incredibly normal for the first time since arriving at Hogwarts. She wasn’t the biggest McFly fan, but she knew of them well enough and so far the first song on the album was rather to her liking.

‘Running the world

It's the time of our lives

And baby we won't ever die

'Cause we're the young, we're alright!’

“How is this going to help with my magic exactly?” Cressida asked.

Jac shrugged in between bobbing her head along to the music. “It might not, I was just trying to get you to relax.”

Cressida's eyes found the pile of growing homework beside her bed. “If you want me to relax you could help me through my History essay.”

“Only if you help me with my Transfiguration equations,” Jac replied.

 Jac went to open the Cd player and stop the music when Cressida pulled it out of her grasp protectively. “I always concentrate better with music on… don’t you?” Cressida smiled hopefully at her.

Jac’s smile widened too. “What a profound idea, Knightly. Just make sure not to write any of the lyrics into your History essay.”

The two girls grabbed their respective piles of homework and sat opposite each other on Jac’s bed. With every movement of her quill, Rasper tried to attack Cressida’s writing utensil, which made trying to complete her essay rather difficult, but sat listening to the old Cd with her new friend washed away any frustration about it.

 

Monday 5th October 2015

 

Cressida woke and fumbled through her Monday lessons. Luckily, it had been more written introductory lessons so she didn’t have to try and attempt any magic. Molly and Margo seemed to be in particularly good moods, and so far Cressida hadn’t encountered Arabella Chauncey or the trio of Gryffindors, which was also a plus.

Unfortunately, that was about to change as she had Potions and that meant an hour stuck with James Sirius Potter and his co-ord of adoring Gryffindors.

The group of five Slytherins entered their potions classroom together in the hopes of being teamed up together for their first practical lesson. Professor Slughorn, however, had different ideas. “Ah, my top student!” He grinned as Molly entered.

Behind Professor Slughorn, Cressida saw James and Fred mocking Slughorn as he complimented their cousin, and shot them a harsh glare.

“Right, students!” Professor Slughorn exclaimed to his classroom. “I want inter-house pairings please, no more of this one house versus the other nonsense, hmm!”

This was met with a wide range of groans. Fred and James instantly eyed up Molly figuring this would be the perfect way to get her to talk to them. Molly, sensing this obvious plan, grabbed the first Gryffindor girl to her left and found a table.

Cressida was starting to become impressed with how long Molly seemed to be ignoring her cousin’s efforts to talk to her. Unfortunately, that meant the trio of Gryffindors had resorted to talking to Molly’s friends instead. Sometimes Felix and Jac would answer their concerns or give in to their relentless questioning but Cressida always tried to remain unseen and unheard by the group. She came to realize that this tactic only seemed to single her out even more, and James had taken it upon himself to try and get Cressida to talk to them the most.

James looked from his cousin to Cressida, his eyes widening. “Don’t even think of it, Potter,” she threatened him, getting the sense he was going to choose her.

James grinned and strode towards her. “Professor Slughorn, I’ve found my partner!” He announced.

“Oh, very good!” Slughorn praised as he passed. When he saw it was Cressida James had chosen to pair up with, his face grew confused. “Interesting choice, Mr Potter. Perhaps Miss Knightly could learn a thing or two from you.”

Cressida was offended by the comment as James sauntered over to her, his hands in his robe pockets. There was nothing Cressida could, or wanted, to learn from James Sirius Potter, and the notion that Slughorn thought different was absurd. 

She moved her glare from her Professor to James, who was grinning in front of her. “Why me?” She asked, grabbing a cauldron and finding a table for them.

“It must be your naturally welcoming personality, Knightly,” James shot back sarcastically. “Besides, I had to get you back somehow for what you pulled on the stairs.”

“And forcing me to be your partner is getting me back, is it?”

James shrugged, facing forward smugly. “If it annoys you more than it annoys me, then yes.”

Cressida glared at the side of his head knowing he had, indeed, got her back in the worst way possible.

Jac and Felix both got paired with two other Gryffindor girls Cressida didn’t know. Fred and Margo ended up being forced together by Professor Slughorn.

As expected, Cressida had started completing the majority of the research for their forgetfulness potion, and she did so in silence. James rested his chin on his hand watching her, the same way he did in their Herbology lesson. 

“Knightly?” James said suddenly towards the end of their lesson.

“Shut up, I’m working,” she replied without lifting her head.

“Is Molly avoiding us?” He continued anyway. Cressida tried to ignore him. “We know she’s mad at us for something, but we can’t figure out what. She’s always been a stickler for the rules at home but she seems to really hate us now for some reason.”

“Maybe because you’re obnoxious, loud and annoying,” Cressida answered matter of factly.

James sat back in the chair rolling his eyes. “Merlin, are  all  you Slytherins as stuck up as her?”

Cressida rounded on him with a glare. “I am  not  stuck up!” She snapped defensively.

James smirked and leaned back in. “See, I’ve got you talking. Now tell me what’s going on with my cousin.”

“You really are a-”

The bell rang for the end of class cutting off whatever insult she was about to hurl at the Potter boy. 

“I expect you and your partners to be able to start brewing your potions within the next lesson!” Professor Slughorn told the class as they all packed away and departed. 

James winked at Cressida as he gathered his stuff. “See you next lesson, Knightly,” he grinned before joining his two best friends.

At that moment, she swore that if she could actually do any magic, she would have cursed him then and there. Glaring at James as he departed, she gathered her own things and met Jac and Felix in the hallway. “Where’s Molly and Margo?” She asked looking around for the other two girls.

“Fred had tried to talk to Molly so they stormed off somewhere,” Felix answered.

“I don’t blame them. After spending an hour with Potter I wish I could storm off every time I see him,” Cressida huffed.

“I don’t know why you give in to him, Cress. He’s clearly just trying to rile us all up,” Jac told her.

“Well, he’s very good at it,” Cressida snapped as the group walked through the halls.

“You just got to learn to ignore them,” Felix said beside the two girls. “People like that hate when they’re ignored.”

Cressida sighed and blew her hair out of her face. “Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind next time he starts calling us boring.”

“What was he talking to you about anyway?” Jac asked.

“He wanted to know why Molly was ignoring them,” Cressida answered.

“You mean they haven’t figured it out yet?” Felix laughed. 

The two girls turned to look at him. “ You  know why she’s ignoring them?”

“'Course I do,” he shrugged. “Molly comes from a long line of Gryffindors but she’s the only one that got put into Slytherin.”

“Okay… so?” Jac asked confused.

Felix shook his head. “I don’t know… maybe she feels left out because her cousins made it into Gryffindor but she didn’t.” Neither girl looked any less confused. “It’s more of a wizard thing, you wouldn’t really understand.”

Cressida rolled her eyes as they made it out of the dungeons and emerged back into the castle. “There seems to be something new we wouldn’t understand every day.”

“What can I say? Hogwarts and its history run deep,” Felix shrugged apologetically. “Its families' histories run even deeper.”

Cressida silently agreed, she didn’t fully understand the implications of being sorted into a different house herself, but she could sense how hard it was for Molly, and her cousins weren’t making it any easier by bombarding her constantly.

Jac cleared her throat and brought Cressida out of her thoughts. She noticed Jac seemed to be fidgeting more than normal giving away she wanted to talk to Cressida alone. “Finnigan, I think I left my notes back in potions, can you go and check for me?”

Felix pulled a face. “Why can’t you go?”

Cressida could tell Jac was failing to come up with a lie on the spot. “We need to go to the bathroom… girl stuff.”

“Oh,” Felix said uncomfortably. “Yeah, I’ll just meet you back in the common room.”

Both girls watched silently as Felix turned around and made a hasty exit back towards their potions classroom. Once they were sure he was out of earshot, Jac leaned down to Cressida’s height. “I have a theory about your magic.” 

“What’s your theory?”

“Music,” Jac answered.

Cressida looked at her doubtfully. “Music?”

“Yeah,” Jac nodded eagerly. “Music relaxes you and I think we can use that to get some magic out of you. It stops you thinking… makes you feel-” she faltered searching for the right words.

“Normal,” Cressida finished for her.

“Exactly!” Jac said loudly. People in the hallway looked at them at the disruption. 

Cressida pulled Jac along through the hall a bit quicker. “So what  exactly  is your plan?”

“Just sneak into the common room with me after hours one night and I’ll show you,” Jac grinned. Cressida was starting to wonder what Jac was getting out of helping her. Surely she couldn’t be doing it out of the kindness of her heart.

 

Thursday 8th October 2015

    

All Cressida could think about was trying to produce some worthwhile magic ever since Jac had mentioned it, but so far they hadn’t had a chance to sneak out and test it yet. Cressida desperately hoped Jac’s theory would work so she could catch up to everyone else. The one thing stopping her from feeling completely inept as a wizard was the fact that some other students still seemed to be struggling, Margo included, which gave Cressida hope.

Earlier, during lunch, both girls had decided tonight was the night to try. Cressida rolled onto her side in her bed and grabbed her wand in one hand and scooped Rasper up with the other, before poking her head through the curtains.

It was twelve o’clock on the dot. She thought for a moment that Jac had fallen asleep, not having the same insomniac tendencies as Cressida.

Thankfully, she was met with Jac doing the same from her bed and the two girls grinned at each other.

Silently, they both crept out of their beds. Jac had the portable player tucked under her arm carefully, and the two girls avoided the creaky floorboard on their way to the abandoned common room.

Once they had settled down in their usual alcove and let the silence fall over them for a second, Cressida wanted to get straight to testing their theory. Jac loaded up the Cd and started skipping songs, looking for a specific one. 

“What are you doing?” Cressida asked.

“You’ll see,” she smiled. Finally, the quiet drum beats started playing and Cressida recognised the song instantly.

‘Hey, I'm looking up for my star girl

I guess I'm stuck in this mad world

With things that I wanna say

But you're a million miles away'

“Star girl?” Cressida said confused.

“Margo told me in Astronomy that your name is a satellite around Uranus… that’s kind of like a star… plus, it’s one of my favourites on the album,” Jac reasoned. “Now get your wand out.”

Cressida took a deep breath and held her wand in her hand. To her surprise, Jac did the same but she didn’t start muttering spells. Instead, the dark skinned girl started dancing around with the wand extended out like it was an extension of her own arm. Cressida watched in confusion as Jac used it as a microphone and a drum stick and just generally waved it around in time to the music.

“What are you doing?” Cressida asked watching her in bewilderment.

Jac pulled Cressida to her feet. “You’ve got to feel the music, and then use your wand. Trust me.”

The harsher chords of ‘Please, Please’ started and Cressida followed Jac’s lead, dancing around the tiny alcove with her wand as an extension of her own arm. To her surprise, it was even more fun dancing while waving a wand around as it made a good prop to sing into. A fond memory resurfaced of her mum dancing like this when Cressida was a little girl, she couldn’t remember the last time their flat was filled with music.

Cressida jumped onto the sofa, shimmying her shoulders as she and Jac both sang into their wands without a care in the world.

‘Please, please, please

C-c-c-come home with me now

Please, please, please

-m-m-must be a dreamer’

Cressida thought this song was probably her favourite on the album after this. As the song drew into the third verse, Jac grabbed Cressida’s wrist and pulled her to the ground.

“Try now!” She said at once.

Without thinking, Cressida held her wand upright just as the song drew to a close. 

“Lumos!”

A brilliant white light burst out the tip of her wand, so bright that the two girls had to shield their eyes. A series of doors burst open from the dormitories surrounding them and both girls darted in separate directions. Cressida jumped on her wand to try and put out the light she had caused, while Jac darted sideways to try and stop the portable player from making more noise.

Neither of their plans to conceal their shenanigans worked as the Head Boy, Gabriel, was now stood in the common room facing them, along with some other students curious as to what the commotion was about.

Ironically, the muffled lyrics of ‘Sorry’s Not Good Enough’ were playing from under Jac’s pyjama top.

“Hand it over!” Gabriel demanded holding out his hand. Reluctantly, Jac pressed pause on the portable player and passed it over to the older boy. “Twenty points from Slytherin. Now go back to bed and don’t let me catch you out of bed after curfew again, got it?” He lectured the two First Years.

Jac hung her head low in disappointment. “Sorry, Gabriel.” 

“You can get this back from Professor Slughorn if you’re lucky,” Gabriel said gesturing to the confiscated Cd player. The Head Boy turned on his heels, storming back towards the boy's dormitories, signalling for everyone to follow suit.

Cressida and Jac turned back to their dorm room silently. When they walked in, Molly was sitting up in her bed with her arms crossed. Cressida shot Jac a look that signalled she would take the blame. 

“I was trying to do magic-” she started.

“I helped!” Jac spoke up, ignoring Cressida’s look.

Molly glanced from the two girls to Margo still blissfully snoring in her bed. “Did it work?”

Cressida was surprised by Molly’s reaction. “Yeah, I managed to do a Lumos spell.”

“Good,” Molly said decidedly. “Goodnight then.”

With that, she shut her bed curtains and went back to sleep. Jac and Cressida glanced at each other again, before retreating into their own beds trying not to laugh.

Chapter 9: First Year: Wingardium Levi-o-sa

Monday 12th October 2015

 

For the remainder of the weekend, the five Slytherins had taken to sitting in their alcove talking and doing their respective homework. Molly had taken to being everyone’s tutor during their study sessions, grabbing various books and using her quill to point out sentences they needed to copy down. Margo and Felix seemed very grateful for the extra help, meanwhile, Cressida focused less on her written homework and tried to discreetly try out some new spells. 

So far she had managed to do a good Lumos spell without causing a blinding light. She had looked further ahead in her Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook looking for more information on Hags for their written homework and come across something called a knockback jinx but hadn’t yet tried it out.

After the events of the weekend, Cressida woke with a new excitement to try and do well in lessons. Luckily, Margo was still clueless about the incident, and Molly was pretending like it never happened which Cressida appreciated. Although she did feel bad about losing Jac’s portable Cd player and she swore to herself she would get it back to make it up to her.

Their Monday lessons had been their usual array of written and practical lessons. Cressida didn’t dread the practical side as much anymore and appeared to be within the middle of the class now when it came to learning new spells. 

It was Cressida’s first practical Charms lesson, and the five Slytherins made the trek up to the third floor to find their Charms classroom. When they walked in, they were greeted by the Ravenclaw’s tiny Head of House, Professor Flitwick. He stood on a large pile of books at the front of his desk to be at eye level with the majority of the students.

“Yes, yes, welcome First Years!” He greeted them happily. He was waving his wand through the air and books were flying from all around to land on the desks lining the classroom’s walls so there was plenty of space in the middle for practical practising.

Flitwick climbed down from his pile of books and started directing students to either side. He shuffled Cressida, Margo and Felix to the left while Molly and Jac got put on the right side. “Come now, let’s settle. Take your seats, I have much to teach you, oh yes. We’re going to have a lot of fun this term, I can tell.” 

Glancing apologetically at them, Molly and Jac went one way while the remaining three went the other and sat down.

“Alright, Knightly?” 

Cressida spun around to see James, Fred and Thomas sitting directly behind her. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she rolled her eyes. 

Felix and Margo leant over the back of their chairs to face the trio as well. “Do you have to make yourself known in every single class?” Margo snapped at them.

“Has Molly told us you have to hate us now too?” James asked pointedly.

“Yeah, last summer we couldn’t get rid of you,” Fred teased. Margo turned bright red and turned back around.

Professor Flitwick tapped his wand on his desk to get everyone’s attention. “Right then, students. I imagine we’re all excited to whip our wands around-” the trio of boys, as well as Felix, giggled slightly at this, “-but let’s try and show some restraint, hmm?” Flitwick stood on his pile of books again and held his wand firmly in his hand preparing to do a demonstration. “Today we will be studying the levitation charm. With this charm, a witch or wizard can make things fly with the flick of a wand. The charm is an excellent test of your magical skills, wand control and above all, patience." 

“Wicked,” Fred muttered excitedly behind Cressida, getting his own wand at the ready.

Flitwick pointed his wand at a feather lying on the floor in front of him.  “Wingardium Leviosa!”

Cressida watched amazed as the feather started rising through the air and floating wherever Flitwick pointed his wand.

“Now your turn!” He said to the students. He grabbed a bag of feathers and started dropping them in front of each student for them to try the spell for themselves.

She got her wand out of her bag and turned it over in her hands nervously. She didn’t have music to help her get the magic out this time. Looking behind her she saw James, Fred and Thomas pointing their wands at their own feathers thoughtfully. “Come on, lads, Aunt Hermione prepared us for this!” James said to his friends.  “Wingardium Leviosa!”

Nothing happened.

“But you said it with such confidence?” Thomas said confused.

Across from them, Molly was floating her feather in mid-air easily, but she seemed to be the only one to do it so far.

“The feather must be broken,” Fred decided, poking his own feather with the tip of his wand. 

“Or Potter isn’t good at something for once,” Cressida commented under her breath, which Felix heard and laughed at. Taking slight joy in the fact it proved difficult for the Gryffindors for once, she got a bit more confident that it didn’t matter if she couldn’t do it the first time either. 

“Oh yeah?” James spoke up, evidently hearing Cressida as well. “You try then, Knightly. It’s harder than it looks,” he challenged.

“Don’t listen to them, Cressida. They’re just mad because they can’t get it,” Margo said to her while also failing to complete the spell.

The three boys continued looking at her to see how she would respond. Cressida glanced across the room to Jac who hadn’t lifted her feather yet either but was watching Cressida curiously. When the two made eye contact, Jac held the wand to her mouth like a microphone and do a little shimmy causing Cressida to laugh slightly.

Feeling a sense of pride rush over her, she tightened her grip on her wand and tried to clear her head, trying not to let her nerves get the better of her. ‘Please, please, please’  she begged in her head for a moment.

“Wingardium Leviosa!”  She flicked her wand and to her surprise, the feather started slowly rising into mid-air. 

“Very good, Miss Knightly. Five points to Slytherin!” Professor Flitwick congratulated her as he passed.

Cressida tried not to show her excitement that it had worked on her face. She glanced over her shoulders at the boys with a tiny smirk while they stared back at her, trying not to look impressed.

“Well, if anything that just proves  we’re  not trying hard enough,” James decided, picking his own wand back up again and flicking it towards his feather. Cressida noticed the extravagant markings on James’ wand now she had an up-close look at it. It was the one she almost chose.

Thomas and Fred glanced at each other then followed James’ lead, brining Cressida's attention away from James' wand. She turned back around to focus on her own feather still floating lazily in mid-air.

“Not bad, Knightly,” Felix nudged her. “Do you think you can teach me how to do it?”

Cressida glanced over at Jac again as she gave a tiny round of applause to her before attempting the spell for herself finally.

“Just clear your head and think magic,” she instructed back to him.

“Think magic ?” Margo’s judgemental voice repeated. “How do you  think  magic?”

Cressida shrugged, not letting Margo’s tone rile her up. “Like when you’re dancing to music and you just let it happen.”

“That’s not how magic works, Cressida,” Margo scoffed. 

“Well, it’s working better for her than it is for you,” Felix retorted. Margo turned back to her own feather bitterly and Cressida had to force herself not to smile at her being put in her place. Felix licked his bottom lip and pointed his wand at this feather.  “Wingardium Leviosa!”

The feather shot up and hit the ceiling, before floating back down onto the desk with smoke emerging from it like it was about to catch on fire.

“Technically, you made it float,” Cressida tried not to laugh.

“Maybe you emptied your head too much,” Margo ridiculed.

James and Fred were the next ones to levitate their feathers, followed closely by Thomas and then Jac. Margo was one of the last, despite Felix and Cressida trying to help her throughout the whole lesson.

“Very well done, all of you!” Flitwick beamed at the end of his lesson. “I shall see you all next week where we will continue with this spell. Very exciting indeed! You may now go.”

With that, everyone started packing their books away and leaving the classroom.

Cressida shoved her wand and her book back into her bag and climbed out from behind her desk. “Thank you, Professor Flitwick,” she said politely as she passed the small teacher on her way out.

“Oh, no problem at all, Miss Knightly!” He said turning to look at her. “I must say you seem to have a natural talent for charms. Your friends should pay close attention to you in lesson.”

Cressida was beaming with pride as she, Margo and Felix joined Jac and Molly waiting for them in the doorway. “You finally found what you’re good at,” Jac grinned at her as they left the classroom.

“But Molly got it before-” Margo had started by Molly had nudged her in the side to be quiet.

“Congrats, Cressida,” Molly smiled. “Come on, I want to find a good spot to do our homework in the Courtyard,” she said speeding up and changing the subject.

 

Wednesday 14th October 2015

 

Despite being able to do magic in her practical lessons now thanks to Jac’s help, she still dreaded attending Defence Against the Dark Arts, not because of the magic but because of Arabella Chauncey.

Professor Mickledge was still teaching the Lumos spell until everyone had perfected it. Cressida and Felix took their assigned seats beside the Ravenclaw girl and waited patiently for Professor Mickledge to signal for them to start.

Cressida sat quietly, not wanting to rush through the lesson, after all, she had been practising the spell all weekend and didn’t feel the need to show off about it. She waited until Felix had seemed to finally get a hold of the spell before talking.

“Not bad, Finnigan. You managed to do it without blowing anything up this time,” Cressida praised him.

Felix stared at the light emerging from his wand trying not to look proud, faking nonchalance. “Well, you know what they say-”

He had waved his wand aimlessly while talking and the bright light ended up shining right into Arabella’s eyes beside Cressida.

“Watch where you’re pointing that thing!” She snapped at the two of them.

Felix hastily put out his wand light. “Sorry, got a bit carried away.”

Arabella huffed under her breath. She glanced sideways at Cressida, who had yet to even lift her wand, and a smile etched onto her thin lips. “What’s wrong, Cressida… still struggling to do basic magic?” She asked pointedly. “Maybe you’re actually a squib-”

“Shut your mouth, Chauncey!” Felix cut her off protectively. 

After reading more about the wizarding world, Cressida was slightly more up to date on the terminology and knew her being called a squib was an attempt at an insult. Arabella looked unbothered and turned her harsh stare onto Cressida. “Do you always get other people to fight your battles?”

That comment had struck a chord deep within Cressida. “I can fight my own battles perfectly fine,” she replied stonily.

Arabella threw her long hair over her shoulder. “Not with magic-”

Cressida’s wand was in her hand before Arabella even noticed. “Flipendo,” she concealed with a cough.

Arabella suddenly shot sideways and landed on the floor halfway across the classroom. Professor Mickledge whirled around at the commotion. “Merlin, are you alright, Miss Chauncey?” He asked, helping Arabella to her feet.

Arabella flipped her hair out of her face and pointed a long finger towards Cressida. “She hexed me!”

“Is a jinx different to a hex?” Felix mused out loud beside Cressida. He had an odd look on his face like he wasn’t sure how to react just yet.

All eyes were on Cressida now. “Is this true, Miss Knightly?”

“She called me a Squib,” Cressida answered simply. “I was just proving I could do magic.”

Professor Mickledge looked between Cressida and Arabella clearly unsure how to punish them both accordingly. “Five points from Ravenclaw, ten from Slytherin. Knockback jinxes are reserved for three weeks' time, let’s try and save it for then shall we, Miss Knightly?” He asked Cressida pointedly.

“Yes, sir,” Cressida replied, shocked she hadn’t gotten into more trouble.

“Is that it?” Arabella’s high pitched voice squealed. “She practically threw me across the room!”

Professor Mickledge rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. “Although it was a good demonstration of the spell… I suppose detention is in order, Miss Knightly. I’ll see you in my office tonight.”

Cressida nodded silently. Professor Mickledge clapped his hands together and returned to light-hearted rambling about the spells.

 

*

 

After evening meal, Cressida broke away from her group of Slytherins and started making her way up to the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher’s office for her detention. She had already had a lecture from Molly about using spells wisely but Felix had backed her up saying Arabella deserved it, and then quoted Spiderman's "with great power comes great responsibility". Cressida didn’t mind being lectured, she knew she shouldn’t have done it but someone had to put Arabella in her place.

She reached the office and froze when she saw Fred Weasley II and James Sirius Potter waiting outside for detention as well.

“Knightly?” James laughed, amused to see her joining them. “What did you do to get detention?”

Cressida lined up against the wall beside them with her arms crossed. “None of your business.”

“She threw that Chauncey girl across the room, I heard her complaining about it to her brother,” Fred answered for her and she shot him a harsh glare. “It’s not exactly a secret, Knightly. Your whole class saw you do it,” he pointed out light-heartedly. “If I’m honest, I’m rather impressed. Even I can’t do a good knockback jinx yet.”

Reluctantly, she turned to look at the two boys. “What did you two do to get detention?” She asked taking the attention away from her.

James smiled proudly. “We pinned a picture of Uncle Fred waving under the passage about ghosts in every textbook. Thomas managed to get away with being deemed innocent but Fred and I weren’t so lucky.”

“I still stand by the fact that he would have found it a hilarious homage to his life of pranking,” Fred conceded.

“How mature,” she replied sarcastically. 

“Magic isn’t supposed to be mature, Knightly,” James countered.

“Besides, what’s so mature about sending someone flying across the room?” Fred added on.

Cressida rolled her eyes and bit her tongue. The door swung open and Professor Mickledge appeared, beckoning them inside. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?” He asked as the three students took their seats.

 

Chapter 10: First Year: Family Dispute

Friday 16th October 2015

 

With the first month and a half at Hogwarts over, most people knew their way around Hogwarts fairly well and had settled into their routines nicely. Hogwarts itself, however, still managed to throw curveballs at her, especially on the Grand Staircase. It always seemed to turn or move when she least expected it and Cressida had been late to at least one lesson a week because of this. Annoyingly, Molly always seemed to narrowly avoid being on the wrong staircase and was always perfectly on time. The trio of Gryffindors were either barely on time or extremely early and Cressida had no idea what they did before or after lessons but she knew it was probably causing chaos somewhere.

Cressida and the Slytherins had taken to ignoring them completely unless provoked. Molly and Margo were particularly good at this, having been doing it since the first day of Hogwarts, but Fred and James knew they could get Jac and Felix to laugh if they pulled a big enough stunt. James had even caught Cressida concealing a smile a few times during the week’s shenanigans.

James, Fred and Thomas had been lounging in the last of the summer sun as usual when they thought it would be a good idea to practise some spells they hadn’t been taught yet. James had grabbed his wand and tried to transform their parchment paper into Jelly Slugs, but it backfired and just turned all of his week's homework into worms which buried themselves into the mud before they could be changed back.

This wasn’t the only instance where James had performed magic ahead of his abilities. Cressida and Jac had been walking through the corridors after their last lesson of the day alone. Felix appeared in between the two girls, lacing an arm around both their shoulders easily. “Where are we heading now, girls?” He asked cheerily. 

“We have homework to complete,” Jac answered him.

Felix’s bright mood was instantly deflated. “All we do is homework!”

Cressida silently agreed. Every day their evenings were taken up by trying to complete homework or practise spells to no avail. She was desperate for some fun soon. Surely the whole year wouldn’t feel this draining.

“We have to work hard if we want to keep up with Molly and the rest of you pure-bloods,” Jac shot back at Felix jokingly.

He removed his arms from around the two girls and folded them defensively. “I am  not  a pure-blood.”

“You have magical parents… that still gives you an advantage over me and Jac,” Cressida chimed in.

“Fine, if you two are going to be buzzkills, I’m going to find someone else to entertain me,” he said storming off in front of them both.

“He realises we’re the only people he talks to, right?” Cressida asked Jac as they watched Felix disappear around a corner.

“I think he’s starting to realize that. Maybe he needs some guy friends,” Jac suggested.

Just then an eruption of laughter came from behind them and both girls turned toward the commotion. To no one’s surprise, it was the trio of Gryffindor boys. James and Fred were in fits of laughter as they looked at Thomas holding a potted plant in his hands, looking very mad and bewildered about it.

Cressida rolled her eyes and went to turn away but Jac’s curiosity had gotten the best of her. “What’s so funny about a plant?”

Fred and James looked up, glad someone had asked. The two Gryffindor boys strolled towards the girls while Thomas trailed behind them, staring at the plant in his hands still. “That plant was previously Wood’s book bag,” Fred laughed.

“Freddie bet me I couldn’t transform anything else outside of the lesson,” James boasted. “I clearly had to prove my brilliance.”

“Wow, that  is  impressive, Potter,” Cressida said dryly. “Can you change it back?”

James’ smile faltered. Fred and Thomas’ eyes darted to him. “You can change it back,  can’t you ?” Thomas asked desperately.

“Well…” James shrugged trying to regain his confident flair. “If I can’t McGonagall will.”

“Not without giving you detention first,” Cressida said.

James was glaring at her now. “Like you could change it back. You couldn’t even do the task in the lesson.”

Cressida straightened her shoulders. “I couldn’t concentrate with  someone  laughing like a maniac the whole time!”

James grinned once more after getting a rise out of her. “Don’t blame me for your lack of magical talent, Knightly.”

Jac and the other two boys were watching James and Cressida curiously, struggling to figure out who was going to win this.

Cressida smiled sweetly at the brown haired boy, causing James’ eyes to grow wide. She produced her wand and uttered the spell in seconds.  “Wingardium Leviosa!”

James’ books all shot out of his bag and floated in the air above his head just out of his reach. He stared up at them in shock and then back at her.

“How’s that for magical talent?” She asked him pointedly.

Fred and Thomas were trying and failing, to contain the laughter at James being the butt of a joke for once. 

Sensing she should quit while she was ahead, she turned and linked her arm around Jac’s leading them both through the hall away from the trio of boys. “Aren’t you going to reverse the spell?” Jac whispered as the two girls departed.

“I don’t know the reversal spell,” Cressida admitted quietly. 

 

*

 

Fridays were usually the most bearable days knowing the weekend was around the corner, but sitting in History of Magic while Professor Binns drawled on about something to do with a werewolves code of conduct made it harder to get through. Especially when all Cressida could think about was what fun she would have once her homework was finished, or by some miracle, disappeared completely. 

Felix was the only one in her group who sat beside her in History of Magic, fast asleep, but the trio of Gryffindors were behind her, as they were in almost all of her classes. She thought someone had to be playing a practical joke on her at this point.

Unlike her other lessons, however, they weren’t trying to get her attention or make stupid jokes for the first time in the history of knowing the trio. She didn’t want to admit it felt slightly strange to not hear their voices every five seconds.

Glancing over her shoulder at them as the class sat in silence listening to the ghostly teacher dribble on, she noticed Thomas scribbling on parchment with his head down despite there being nothing of importance to write down. As she turned her head, James looked up and stared back at her.

To her surprise, he didn’t grin or say anything. He just continued staring blankly.

Knowing at least this would provide some entertainment, she turned in her chair to look at them properly. “What’s wrong, Potter? No funny remarks to make today?” She prompted.

James simply shrugged and went back to writing with his quill. She thought it was unusual for him not to have a comeback. Looking from James to Fred, she narrowed her eyebrows. Surely, one of them had to say something.

“And that concludes our lesson for today,” Professor Binns’ voice called bringing everyone’s attention to him for the first time in their hour long lesson. “The homework will be to write three paragraphs on the codes of the werewolf and how the Ministry handle them.”

“Not very well based on what happened to Lupin,” Fred muttered as the class packed their things away.

Cressida turned around again. “You knew a werewolf?” She asked shocked. She refused to believe they were even real, never mind knowing one personally.

“We never got to meet Lupin, but he was a teacher at Hogwarts while my dad was here,” James answered, not looking at her. “Best friends with my Granddad and Sirius Black too. His portrait is somewhere in Gryffindor tower, Teddy talks to it sometimes.”

Felix snored himself awake as the trio of Gryffindors left the classroom. 

“Was Teddy’s dad a werewolf?” Cressida asked him.

“What?” Felix asked confused, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. 

“Lupin,” Cressida repeated.

The haze did not leave Felix’s eyes. “I didn’t know we covered lupus in History of Magic this year.”

Rolling her eyes, Cressida gathered her things and walked out into the corridor to meet the rest of her group. “Thank Merlin it’s lunch, I’m starving!” Margo said as soon as Cressida and Felix joined them.

“You’re always starving, Margo,” Molly said pulling a chocolate frog out of her bag and handing it to her smaller best friend.

Cressida glanced ahead at the trio of Gryffindors, getting the feeling something was wrong. Molly was looking ahead at them as well, pretending like she also hadn’t noticed. Sensing Molly was too proud to ask what had managed to render James Sirius Potter uncharacteristically quiet, Cressida strode forward after them.

“Potter!” She called without thinking better of it.

Molly’s eyes snapped towards her instantly. “What are you doing, Cressida?”

Cressida ignored Molly and ran in front of the trio, stopping them in the hallway. “Not now, Knightly,” Fred said softly, glancing at James.

Cressida ignored him too. She poked her chin out towards James, who stood in front of her with his hands in his pockets. “What’s wrong?”

James sighed but gave in, looking at the floor. “I didn’t make the team.”

The rest of the Slytherin group were beside Cressida now. Molly looked from Cressida to James, having heard the tail-end of their conversation. “You mean McGonagall didn’t let you on the Quidditch team?” She asked surprised.

“He turned up and gave a good show, but he’s still only a First Year,” Fred explained. “Malcolm Havoc only got on the team over him because he was the right age. James even played better than him in my opinion.”

“McGonagall said James can fill in for anyone who can’t play though!” Thomas said, clearly trying to remind James to look on the bright side. “That’s kind of like being on the team.”

“Great, I’m a Quidditch understudy,” James sulked.

Molly folded her arms, all previous concern gone from her expression. “You can’t sulk about this, James.”

All three boys turned their eyes on her. “Why not?”

“Because,” Molly started. “It’s the rules. You’re not a Second Year.”

“But my dad made it-”

“Your dad isn’t you!” Molly snapped. “You can’t rely on your dad to get you everything you want, especially  in Hogwarts.”

James’ brow furrowed. Fred was looking between his two cousins as if biting back a comment. “I don’t use my dad to get what I want. I just wanted to make him proud and prove I can be just as good as he was!”

“Well, you’re not,” Molly told him harshly. “The sooner you accept that the better.”

“Sod off will you, Molly,” Fred said turning Thomas and James away from the group of Slytherins. 

“It's true,” she retorted, her eyes growing stormy.

James shoved Fred off and turned around to face them again. “The old Molly would never have said that to me.”

Molly gulped, averting her eyes slightly. “Things change. People grow up.”

With that, Molly shoved past the group and stormed down the corridor. Margo followed after her instantly leaving the remaining three Slytherins behind without a second thought.

James and Fred glared at her as she departed. “Maybe she didn’t mean it,” Thomas suggested through the heavy tension that had settled on the group.

“Who cares if she meant it, she still said it,” James said bitterly. He glanced back at Cressida for a brief moment before he turned and walked in the opposite direction to where Molly had gone.

Fred watched James go then looked to Cressida as well. “She must really hate us now… to say that to James.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” Cressida said. She had spent a long time watching Molly avoid interacting with her cousins, nobody spends that long avoiding someone unless they care deep down.

Fred gave a small nod, deep in thought, before lacing an arm around Thomas and leading him away after James.

Jac and Felix moved closer to Cressida. “Are they going to forgive her?” Jac asked sympathetically.

“She didn’t technically say anything that wasn’t true.” Felix reasoned although he sounded just as concerned.

“It’s for them to work out between themselves,” Cressida told them as she too started walking through the halls. She knew better than to get involved with family drama.

Chapter 11: First Year: Stubbornness and Snuffboxes

Summary:

Molly remains stubborn and the group have their first practical transfiguration lesson

Saturday 17th October 2015

 

Cressida woke at ten and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She didn’t have much time to wake up before Jac was climbing onto the bed with her. “We didn’t want to wake you,” Jac said once they realised Cressida was finally awake.

“I did,” Margo muttered. Once again she was looking at herself in the mirror on top of her dresser. She was the only one that didn’t look casual, instead dressed up in a skirt and a nice top to show off.

Cressida rolled her eyes and sat on the edge of her bed. “Where’s Rasper?” She asked searching the room for her kitten.

“No idea, he must have snuck out this morning while we went and got breakfast,” Molly answered. She was already doing homework. “Shall we go to the lake today?” She asked the others, only briefly looking up. “It would be a shame to waste such a nice day.”

“If you promise to help me with my Charms homework later, I’ll go anywhere,” Jac answered.

“Do you need any help with any homework, Cressida?” Molly offered, shutting her homework and throwing it into a tote bag.

The truth was, Cressida was still slightly behind on her homework, but she didn’t want to have to rely on Molly for help. “No, I’ve got it all under control,” she lied getting to her feet and heading to the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, Cressida and the group of girls were heading into the common room with a picnic blanket and their bags full of homework to complete. 

Felix was waiting for them by the entrance to the dorms, Rasper curled in his arms. “I had a rather loud visitor this morning,” he complained passing the kitten to Cressida. “Try and keep him on your end of the common room please.”

Cressida kissed Rasper quickly on the head and placed him in her hobo bag so he could join them on their outing to the lake. 

“We’re having a study day, fancy coming?” Molly offered as Felix was already following them out of the common room.

“I have nothing better to do,” he shrugged, pulling an apple out of his pocket and biting into it.

Molly eventually led them out onto the patch of grass beside the lake and they were disappointed to see every other student at Hogwarts had seemingly had the same idea.

“Molly!” A voice called over to them. The group all turned towards a tree where the trio of Gryffindor boys were sitting. Evidently, James had gotten over his foul mood about the argument they had the previous day and had returned to his usual over-confident self. Fred, however, was watching Molly with a stony expression. “Over here!” James offered them.

The four remaining Slytherins looked to Molly awaiting her answer. Cressida could tell she was debating it in her head, but evidently, the guilt and stubbornness had won. “I just remembered I needed some extra notes from Professor Longbottom,” Molly muttered finally, turning and leaving the grounds.

“I’ll come with you!” Margo said instantly following after her.

The trio of boys watched her go and then turned to the remaining three. Cressida sighed, there really was nowhere else to sit if they wanted to enjoy the lovely sun shining down on them.

Taking action, she started walking towards them. James seemed surprised but grinned nonetheless. Being stubborn, Cressida stopped short of actually joining the trio and spread their blanket out slightly to the left and with her back to them. Jac and Felix followed her lead and threw their bags on the blanket and sat with her.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? Molly might get mad at us…” Jac worried as they got settled.

Cressida discreetly glanced over her shoulder at the trio of Gryffindor boys resuming whatever conversation they were having before. “We’re not going to talk to them. Molly can’t get mad at us sitting here.”

Jac and Felix exchanged doubtful looks before Felix shrugged and relaxed back on his hands. Rasper climbed his way out of the hobo bag and started pouncing on Felix’s shoes for entertainment. He gave a brief look of annoyance but let the kitten continue anyway. “She has to talk to them eventually,” Felix said to the two girls, careful to not be overheard by the trio of Gryffindors.

“I don’t think she will until she’s ready,” Jac replied.

“Why  is  she refusing to talk to them in the first place?” Cressida asked, fed up with being confused about the situation. During her week-long purge for knowledge, she had read about Salazar Slytherin and the other heads of the Hogwarts houses but she’d not read about any major arguments between the separate houses as of yet. She’d briefly seen a few newspaper clippings about the wizarding war her friends spoke about sometimes but hadn’t dug any deeper feeling like it was unnecessary for the time being and wouldn’t offer her any information on how to get around Hogwarts itself. She assumed the disconnect between the four houses was all just friendly competition throughout the school, but she was beginning to get the distinct feeling it ran deeper for some people. 

“If she talks to them, maybe they’ll leave us alone,” Jac spoke upbringing Cressida out of her thoughts.

Felix shuffled uncomfortably. “It’s because she was sorted into Slytherin.”

Jac stared at him blankly. “We know that’s the reason  why,  but why’s it such a big deal? It’s been over a month.”

“What’s so bad about being sorted into Slytherin compared to Gryffindor anyway?” Cressida asked, engaging back in the conversation. 

Felix took a deep breath. “Because the Slytherins were mostly on Voldemort’s side during the second war. A lot of the students didn’t fight in the battle of Hogwarts because they would have been fighting against their own families,” he explained, keeping his voice low. “Slytherin house tried to rebrand themselves after the war finished, tried to point out that not all Slytherins were bad or capable of following bad people, but it’s hard to forget something like that. Slytherin and evil wizards often go hand in hand throughout history.”

“But none of us is evil,” Jac said confused.

“It doesn’t matter they we’re not. It matters that people before us were,” Felix tried to explain as simply as he could. “That’s why Potter was so shocked when Molly was sorted into our house instead of his. Every Weasley and Potter going has been sorted into Gryffindor.”

Cressida glanced over her shoulder at the trio laughing happily again, they had an array of sweets and snacks in front of them instead of books. Feeling her eyes on them, James looked up grinning. 

“Alright, Knightly?” He called over to her, his tongue blue from the sweets.

Rolling her eyes, Cressida turned back around and opened a random book.

“Just leave it alone, James,” Thomas warned. 

“Yeah, you know they’re not going to talk to us. I’m sure Molly has told them to hate us by now,” Fred muttered in agreement.

Cressida rounded on them again. “Have you considered we’re ignoring you because you’re a bunch of obnoxious idiots?” She asked harshly. “Apart from Thomas,” she added noticing the hurt look on his face. She couldn’t bring herself to hate Thomas as much as the others.

 James' troublemaking grin wavered for a moment. “And to think I saved your life during our flying lesson, Knightly!”

“Saved my life?” She repeated with a laugh. “The fall was hardly going to kill me. Besides, you probably only saved me to look good in front of Madame Hooch.”

James huffed and folded his arms. “Last time I do anything nice for a stinking Slytherin.”

Cressida’s eyes flashed with anger and she opened her mouth to fight back when Jac grabbed her arm and redirected her attention. “Cress,” Jac said calmly. “They’re not worth it.”

“You’ve not even given us a chance!” James argued back. Evidently, he wasn’t done with the argument, and neither was Cressida. In fact, it felt like she was just beginning.

“Have you done anything but ridicule us since we arrived?” Cressida asked hotly, ignoring Jac’s advice.

“We’re only joking around with you,” Fred defended them. “We wanted to let Molly know we could still all be friends even though she was sorted into Slytherin.”

“Why does it even  matter  that she was sorted into Slytherin?” Cressida snapped defensively. 

“It doesn't… or didn’t until she decided she hates us,” James muttered.

Cressida got to her feet. “Maybe if you tried talking to her in private instead of making a scene every day she  would  talk to you!”

James opened his mouth but then clamped it shut again and Cressida knew she had gotten the final word for the time being. No longer wanting to bask in the October sunlight, she grabbed her hobo bag from the blanket and stormed back into the castle without looking back. 

Hearing that Slytherins were notorious for being bad people had struck a sensitive chord with her. Perhaps it was because she knew deep down, it probably fit her. After all, she stole from Gareth, scammed the older boys into buying cigarettes, blackmailed and bribed the boys across the hall constantly. She lied and cheated to get what she wanted back home and got away with it nearly every time. She didn’t do it to be malicious in her mind, she told herself she did what was necessary. Niceness didn’t get you everywhere, you had to be smart… but surely if she was a bad person, her mum would have told her.

But then she had shot Arabella Chauncey across the room without a second thought, and that could hardly be seen as a good thing, and she had purposefully walked James and Thomas into the trap on the stairs. With another crushing realisation she remembered all her bad habits and trickery was done in private, her mother was clueless about everything she got up to, so how could Cressida be sure she  wasn’t  a bad person.

She tried not to think about it too much. She told herself that if Slytherins were really evil that people like Jac and Felix wouldn’t have been put in there with her. She was convinced Jac didn’t have a bad bone in her body, and Felix meant well in everything he did.

Without paying attention to where she was going, Cressida rounded a corner and collided with a body, knocking them both to the floor.

“Watch where you’re going, idiot!” A voice shot at her instantly. Looking up Cressida saw it was Arabella, similarly dressed to impress like Margo. 

Seeing Arabella’s eyes widen at the sight of Cressida, she got to her feet. “Where are your little friends, Knightly? Left you behind again?” Arabella laughed.

Cressida’s fists clenched at her side. She was already on edge from thinking too much, she didn’t need Arabella Chauncey to taunt her as well. Before Cressida had a chance to open her mouth, Arabella’s attention diverted to something behind her.

Following Arabella’s gaze, Cressida turned to see James Sirius Potter standing there, Rasper meowing in protest to being held out at arm's length.

“Alright, Knightly,” he gulped sensing the look on her face was anything but good. She didn’t know whether he was stupid or incredibly stubborn like her.

Arabella shouldered past her instantly and strode towards James interrupting anything that James was planning to say. “Hi, James. Do you remember me? I came to your seventh birthday party ages ago. Arthur Weasley knew my dad from the Ministry.”

James ruffled his hair, glancing between Arabella and Cressida. “Sure, Armarni, right?”

Cressida’s tried not to take pleasure in the dumbfound look at fell upon Arabella’s face. Perhaps she was a bad person after all. “Is there a reason you’re holding my cat, Potter?” Cressida asked walking forward and taking control of the situation again.

James looked relieved about the interruption. “Yeah, you stormed off so quick you forgot your cat. Contrary little thing, isn’t he?”

Cressida gently took Rasper from James’ hand and perched the kitten on her shoulder. “He’s alright if he likes you… he’s an excellent judge of character it seems.”

The two First Years stared at each other for a moment. She could see based on his posture he hadn’t found her to continue their argument, which meant he had probably come to apologise, but Cressida didn’t particularly want that either. It was easier for her to stay mad at someone if they didn't apologise.

Arabella was staring between James and Cressida, hating that he wasn’t paying her any attention. “James, you should come and play wizard chess with me and Declan some time. I bet you’re really good at it.”

James once again looked to Cressida for an escape route to get away from the conversation. Quirking her eyebrow at him, she turned on her heels and walked away leaving James to deal with Arabella Chauncey on his own.

 

Monday 19th October 2015

 

“Just talk to them already and see what they have to say,” Felix grumbled to Molly as they made their way through the castle grounds towards their Transfiguration classroom. Today was going to be their first practical Transfiguration lesson after learning the Transfiguration Alphabet for the last two weeks, but Molly had been in an incredibly bad mood all weekend about her cousins, dampening the mood slightly.

Molly was determined to remain stubborn. “I don’t want to hear whatever they have to say.”

“It might not be as bad as you think,” Margo tried to chime in until Molly cast her a glare and the black haired girl went back to looking straight ahead.

Jac and Cressida trailed behind the other three, not wanting to get involved. She hadn’t told Molly about her argument with the Potter boy and swore Felix and Jac to secrecy as well. She hadn’t told any of them about James finding her after it either, she wanted to keep that to herself for the time being, unsure of what to think about it.

The class started lining up outside the door awaiting everyone to arrive and for McGonagall to let them in, which also proved as prime time for the trio of Gryffindors to show off with no repercussions from the teacher. 

To Cressida’s surprise, they weren’t among the first in line waiting to go in like normal so it was rather quiet. She leant back against the stone wall and glanced around while the other three continued arguing about Molly’s family ties. It was another lovely day outside and Cressida debated going for another solo wonder of the grounds after lessons if she could sneak away. Although she had been trying to spend less time alone, she still wanted the occasional moment of peace where she could just think for herself. 

Underneath the window Cressida was lazily staring out of, she saw the slightest movement come from below and her eyes darted down to see a cat sitting primly underneath it. There was nothing spectacular about the cat, apart from the markings around its eyes that gave the illusion of it wearing glasses, so Cressida assumed it was someone’s pet that had wandered too far from their common room. Maybe it was friends with Rasper.

There was a familiar ruckus from around the corner bringing everyone’s attention to the oncoming trio of boys.

“Here we go,” Jac muttered to Cressida knowingly.

The five Slytherins waited in complete silence as the three boys stopped short of joining them. They had cut the queue waiting to go in but no one seemed to care. It seemed as though the trio could do whatever they wanted if they joked and laughed about it enough.

Cressida watched as James looked towards Molly for a moment, then turned his attention toward Cressida. “Alright, Knightly?” He asked tentatively. He was testing the waters of where they stood, she realised.

Cressida rolled her eyes and continued to ignore him just as she would have done before their argument. Fred watched them silently, entertained by how they were reacting to one another. He was taller than his two counterparts and could look right over their heads.

James glanced around the corridor and then edged a bit closer to the group of Slytherins. He was glancing at Molly every few seconds, clearly wanting her to hear, but playing it off by talking to Cressida instead. “We’re going to the courtyard after lessons today to play wizard chess. You lot can come if you like.”

Cressida and the five Slytherins turned to the trio in shock. “What?”

He simply shrugged. “It’ll give us all a chance to talk for a bit. No showing off or anything-”

“Margo and I have homework to complete after lessons,” Molly interrupted him, looking away.

Fred shook his head with faint annoyance. “When are you going to get over this, Molly?”

Molly’s eyes snapped to her cousins in an instant. Suddenly, McGonagall was on the scene beside them in the corridor and Molly retreated back, biting her tongue. Cressida had the distinct feeling that if the Head Mistress hadn’t turned up the two cousins would have ended up getting into a full-on argument then and there.

“Everything alright, Miss Weasley?” McGonagall asked pointedly unlocking her classroom door.

“Perfectly fine, thank you, Professor,” Molly answered primly.

McGonagall studied her expression for a moment but decided against pushing Molly any further and opened her classroom door allowing the students to start piling in.

James and Fred grabbed Cressida by the arm and pulled her backwards before she could disappear into the room after her friends.

“What the hell are you doing?” She snapped at them.

“Your plan didn’t work,” James said as she pulled her arms free of the two boys. 

“What plan?” She asked confused.

“Talking to her in private,” James elaborated. “Molly loves wizard chess and for her to turn  that  down means she’s never going to talk to us!”

“James was even going to bring his favourite jelly slugs for her to eat while we played,” Thomas chimed in.

Fred folded his arms, watching as students continued piling past them into the classroom. “I told you it wouldn’t work. The only way to get Molly to talk is to force her.”

Cressida stared at the three boys shaking her head. “Why are you involving  me  in this?”

The three boys all glanced at each other looking for an answer. Finally, James shrugged. “Teddy told us-”

Cressida turned into the classroom rolling her eyes. “For God’s sake, if I never talk to another one of your weird family members again I’ll be glad!”

“Not so fast, Miss Knightly!” McGonagall’s voice called as she entered the classroom. She paused just inside the doorway, and the three Gryffindor boys bumped into the back of her without realising. “I want you four down here!”

McGonagall pointed towards a desk at the very front of the classroom, on the desk beside them sat Molly, Margo, Jac and Felix.

“Brilliant,” Cressida complained as she and the three boys took their assigned seats. Cressida ended up situated between Fred and James. It was her worst nightmare.

After everyone was settled, McGonagall settled herself at the front of the class. “As you may know, today we are planning to turn mice into snuffboxes so I hope you all learnt the spell in preparation like I assigned. Due to this being a particularly hard spell for First Years, I would like you to work in pairs or teams to help each other complete this spell.” The old witch waved her wand and two mice appeared on each table with a pleasant pop. “You may begin.”

Cressida stared down at her mouse lost for thought. The tiny creature was scurrying across her half of the desk, clearly in distress. She glanced around the classroom at people prodding the mice with their wands and yelling the spell at it. To her horror, on the table behind her, the mouse had only half transformed so was a circular, furry box with a tail that continued squeaking.

“This is barbaric. I’m not doing this!” Cressida declared scooping the tiny mouse up into her hand and using her index finger to soothe it.

James and Fed stopped whatever they were doing and stared at her. Thomas was also holding his and Fred’s mouse in his hand, his wand outstretched in the other. “Knightly, it’s just a spell. The mouse will be fine,” Fred told her.

Cressida hardened her eyes on them. “How would  you  like to be turned into a stupid box?”

James’ eyes widened. “Uncle Ron once turned-”

“If you tell me another anecdote, Potter, I’m going to beat you to death with my wand!” Cressida interpreted him.

James failed to contain his grin. “If you used magic it’d be slightly more effective-”

She grabbed her wand and started hitting him on the head before he finished his comeback. He tried to use his hands to cover where she was beating him while Fred and Thomas laughed themselves silly beside them.

James grabbed his own wand and jabbed Cressida in the side causing her to yelp and drop the mouse to the floor.

“Knightly, your mouse!” Thomas said in between laughs, he was holding his side in pain now.

James and Cressida stopped mid-fight and took to staring at the floor in search of their mouse. “Over there!” James said, pointing to the tiny creature running underneath the desk behind them.

He and Cressida both slid out of their chairs and started crawling along the floor after it side by side.

Fred suddenly stopped laughing and searched for McGonagall. “WHAT'S THAT?!” He yelled diverting everyone’s attention toward him. He jumped out of his seat and ran to the window, McGonagall and half the class following suit to see what Fred was yelling about. Fred signalled a thumbs up to Thomas, who produced his own wand and aimed it at McGonagall’s desk, sending her papers flying everywhere to cause even more chaos.

James and Cressida continued crawling across the floor in search of their mouse. James was grinning and watching the chaos unfold with a wide grin, meanwhile, Cressida was on the verge of seriously beating James to death.

“Do you plan this stuff?” She snapped at him as she continued to crawl together under the desks.

“No, that’s what makes it brilliant!” James laughed in reply. “There he is!”

Cressida and James sped up in their crawling towards the mouse as it turned hard right and continued running from them.

“What on earth is the meaning of this!?” McGonagall's voice called from the front. “Mr Weasley and Mr Wood I expected better of you…  Where  is Mr Potter!?”

“We better hurry up,” James whispered, glancing backwards at the chaos losing its effect as McGonagall had cornered Fred and Thomas to prevent any more distractions.

Cressida looked ahead at the mouse again. It had turned around and was heading straight towards McGonagall’s desk at the front.

“We’re going to lose him!” Cressida yelled as she grabbed James and started pulling him along quicker before the mouse disappeared completely.

As they re-approached their own desk, James regained his grin. “I have an idea!”

He reached his hand up and grabbed his wand from the desk as they passed under it. 

“MR POTTER!” McGonagall’s Scottish voice yelled, her feet appearing in front of her desk just as the mouse was about to run under it.

James outstretched his wand, aiming it toward the mouse. “Vennsto!”

The mouse fully transformed into an ornate snuffbox and slid to a stop at McGonagall's feet. The classroom fell silent as Cressida and James resurfaced from under the desks guiltily. McGonagall reached down and picked up the snuffbox, examining it closely. “Detention, Mr Potter,” she said calmly.

Cressida and James glanced at each other.  She was sure he would rope her into detention as it was her fault the mouse got away in the first place. James shrugged and turned back to look at McGonagall. “I did the spell though, didn’t I?” He grinned cleverly. “In fact, if you look around, I believe I was the only one who did it correctly.”

Fred and Thomas failed to contain their laughter behind the Head Mistress. Even Felix and Jac were struggling not to smile at the comment. The only ones who still looked angry about the whole affair were Molly and Margo, who stood to the side, mouse in hand and glaring in their direction. To Cressida’s surprise, McGonagall gave a small smile to the Potter boy as she placed the snuffbox down on her desk. “Yes, Mr Potter, you did indeed complete the spell… but you caused chaos before doing so.”

Fred raised his hand to get the Professor’s attention. “Are Thomas and I also in detention?”

McGonagall sighed, not looking at them, as she produced her wand to tidy up some of the mess now encasing her classroom. “Yes, Mr Weasley. All four of you.”

“Wicked,” Fred grinned, high-fiving Thomas.

“Four?” Cressida repeated.

“Cressida didn’t do anything!” Felix defended her stepping forward.

McGonagall looked directly at Cressida over her spectacles, waiting patiently. After a moment, Cressida sighed and gave in. “Fine. I did  let the mouse go.”

“So, the four of you will return to my office tonight to clean the mice cages as punishment,” McGonagall decided as her room was fully put back to normal. “Now shall we carry on with our lesson?”

Chapter 12: First Year: Birthdays

Thursday 22nd October 2015

 

Cressida was awoken by a pillow being thrown at her head.

“What was that for?” She grumbled, sitting up to find it was Molly who had thrown it at her. Jac seemed to be taking refuge in her own bed, already dressed, and protecting Rasper from darting across the room and getting caught in the crossfire.

“You’re going to make us late,” Molly snapped, brushing her ginger curls frantically causing them to grow frizzy and uncontrollable.

Margo came out of the bathroom and grew wide-eyed when she saw Molly’s hair growing larger by the minute. “Molly, maybe you should put the brush down!” She advised running across the room and taking it from her.

“What’s gotten you so riled up this morning?” Cressida asked forcing herself out of bed. She noticed the clock on the wall. “It’s not even six yet!”

“We need an early breakfast today,” Molly told her sternly. She allowed Margo to try and smooth back down her curls. “I want to be out of that hall before seven.”

“Why?” Cressida asked, still confused.

Molly folded her arms with a huff. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Margo glanced over at Cressida while soothing down Molly’s curls to look normal again. Cressida knew Margo would break as soon as Molly wasn’t around. Accepting that this would be the mood for the day, she grabbed her oversized uniform and went into the bathroom to get ready for her unusually early breakfast.

Much to Molly’s displeasure, it was quarter to seven before they had rounded up Felix and made it into the Great Hall for their first meal of the day. Molly scanned the room carefully, before leading the group to their usual spot on the long bench.

Cressida watched as Molly did her usual routine of silently poring everyone a cup of tea, whether they wanted it or not, and then started buttering heaps of toast that would never get eaten. Beside her, Jac had still decided silence was the safest way to avoid being yelled at first thing in the morning. Felix’s head was already resting on the table, a pool of drool starting to appear beside his cheek. Margo was unusually tense and untalkative, casting careful glances at Molly whenever she did something.

Cressida twirled her wand between her fingers, waiting patiently. She would find out what was causing such a foul mood eventually, and based on her theory, it would happen before first lesson.

“You haven’t touched your hash browns,” Molly’s voice snapped again. Cressida looked up, dropping her wand into her orange juice. Molly was already nearly finished with her breakfast, at this rate they would be out of the Great Hall before the owls even arrived. “You’ve got to hurry up, we have places to be.”

Felix grumbled himself awake, his hair was sticking up on the left side. “ Where  do we have to be, exactly? And why do we have to be there so early?”

Molly looked down at her breakfast. “Just anywhere but here,” she muttered.

Cressida looked from Molly and hardened her eyes on Margo, who was turning redder by the second. She was looking towards the entrance to the Great Hall every few minutes in anticipation.

People had started piling in now that it was an acceptable time to have breakfast, but most noticeably the Gryffindor table remained unusually empty. Cressida caught Jac’s attention and gestured towards her discovery. She was ashamed she hadn’t figured out this odd behaviour was linked to the Gryffindors sooner, but how she still wasn’t sure.

“Oh no-” Margo squeaked.

All of them turned on the bench to face the entrance to the hall as the first pile of Gryffindors came in, smiles and laughs spread across their faces. A few were wearing paper party hats on their heads, others had piles of sweets hoarded in their hands.

“What on earth is going on?” Jac finally spoke up, too confused to remain silent any longer.

Molly gulped and gathered her things quickly. “I’ll see you in class,” she said abruptly getting to her feet, but it was too late. 

Both doors were pushed open and the whole of the Gryffindor Tower entered in a large group, all loudly singing and laughing. Mixed in amongst them was Teddy, arm in arm with Victoire, seemingly of the leaders of the group.

“For he’s a jolly good fellow! For he’s a jolly good fellow! And so say all of us!”

Teddy had his wand pressed to his throat so his singing came out louder than anyone else’s, filling up the whole hall and drowning out any other conversation.

Behind the large crowd, came Fred and James, who had Thomas hoisted upon their shoulders, carrying him like a king. Thomas had his head covered in his hands, but even still Cressida could see he was turning bright red from all the commotion.

Molly seemed frozen to the spot as the group took over everything in the Great Hall. James and Fred’s grins had never been so wide as they were at that moment holding Thomas up in front of the whole school.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOMMO!” James bellowed, not needing wand assistance to be the loudest in the room.

“The big twelve!” Fred added on, laughing. Thomas was now held up lopsidedly as James started to lose his grip in all the excitement. “How does it feel to be an old man?”

“I’m five months older than you!” Thomas retorted from underneath his hands. Reluctantly, he lifted his head as they finally approached Gryffindor's table. “Can I be put down now?”

Fred and James paused, glancing at each other silently, grins growing even wider.

“ Wait !  No -” Both boys instantly dropped Thomas to the ground with a thud and then doubled over laughing themselves. “You two are the worst best friends ever,” Thomas complained rubbing his tailbone.

The three boys hoisted themselves onto the benches and were instantly being served breakfast by everyone around them. Teddy stood behind, taking most things from their plates before any of the younger boys got a chance to eat.

“Hey!” James complained, snatching a sausage back from Teddy. “We need our strength!”

“Yeah,” Fred agreed, shoving a piece of toast in his mouth before Teddy could get to it. “We plan on carrying Thomas around like that all day.”

“His feet won’t touch the floor if we have a say in it!” James grinned.

Teddy stole the bacon right out of James' mouth, and then turned, lacing an arm around Victoire. “Why carry him when you can Leviosa him?” He asked cleverly as he started departing. “Think smarter not harder, boys.”

James and Fred instantly turned to each other wide-eyed. Thomas let his head bang against the table hopelessly. “They’re going to kill me. I’m a dead man at the ripe old age of twelve and five seconds.”

Cressida tore her eyes away from the Gryffindor table to see Molly still frozen in place. She was sure she could see tears in the ginger witch’s eyes. Once she saw Cressida looking, Molly turned away, discreetly wiping her eyes.

Felix turned, laughing at all the commotion, unaware of Molly’s reaction. “Merlin, you lot know how to do birthdays!”

That seemed to be the final straw. Molly sniffed loudly and then turned, clearly not able to keep the tears from falling anymore and ran out of the Great Hall. As she ran past, the trio of Gryffindor boys noticed their cousin and stopped their celebrations instantly, causing the whole table to grow quiet.

Jac, Felix and Cressida looked to Margo as she tried to gather her things up just as quickly as Molly did. “Molly’s birthday is  tomorrow!”  She explained exasperatedly. “They always celebrated her and Thomas’ birthdays together at the Burrow with a massive sleepover party!”

With that, Margo ran out after Molly. Cressida’s eyes followed her out, mouth agape, and then settled on the trio of Gryffindor boys who were seemingly just as transfixed on staring open-mouthed at the door as Cressida was.

“I didn’t know-” Felix started guiltily.

“It’s okay, Finnegan,” Jac comforted him. “None of us did.”

Cressida grabbed her hobo bag and threw it over her shoulder, getting to her feet. Instinctively, Jac and Felix started doing the same while Cressida was already halfway across the hall.

James stumbled out of his chair and pushed his way through the crowd to stand in front of her before she could leave. “We didn’t mean to-” he babbled instantly.

“Get out of my way, Potter,” Cressida snapped, shoving past him.

Felix and Jac were beside her now as they wandered the halls. 

“Where did she go?” Jac asked as they aimlessly walked. They had already checked their Transfiguration classroom, which was their first lesson, and their dorm room but Molly was nowhere to be seen.

“Where do girls normally go when they cry?” Felix sighed thoughtfully, running a hand through his hair.

Cressida paused, stopping the other two behind her, with a realisation. “A bathroom. Girls cry in the bathroom.”

“There are four girls’ bathrooms around the castle. One is for Prefects, one I still can’t find and one is out of order,” Jac said helplessly.

Felix gasped loudly, shaking Cressida by the shoulder. “I know which bathroom she’s in!”

He took off running without further explanation. Jac raised a doubtful eyebrow before she and Cressida took off after him.

Felix lead them all the way back down to the first floor and only stopped once they were outside the disused bathroom. Cressida and Jac still glanced at each other unsurely. “Why would Molly come here to cry?”

“Just trust me,” Felix panted, using the remainder of his strength to push the door open, gesturing for the two girls to go in ahead of him.

When he went to follow in after them, Jac blocked his path and shoved him back out into the corridor. “It’s a  girl's  bathroom, Felix.”

Felix stared at her. “But-”

Cressida rolled her eyes and pulled Felix into the dingy and dark bathroom. “I doubt anyone will care about him behind in here, it’s just a stupid old toilets.”

Felix laughed like she had made a joke, but let Cressida lead the way regardless. Inside the old bathroom was a strange circular sink that seemed to have been knocked down at some point over the years, and the toilets were concealed around the corner.

“This place is creepy,” Jac shuddered, rubbing her arms.

“Creepy?” A squeaky, judgemental voice came from somewhere above them. “ Creepy !” It repeated. Cressida watched as a ghostly figure of a girl floated down and got in Jac’s face, screwing up her face with every word she spoke. “If you want to see creepy you should have been here when the snake came out and stared me to death while I was crying!”

Felix gestured to the ghostly girl, unphased. “This is Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.”

Myrtle huffed and folded her arms, turning away like a pouting child. “Everyone thinks I’m a gimmick these days.  Poor old Myrtle, let’s go and MAKE FUN OF HER!”

“We’re not here to make fun of you,” Cressida said truthfully. She was starting to become used to the oddities and weird interactions around Hogwarts. Myrtle turned to glare at her through round-rimmed glasses. “We’re looking for our friend.”

Myrtle bobbed her head from side to side like she was debating something silently, and then she finally lowered herself to their level. “Ginger girl, with a tiny friend?”

“That’s the one,” Felix replied.

Myrtle rolled her eyes, flying back up into the air. “Third cubicle on your left,” she huffed. “No one ever comes to just see  me . It’s always some  other  crying girl in  my  bathroom!” She complained as she disappeared into a pipe and her high pitched voice drowned away.

Jac and Cressida turned to look at Felix. “Were you going to mention the mentally unstable ghost before we got here?” Jac asked him.

Felix shrugged, turning towards the cubicles. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Jac swatted him on the arm as they followed his lead. “You know I hate the ghosts.”

Cressida knocked carefully on the third cubicle that Myrtle had said Molly was in.

“Go away!” Her voice cried.

The three glanced at each other again. Felix shrugged and went to walk away when Jac grabbed him and kept him in place. “Molly, why didn’t you tell us about the birthday?” Cressida asked.

There was shuffling and after a moment, Margo was pulling the stall door open to reveal her and Molly inside. Molly was sat on the top of the toilet with her feet on the closed lid, a pile of tissues in her lap. “I didn’t want you to think I was jealous,” Molly sniffed.

“We don’t think you’re jealous,” Jac said reaching out and offering her another clean tissue.

“Yeah, we know you’d hate to be carted around Hogwarts on their shoulders all day,” Felix chimed in.

Cressida rolled her eyes and shoved Felix backwards while pulling Jac into the stall with her. “This is girl talk, converse with the whiny ghost,” Cressida instructed him before slamming the cubicle door in his face.

It was a tight squeeze with the four girls in the tiny space, but none of them seemed to overly mind. Molly blew her nose into a tissue and then added it to the discarded pile. “I just didn’t know what to expect this morning… I didn’t want to see what they would do for Thomas’ first birthday here.” 

“I’m sure they’ll do something just as grand for you tomorrow,” Margo tried to comfort her.

Molly scoffed. “I don’t  want  them to do anything for me tomorrow.”

“Then what do you want?” Cressida asked bluntly. All three girls turned their eyes to her. She knew there was probably a more diplomatic way to handle this situation, not that she knew what was best. She had never had a birthday party full stop, but it was no point crying without a plan at the end of it. “Whatever you want to do for your birthday tomorrow,  we’ll  do it. We can start a new tradition- we can have our own stupid sleepover.”

Margo stared at Cressida like she was mad. “Cressida, are you mentally deficient-”

“Let’s do it,” Molly cut her off with another sniff. She was starting to look less teary-eyed to Jac’s relief. Cressida shot Margo a look that signalled to stay quiet for the remainder of this conversation. “I want to have a sleepover in our dorm room tomorrow night. We can have sweets and play games.”

“And eat cake,” Jac added excitedly. “We can’t have a birthday sleepover without cake.”

There was a small knock on the bathroom stall and all four girls went quiet. “Can I come to the sleepover?” Felix asked tentatively.

Cressida glanced at Molly, who rolled her eyes and smiled. “If you can find a way to make it into the girl’s dorms, you can come, Finnegan,” she said, getting down from her toilet pedestal and opening the stall door to reveal him pressed up against it listening.

 

*

 

It had taken another ten minutes to convince Molly to come out of the bathroom and go to lessons, but as they came to the corridor that led to their next lesson, Cressida slowed down. 

Jac paused along with her, trying to be discreet and not alert the others. “What are you doing?” She whispered to Cressida.

An idea was starting to form in her mind. “Waiting,” she replied mystically. “Go on without me for the rest of the day. I’ll meet you in the common room tonight.”

Jac nodded and followed her instruction, gesturing the rest of the group into the classroom without giving away that Cressida was no longer following them.

She instantly changed direction, heading for the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and waited patiently, leaning against the stone wall. It was only a few minutes before the classroom door was opened and Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors started piling out. At the back of the crowd were James and Fred still carrying Thomas around on their shoulders.

“Alright, Potter,” Cressida said, alerting them to her presence.

James spun around too quick, causing Thomas to go tumbling to the floor on top of Fred.

“Knightly!” Fred groaned, shoving Thomas off him. “Potter startles easily, give us more warning next time.”

Cressida glanced as the two boys got to their feet and folded her arms. “Happy birthday by the way,” she said to Thomas.

“Thanks,” Thomas mumbled. It had only been two hours since breakfast but already bruises were starting to spring up all over his body from being dropped. “I doubt I’ll live to see the next one.”

James was staring at Cressida in surprise. “Are you waiting for us?”

Cressida finally turned her eyes on him. “Unfortunately.”

“Why?” They all asked in unison.

“Do you know how to get into the girl’s dorms?” She asked straight to the point.

The three boys glanced between themselves. “We’ve not thought about that yet,” James admitted.

“Speak for yourself,” Fred countered under his breath.

“Why do you want to know that?” Thomas asked.

“I need to get Felix into our dorm room tomorrow night for Molly’s sleepover,” Cressida told them. She pushed herself up off the wall and started walking, as expected the trio of Gryffindors were quick to follow behind her. “And before you ask, no you’re not invited.”

“If Finnegan gets to go why can’t we?” James complained. “He’s not even family.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Because she doesn’t want you there. If you can’t give me the information I want, then sod off. I have things to plan.”

James made an odd noise in the back of his throat and then ran in front, stopping Cressida in her tracks. “Is this really what she wants for her birthday?” He asked seriously. “To be with you lot and not us?”

Cressida had to tilt her chin up slightly to keep eye contact with James. “I don’t plan sleepovers for the fun of it, Potter.” 

James took a deep breath in through his nose, thinking hard for a moment. Fred and Thomas stood by watching curiously.

“Leviosa him,” he said finally.

“Not that idea again!” Thomas groaned. “We’ve established it doesn’t work, I have the bruises to prove it.”

Fred tapped his chin thoughtfully, joining James in front of Cressida. “No, Jamsie has a point. We can’t do the spell very well but Knightly’s the best in the class at it now. Maybe it’ll work for her.”

“And you think I’ll be able to float him right into our room without something bad happening?” Cressida asked.

“You may need a second person to help lift him but it’s worth a shot,” James nodded. “There’s got to be some way around the barriers to the gender dorms. Teddy is in the girl’s dorms all the time.”

“And the boy’s dorms,” Thomas added on.

“There’s no barrier to them though. You may have failed to notice but Teddy has to be let into the boy's dorms seeing as he is one,” Fred told him.

Cressida’s mouth twitched into a grin. “Thanks for the help, boys,” she said as she started walking forward again. “And if you three come anywhere near Molly tomorrow I’ll put your heads on top of Gryffindor tower.”

The three boys refrained from following her this time, watching her walk off slightly disturbed by her threat.

Cressida walked into Astronomy and took her seat in between Felix and Jac at their round table.

“Five points from Slytherin for tardiness!” The Professor scolded her as she sat down.

“Where have you been?” Margo hissed at her as soon as the room had returned to writing down their star charts. All four of her friends lifted their eyes to focus on her joining them. Felix, who had been eating hard-boiled sweets instead of doing his work, had stopped sucking on his sweet loudly to listen to Cressida’s response.

Cressida produced her quill and started copying from Jac. “I’ve been planning for tomorrow.”

Molly’s brow furrowed. “That doesn’t fill me with confidence, Knightly,” she whispered.

Cressida continued writing, not looking up. “I’ve found a way to get Felix into our room tomorrow night and made sure the Gryffindors won’t come near you if they want to keep their heads,” she glanced up at Molly finally. “How’s your confidence in me now?”

Molly bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from smiling. “It’s building slowly.”

With that, Molly returned to silently writing on her parchment. Margo had turned red and tight-lipped as she too, returned to silently writing. Jac nudged Cressida with her shoulder proudly and Felix threw a sweet across the table for good measure.

 

Friday 23rd October 2015

 

Cressida was sad to see the sun starting to disappear and the winter nights draw in throughout the castle. She imaged Hogwarts would be even more amazing in the summer when they could explore the grounds more. In the back of her mind, she kept telling herself she wanted to explore the castle more inside first, but she hadn’t had a chance to get any alone time yet. Besides she had more pressing matters to deal with than exploring currently.

Cressida had positioned herself against one of the stone pillars in the courtyard after their last lesson. Jac was leant beside her, looking more nervous than casual.

“Would you relax, we’re not breaking any rules,” Cressida told her.

Jac tugged on the dark braids in her hair. “I just don’t think Molly would like us going behind her back.”

“Do you see any of the others trying to plan anything for this stupid party?” Cressida asked. 

“No…” Jac admitted.

“Exactly, so  someone  had to take charge and tell everyone what to do.”

Jac seemed to relax slightly. “Do you plan a lot of parties back home or something?”

Cressida didn’t want to admit she couldn’t remember ever having a birthday party, especially one spent with other kids her age. She didn’t even know why she was taking charge over everyone else. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure exactly what made a good birthday party, but she knew certain things had to be involved, and so she ensured those things would be there no matter what.

 Luckily for her, the person they had been waiting for appeared in view and Cressida pushed herself up off the wall leaving Jac’s question hanging in the air.

“Did you bring the stuff I needed?” She asked straight to the point.

Teddy produced a small cardboard box from behind his back and handed it to Cressida. “That’s all the leftover stuff we had. Someone of it may still be red but I got Victoire to transfiger the colour to green as much as possible.”

“Here,” Cressida said reaching into her robes and pulling out a tiny brown sack and dropping it into Teddy’s hands. “I don’t have magic money so I got you these as collateral.”

Teddy opened the pouch and peered inside. “Puffapod seeds?”

Jac’s eyes widened and turned to Cressida. “Does Professor-”

Cressida covered her friends’ mouth with her hand quickly. Teddy glanced between the two girls, placing the pouch carefully into his robes. “Pleasure doing business with you, Knightly,” he grinned. “Tell Weasley happy birthday from us.”

“Will do,” Cressida agreed. She waited until Teddy had disappeared back into the castle before removing her hand from over Jac’s mouth.

“You stole from Professor Longbottom?!” Jac interrogated her.

Cressida shrugged nonchalantly and started leading the way back to the Slytherin common room. “I didn’t steal them. I asked if I could borrow them for some extra homework studying and he handed them over just like that.”

“So you lied to him?” Jac continued.

Cressida’s chest tightened slightly at Jac’s tone but she remained walking ahead calmly. “Are you going to tell on me?”

Jac didn’t answer straight away. When Cressida glanced back at her over her shoulder, Jac sighed conflicted. “No, I won’t tell… but you need to hand in the extra homework Professor Longbottom is expecting from you.”

She had already thought of that and had completed an extra piece of parchment on the odd plant the night before when she couldn’t sleep. “I’ll see if I can fit it in,” Cressida shrugged before whispering the password to enter the common room.

 

*

 

Two hours later, Cressida and Jac had decorated their dorm room full of banners and party streamers. Some of them still had the odd streak of red in, which Jac used a felt tip to colour green to match the rest, in case Molly figured out these were leftover decorations from Thomas’ birthday the day prior.

Finally, the two girls stepped back to admire their work. Rasper, who had grown bored of trying to attack the streamers hanging down from Molly’s bedpost ran over and climbed up Cressida’s leg until he was sprawled out in her arms.

Jac reached into the box of remaining decorations and pulled out a green and silver striped party hat. Cressida held her tiny kitten in place as Jac manoeuvred the party hat so it sat on top of Rasper’s head.

“Perfect!” Jac laughed as Cressida moved Rasper up onto her shoulder where he was most comfortable. He didn’t seem too bothered by the party hat and perched comfortably as if it wasn’t even there. 

Cressida glanced at the clock on the wall. Margo had been distracting Molly in the courtyard for the last hour playing wizard chess and Gobstones, Felix had been collecting snacks and sweets from the kitchens and various sweet dealers around Hogwarts, and they were all due to meet up again in the Grand Hall for evening meal.

“And you’re sure we can just float Felix in here?” Jac asked for the third time.

Cressida moved Rasper from her shoulder and let him lie on her bed. “How hard can it be?” She asked, lancing an arm around Jac’s. “Worst case scenario we give him a tin can with some string on so he can hear us from the common room.”

Jac laughed as she let Cressida lead the way out of the dorm room to head to the Great Hall as planned. “Molly’s lucky she has a friend who would go to all this trouble for her birthday,” Jac said as they walked.

Cressida blew a strand of hair out of her face, not wanting to get all the credit for a party she wasn’t sure she was even going to stick around all night for. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

Jac scoffed as they came to the entrance to the Great Hall then they both froze, seeing the trio of Gryffindor boys lingering. When they saw Jac and Cressida they all stood up straighter.

“I thought you told them to stay away?” Jac whispered as the two girls continued walking closer.

“I did,” she replied stonily. “Guess they don’t want their heads attached after all.”

As soon as Cressida was stood in front of them, James held his hands up in surrender. “Don’t take our heads just yet, Knightly.”

“We come bearing gifts,” Fred said. Thomas pulled out a pile of envelopes all tied together in a bundle with string and handed them to Cressida. “They’re from our family. They sent Molly’s and Thomas’ birthday cards and howlers all together out of habit.”

Cressida pocketed the pile of envelopes in her robes. “Is that all?”

James lowered his gaze to the floor. “Just… tell her happy birthday from us, will you?”

Cressida softened her demeanour slightly, nodding at the trio. “Thanks for the letters,” she said as she laced her arm back around Jac’s and led her away from the trio and into the hall.

“That was weird,” Jac commented quietly as they made their way over to the Slytherin table. 

Cressida decided not to reply as they took their seats on the bench. To Cressida’s relief, Molly looked in high spirits, pouring the two girls a cup of pumpkin juice as soon as they were in front of her. 

“How’s it going, birthday girl?” Jac asked taking the pumpkin juice gratefully.

“I beat Margo at wizard chess three times,” Molly said happily.

Margo sat beside her with her arms folded. “I let you win.”

“Hey, Margo-” Felix said. Margo turned her head to look at Felix just as he stuffed some apple tart into her mouth to shut her up. Grinning, he turned back to the other girls. “I got a good stash of snacks for tonight. I paid Vince Hornby ten sickles for a pack of Burtie Bots jelly beans.”

“Teddy is selling them for five sickles,” Molly told him over her second helping of casserole.

Felix’s shoulder sagged. “I didn’t think you’d want me going to him for the sweets.”

Cressida and Jac shared a silent glance as the two continued eating.

“Speaking of your cousins, I’ve not seen them at all today,” Margo pointed out.

Molly looked up, offering a smile to Cressida, unnerving her slightly. “Looks like your scare tactic worked, Knightly. You may have given me the best birthday present yet.”

“What about the scarf I got you?!” Margo asked offended.

Molly turned to her while continuing to eat. “The scarf was lovely, Margo, but it didn’t give me a day of peace from my cousins.”

Jac reached across the table taking the fork full of food right from Molly’s hand. “You shouldn’t fill up on real food!” She explained when Molly looked confused. “We’ve got lots more planned.”

Molly surrendered her fork entirely. “Is that so?” She asked cheerfully. “Then what are we doing wasting time sitting here?”

With that Molly got to her feet, Margo and Felix following after her happily, as they started to leave the Great Hall. Cressida and Jac lingered slightly behind, sticking close together. “Now comes the hard part,” Jac whispered.

“I’ll have the tin can on standby,” Cressida whispered back. As they headed out of the hall, Cressida glanced back over her shoulder at the Gryffindor table. James, Fred and Thomas were sitting watching them leave while everyone around them continued talking in blissful unawareness.

 

*

 

Getting Felix into the dorm room had indeed proven more difficult than either girl could have anticipated, and it took floating him into the room wrapped in a bedsheet along with the help of Molly before he was dropped onto their green ornate rug.

After that, Jac handed out the green party hats to everyone. Cressida cleverly avoided wearing hers for more than two seconds without anyone seeming to care. Felix perched over the end of Molly’s bed for the majority of the night as the three girls sat below him on the floor with their spread of snacks and sweets in a pile in the middle.

They had laughed, told stories and played games in between stuffing their faces. Jac and Felix produced a badly made chocolate cake that they had attempted to make out of melted chocolate fingers and cupcakes, and just before midnight was about to hit, almost everyone seemed to be in a food coma where they sat.

Cressida had silently thought that it would have been even better if they had Jac’s Cd player and reminded herself she still needed to figure out a way to get that back from Professor Slughorn before she forgot about it completely.

Felix’s head was hanging off the edge of the bed upside down between Molly and Cressida, Margo lay curled up with a hoard of sweet wrappers and half-eaten chocolate bars concealed in her arms, Jac had grabbed a pillow from her bed and led on it with Rasper lying beside her with a party hat still on his tiny head. Cressida lent back against Molly’s bed frame, seeing how many bonbons she could drop into Felix’s mouth before he woke up. Molly, the only other person awake, was now rubbing her tired eyes.

“Cressida,” Molly’s sleepy voice whispered through the quiet of the room. Cressida shuffled forward so she could look at Molly better. “Thank you for trying to make my birthday better.”

Cressida smiled genuinely. “Did it work?”

Molly nodded. “Yeah…” she looked down at her hands, faltering slightly. “It’s weird to not be with my family though.”

Cressida crawled on her knees, narrowly avoiding having to climb over Margo’s sleeping body, to grab her discarded robes on her own bed. “I didn’t know if you’d want to open them in front of everyone,” Cressida whispered holding the pile of letters out for Molly to take. “They’re from your family. They arrived with Wood's cards yesterday.”

Molly took the pile of envelopes slowly. “How did you get them?”

“Your cousins gave them to me,” she admitted. Molly’s expression was unreadable as she stared at the letters silently. “Please don’t be mad that I spoke to them-”

Cressida was cut off by Molly leaning forward and hugging Cressida tightly. Cressida was unsure of what to do for a moment but eventually hugged Molly back, sensing it would be weirder not to.

Felix snored himself awake and rolled onto his front to see Molly pulling away from Cressida. Rubbing his eyes to wake himself up more, he narrowed his brow at the two girls. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” Molly said quickly, hiding her letters behind her back. “I was just thanking Cressida.”

Felix sat up straighter. “Do I get a thank-you hug?” He asked hopefully. “I helped plan the party too.”

Molly rolled her eyes and got to her feet, swatting Felix’s nose with her letters before hiding them again. “No. In fact, I think it’s time you got off my bed and went back to your own room.”

Felix looked to Cressida for an excuse to stay, but Cressida simply smiled and got to her feet, pulling Felix up onto his own as well. “Don’t push your luck, Finnegan, you’ve got to get back before Gabriel finds out here in here.”

Felix purposefully slumped against Cressida so she had to practically drag him to the doorway. “But the whole point of a sleepover is that you  sleepover .”

“And you  did  sleep. Mission complete, we’ll see you in the morning.” Cressida told him, dropping him out into the corridor easily and shutting the door in his face. She heard him grumbling on the other side of the door before his footsteps signalled he had headed for his own room defeated.

When Cressida turned back to face the dorm room, the bathroom light was shining under the closed door and Molly was nowhere to be seen. Sensing Molly wanted some alone time to read her birthday messages from her family, Cressida crept around the room, dropping a blanket onto Jac’s body and lifting Rasper into her own arms.

She lightly kicked a chocolate bar out of Margo’s hands so it wouldn’t melt onto her cheek in the night, and then climbed into her own bed, removing Rasper’s party hat and setting the kitten down in his usual sleeping place beside her.

“Not bad for my first party,” she whispered to the cat as she settled under her bed covers beside him.

Rasper gave a tiny purr of acknowledgement before stretching out on the pillow and allowing sleep to take back over his tiny body. Cressida lay on her back staring up at her cloth ceiling. Once again she didn’t feel the need to sleep and was rendered to lie there until morning came.

Chapter 13: First Year: Family Ties

Tuesday 27th October 2015

 

Cressida’s weekend was turning out to be pleasant so far. She had minimal homework, having caught up nicely during the week. Unfortunately, Cressida could already feel the cold starting to creep into the air so wandering the grounds in the afternoon had started to be removed from the list of options to pass the time. She had tried to play wizard chess but found it as boring as she had assumed it would be and gave up, letting Margo take over. 

Since Molly’s birthday, all five of the Slytherin crew seemed to be in high spirits. Molly hadn’t mentioned the letters from her family again since Cressida had given them to her, but she knew she had been grateful for them. People didn’t hug you for no reason, Cressida had learned over her eleven years of life. 

Cressida had expected Molly to finally get over ignoring her cousins now after her birthday fiasco and the fact she had admitted to missing them, but when lessons started up again Molly continued to ignore them worse than before. Molly did, however, seem to be latching onto Cressida more.

She had noticed it on Sunday when they all went down for breakfast. The trio of Gryffindor boys had been lingering by the doorway, hoping Molly would finally decide to talk to them. Instead, Molly linked arms with Cressida and kept her head facing forward.

This angered Margo immensely, as this was the first time Molly had sat by someone other than her for a meal since the two had arrived at Hogwarts.

Cressida was currently sitting at the Slytherin dining table surrounded by her friends, eating their usual array of tea and toast supplied by Molly as if she was their mother. Margo had wedged herself beside Molly today, having been stuck next to Felix for the last two meals, but Cressida didn’t mind this. She enjoyed her usual seat in between Felix and Jac as they were tall enough to block out the rest of their long table from her view. 

“Shall we go to the library for a change after lessons today?” Molly was asking the group as she finished passing everyone a cup of fresh tea. 

“And face Madam Pince? You must be joking,” Felix replied. “She hates students going in her precious library unless they have to.”

“And I don’t think she’s going to let me back in just yet,” Cressida told the group. She had gone back to the library only once since the incident and the old librarian had nearly thrown every book on discipline and manners at her as soon as she set foot in the door.

“Well, it’s cold out today so that rules out the courtyard and lake,” Margo pointed out.

“So the common room it is,” Molly decided.

“What are we going to  do  in the common room?” Jac asked. “I’m out of homework to do and Felix swore of playing wizard chess for the rest of the weekend after yesterday’s argument.”

“I won that game fair and square!” Margo defended at once. 

“You cheated!” Felix yelled back, pointing his fork at her.

“Did not!”

Felix scooped up some beans on his fork and started to aim it at Margo when Molly stopped him, snatching the weaponised fork out of his hand easily. “Okay, no wizard chess,” she said. “What do you think we should do, Cressida?”

Cressida looked up from her nearly empty plate confused. It was rare that Molly looked to anyone else for an idea. “We could explore the castle,” she suggested.

Margo narrowed her eyebrows. “Why would we-”

“Sounds good,” Molly interrupted her.

Margo sank into her chair, sending a slight glare in Cressida’s direction. “I suppose it could be fun,” she huffed.

Molly pushed her breakfast plate away from her and got to her feet. “As soon as lessons finish we’ll start exploring.”

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other, surprised by Molly’s willingness to do what someone else wanted. Felix checked Molly’s back was turned before grabbing his fork and sending the perfectly aimed pile of beans at Margo.

“Felix!” She yelled jumping up and producing her wand as Felix turned to run away.  “Locomotor Wibbly!”

Felix fell to the floor, his legs buckling underneath him. Molly turned to look at Felix as he collapsed to the floor and sighed. “Of all the spells you get right first try, it  had  to be this one.”

Felix rolled onto his back and sat up, glaring at Margo as he produced his own wand. “I’m going to get you back for this, Smithers!”

Molly took the wand from Felix’s hand before he could use it.

“Would you stop doing that?!” Felix complained, glaring up at her now.

Molly turned to Jac and Cressida, rolling her eyes. “You two head to lessons. I’ll make sure these two don’t kill each other and unstick Finnegan.”

Cressida and Jac took their chance and left the Great Hall before Felix and Margo’s argument escalated any further.

The two girls wandered the main corridors easily, knowing these fairly well after using them to get to and from lessons all month. It wasn’t long until they ran into Professor Longbottom heading towards the greenhouses from Gryffindor Tower.

“Morning Cressida! Morning Jac!” He grinned as he passed. “You two are out early this morning, aren’t you?”

“Actually, sir, lessons have just started,” Jac pointed out.

Professor Longbottom stopped, turning to face the First Years. “Already? Have I missed breakfast?”

“We just finished,” Cressida answered.

“Oh well,” Longbottom sighed disappointedly. He looked back up at the two girls. “Don’t suppose either of you would like to help me re-pot some plants in the greenhouses later on?” He asked hopefully. “I can arrange tea and biscuits to be brought down to us as a treat.”

Jac grinned widely at the offer, she loved the greenhouses. “Of course!”

Longbottom smiled gratefully at her, then turned to Cressida.

She debated going, but re-potting plants weren’t her idea of fun and she had gotten her hopes up to finally explore the castle some more.

“Maybe next time,” she said to the Professor.

Professor Longbottom didn’t seem disheartened by her decline and nodded understandingly. “It’s not for everyone, is it… plants, I mean.”

Cressida found herself amused by Professor Longbottom, as she often was. He felt so down to earth and comforting compared to some of her other Professors. 

“I’ll see you later, Professor!” Jac said to Professor Longbottom as she followed Cressida towards the dungeons for their potions lesson.

Cressida was silently dreading potions, especially first thing in the morning. Felix had been teasing her mercilessly about being stuck with Potter as her partner in Potions but was clever enough to only do it when Molly wasn’t around.

Professor Slughorn had greeted them in his usual blubbering manner and the class split off into their designated signs to start brewing the potion they spent last week preparing.

Once she and James were standing beside their cauldron, Cressida produced her textbook and flipped to the appropriate page while James just stood there making faces at Thomas across the room. Sighing, Cressida started gathering the ingredients listed. 

“We’re supposed to brew a forgetfulness potion, not mess around,” she hinted to her partner as she started dicing up the necessary ingredients carefully.

“Oh, I’ve done this loads of times… none of them have worked, but I’m nearly there. I made dad forget he grounded me one week during the summer, I’m sure of it,” James said waving a hand through the air.

Cressida glared up at him over her textbook. “Do you have an anecdote for everything?”

“Most things yes,” he grinned back at her. “I lead a very interesting life, Knightly.”

Molly, Margo and Felix returned to the lesson ten minutes after it had started and caused little disruption until Fred had noticed them.

“Molly Weasley, are you late?!” Fred’s comically shocked voice ran through the dungeon classroom.

Molly glared at him, turning red, as she took her seat.

“Oh, Miss Weasley. That is very unlike you, indeed. Is everything alright?” Professor Slughorn asked concerned.

“Yes, sir. We just had a magic malfunction,” Molly answered slightly embarrassed of everyone looking at her.

“Well, in that case, I won’t dock any points. I’m sure it was a good enough reason to be late,” Professor Slughorn told her cheerily.

James turned from looking at her open-mouthed. “If  I  had said that he would have given me detention anyway.”

“That’s because he trusts Molly not to lie to him,” Cressida pointed out.

James gasped in mock offence. “Don’t I look trustworthy, Knightly?” He asked jokingly. “Look at this face and tell me it doesn’t scream innocent bystander.”

He pouted and blinked slowly, looking anything but innocent and incredibly suspicious and stupid.

Rolling her eyes, Cressida ignored him and continued with their work.

Professor Slughorn was wandering throughout the room explaining the purposes and properties of the forgetfulness potion but Cressida was barely listening to him. She was reading and measuring out the ingredients with perfect accuracy.

“You need more mistletoe berries,” James’ voice chimed in after twenty minutes of silence.

Cressida resisted the urge to start beating him with the grinder stone. So far she had done everything while he, once again, sat there watching. “The book says two finely crushed berries.”

James took the cauldron right from under Cressida’s nose and started fiddling with random ingredients. “It needs three lightly squished berries.”

Cressida double-checked her textbook with a narrowed eyebrow. “No, it doesn’t!”

James produced a book from within his own robes. “Mine says otherwise!” He said shaking his own textbook mystically.

Cressida looked from his book to hers. “It’s the same book.”

James tapped the side of his nose. “That’s what you think.”

There was a bang from underneath the table and Cressida looked down to see Fred on his hands and knees concealed under the table. “How’s it going, Knightly?” He whispered while rubbing the top of his head.

“What the hell are you doing?” She snapped at him. She watched in confusion as James slipped his textbook into Fred’s hand and he crawled his way back over to his own table, barely avoiding being spotted by Professor Slughorn wandering around the room.

Turning her attention back to James as he continued to add random amounts of ingredients to their potion, she once again felt completely lost and infuriated. Checking Slughorn was distracted tending to Felix’s bubbling over cauldron, Cressida grabbed James’ robes and pulled him down to her height.

“I’m not about to let you ruin another lesson by you messing around, Potter,” she warned him.

James tilted his head to one side. “Has anyone told you you’re rather scary for such a small person?”

She decided not to reply to his comment. “What’s so special about that book?”

James leaned down closer, clearly taking amusement in it. “Let go of my robes and I’ll consider telling you.”

Reluctantly, Cressida released her hold of James’ robes and turned back to the cauldron. “See, a little niceness will get you everywhere-”

“Oh f-”

“Language, Knightly!” James cut her off covering her mouth with his hand. He glanced around the room nervously for Slughorn’s whereabouts. “He hates bad language. He took fifteen points from Fred the other day for calling Thomas a-”

“Whatever.” Cressida shoved his hand from her mouth, cutting him off this time. “What about the book?”

“My dad had a special book while he was at Hogwarts, it belonged to Snape, but it was full of the  correct  way to brew potions and do spells and stuff,” James explained in a hushed voice. “Dad got rid of the original book, but he remembered some of the potion corrections. Aunt Hermione was livid with him for cheating at the time, but after she agreed he better write some of it down for future use. So he did and now I have the book he wrote them down in. Uncle Ron said we’d be stupid not to use it so Fred and I agreed to share it, but we can’t let Slughorn see.”

Cressida started at him silently for a moment. “I regret asking.”

James shifted in his seat like he was agitated. He often did this, Cressida noticed. Something about him always had to be moving to keep himself entertained.

“You and Molly seem closer since her birthday,” he commented.

Cressida paused in her ingredient crushing to look at him. “So?”

“So can you get her to talk to us now?” He asked. “If anyone can get her to it’s you.”

“What makes you think I can do it?” Cressida scoffed.

“Because you’re the only one that likes us-”

Cressida unintentionally cut him off with a high pitched laugh that drew the eyes of the whole class. Sinking back down into her seat embarrassed, she avoided meeting Molly’s attention suddenly on her.

James glanced around the class, hiding a smirk before leaning closer to Cressida. “You know, if you get her to just talk to us, I’ll leave you alone,” he bargained.

Reluctantly, Cressida turned her eyes back on James. “Fine. If you want her to talk to you, ignore her for a few days.”

James’ face screwed up in confusion. “But how-”

“She misses you,” Cressida interrupted. “But she’s too stubborn to admit it or give in. Maybe if you actually leave her alone, she’ll realise how stupid this all is.”

James sat back in his chair, tapping his quill against the desk thoughtfully. “Okay, Knightly, we’ll try it your way. If it works I’ll find a way to pay you back”

The bell rang for the end of class and Cressida collected her things, wanting nothing more than to be away from James Sirius Potter in that moment. “Please don’t.”

 

Friday 30th October 2015

 

Since the Potions lesson, James had done exactly as Cressida had suggested, with Fred and Thomas following his lead in a somewhat confused manner. Based on their expressions every time James strutted past the group of Slytherins with his head held high and not even a glance in their direction, he hadn’t told them of his plan to ignore Molly until further notice.

Molly had inevitably noticed James’ drastic change in tactics and questioned Cressida about it. Cressida had tried to convince Molly she had nothing to do with it, although she wasn’t sure how much Molly actually believed her. 

Annoyingly, Molly seemed to prefer this method and even smiled whenever James walked past without trying to gain her attention, which led to James trying to get Cressida’s attention instead. To avoid talking to James or getting more suspicious looks from Molly, she took to sticking to Molly like glue, knowing James wouldn’t risk talking to Cressida while Molly was around. It seemed to be a rather effective loophole.

Jac seemed to be the only one who had figured out what was going on with Cressida, silently watching the interactions with a knowing smirk over the last three days and warning Cressida whenever James had appeared in the same vicinity as them so she could seek out Molly and stand beside her.

Evidently, after three days of this, James had grown tired of waiting around for Molly to talk to him again and took matters back into his own hands. The group of Slytherins had only just come out of their last lesson for the day when they saw James leaning against the wall opposite, awaiting their appearance.

Molly paused in the doorway when she saw him, holding up the group behind her.

Cressida and Jac stumbled forward and saw him too. Jac instantly looked toward Cressida. “Did you tell him to do this?”

“Of course I didn’t,” Cressida whispered back.

Cressida tried to catch James’ eyes and signal for him to go away, to do anything than cause a scene in the middle of the hallway. James, however, had taken on Cressida’s approach of pretending like the other didn’t exist and only focused on Molly.

“Come on, Molly. This is getting old now,” he said straight to the point.

Margo linked arms with Molly and forced her forward out of the doorway. “She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

James was quick to keep up with them. Cressida pulled Jac and Felix back slightly in line with her. She didn’t want to get involved if she could help it.

“I know you miss us, Molly!” James continued, ignoring Margo. “You can’t avoid us forever.”

Molly pried her arm out of Margo’s and spun to face James, stopping the group in the middle of the hallway. “Let it go, James!”

“You spent your  birthday  without us!” He yelled. “You didn’t even say thank you for the presents we sent you!”

“I thanked Cressida!” Molly yelled back.

“And who do you think gave Knightly the presents and all the party decorations! Who do you think is giving us advice on how to get back in your good graces!”

Molly’s eyes turned to Cressida as they started filling with tears. Cressida looked down guiltily, not expecting the hurt look on Molly’s face to cut her so deeply. Seeing this, James softened his stance slightly.

“What have we done wrong? Just tell us why you won’t talk to us,” he begged. 

“ Because !” Molly snapped turning back to him. Cressida looked up again. Now was the time to get it all out in the open, she thought. Molly had finally snapped and James was willing to listen and do anything to get his cousin back.

“There you are, James. I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” All eyes turned to see Arabella Chauncey slinking her way to stand beside James, Declan standing a few steps behind her looking bored as usual.

Cressida’s jaw clenched in anger. Of all the times for Arabella to turn up and ruin something, now was perhaps the worst.

“Not now, Chauncey,” James said quietly, his eyes unmoving from Molly.

Arabella scoffed, looking between James and the group of Slytherins. She could see the tears in Molly’s eyes and grinned wickedly. “Molly Weasley? I’ve been wondering when we’d get a chance to catch up.”

“Why would you want to talk to Molly?” Felix asked protectively.

Arabella shrugged her hair over her shoulder elegantly. “Our dads used to work together in the Ministry, we had loads of tea parties growing up.”

“Didn’t your dad reckon you’d be in Ravenclaw with us, Weasley?” Declan asked pointedly. Molly looked down shamefaced. “Guess he was wrong.”

James moved to stand beside the Slytherins glaring at the two Ravenclaw siblings.

“Yeah, we all assumed you’d be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw… no one saw you being placed in  Slytherin ,” Arabella agreed, enjoying watching Molly looking so small for once. “I mean, it’s not a  total  surprise it was you after everything your dad did-”

Cressida and James stepped forward in perfect sync, their wands outstretched towards Arabella.

Declan produced his own wand just as quickly, pointing it towards the two First Years, bringing the whole corridor to a silent standstill.

McGonagall rounded the corner and saw the scene before anything else could happen. “What is the meaning of this?!” She demanded to know, storming over to the group.

Arabella and Declan faked innocence, turning to McGonagall with sweet smiles. “Just some friendly magic, Professor,” Declan answered believably.

James lowered his wand, glaring at the two Ravenclaws. Cressida could see him physically biting his tongue. Molly looked on the verge of breaking down into tears completely.

“Actually, Professor, Arabella was making fun of Molly for being in Slytherin,” Cressida spoke up. She had never been a snitch before, she would usually rather face the consequences herself than rat someone else out, but she felt like this time it was necessary.

McGonagall looked between the two groups of students. “Is this true, Potter?” She asked him directly.

James forced his glare away from the siblings to look at McGonagall. “They made a comment about Percy.”

Whatever James had said had struck a chord with McGonagall, but Cressida didn’t fully understand the significance of it.

McGonagall suddenly got very tight-lipped as she turned to the two Ravenclaws who knew they had been caught out. “Ten points from Ravenclaw.  Each.  Now off you go this instant!”

Arabella and Declan shot one last glare at the group before departing in stony silence.

“Are you okay, Miss Weasley?” McGonagall asked sensitively.

Molly only nodded, hiding her face behind her mound of curls. McGonagall sent James one last look before turning and continuing down the corridor.

Once she was gone, Molly looked up, tears running down her face. “Why did you get involved, James?!” She yelled.

James stepped back confused. “ Me ? I was standing up for you!”

“Well don’t!” Molly snapped as she started storming off down the corridor. “I can handle this myself! Just leave me alone for Merlin’s sake!”

Margo was quick to follow after her. Felix and Jac were looking between Cressida and Molly, wondering which one to go with. Cressida nodded to Jac, and the two quickly followed after Molly at her signal.

James slumped against the stone wall, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry about selling you out,” he said after a moment.

Cressida bit the inside of her cheek. She couldn’t yell at him for that now. “I can deal with Molly.”

James looked up to Cressida helplessly. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t want her to hate us. We’re supposed to be enjoying Hogwarts together.”

Cressida glanced around making sure no one was watching before stepping an inch closer to him. She reminded herself that James wasn’t one of her friends, she should keep her distance. “Maybe she doesn’t want that anymore.”

“Why wouldn’t she want that? We’re family!” James asked obliviously. “We did everything together at home. The whole lot of us!” 

Cressida didn’t have a reply to this, and could only offer a shrug in response. James shuffled closer to her, clearly not concerned with keeping his distance.

“Wouldn’t you want to be with your cousins here at Hogwarts if you had the chance?” He asked. “Surely you must know what it’s like to be separated from them all of a sudden.”

“I don’t have any cousins,” Cressida answered him. “Or siblings… or real friends… so no, I don’t know what it’s like.”

James went uncharacteristically quiet, as he stared at her for a moment. “So, who did you play with at home?”

Something inside Cressida’s chest tightened. Not wanting to dwell on her lack of long-lasting friends or family growing up, she stepped back away from him, regaining the distance. “She’ll talk to you when she’s ready, Potter. If she doesn’t you’ll just have to accept she’s moved on,” Cressida said, slightly harsher than she meant to as she left.

Chapter 14: First Year: Hallowe'en

Summary:

The group face their first Hallowe'en at Hogwarts as well as their first Quidditch Match.

Saturday 31st October 2015

 

It was coincidental that the first Quidditch match of the season fell on Cressida’s first Halloween at Hogwarts. This meant that no matter what way you looked at it, or what you were looking forward to most, there was a party happening somewhere. That is unless you were a First Year. 

“I think it’s discrimination,” Felix complained in their common room alcove first thing in the morning. The group had quickly abandoned the Great Hall having seen how chaotic and excited everyone was at only nine in the morning.

Molly looked up over her Herbology homework. “What would you even do at a party, Finnegan?” She asked. Molly had barely spoken since the incident with James and Arabella but had seemingly woken up this morning with the intent to pretend like it never happened. Jac had tried asking her how she was doing in the dorm room and was met with a cold stare before Molly changed the subject entirely. “It’s not like you can drink or talk to anyone.”

“I  could  talk to someone!” Felix defended himself offended. “I’ll have you know girls want to talk to me all the time.”

“We don’t count, Felix,” Jac teased.

Felix huffed, leaning back into the sofa. “I talk to other girls besides you four.”

Molly turned sideways to look at Felix. “Like who?”

Felix looked proud to show off. “You know that Gryffindor girl… Beatrix-”

“The one that supposedly has a crush on Fred?” Jac cut in.

Margo slammed her book down. “How can someone  already  have a crush on Fred?”

“More importantly what does he have that I don’t?” Felix asked affronted.

“Style, humour, table manners-” Jac listed easily.

Felix scowled and pulled his homework back under his nose for a distraction. Molly glanced up at him over her own work and sighed. “Don’t listen to them, Felix. Besides, an eleven-year old’s crush only lasts a few days tops. She probably only likes him because he’s annoyingly one of the most popular boys in our year along with my other cousin and Wood.”

“Well, arguably I’m the most popular Slytherin boy in our year,” Felix reasoned.

Cressida and Jac shared a glance. “Technically, that would be Jeremiah Vonce,” Jac said. When Felix looked on the verge of a complete outburst, Jac continued. “But you’re generally regarded as cool, trust me.”

“ Great !” Felix said sarcastically. “If anyone needs me I’ll be in my room, which I share with Vonce, in case anyone cares to notice, being  cool !” He complained while gathering his things into a messy pile and storming away.

Margo looked up doubtfully once Felix had departed. “Who told you Felix was cool?”

Jac shrugged guiltily. “No one. I just didn’t want him to feel bad,” she admitted.

Sensing this conversation could continue going on for a while, Cressida packed her things away into her bag and stood up. It had been a while since she’d had any alone time to go wandering and while everyone was distracted with either Quidditch or Halloween festivities, she figured now would be a perfect time. “I forgot I promised Longbottom I’d help clean out the greenhouses this morning,” she lied easily.

“I love cleaning the greenhouses!” Jac exclaimed, hurrying to pack her things away as well. “He always lets me eat biscuits and drink tea while I help him.”

Within seconds Jac was standing up beside Cressida ready to go, bidding goodbye to the two remaining girls.

Once they were outside of the common room and making their way through the halls, Cressida turned to Jac. “I’m not actually going to clean the greenhouses, you know.”

“I figured as much,” Jac admitted. “But I still wanted to come with you.”

“Why?” Cressida asked.

“Because you’re my friend and stuff always seems to happen around you,” Jac answered.

Cressida rolled her eyes at the comment. “Things don’t  happen  around me.”

“Knightly!” James’ voice called from up ahead. Jac sent Cressida a smug grin as they approached the trio of Gryffindor boys. Thomas Wood was decked out in a scarlet Quidditch uniform, looking rather nervous and pale, while his two counterparts had red face paint messily smeared across their cheeks. 

She felt slightly bad about how she had left their previous conversation, but as usual, James was acting like everything was perfectly fine, so she humoured him. “You seem in high spirits considering you’re not on the team, Potter,” Cressida commented.

James simply shrugged it off, putting his hands in his pockets and swaying on the balls of his feet. “Why be glum when my best friend  did  make the team and we have an after-party to attend.”

Jac’s mouth fell open. “ You  got invited to an after-party? But we’re First Years, we don’t get invited to anything!”

“You do when your best mate makes the team in First Year,” Fred beamed shaking Thomas proudly by the shoulders. 

“I think I’m going to puke before I even make it onto the pitch,” Thomas muttered as he was being shaken.

“We’ll attach a bag to your broom just in case,” Fred comforted him.

James jutted his chin out to Cressida with a grin. “You coming to watch the match, Knightly?”

Cressida scowled at the sheer thought. “What gives you the impression that I want to waste my afternoon sitting in the cold watching people I don’t know fly around on sticks?”

“It's wizard tradition!” James rebuked. “Everyone loves Quidditch!”

Cressida turned to Jac pointedly. “Your thoughts on Quidditch, Redwick?”

Jac faltered slightly, looking between the trio and Cressida. “I don’t really care  that  much.”

Cressida laced an arm around Jac’s and turned back to the trio with a smug smile. “You’re two for nought, boys. Guess I just proved your theory wrong. Have fun sitting on the sidelines watching Wood though, I’m sure he’ll do great,” she said as she started leading Jac away.

Jac glanced back over her shoulder, trying not to laugh, as she followed Cressida’s lead. “I don’t know why they bother talking to you, Cress. You must be the only other person in Hogwarts apart from Molly that puts them in their place.”

Cressida and Jac passed a large hoard of students preparing to head down to the Quidditch pitch for the midday game. Most were dressed in their representative colours, either red Gryffindor or blue Ravenclaw. Others were decked out in entire Halloween costumes being overly prepared for the party festivities to start before the match had even finished. Some of them passed wiping cream from their clothes or hair, making Cressida wonder if it was some sort of weird Hogwarts tradition.

All of the portraits seemed to be dressed up slightly, with cobwebs hanging from every corner of the ceiling and edge of a portrait. Occasionally a spider would crawl along them making Cressida wonder if the cobwebs were real or fake for the celebration. Flurries of bats would fly overhead at random intervals, causing the people walking past to jump or scream in surprise. The ghosts seemed more active, floating alongside the students through the halls, chatting casually about their previous life status. Jac despised the ghosts around Hogwarts, and Cressida noticed she held onto her arm a little bit tighter whenever one floated past them.

Cressida noticed a familiar blue-haired boy chatting to the Fat Friar ghost beside him. “We mustn’t let our annoyances at Peeves lead us to despise him, you know. After all, he is a poltergeist, he is just doing what is in his nature, and Hallowe’en is his favourite holiday for pulling his antics,” The Friar was telling Teddy, who looked like he had heard it all before.

He noticed Cressida up ahead and saluted a greeting to her. “I’d love to stay and chat, Friar, but I have to clean up the cream pies Peeve’s threw at every passer-by on the Grand Staircase.”

“Yes, yes, of course, my boy,” The Friar nodded understandingly. He glanced around and saw some Second Years ogling the ghost and smiled floating towards them. “How would you three like to hear of the time I attended Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington's five-hundredth Deathday party?"

Cressida watched the Friar float off, talking the student's ears off, and Teddy came to stand in front of them with his hands in his pockets. “Who’s Nicholas De Mimsy- something?” Jac asked curiously.

“The old Gryffindor ghost. He got his head finally lopped off in the last battle and joined the headless hunt,” Teddy explained. “Why aren’t you two heading for the game?”

“We don’t do Quidditch,” Cressida answered him.

“You should,” Teddy told her scanning the crowd. He produced a cream pie from within his robes and threw it at a Fourth Year passing by. “Everyone loves Quidditch.”

Cressida watched the Fourth Year pass by, now covered in cream and gesturing rudely at Teddy, trying to hide her amusement. “So it’s not  Peeves  pieing the students?”

Teddy shrugged and continued walking, the two girls in toe. “It was in the beginning. I tried to stop him but he threatened to pie me instead. I figured if you can’t stop him, join him.”

“How did you ever make Head Boy?” Jac asked bewildered.

“My dad’s reliable reputation,” Teddy smirked, producing another cream pie ready to throw. “Minnie forgets that he was a Marauder too sometimes.”

“Mr Lupin!” A voice called as he lifted his arm to catapult it. Teddy quickly shoved the pie into Cressida’s hand and spun around with his arms behind his back innocently. McGonagall was walking through the sea of students towards them wearing a particularly red winter cap. “I do believe the Grand Staircase is still in need of cleaning.”

“I’m right on it, Professor!” Teddy told her, trying to back away.

McGonagall smiled and grabbed his arm, pulling him along behind her. “The staircase is  this  way, Mr Lupin.”

As Teddy was dragged away by McGonagall he looked back at Cressida offering her an indifferent shrug at being caught. “Go to the game!” He called to them with his hands cupped over his mouth. “You won’t regret it!”

Cressida and Jac looked from Teddy disappearing around a corner to the cream pie in Cressida’s hands. “What are you going to do with it?” Jac asked.

Cressida smiled to herself and gestured for the two of them to keep walking. “I’m sure it’ll come in handy for something.”

It was only a short walk until the two girls had wandered into the Northern Wing of the castle. As expected it was also filled with students milling about the castle in large groups. Further down the corridor, there was a group all crowding around the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. As the two girls got closer Cressida saw Arabella Chauncey was the one doing most of the talking. Her brother Declan stood amongst the team dressed in blue Quidditch robes, looking board as his sister rambled on.

“Obviously we’re going to win. Gryffindor have that pathetic First Year as Seeker, there’s no way he’ll compare again Declan,” she was bragging.

Victoire came up behind the group, having heard her loud mouthing. The Quidditch team all parted, making room for Victoire to pass through them easily. “Isn’t that  pathetic First Year  James’ best friend, Arabella?” She asked pointedly. “I thought you were trying to get into his good graces in a stupid attempt to be popular,” she muttered as she sauntered past. Arabella turned bright red, while the Ravenclaw team all seemed to avert their eyes awkwardly. When Victoire saw Cressida and Jac standing nearby she sent a wink toward them. “Do everyone a favour and put that girl in her place, will you, Cressida?”

Cressida turned as Victoire didn’t pause to talk. An idea formed in Cressida’s mind instantly. “Are you in cahoots with  everyone  in Molly’s family now?” Jac asked as Victoire departed.

Cressida glanced back at Arabella trying to redeem her status pathetically as the group started departing for the game to start, then continued walking with Jac following dutifully behind. “I’m not in cahoots with any of them,” Cressida told her as they walked. 

Glancing around Cressida spotted an old wooden door and her idea suddenly became full proof. Without consulting Jac, Cressida strode forward and pulled the door open to reveal a broom closet. Walking in fully, and moving some dusty old brooms out of the way, Cressida uncovered a small square-shaped window at the back of the tiny room. 

She easily unlatched the catch and pushed it open, struggling to manoeuvre her body so she could look out of the small window to the ground two stories below. 

“What are you looking for?” Jac asked as she tried to squeeze her body in the small gap alongside Cressida.

“We’re waiting,” Cressida replied mystically. Jac glanced down at the people piling out of the castle heading towards the Quidditch pitch ready for the game. 

Below them, the two girls saw the scarlet dressed team heading towards the pitch together. Everyone seemed to be clapping Thomas on the back or giving him words of encouragement, Fred and James followed slightly behind dressed in their casual weekend clothes but shouting words of encouragement at their best friend loudly. Jac stepped back and eyed the cream pie positioned carefully in Cressida’s hand, ready to be dropped out of the window, but to Jac’s surprise, the trio of Gryffindor boys passed by unscathed.

Slightly confused, Jac rejoined Cressida in staring out the tiny window. Teddy and Victoire were next to pass. He was now covered from head to foot in cream pie, which Victoire used her index finger to wipe off his cheek and eat happily.

Then Cressida spotted them. The Ravenclaw Quidditch team were slightly behind Victoire and Teddy with Arabella at the front still rambling about something or other. From this high up Cressida couldn’t make out what she was saying, but she saw her pointing towards the Gryffindor Quidditch team still comforting Thomas up ahead.

“Cressida, you wouldn’t-” Jac gasped, realizing Cressida’s plan.

Cressida ignored her and dropped the cream pie out of the window just as Arabella walked underneath. Pulling Jac out of view of the window along with her, Cressida plummeted to the floor as they heard a high pitched scream ring out, followed by a burst of laughter.

Jac peered out of the window on her knees while Cressida remained hidden. “She’s absolutely covered!” Jac said trying not to laugh. “I think she might be crying.”

Cressida joined Jac in peering out of the window. Below, everyone seemed to be crowding around Arabella wondering where the cream pie came from. Up ahead the Gryffindor team were all watching with smiles on their faces. Thomas for the first time all day didn’t look like he was about to throw up. Teddy was the only one who thought to look up amongst the chaos, seeing Cressida peering down from the window. 

The door to the broom closet burst open and the two girls rounded towards it startled. Argus Filch stood in the doorway, slightly hunched over, with Mrs Norris weaving in between his ankles.

“What are you two doing in here!?” He sneered at them. He stormed forward, moving them away from the window so he could have a look below. He saw Arabella being led away by Professor McGonagall to be cleaned up and turned back to the two girls with a glad, slimy grin on his face. “My, my… seems like you two are in quite a bit of trouble. Perhaps Head Mistress McGonagall would like to hear of your little prank.”

Cressida stepped in front of Jac protectively. “Jac had nothing to do with this, it was all me.”

Filch hobbled forward again, gesturing for the two girls to follow him. “Save it for McGonagall.”

 

*

 

“Detention?!” Margo chided them once the two girls finally joined them back in their common room alcove. 

“Today  and  tomorrow,” Jac huffed. “Mainly, I think McGonagall was mad we made her miss the first half of the game.”

“Of course she was. Gryffindor won the first match of the season. McGonagall is their biggest supporter,” Felix chimed in.

“Cressida, what were you thinking?!” Molly asked.

Jac sat up defensively. “How do you know it was Cressida’s idea?”

Molly looked from Jac to Cressida knowingly. Cressida, who had remained silent for the last half hour while Jac told the group what had happened, finally unfolded her arms from over her chest. There was no point in trying to fake innocence. “Someone had to put Arabella in her place, she was making fun of Wood.”

“He’s a First Year on the Quidditch team, of course, she was making fun of him! He’s been green all morning from nerves,” Margo snapped. 

Molly and Cressida’s eyes hardened on her at the comment. “If she can make fun of other people she should be able to put up with people making fun of her,” Cressida snapped back. “Plus, we still owed her one for what she did to you the other day!”

“McGonagall dealt with that!” Molly argued back.

Cressida folded her arms back over her chest stubbornly. “Not well enough. We had to get even.”

“Godric, you sound like James and Fred,” Margo commented.

Molly sighed and turned back to the group. “Why did you go along with it?” She asked Jac, pushing past Margo’s comment. “Didn’t you think to stop her?”

Jac faltered, looking between Molly and Cressida. “Cressida only got the idea once Teddy gave her the cream pie and Victoire told her to do something-”

Cressida bit the inside of her cheek as Molly started turning red. Jac sank back into the sofa beside Cressida guiltily, realizing her mistake. 

“So this was to do with my stupid cousins again?” Molly asked coldly. This was seemingly the last straw, Molly was finally about to blow. “Merlin, Cressida, do you ever  not  talk to my family?”

Cressida sat up straighter. “I don’t seek them out, Molly! The only reason they talk to me half the time is because you refuse to acknowledge them for some stupid reason!”

Molly didn’t say anything further before turning and storming back into the girl’s dorm. Margo got to her feet scowling at Cressida. “Why don’t you do everyone a favour and leave Molly and her family alone?” She snapped as she followed after Molly. 

After the two girls had stormed off, there was a silence amongst the remaining three. Cressida cursed under her breath and got to her feet as well, storming out of the common room completely.

“Cress, wait-” Jac called as she and Felix struggled to keep up with her. 

She didn’t stop to look at them as she continued walking up the Grand Staircase with them following closely behind. “Molly’s just sensitive about her family, you know that. She’ll come around,” Felix tried comforting her. “And Margo just likes an excuse to shout at someone most of the time.”

Cressida exited the stairs on a second floor corridor and stopped when she saw the trio of Gryffindor boys. She cursed under her breath and went to rejoin the staircase but Felix and Jac were unintentionally blocking the way.

“Knightly!” James’ merry voice called. Reluctantly, Cressida turned around to face them as her two friends stood at her side. Thomas was still wearing his now mud stained Quidditch uniform and was caked in sweat, but he had a dazed grin spread across his face.

“Now isn’t a good time, Potter,” Cressida snapped at him.

“Teddy told us what you did,” Fred said taking charge over James. “Without you, Thomas never would have lightened up enough to help win the game.”

“You completely threw Declan off his game,” Thomas grinned gratefully. “I could have flown circles around him normally but it’s a lot of pressure to perform when it’s your first proper game. I owe you one.”

James shoved Fred out of the way so he was the one standing in front of Cressida, examining her face closely. “Why don’t you look happy?” He asked. “You helped us win, you should be celebrating!”

“We could probably get you into the party tonight if we tell everyone what you did for us,” Fred offered. Felix perked up at that and went to accept until Jac elbowed him in the side to keep his mouth shut.

“I didn’t do it for you,” Cressida snapped. “And I’m not one of your stupid friends, Potter, so just leave me alone from now on!” She said barging past them and continuing storming down the corridor.

The trio of Gryffindor boys looked from Cressida to the two remaining Slytherins. 

Chapter 15: First Year: Potions and Deception

Monday 2nd November 2015

 

It had become clear that Molly was avoiding Cressida completely over the previous two days, which meant sharing a room with her was becoming increasingly awkward. Margo had obviously taken Molly’s side and was sending her dirty looks whenever Cressida came back to the dorm room seconds after curfew or made a sarcastic comment in their Monday morning lessons. Jac had tried talking to Molly and Margo privately on Sunday before the two girls headed for their detention but she had apparently gotten nowhere before Molly made an excuse and disappeared to the library.

“I just don’t understand why she got her back up so much about it,” Jac was saying as the two girls made their way to Defence Against the Dark Arts alone. “She knows you talk to her cousins, and you gave her those birthday letters from them which she was grateful for-”

Cressida wasn’t in the mood to continue dwelling on it. She had never had a proper argument with someone she considered a friend before, she wasn’t sure whether to confront Molly herself or ride out the silent treatment. She just wished she understood why Molly was so mad about this incident in particular, especially when Cressida thought she was starting to get close with Molly and understand her better after her birthday. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said Molly ignoring them was stupid. She knew Molly had her reasons but Cressida was starting to think Molly’s reasons for ignoring them were causing more problems than they were solving.

Cressida and Jac slowed down when they saw Molly and Margo waiting first in line to head into their classroom. Felix had been sent to Madam Pomfrey for the last two days due to a sweet overdose from Hallowe’en, meaning he had missed the majority of the tension between the four girls. Molly looked towards Cressida for a moment and then purposefully turned away, pretending like she hadn’t seen her at all.

Jac noticed Cressida’s face harden as the two girls joined the back of the line. “I can try talking to her again for you-”

“Knightly!” All eyes in the corridor turned as Arabella Chauncey stormed towards Cressida. 

Cressida rolled her eyes and pushed herself up off the wall to face Arabella as she came to a stop in front of her. Arabella’s face was red with anger. “I know it was you that dropped the cream pie on my head before the game on Saturday!” She yelled. “Declan saw you coming out of detention with McGonagall for doing it!”

Cressida glanced at Molly and Margo once again, they were watching closely. “Yeah, it was me,” Cressida admitted unbothered. She turned her eyes back to focus on Arabella. “So what?”

Arabella’s mouth fell open as she fumbled for a response. “ So -” she snapped in a high pitched voice, “-watch your back!”

Cressida laughed in her face. Everyone took a step back from the two girls apart from Jac who remained glued to Cressida’s side. “Are you going to get your brother on me, Chauncey?” Cressida mocked. 

Arabella’s face contorted into an ugly scowl. “No wonder you and your horrid friends got put in Slytherin, Knightly!” She yelled. People started looking toward Molly and Margo at the mention of Cressida’s friends. “You should remember your place before you start thinking you’re worth anything around here.”

“My  place ?” Cressida repeated. 

“Yes,” Arabella continued, glad to finally get a rise out of Cressida. “Smithers told me where you come from-” Cressida and Jac’s eyes started to Margo as she tried to hide behind Molly. “You’re nothing but a pathetic muggle-born who couldn’t even afford brand new robes-”

Cressida lifted her fist, completely forgetting she possessed a wand and went to collide with Arabella’s face until Jac grabbed her arm and stopped her.

The classroom door was pulled open and Professor Mickledge was in the doorway, looking at the commotion. “What on earth is going on out here?” His eyes settled on Arabella cowering slightly in front of Cressida as Jac held her back.

“She’s a psycho, sir!” Arabella whined.

 Jac was quick to pull Cressida back a few paces and snap her back to reality. “Miss Knightly,” Professor Mickledge started. “Perhaps it would pay you to learn to control your temper.”

“It’s on my to-do list,” Cressida answered him, glaring at Arabella still. 

Professor Mickledge tapped the tips of his finger together thoughtfully. “I suppose a detention is in order again, Miss Knightly… and I’ll be moving you away from Miss Chauncey while in my class.” He nodded as if reassuring himself he had made the right decision. “Now if you two girls can remain civil for an hour we can start my lesson?”

Feeling like the situation had been properly dealt with, Professor Mickledge disappeared back into his classroom along with the majority of the class. Margo and Molly seemed to be lingering by the doorway waiting for Cressida. Molly looked down guiltily as she approached but Margo moved to hide slightly behind Molly.

Cressida thought about saying something to them both, putting them both in their places or yelling at them for talking about her behind her back, but then she thought to herself that there was no point. 

If Margo wanted to go around making fun of Cressida for having no wizard money then so be it. If Molly wanted to be mad at Cressida for occasionally talking to her cousins on her behalf and to get things for her sake, then so be it. Cressida didn’t need friends like that anyway. Perhaps her mother had been right, maybe she didn’t need a group of close friends after all.

With nothing but a steely gaze, Cressida walked straight past the two sheepish looking girls. 

 

 

Wednesday 18th November 2015

 

The winter weather had taken over Hogwarts completely, drowning the castle in cold and dreary rain.

Since the incident with Arabella, Cressida had avoided talking to anyone, even the girls in her dorm. Margo seemed slightly glad of the change in the group dynamic as she now had Molly all to herself again, but was very skittish whenever she and Cressida were stuck in the same proximity together. Molly would occasionally send Cressida a glance in lessons or from her bed in the dorm room which Cressida suspected meant she was debating saying something to break the tension, but nothing ever came out of Molly’s mouth. Jac and Felix tried to talk to Cressida like nothing had changed, Jac especially would stick behind lessons to walk with Cressida or purposefully offer to help with homework.

Cressida always denied the extra help from Jac, wanting to distance herself from them all completely. She could feel herself reverting back to how she acted in her home village, known but not close with anyone. She told herself it was for the best. If she stopped pretending like they were all best friends, she wouldn’t have to deal with family drama or being told who she could and couldn’t talk to, or being mocked for her less than glamorous upbringing. Mainly, she told herself she was stopping herself from dragging Jac down with her. Jac was able to afford brand new robes and was overly well-liked by everyone in their year so far. She deserved a group of friends that didn’t get detentions or get her into trouble.

Feeling alone around Hogwarts was an odd change of pace. She hadn’t really been alone since arriving, and now that she was, she was feeling extremely homesick. However, avoiding being a part of the Slytherin group had opened up her free time massively and she had been able to explore the castle uninterrupted.

It was long after dinner and curfew would be upon her at any moment. Cressida had been wandering the castle alone all afternoon as soon as lessons had finished. She found a nice window ledge to perch on for a few hours to complete her daily homework. Then she wandered up to the astronomy tower after it had been abandoned for the day and practised some of her usual spells.

Now she was walking wherever her feet took her as darkness started taking over the castle for the night. She wasn’t sure how long she had been wandering, but she had made it even further into the castle than her previous ventures. So far she had explored a corridor full of nothing but tapestries, passed the Prefect’s bathroom and made a mental note to sneak inside it one day, and was now strolling along a third-floor corridor.

She still was amazed by the level of decoration at Hogwarts. She liked how alive it all felt, with the portraits moving and talking to one another and passers-by.

“Wait!” A portrait called out to her. “Little one-”

Cressida rounded on the portrait of a plump lady lounging across a fancy sofa, holding grapes in her hand. “I’m  not  little!”

The plump lady huffed and turned her head. “Well, I won’t bother warning you about Peeves then. Last favour I ever do for someone, ungrateful little child.”

Cressida edged closer to the wall. “I’m sorry…” she muttered to the portrait. Spending so much time alone had started to make her already poor people skills even worse. “Peeves is down there?” She asked, looking down the corridor to her right.

“He’s been waiting for someone to walk past for the last half hour,” the lady said looking back at Cressida fully.

“And no one’s walked into his trap yet?” She asked surprised.

The plump lady smiled proudly to herself. “Well, they would have if  I  didn't keep turning everyone away. That pesky poltergeist got my frame covered in goo last time he pulled one of his pranks and that pathetic excuse for a caretaker hasn’t been by to clean me up yet. I look filthy!” She complained.

Cressida ran a finger through the grim covering her once golden frame. “If I see a Professor I’ll let them know.”

She wiped her dirty finger in her robes and continued in the opposite direction to where Peeves was supposedly waiting.

Once she turned a corner, she rolled her eyes. Up ahead, the trio of Gryffindor boys were stood talking to one of the many portraits. She froze, debating whether a pie in the face from Peeves would be better than facing the trio of boys after nearly a week of avoiding them completely.

In a quick decision, she decided anything was a better option than talking to them. Turning quickly, not wanting to be seen, she ran back around the corner, but it was too late.

“Was that Knightly?” She heard James say, looking in her direction. She had to admire his ability to sense her presence whenever she was around. She glanced around the long hallway searching for a hiding place so she wouldn’t have to engage in any pointless conversation with the trio or any of their inevitable questions.

Accepting her fate, she started running towards the corridor concealing Peeves.

“What did I just warn you about!?” The plump lady yelled at her as she passed.

“I’ll take Peeves over them any day,” Cressida whispered as she passed.

The plump lady sat up from her lounging position looking down the length of the hall. “Quick!” She said to Cressida, beckoning her over. “Behind the tapestry.”

The portrait nodded her head to the hanging green tapestry beside her picture frame. Without stopping to think about it, she approached the tapestry and pulled it aside, disappearing behind it.

To her surprise, she wasn’t greeted with a stone wall as she had anticipated. Instead, she seemed to be in a carved out tunnel, with uneven steps leading somewhere else in the castle.

Cressida turned back to face the tapestry concealing her as the trio of boys' footfalls alerted her that they were standing outside of it.

“You’re imagining things, mate,” Fred’s voice came.

“No, she was here, I  saw  her!” James replied surely.

“She can’t just disappear, James,” Thomas said logically.

“But I saw her!” James repeated. 

“It was probably some other random girl,” Thomas continued. “Not every blonde girl you spot is Knightly, you know.”

Cressida bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. She could definitely use this to mess with the boys in the future if she remembered where it was.

“Come on, Potter,” Fred said, laughing slightly. “I’m sure we’ll run into someone you can annoy soon enough.”

James scoffed, but Cressida heard their footsteps lead them far away from her hiding place. She waited patiently, knowing what was about to come. Within seconds three annoyed and surprised yells came from the corridor up ahead. The trio had walked into Peeves’ trap.

Failing to hide her overjoyed grin at what had just happened, she poked her head back out from behind the tapestry looking at the painting of the lady. “Thank you!” She said to her gratefully.

“If you want to thank me, get someone up here to polish my frame,” the plump lady replied, before eating one of the grapes she was holding. 

“I’ll do my best,” Cressida replied truthfully.

She disappeared behind the tapestry once more, looking down the stairs. She had told herself she wanted to explore the castle some more, so it made sense for her to go down the secret staircase in her mind.

It had gone on for longer than she expected and was incredibly dark with no natural light reaching the narrow passageway, but eventually light emerged from an exit up ahead.

She rushed ahead and found another tapestry concealing the passageway. She carefully pushed it to the side, making sure no one could see her emerging, and then stepped out from behind it. Glancing around her new location she realised she was in the dungeons.

She had managed to cut out the Grand Staircase entirely, and it felt much quicker than navigating the maze-like corridors of Hogwarts.

“Cressida?” Jac’s voice came from up ahead.

She turned to her left to see Jac, Molly, Margo and Felix coming down the stairs heading for the common room. “We were wondering where you’ve been all afternoon,” Felix said walking towards her. Margo and Molly lingered slightly behind.

“Were you exploring the castle again?” Jac asked. She looked relieved to see Cressida return before curfew so they had a chance to talk properly.

Cressida glanced back at the tapestry briefly before turning to her friends. “Yeah…I didn’t find anything interesting though,” she lied.

“My dad says nothing good comes from wandering around Hogwarts looking for things,” Margo spoke up unexpectedly.

“Well, if your dad says that it must be right,” Cressida replied coldly. Molly eyed Cressida suspiciously. 

“Since we’re all here again, shall we practise some spells?” Jac asked changing the topic.

“Gladly!” Felix agreed instantly, leading the way towards the common room. “I’ve skipped ahead in our textbooks and found a good one I want to try out.”

“As long as you don’t use me as the test dummy I don’t care what we do,” Jac said.

Jac and Felix had gone up ahead arguing about which spell to try out first. Margo was next to dart past Cressida, averting her eyes and keeping her head down. Molly lingered there, watching Cressida thoughtfully for a moment.

“You should be careful wandering around by yourself,” Molly said just as Cressida went to walk away. Reluctantly, Cressida turned back to face Molly. “Arabella is still after you.”

“Maybe Margo can give her easy access to our dorm so she knows exactly where I am when she’s ready to actually do something to me,” Cressida replied harshly. 

Molly sniffed slightly and looked to the floor as she pushed past Cressida, storming into the common room. Cressida closed her eyes and sighed deeply, sensing she had gone too far.

There was no sense dwelling on it now, she told herself. She doubted Margo had thought twice about telling Arabella about her second-hand robes in the first place.

 

 

Monday 23rd November 2015

 

Molly had seemingly told Margo when Cressida had said, as Margo now refused to say anything while in Cressida’s presence at all. This was fine as Cressida was hardly ever around anymore as it was.

Jac and Felix were still playing the middle ground in the argument between the three girls, which Cressida kept reminding them they didn’t have to do. Jac seemed adamant to keep being friends with Cressida, despite her disappearing act as soon as lessons were done for the day.

The problem was, due to her exploring the castle and struggling to complete all her homework by herself now, she often didn’t return to her dorm room until dead on curfew and Filch had taken to waiting by the Slytherin common room entrance to try and catch her out with a stopwatch every night. 

She had tried utilizing her secret passageway to get to and from the Slytherin common room quicker but realised the tapestry was incredibly obvious on the long stretch of corridor if someone was looking for you. 

So instead Cressida started using her passageway to get to class quicker, having nothing better to use it for, in an attempt to avoid getting stuck on the Grand Staircase, and so far it had been very efficient. 

She had become increasingly aware that Arabella and her brother Declan seemed to be turning up in a lot of the same places as her and so having a secret passage on standby was coming in handy.

Cressida wasn’t scared of the Chauncey siblings in the slightest, they were nothing compared to the kids back home, but still, they were slightly unsettling when all they did was silently stare at her everywhere she went.

With everything on her mind, Cressida had never slept so little. Most nights she just stared up at her green canopy bed or spoke to Rasper on the pillow beside her, but even the little kitten had seemed to grow annoyed with Cressida using him as her only form of proper communication late into the night.

“Cressida!”

Her eyes snapped up to see Felix waving his hand in front of her. They were standing outside their Potions classroom, the door behind her already open and the rest of the class already piled in. She wasn’t aware she had even gotten dressed and left for class this morning. She had practically been on autopilot for the last few days from exhaustion.

“Sorry,” Cressida muttered, pushing herself off the wall and walking into the class flanked by Jac and Felix.

“What were you thinking about?” Jac asked curiously.

Cressida’s eyes blinked towards her work station where Potter was already sitting, waiting to start. “Nothing,” she lied. 

“Come now, much to do!” Professor Slughorn called over the class, tapping the tips of his chubby fingers together in excitement. “Today we see who has successfully brewed their forgetfulness potion. Very exciting stuff indeed.”

“ Exhilarating ,” Felix muttered sarcastically.

Cressida broke away from Jac and Felix and walked to her workbench and sat beside Potter. Ever since their first practical Potions lesson, Slughorn had insisted they stay in the same inter-house pairs for the whole year, which was making Cressida’s already distant and foul mood even worse.

Last week when James had tried to talk to her about the Arabella situation, she packed up her things and left Potions completely to avoid the conversation. She had gotten a detention from Slughorn but she told herself it was worth it. This week, however, she wanted to avoid another detention if she could help it. She was starting to fall behind on homework again.

She took her seat and silently got out her quill and parchment paper. James glanced up at her from his own parchment. Feeling his eyes on her, Cressida glared back at him.

James glanced over his shoulder at Fred who gestured his head obviously towards Cressida.

“If there’s something you want to say to me, get it over with, Potter.”

James opened and closed his mouth several times, surprised Cressida had finally acknowledged him after a week. “We haven’t seen you around the castle as much lately, Knightly,” he said trying to act casual.

“Have you considered there’s a reason for that?”

“So you  are  avoiding everyone?” James asked. Cressida rolled her eyes and continued writing. There was only a small moment of silence before James continued. “Redwick told me what Margo and Molly did to you.”

“Molly and Margo didn’t  do  anything to me,” Cressida replied stonily. 

“Then why aren’t any of you talking?” James pressed on.

Cressida sighed, hoping he would give up talking to her soon. “None of your business.”

James fiddled with the things on their desk for a moment, thinking of what to say next. “If it’s any consolation, we didn’t even know your robes were second hand.”

Cressida sent him a warning glance. Perhaps she would end up storming out again after all. “How is that supposed to make me feel better?”

James ruffled his hair thoughtfully. “Look, Molly wouldn’t have said anything about you being poor-”

“I’m not  poor .”

James held his hands out in surrender. “I’m just saying it wasn’t fair of Margo to tell Arabella that stuff about you.”

“Thanks for your opinion on the matter, Potter,” she replied dryly. “But I really don’t care about what people have to say about me.”

James’ green eyes seemed to be bearing into her and she felt like pushing him off his stool to make it stop. “You shouldn’t be alone though-”

She couldn’t take it anymore. She shoved him sideways and he slid off his stool onto the cold hard floor with a loud thud.

All eyes in the classroom turned to look at the disturbance. “Everything okay, Mr Potter?” Slughorn asked concerned.

“Yes, sir!” James replied instantly, climbing back onto his stool. “I must have worn my extra slippery trousers today by mistake.”

This was met with a faint mummer of laughter before Professor Slughorn returned to his teaching.

“Did that make you feel better?” James whispered once he was back in his seat.

Cressida was reading over the ingredients they needed for their potion. “Slightly.”

James nodded distantly. “Right then.” He took a deep breath and sat up straighter, peering into their bubbling cauldron. “Can you pass me the valerian sprigs?”

Cressida stared at him. “Is that it?” She asked. “Aren’t you going to shove me back or tease me about my second-hand robes or tell me to make up with Molly and be  best friends  again?”

James shrugged and grabbed the ingredient for himself, ripping it up into tiny pieces before dropping it into the cauldron. “Nope… I can’t make fun of your second-hand robes when my mother’s family were as poor as dirt before the second war, you’ll make up with Molly and Margo whenever you’re ready, and shoving you back when you’re sad is just unsportsmanlike.”

“That’s weirdly mature for you, Potter,” Cressida said, staring into the cauldron as James stirred anti-clockwise.

“I have my moments,” James muttered in reply, giving a small hint of a smile.

Professor Slughorn approached their bench, peering into the cauldron with his hands in his breast pockets, making him resemble an otter slightly. “Oh yes, very good. Perhaps the best one I’ve seen yet. Very well done, Mr Potter and Miss Knightly.”

“Thank you, sir,” James nodded back as the Professor moved on to the next bench. Cressida followed his movements and saw him sniff Felix’s potion and then recoil. Clearly Felix’s was a failure.

There was a familiar bump underneath the table and Cressida rolled her eyes, looking under the table for the inevitable person grinning back up at her. This time, to her surprise, it was Thomas Wood, who looked more distressed than mischievous. “Sorry, Cressida,” he whispered when she looked down at him.

James’ head snapped up once he heard Thomas, as he too shuffled so he could discreetly look at his friend under the table. “Wood, my tiny chum. What brings you to our humble desk?” He asked, grinning properly again now.

Professor Slughorn was rounding back towards their table and Cressida coughed loudly. James looked up, clocking the Professor's whereabouts, and returned to stirring as though he had never stopped while Thomas withdrew further under the table as to not be spotted.

“Nice catch, Knightly,” James muttered beside her so quietly no one else would have heard him.

“I did it for Thomas, not you,” she replied instantly.

“You wound me,” he smirked. Once Slughorn’s back was turned again, James leant back on his stool to look under the table. Rolling her eyes, Cressida followed suit glancing back down at Thomas whose head appeared between their legs.

“My potion's a disaster, you’ve got to help me!” He begged quietly.

Cressida’s legs were suddenly being shoved aside as Fred’s head appeared beside Thomas under the desk. “What are you lot talking about?” He grinned up at them.

Cressida glanced at Slughorn again quickly before narrowing her eyes at the darker-skinned boy. “Why are  you  here?”

Fred shrugged. “I saw Thomas sneak over, I thought I was missing out on something.”

“Well you’re not, so go away!” She snapped at him.

“Not so fast, Knightly,” James spoke up. “Wood here as come to us with a problem and we are obliged to help him.”

“ You  might be,” Cressida told him folding her arms stubbornly. “I have no obligation to you lot whatsoever.”

“James-” Thomas piped up, “-I’m on a time limit here!”

James glanced around the room, biting his bottom lip thoughtfully. His eyes fell on Jac’s potion and then on Felix’s bubbling over with black smoke. With wide eyes, giving away he had a plan, he looked back under the table to his awaiting friends. “Everyone else’s potion has gone wrong too. In fact, I think mine is the only one that’s ended up being somewhat successful.”

“Speak for yourself. Mine’s doing just fine,” Fred huffed confidently.

Cressida turned her attention to Margo who was adding random ingredients to their cauldron. “I’d check again,” she muttered to him.

Fred practically climbed onto her and James’ lap to glance towards his work station where his mouth fell open. “I leave for  five seconds -!”

James shoved Fred indelicately back under the desk before he was spotted. “Bottom line is, Wood’s potion isn’t the only one that’s going to fail, but we can’t let our dear boy get a failing grade because he’s incompetent at potions.”

“Hey!” Thomas said offended.

“It’s true. Potions aren’t your strong suit, mate,” Fred agreed beside him.

“So,” James carried on gaining control of the conversation again. “We make it look like they were all tampered with. That way no one gets a fail grade and we get to try again, and do it properly next time.”

“Why would we sabotage our own work, Potter?” Cressida asked him shaking her head. “Slughorn said it was nearly perfect.”

Fred was climbing over Thomas again to get closer to poking his head out from under the desk. “If we do it this way, Knightly, even your friends to try again.”

“Everyone can see Finnigan’s potion is going south more by the second,” Thomas pointed out.

“And now mine,” Fred agreed annoyed.

“Where’s your team spirit, Knightly?” James jabbed her in the side.

Cressida looked towards Molly’s potion. It looked exactly the same as hers and James’, meaning she was the only other person who had completed the task successfully. “Molly’s brewed it correctly.”

“So we’ll sabotage hers purposefully. Slughorn will definitely believe it was doomed from the start if his star student gets it wrong,” James suggested cleverly.

“Plus, she deserves it after everything she’s done,” Fred grumbled.

Cressida sighed and sat back on her stool, folding her arms. “Whatever, I’m not getting involved.”

James grinned, sinking lower into his chair so he was practically under the table with them now. Cressida glanced around the room so she didn’t have to focus on the trio coming up with whatever ridiculous plan they were trying to conjure between them. As her eyes trailed the room, she eventually locked eyes with Jac who was stirring her unusually grey potion anti-clockwise but looking in her direction. She nodded her head inquisitively to James, whose torso had been ducked under the desk for five minutes now.

Cressida shook her head in response, gesturing to just ignore it altogether. Jac smiled, turning back to focusing on her potion, knowing the trio was inevitably up to something.

James reappeared in the seat beside her, turning red from leaning under the desk for so long, and ruffled his hair proudly. Cressida silently watched as Thomas and Fred started crawling out from under her desk, making a discreet trek around the room, dropping something small into everyone’s cauldrons while their backs were turned.

“What the hell are they doing?” Cressida asked James, watching it all unfold.

James dropped some round mistletoe berries into their own potion and grinned gladly when it suddenly congealed and changed to a murky white. “Too many mistletoe berries will have disastrous effects on the quality of a forgetfulness potion.”

“Slughorn’s going to know you’re behind this,” she told him surely.

“Or will the bumbling old Professor think he told us all the add too many berries, making it  his  fault?” James countered. “If everyone goes wrong for the same reason he won’t suspect a thing.”

Felix’s potion finally exploded like everyone had been anticipating it would all lesson, causing all eyes to snap towards it. Fred and Thomas were on opposite ends of the classroom, gesturing to James with a shrug. Felix had managed to ruin his potion all on his own. Luckily for the trio, this distracted Professor Slughorn for a further ten minutes while Thomas and Fred finished their rounds of deception.

Molly’s head snapped up from her potion and turned towards Felix’s station. Fred took his chance and started creeping forward, preparing to drop the berries in.

As if sensing something else was going on, Molly’s head turned to look towards James and Cressida, making Fred fall to the floor underneath one of the desks beside his cousin. She hardened her eyes on the pair suspiciously. James suddenly lost his grin as Molly looked at him, and returned to aimlessly stirring his potion in silence.

Cressida glanced from James to Molly, debating whether to say or do something. She wasn’t sure whether sabotaging Molly’s perfect potion was the best way to proceed. But then again, Fred had a point. Maybe Molly deserved this. As she turned back to Molly she saw Fred gesturing for Molly’s Gryffindor partner to be quiet as he dropped the berries in then disappeared again without being seen.

Molly followed Cressida’s eye line but evidently found no one there as Fred crawled along the floor back towards his own station, gesturing a thumbs up to Thomas as they passed each other on the floor.

Cressida turned back around to face her own failed cauldron, sighing deeply. Beside her, she saw James smirk silently to himself, clearly proud of his idea being a success.

“Do all your Gryffindor pals listen to whatever you say? Cressida mumbled to him, leaning over the potion which was beginning to smell rancid.

“We have a rather large pull with them all, yes,” James replied. “Plus, Beatrix already has a crush on Fred.”

“Oh my!” Slughorn had appeared at their bench, overlooking their potion before Cressida had even seen him approach. “What on earth has happened?” He asked sadly, looking from their once-perfect potion around at everyone else’s now ruined batches. “How could this have happened to  all  of them?”

James gestured towards the cauldron easily. “Maybe the ingredients were faulty,” he suggested.

Professor Slughorn’s eyes darted to the remaining ingredients on their table, counting them off in his head. “Two drops of Lethe River Water, two valerian sprigs, stir clockwise, four mistletoe berries-”

Fred was beside the Professor now, sensing James would need backup in convincing the Professor. “Sir, my cauldron went funny when I added those berries.”

“And mine,” James agreed.

“Mine too!” Thomas agreed from his own station.

Professor Slughorn dabbed his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief, thinking hard. “But those berries were from the greenhouse-”

“It’s not your fault, Professor. Faulty berries can’t be helped, after all,” James told him with an innocent smile.

The old teacher glanced around, nodding slightly. “I suppose,” he agreed. Cressida’s eyes fell on the three boys slightly impressed they had pulled it off. “I’ll have to run tests on the potions to figure out what went wrong but it’s a possibility it was the berries. It sure  seems  that way.”

Fred tapped the Professor lightly on the shoulder. “We can always try again next month.”

“Yes, yes of course. I shan’t fail you for having faulty berries, that would be highly unfair,” Slughorn waved his hand through the air. He turned and headed back to the front of the classroom, mumbling incoherently to himself.

Fred and James fist-bumped each other, grinning proudly before Fred slinked away back to his station beside Margo.

“Please could you bring your cauldrons to the front for me to deal with? I believe an early lunch is in order,” Slughorn told the class.

Cressida shook her head, amazed by their luck. “You just sabotaged an entire class and  now  you get an early lunch as a reward.”

James smirked over his shoulder as he lifted their cauldron into his hands. “What can I say, Knightly. We’re  that  good.”

Chapter 16: First Year: The Secret Passageway

Notes:

Apologies that Year 1 has so many chapters. I didn't expect anyone to read it in the first place so keeping it compact hardly seemed necessary when trying to flesh out the characters.
Thank you to everyone who has made it this far :)

Wednesday 25th November 2015

 

Cressida was already awake after another sleepless night but decided against trying to fight it this morning. She knew she had Charms first thing and that was on the third floor, giving her the perfect excuse to try and use her secret passageway again.

She knew she’d have to leave before anyone else was awake to be able to get away with using it, she knew Molly was already suspicious of Cressida’s whereabouts in the castle, so she’d have to remain sneaky if she didn’t want anyone else to know about it yet. She knew she definitely couldn’t trust Margo with it, Molly would frown upon it, and she was determined to keep Jac out of any more trouble, so far now it was her secret.

Giving Rasper a quick morning scratch on the head, Cressida crept out of her bed and started making her way across the room, pulling a jumper on over her head.

Jac’s bed curtains were pulled open and Cressida spun around to face her. “Where are you going?” Jac whispered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“Nowhere,” Cressida lied.

Jac raised an eyebrow knowingly, then glanced at the two remaining beds. “Come in here,” she said before disappearing back behind her bed curtains.

Reluctantly, Cressida did as she was told and pulled open her bed curtains and climbed inside.

Jac didn’t seem to mind the invasion of space and sat up making more room for Cressida to sit opposite her. “It’s only six, what are you doing awake?” She yawned.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Cressida answered bluntly.

Jac started braiding her hair so it was out of her face. “Molly didn’t know Margo told Arabella by the way,” she said suddenly. Cressida didn’t say anything but looked up letting Jac know she was listening. “I spoke to her yesterday after lessons while you pulled another disappearing act. She feels terrible about it.”

“Well then maybe she should say sorry,” Cressida replied.

“Maybe you should give her a chance to,” Jac countered. “You’re being stubborn again.”

Cressida tried to act offended but she knew Jac was right. “I’m not going to forgive Margo yet… maybe ever,” Cressida decided. “And Molly has to stop telling me what I can and can’t do.”

Jac smiled gladly. “You can tell her your terms and conditions tonight over dinner,  which  you will be having with us,” she said firmly. “You’ve not eaten with us for nearly three days. I’ve missed you.”

Cressida tried to hide the sincere smile that came onto her face. “Do you miss me or do you miss things  happening  when you’re around me?” She teased.

Jac shoved her slightly, laughing. “It’s been boring with you gone. I bet you’ve done lots of cool stuff while wandering by yourself.”

Cressida’s mind started screaming to tell Jac about the passageway. She debated coming up with an excuse and leaving to continue exploring on her own as she planned, but she trusted Jac the most out of any of her friends, and she desperately wanted to tell at least one person about her good find. Besides, Jac had always seemed to enjoy the trouble Cressida caused.

“I may have one cool thing,” Cressida told her.

Jac’s mouth tugged into a smile. “Is this another one of your special secrets?”

“Of course it is,” Cressida smiled back. “I found it while I was wandering the other day.”

“What is it?” Jac asked intrigued.

“A way to avoid those sodding stairs,” Cressida said. “But so far it only goes straight to the third floor.”

Jac’s face contorted in thought. “Like a passageway?”

Cressida narrowed her eyebrows suspiciously. “Don’t tell me you already knew about it?”

“No,” Jac shook her head still deep in thought. “But I think there’s more than the one you found. A Forth Year appeared right in front of me and Felix from behind one of those knights along the sixth floor the other day. I couldn’t figure out where he had come from, but he must have come out of something like that.”

Cressida could hardly contain her excitement. “Do you think you can show me which one?”

Jac seemed hesitant, opening her bed curtains slightly to glance at the two remaining girls for a second. “What are you planning to do with this information?” She asked turning back to look at Cressida suspiciously.

“Nothing bad,” Cressida admitted. “Just get to lessons faster and potentially mess with those stupid Gryffindors… I don’t think they know about the passageways yet.”

Jac’s eyes lit up. “You mean we know something they don’t?”

Cressida grinned, knowing Jac was hooked. “So, how about it, want to show me the second one?”

Jac matched Cressida’s grin. “Only if you show me the first one.”

Cressida and Jac got on their uniform as quickly as possible, then grabbed their bags and crept out of the common room. Luckily, only Sixth Years were up this early having done all-nighters to complete their revision.

Once in the long stretch of corridor, Cressida lead Jac over to the hanging tapestry and pulled it aside, ushering them both inside.

“And this will take us right to the third floor?” Jac asked as they started making their way up the stone steps in the narrow hallway.

“That’s where it took me last time,” Cressida answered. She assumed it would lead her to the same place as before, but with Hogwarts, you could never be sure.

“And you’re sure no one else has found it yet?”

“I don’t think so,” Cressida shrugged. “I know the Gryffindors don’t know about it because I hid behind it while they were looking for me.”

Jac looked over her shoulder at Cressida. “Why were they looking for you?”

“They weren’t. James spotted me.”

“That boy is practically obsessed with you!” Jac laughed.

Cressida shoved her forward slightly but laughed at the comment. “Don’t tell Molly that if you want any chance of us becoming friends again… Besides, I don’t  want  them to talk to me.”

“You do love showing them up though,” Jac countered knowingly.

Cressida gave a small smirk. “I like to appear smarter than them.”

“I think a doormat would be smarter than those three combined,” Jac laughed as they came to the second tapestry.

Cressida and Jac lightly pushed it to the side, glancing out at the abandoned corridor. “It’s clear,” Jac whispered as both girls stepped out.

Cressida turned to the painting of the lounging lady and smiled at her.

When she saw Cressida, she huffed and turned away. “No one has come to clean my frame yet for your information-”

“I’m working on it, I promise. You’ll be spotless,” she assured the portrait. The lounging lady glanced at her but said nothing else before she continued eating her grapes. Cressida gestured for Jac to follow her through the corridor.

“What are you going to do to the frame?” Jac asked as they departed.

Cressida smirked, deciding to keep at least one secret. “You’ll see in time.”

Cressida and Jac rounded the corner and found Teddy Lupin standing in the corridor beside a humped witch statue looking just as guilty as them, behind him was another boy who turned and left as soon as he spotted the First Years. She noticed Teddy’s blue hair was now a deep shade of purple and was slightly tussled. He also had on casual clothes as opposed to robes.

He hardened his eyes on them suspiciously. “What are you two doing here this early in the morning?”

Cressida raised her eyebrow at him. “Another party? On a Tuesday night?”

Teddy grinned at her and shoved his hands into his pockets as he strolled toward them. “Not quite the same kind of party.”

“What kind of party was it?” Jac asked innocently.

“The kind reserved for at least Fifth Year,” Teddy joked. 

“And who was that?” Cressida asked gesturing in the direction the boy who was previously with Teddy disappeared to.

Teddy glanced over his shoulder, shrugging. “No idea, only started talking to him last night. I’m pretty sure he’s a Sixth Year though.”

Jac’s eyes widened. “Were you- but I thought you were dating Molly’s cousin!?”

Teddy looked between Cressida and Jac, trying to pick his words carefully. “Victoire and I aren’t official yet as per her request. She knows what I get up to around here… you should see some of the people she’s wandered off with over the years. She has the Veela advantage over me but I still do okay.”

“Right,” Cressida said, grabbing Jac’s arm. “We’d love to stay and chat about your many affairs but we have stuff to do.”

Teddy raised an eyebrow. “Stuff?” He questioned intrigued. “What are you up to, Little Knightly?”

“Nothing to do with you or your idiotic cousins,” she replied, dragging Jac away. “And don’t call me Little Knightly.”

Teddy watched them go, laughing to himself. 

 

 

Friday 4th December 2015

 

It turns out that with Jac by her side, Cressida had gotten rather sloppy in her sneaking around in the passageways. Jac had shown her the second passageway behind a knight on the Sixth Floor, which they discovered led down to the Girls Lavatory on the second floor. Unfortunately, the second time they tried out this passageway, Molly and Margo had been coming out of the lavatory and spotted them.

Cressida thought for a moment Molly would finally break her vow of silence if only to interrogate the two girls on what they were doing, but to their surprise and relief, Molly simply turned and walked away.

After that encounter, Jac had suggested telling Molly about the passageways as a peacemaker. Cressida knew that was an awful plan. Not only did she not feel ready to make up with Molly just yet, but she knew Molly would likely ban them from using the passageways altogether.

With Jac beside Cressida using the secret tunnels every chance they got, it often meant the two girls were catching up with the other three Slytherins in the dorm room or at mealtimes. The four girls avoided being in the dorm room as much as possible, without Felix acting as a neutral party in the ongoing standoff between Molly and Cressida, the dorm room was incredibly tense and silent most of the time.

Despite the fact Molly hadn’t called Cressida out on the passageways or had any undeniable proof, Cressida knew Molly was aware of what she and Jac were doing to some extent. Cressida had noticed Molly seemed to be keeping an annoyingly close eye on her whereabouts throughout the castle. 

However, Molly wasn’t the only one that seemed to be tracking Cressida’s whereabouts around Hogwarts. Cressida and Jac beat the trio of Gryffindors to every lesson that week, and it had started to turn into a race on who could get to their classroom the fastest.

For this reason, Jac and Cressida had left breakfast five minutes early to head back down to the dungeons in order to take their secret passageway up to the third floor. Felix had tried to join them, not wanting to be stuck with Molly and Margo on his own, but Jac had said she needed the bathroom and that’s why they were leaving.

Cressida silently considered telling Felix about their newfound travel method, as they pulled back the tapestry to begin their hidden trek to the third floor, but she didn’t know how good he would be at keeping it a secret. So far, Jac had proved to be a brilliant partner in crime, bailing Cressida out of a few incriminating conversations with Molly. Apparently, Jac seemed more trustworthy than Cressida but she wasn’t going to argue with that fact. It was probably true. Something about Cressida always made people think she had an anterior motive behind her actions even when she didn’t.

Once the girls were in the third floor corridor, the lounging lady sat up straighter at the sight of them. “My frame is still yet to be-”

“I know,” Cressida cut her off. They had this argument every time they used the secret passageway. “Have you kept up your end of the deal?”

“I haven’t told anyone else about the passageway as per  your  request,” she huffed. “But as I said, I better be spotless!”

“You will be,” Cressida assured her confidently as she and Jac left to take the short walk to their Charms classroom around the corner.

As the two girls settled against the wall beside the classroom door, the trio of Gryffindors came running around the corners, panting frantically.

“Damn it!” Fred said, flailing his arms in the air once he saw them.

James lent on his knees for support as he got his breath back. Cressida couldn’t help but grin at the funny shade of pink he was from running all the way here. “How are you doing this?” He panted.

“We saw you in the Great Hall only five minutes ago!” Thomas said, not as out of breath as his two counterparts.

“We left two seconds after you,” Fred said confused, shaking his head at them.

Jac had to turn away to stop herself from laughing. Cressida pushed herself off the wall to face them properly. “Are you tracking us, Potter?” She asked.

James straightened up, despite still being out of breath. “Of course not! But  how  are you here?!”

Cressida shrugged, biting back a smirk. “Just quicker than you, I guess.”

James collapsed against the stone wall, scoffing. Fred walked forward, studying both girls as they tried to keep their expressions neutral. “You have a secret,” he said after a moment.

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “Do I look like the type to have a secret?”

“ YES !” All three said at once.

Glancing sideways at Jac, she decided to start the first part of her plan. “Fine, I’ll tell you.”

“You will?” Jac and Fred said at the same time.

“You have to promise not to tell anyone though,” she told the three boys. They all glanced at each other, as if having a silent conversation, then James stepped towards Cressida giving a curt nod. 

“Fine,” James agreed. 

Cressida glanced dramatically around the corridor, then gestured for James to come even closer. “One of the picture frames in this hall reveals a secret passageway if you clean it well enough.”

“Which one?” Thomas asked suspiciously.

Cressida allowed herself a small smile. “I’m not making it  that  easy for you.”

James was studying Cressida’s face unsurely. “And all we have to do is clean it?”

“It has to be sparkling. Only then will they show you the passageway,” she told him just as the rest of the class started appearing in the corridor for their class.

The trio of Gryffindors straightened up as Molly, Margo and Felix approached the two Slytherins. “What are you three annoying Cressida about now?” Felix asked when he saw them.

James glanced from Cressida to Felix, gaining a mischievous smirk. “Nothing. Just asking how my adoring cousin is today.”

“Sod off, James,” Molly said at once.

“Lovely as always,” Fred joked from beside them.

At that moment Professor Flitwick opened his classroom door and started ushering students inside. As they disappeared inside the room, Jac and Cressida glanced at each other trying to contain their grins as they departed from each other’s side.

 

Tuesday 8th December 2015

 

The five Slytherins had been seated together at the breakfast table as they always were, although this was the only time they all seemed to act civil to one another and Felix did most of the talking, which meant Cressida now knew more about chocolate frog cards and Quidditch than she would have cared to know.

Since the argument, Molly only poured tea for Margo as opposed to all of them like she used to. Cressida assumed this was some sort of petty way of saying she was still mad at them all on top of the silent treatment.

Cressida didn’t care about the lack of tea at the current time of year anyway. With the oncoming merriness of Christmas approaching Hogwarts, Felix and Jac had taken full advantage of the many different varieties of hot chocolate available to them at every meal. This particular morning, Felix had loaded his hot chocolate with candy canes, marshmallows and whipped cream and the sickly sweet smell coming from his concoction made Cressida want to avoid hot chocolate at all costs until noon.

The usual flurry of owls appeared in the great hall, shaking the snow from their wings as they hopped across the tables to their usual percipients.

Cressida was aimlessly pushing her porridge around with her spoon when a brown owl landed in front of her, a small letter tied to its leg. Assuming the owl had the wrong person, she tried to shoo it further down the table, until it pecked at her hand in retaliation.

“I think it’s for you,” Felix said through a mouth full of toast. “It’s one of the school owls.”

Cressida looked back at the owl doubtfully. The owl, now seemingly mad at Cressida, held out its leg to show her the scrolled up letter properly. Carefully, Cressida untied the letter from the owl’s leg and it took off again along with the rest of the morning owls back into the snowy weather.

Jac slid over so her head was practically on Cressida’s shoulder while the two girls read the letter. 

‘Hi, Cress,

I’m not sure if this will even get to you. I’m really sorry this is the first time I’ve tried to contact you, I haven’t had much time or knowledge on how to until just now.

You have no idea how quiet it is without you here, even the Powell brothers asked about you the other day.

Things aren’t great at home at the moment. Gareth got fired from work and they took the van back as collateral. Money is low so I’m afraid Christmas will be rather lacklustre here this year. We won’t even be able to afford a tree, and I’ll be working Christmas at the nursing home anyway.

As much as it pains me to not see you for Christmas, I think you should stay at your school with your friends. You have made friends, haven’t you? I’d hate to imagine you alone over there like I am here.

Anyway, I just want you to know I love and miss you dearly. I would say to write back but I wouldn’t know how to explain the owls to Gareth and he’s in the flat constantly now.

Stay safe and try and have a decent Christmas. I’ll be thinking of you here.

Lots of love

Mum xx’

Cressida set the letter back on the table with trembling hands. Jac had her hand over her mouth as if trying to figure out what to do next. Felix leaned over and skimmed the letter for himself and then quickly looked away again, feeling like he had intruded.

Molly was looking from Cressida’s letter to the reactions of the others. She caught Cressida’s eye as she poured her a cup of tea and pushed it towards her silently. A peace offering.

Under normal circumstances, Cressida might have taken the tea and let this whole thing be done with, but at that moment all she felt like doing was running away and ignoring everyone.

She got to her feet and started walking out of the hall without a word, leaving the letter on the table purposefully.

Jac tried to follow after her until Cressida whirled around to face her by the door. “Don’t follow me!” she snapped before she could stop herself.

The trio of Gryffindors on the table nearby looked towards her at the outburst. James was pouring some tea when it happened, and his arm remained in the air continuing to spill tea all over the tablecloth from the overflowing cup as he stared at Cressida.

Cressida could feel the tears pooling in her eyes as she looked back at Jac. “Sorry,” she croaked, struggling to keep her voice level. “I just-”

“It’s okay,” Jac said softly. “I’ll cover lessons for you.”

Cressida wiped the tears from her face and continued running out of the hall.

 

*

 

Cressida liked to think she was usually rather good at keeping her emotions in check. Her mother worked often, she knew that. They were poor, she knew that too, even if she wouldn’t admit it to anyone outwardly. But having that letter from her mother telling her she couldn’t come home for those reasons in front of her friends made her insides scream.

She hadn’t realised how much time had passed without hearing from her mother. She felt guilty about that now. The worst part was her mother said not to write back purely because Gareth had moved in the first chance he got to leech off her mother and she wasn’t even there to stop him. 

The thought of her mother stuck in the flat with Gareth after working the night shift on Christmas made her want to storm back to Conwell regardless of the consequences. The words of the letter replayed in her mind.  ‘I’d hate to imagine you alone over there like I am here.’

Her mother was alone. Cressida had left her all alone.

Cressida wiped the tears that were streaming down her face. She was hiding in the secret passageway between the third floor and the dungeons, her knees to her chest and her hair stuck to her face from the tears.

She knew Jac was the only person who would be able to find her here if she bothered to come looking. Jac was the only person Cressida could live with seeing her like this. She had never been a crybaby, always too proud to allow herself to feel like a child, but at that moment she did feel like one. At that moment, all she wanted was to see her mum.

She had been listening to the flurries of students passing every hour like clockwork on the other side of the tapestry to tell the time.

Around the fourth flurry of students passing by, she heard the familiar voices of James, Fred and Thomas.

“Just tell us what happened!” James and Fred were begging someone faintly.

“Why do you care?” Came Felix’s reply.

“She looked sad,” Thomas said.

At that point they had walked past the tapestry and Cressida could no longer hear them.

After hearing that she stared at the stone wall in front of her for another hour until the next flurry of students. She supposed once she stepped foot back into the school, the trio of Gryffindors would bombard her with questions she didn’t want to answer, but that simple sentence from Thomas made her wonder if they genuinely cared about her feelings.

Don’t be stupid,  she told herself that the thought.  They just want to know the latest gossip.

Molly’s voice brought Cressida out of her thoughts about the trio of boys. “I’m worried about her,” she said. “No one’s seen her since breakfast.”

“She pulls disappearing acts all the time….” Margo replied, but even she sounded slightly concerned. “She’ll come back before curfew like she always does.”

“I just-” Molly faltered. Cressida crawled onto her hands and knees and moved closer to the tapestry to hear better. “Maybe Jac can cheer her up. I doubt she wants to talk to us right now.”

The voices got too faint to hear anything else after that. Cressida fell back into a sitting position staring at the tapestry. 

She wasn’t sure how much longer she had been sitting in the passageway after that. No more flurries of students passed at hourly intervals, instead, a group of chattering students would pass randomly talking about the events of the day unaware that Cressida was lurking behind the tapestry. 

The corridor had been quiet for a good twenty minutes now and Cressida decided now was the best time to go. Pulling herself together, Cressida got to her feet and peeled back the tapestry.

The lounging lady gasped at her appearance. “My dear girl!” She said loudly as Cressida came to stand in front of her. “You look awful!”

“Thanks,” Cressida muttered sarcastically.

The lounging lady had a look of sympathy on her face as she glanced up and down the abandoned corridor. “Is there anything I can do, my dear?”

Cressida’s eyes started welling up again. “Is Peeves around?” She asked. She thought that dealing with Peeves at that very moment would break her competently.

“No, dear. He’s by Gryffindor Tower enchanting the knights to trip students up as they leave the portrait hole,” she said. 

Cressida nodded and shoved her hands into her robe pockets before turning and heading down the corridor.

She had managed to walk down the first floor with minimal interruptions. She got a few strange looks from Beatrix and two of her Gryffindor friends. One of them had a bright red mark on her forehead giving away they had been a victim of Peeves tripping her up.

Just as she was walking along the first floor towards the common room, she ran into Professor Longbottom with an array of plant pots in his arms. 

“Evening, Cressida,” he greeted her, nearly dropping a pot. Cressida reached out and slid the pot back into a secure position in the Professor’s arms. “Everything okay? Is someone giving you trouble?”

She debated telling him what was wrong, she knew Professor Longbottom would be kind about it, but then she felt like it wasn’t the Professor’s job to care about her home troubles and he looked rather busy. 

“No, sir. Everything’s fine,” she lied with a smile.

Professor Longbottom didn’t look convinced but nodded at her. “Well, I’m here if you should ever need someone to talk to.”

“Thank you, sir.” She sniffed as Professor Longbottom continued on his way, struggling to keep the pots in his arms still.

Cressida glanced around the corridor for a moment. It was already dark within the castle, but that wasn’t hard as the sunset at 5 pm in the winter anyway, but still, she knew it was much later than that. Dinner had long since finished, she could faintly smell the roast turkey and gravy coming from the hall.

She wasn’t ready to go back to the dorm room yet. She knew Felix and Jac would likely be waiting in the common room for her to ask her how she was. If she was honest she didn’t know how she felt in that moment. She felt silly that she had spent the entire day crying over not being able to go home and see her mum. She couldn’t even come up with a solution to make her feel better about it.

Deciding she needed some of her dignity still intact she changed course and headed to the out of order bathroom, knowing no one would disturb her in there while she made herself look presentable.

She pushed the bathroom door open and entered heading straight for the sink, not wanting to spend any more time in the bathroom than was necessary with Myrtle. 

As expected, Myrtle floated down and hovered in front of her. She looked like she was about to go off on one of her signature rants until she saw Cressida wiping the tears from her cheeks. 

“You’re all alone?” She said in a less high-pitched voice than normal.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Cressida replied. Her mother’s letter once again ran through her mind. Perhaps Cressida had made herself just as alone here as her mother feared. 

Myrtle folded her arms over her chest with a huff. “No wonder you're alone if you talk to people like that,” she said. “I don’t know why those people bothered coming in here searching for you.”

“Which people?”

Myrtle thought for a moment. “Your Indian friend and that handsome boy, and then a different girl came in here crying about you. She said she felt terrible about something she had done.”

Cressida lifted her eyes from her reflection doubtfully. “Margo was crying about me?”

Myrtle shook her head, floating around Cressida. “No, the other one. The ginger one was saying how she felt awful about what her friend said and that people should learn to keep their mouths shut. She had a letter with her, saying she had to keep it a secret from everyone. She seemed rather distraught about the whole thing- wait, where are you going!?” Was all Cressida heard Myrtle’s whiny voice call before the bathroom door slammed shut behind her.

Cressida had turned to leave before Myrtle had even finished talking. Her dignity suddenly didn’t seem to be as important anymore. 

She knew Myrtle would be extra snappy with her next time she visited the bathroom but she didn’t care, she had to find Molly.

It didn’t take long for Cressida to burst into the common room. Felix had been pacing by the entrance and Cressida nearly knocked him off his feet as she came in.

“Can’t talk, I’ve got to talk to Molly,” Cressida said as she continued on her way.

Felix tried to follow after her. “Is this a good talk or shall I get Madam Pomfrey on standby?” He asked just as Cressida passed the threshold for the girl’s dorms, leaving Felix stuck in the common room. “Cressida!” He called after her. “Knightly, don’t kill her if it’s not a fair fight!”

Cressida ignored Felix’s voice as she entered the dorm room. Luckily, only Molly was present in the room, sitting on her bed with a week's worth of homework spread out in front of her. She looked up as Cressida entered. A look of relief spread across her face that then turned into nervousness.

Cressida didn’t say anything straight away, she hadn’t thought that far ahead, so instead she moved to lean against her bedpost opposite Molly’s. Now she was closer, she could see Molly wasn’t just doing her own homework, she had Cressida’s homework spread out in front of her for the next three days as well.

“Where’s Margo?” Cressida asked.

“She and Felix got into an argument in the common room. She stormed off after that,” Molly told her shutting the current book she was reading out of and pushing it to one side. There was a slightly awkward silence as neither girl knew what to say next. “Are you- I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but-”

“It’s okay, Molly,” Cressida said, realising how hard this seemed for her. 

Molly’s eyes grew wide as she looked back up at Cressida. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know Margo had told Arabella about your robes. I never would have let her get away with that if I had known.”

Cressida offered her a small smile. “So I've been told.”

“Can we go back to being friends?” She asked hopefully.

Cressida moved to sit opposite Molly on her bed and fiddled with the edge of her half-completed homework. Molly was excellent at forging Cressida’s messy handwriting. “Do you still have my letter?”

Molly reached over and pulled it out of her robe pocket. “I didn’t want anyone else to find it and use it against you.”

Cressida took the letter from Molly and ran her fingers over her mother’s scruffy handwriting for a moment before getting to her feet and throwing it in the bin.

“You’re a decent friend, Weasley,” Cressida said turning back to face her.

Molly grinned and stumbled to her feet, pulling Cressida into another tight hug. As Molly was hugging her, Cressida felt like they might as well get everything out into the open. “By the way, I sabotaged your forgetfulness potion with the help of your cousins.”

“I know,” she admitted. “I could smell Fred’s awful cologne under the table.”

Just then Jac came tumbling into the dorm room, Rasper trotting dutifully by her feet. It looked like she had run the entire length of the castle. “Felix said-” Jac started but stopped when she saw the two girls hugging. “Have you made up?”

Cressida stepped back out of the hug, letting Rasper jump into her arms and climb his way to perch on her shoulder. “Yeah, Molly and I are talking again.”

She told herself that Margo would have to work a bit harder to be forgiven but that could wait for the time being. She didn’t want to be alone, it turned out. She wanted to have friends.

Jac slumped back against the door with a relieved sigh. “Thank god. I couldn’t stand this argument going on any longer.”

There was a loud bang against the girl’s door and Molly opened it to find a shoe lying on the floor outside. Peering down the corridor, the girls saw Felix hopping on one foot, preparing to remove his other shoe to throw.

“I’ll go tell him what’s going on,” Molly said shaking her head. “Honestly, you’d think there’d be an easier way around the gender rules.”

Once Molly was gone, Jac turned to Cressida. “I searched the entire castle for you! I even brought Rasper along hoping he could sniff you out!”

“He’s not a bloodhound,” Cressida laughed, tickling Rasper under the chin. Jac shifted from one foot to the other awkwardly, preparing to ask the inevitable question. Cressida sighed and looked at her. “If you ask me how I am I’ll walk out of this room and never come back, Redwick.”

Jac nodded, looking down at her feet. “But you are okay… aren’t you?”

Cressida grabbed the pillow from her bed and threw it at Jac’s head. “What did I just say?” She said. “So I’m stuck here alone on Christmas… who cares? At least I’ll have a tree this way.”

Cressida knew she was putting up a front, but when Jac smiled back at her, she thought this was much better than everyone looking at her with sympathy.

Chapter 17: First Year: The Big Twelve

Friday 11th December 2015

 

Thankfully, since making up with Molly, the group of Slytherins all had returned to their normal selves. The only one who still seemed one edge around Cressida was Margo, who knew she hadn’t been fully forgiven like Molly yet. Cressida didn’t mind this, she rather enjoyed watching Margo squirm every now and then.

Since re-befriending everyone, Jac and Cressida had returned to walking to and from lessons with the whole group, which seemed to confuse the trio of Gryffindor boys more than ever.

Cressida was sat beside Felix and Margo in Charms. This week they had moved on to learning the unlocking spell by unlocking a locked box, which proved difficult for the majority of students. Even Molly seemed to be struggling with this particular spell.

In a fit of frustration, Margo had thrown her locked box off the edge of the desk and Professor Flitwick has sent Margo and Felix out to retrieve Filch to clean up the mess. 

This left Cressida sitting alone, which meant it was the perfect opportunity for the trio of Gryffindor boys to interrogate her. James climbed over the desks, knocking inkwells and parchment over as he indelicately did so until he fell into Felix’s chair.

Cressida didn’t move her concentration away from her box as he did this.

“We still haven’t found that passageway,” he said to her.

“Have you cleaned the portraits like I said?” Cressida asked, trying the spell again.

James frowned at her. “You expect us to clean  every  frame in that hallway?”

Cressida finally moved her attention from the box to James. “If you want to find the secret passageway, yes.”

Fred landed just as indelicately in Margo’s seat on the other side of Cressida. “I’m beginning to think this secret passageway doesn’t exist,” he said. “You’ve not been early to lessons all week.”

Cressida readjusted her wand in her hand and tried to spell again to no avail. “No one else knows about it and I wanted to walk to lessons with my friends.”

James and Fred had learned better than to ask Cressida about what had happened at the beginning of the week by now. James had tried the day after it had happened and Cressida had locked him in a broom closet for fifteen minutes until Fred and Thomas eventually found him.

“Gentlemen!” Flitwick's voice called. James and Fred jumped in their seats and turned toward the tiny Professor. “What are you doing sat beside Miss Knightly?”

“Getting some helpful tips, sir,” James lied instantly. “She’s very skilled in Charms, you see.”

“We have so much to learn from her,” Fred agreed. “I bet she could even do this spell with her eyes closed, she’s that good.”

Cressida glared at the two boys knowing they were setting her up to fail. Flitwick made his way to stand in front of the three of them. “Well, Miss Knightly, care to demonstrate for us what you can do?”

“Yeah, go on, Knightly,” James encouraged her wickedly. “Show us what you can do.”

Cressida took a deep breath and tried to ignore Fred and James snickering beside her as she produced her wand and pointed it at her locked box.  “Alohomora!”

The box clicked open with a pleasant pop. James and Fred stopped laughing instantly, staring at the now unlocked box with open mouths.

Thomas’ cackling laugh rang out behind them at the befuddled looks on his two friend’s faces. Molly and Jac raised out of their seats slightly to see what was going on and gave her a thumbs up when they saw her open box.

“Very well done, Miss Knightly!” Flitwick praised her loudly. “It appears Mr Potter and Mr Weasley were right. They  do  have a lot to learn from you. Ten points to Slytherin.”

Cressida placed her wand behind her ear as James and Fred struggled to climb their way back into their seats behind with pouts on their faces. “You two look so stupid,” Thomas was laughing at them.

“Shut it, Wood,” Fred grumbled. 

James was still staring at Cressida wide-eyed. “How the bloody hell did she do that?”

“Face it, Jamsie,” Thomas said holding his side from laughing too hard. “Knightly is just better than you.”

 

 

Sunday 13th December 2015

 

Cressida awoke in her green canopy bed and sighed deeply. Today was her twelfth birthday.

Nobody knew that it was her birthday of course. She hadn’t told anyone and she doubted anyone cared about looking up her birthday specifically.

She understood in that moment why Molly had acted so strangely on her birthday. It was weird to not have her mother waking her up with a candle on a cupcake and a present wrapped in paper with a bow. 

She rolled onto her side and saw Rasper stretching himself awake on the pillow beside her. With a pleasant meow, the tiny kitten moved so he was curled up beside Cressida’s face.

“It’s my birthday today,” she whispered to the kitten. Rasper’s round eyes stared back at her for a moment before he yawned in her face and then settled his head back down to return to his slumber.

With a final scratch on the tiny kitten’s head, Cressida forced herself to get out of bed and face the day. As it was a Sunday, Cressida didn’t have any lessons and her homework had already been completed ready for next week, opening her day up rather nicely. In theory, she could do whatever she wanted.

“Morning, Cressie!” Jac’s voice called as she came out of the bathroom and saw Cressida opening her bed curtains. Jac had a new fascination with giving Cressida a nickname that only she could use. She had complained that the trio of Gryffindors only called her by her last name, everyone else called her by her full name, and her mother called her Cress, leaving Cressie as the only viable option in Jac’s mind. Cressida hadn’t encouraged this particular nickname, but in fear of disappointing Jac, she let her keep using it for the time being.

Cressida sat cross-legged on the edge of her bunk and watched her friends milling around the room. Jac had just gotten out of the shower and was brushing her hair. Molly was finishing off the last of her weekend homework, she always spent more time on her homework than the others to make sure it was perfect, and Margo sat in the chair in the corner reading the latest Daily Prophet.

“Better get dressed, Cressida,” Molly said looking up from her homework. “We’ve got to meet Felix in the common room.”

“Why?” Cressida yawned as all the girls started following Molly’s instructions. “It’s not even ten yet.”

“The lake is frozen over,” Jac said excitedly pulling on some warm winter clothes.

“So?” Cressida asked, reluctantly pulling a hoodie over her head.

“ So ,” Margo said pulling on a knitted bobble hat. “We can go ice skating.”

“And we need to eat breakfast and get there before the rest of the school gets the same idea,” Molly said forcing one of her spare bobble hats into Cressida’s hands while she grabbed a bag from under her bed.

Cressida pulled the red bobble hat over her unbrushed hair just as Molly grabbed her arm and started dragging her out of the room before Cressida could get another word in.

Once they were in the common room, they saw Felix waiting for them dutifully, his black ice skates hanging around his neck. “I reckon we have twenty minutes before the lake starts filling up,” he started straight away ushering the girls out of the common room.

“Since when are you so awake at this time in the morning?” Jac teased him as they walked through the hall.

“Since I get to show off my ice skating skills. Now let’s hustle people!” Felix said hurrying them along even faster.

Christmas had started to take over Hogwarts completely, and it was more present than ever in the Great Hall. Twelve large decorated fir trees, mistletoe, and holly were among the decorations that Hagrid and the Professors had put up. Snow fell from the ceiling of the Great Hall, but unlike real snow, this snow was dry and warm. 

Around the castle, suits of armour were also enchanted to sing carols. Or they  had  been enchanted to sing carols until Peeves had gotten involved and possessed them to sing rude variations of the songs instead. This then led to the trio of Gryffindor boys standing in line with the suits of armour and joining in with the rude versions of the songs with Teddy jokingly acting as the conductor with his wand while passer-bys laughed at them until McGonagall came and scolded them all.

This particular morning felt extremely jolly in the Great Hall. Students from all houses were dressed up in their warm clothing with hats and scarves of all colours and patterns.

Molly poured them each a cup of tea at the breakfast table and passed out the usual rounds of toast. Felix was eating his breakfast at an unusually fast pace this morning. “Got to have loads of energy stored up, we’re going to be on our feet all day,” he was saying in between mouthfuls and sips of tea.

“We should take hot chocolates to go so we can keep warm,” Molly suggested, already starting to pour them into to-go cups before the others had answered.

Cressida was relieved they all seemed to be distracted by the oncoming events of the day. She glanced up and down the array of breakfast foods available until she found the pile of savoury muffins. It wasn’t a cupcake with a candle, but a carrot cake muffin would do for the day.

Cressida had only barely finished her large muffin and cup of tea when Felix was hoisting her onto her feet. “Come on, come on! We’re behind schedule!” He was yelling at the four girls. “Chew and walk, people. Chew and walk!”

Once they were outside the Great Hall, Cressida pulled Felix to a stop. “Would now be a bad time to tell you I don’t have any ice skates?”

Felix looked like he was about to start ranting until Molly stepped in front of him. “You go to the lake and save us a spot, we’ll take Cressida to get some spare skates,” she said.

Felix checked his wristwatch and then looked back at the girls. “You have ten minutes. It’ll be ruthless out there, I’m telling you!”

With that, Felix disappeared down the hallway. “Who knew Finnigan could be so passionate about ice skating,” Jac laughed.

“Hogwarts keeps spare skates in the cupboard on the third floor,” Molly said leading the way. “Hopefully they’ll have a pair left in your size.”

It wasn’t long until the four girls were making their way through the third floor corridor searching for the specific cupboard when they saw the trio of Gryffindors scrubbing every portrait frame in the hall until they could see their reflections. Jac had to suppress a laugh beside Cressida, whereas Molly narrowed her eyebrows at them.

“What on earth are you doing?” She asked, clearly too confused to ignore them this time.

“Cleaning, what does it look like we’re doing!?” James replied frustratedly, dropping a sponge into his bucket of soapy water.

Cressida glanced behind her at the lounging lady watching the scene with growing interest, knowing her frame would eventually be as sparkling as everyone else’s. She thought that this may have been the best birthday present she had ever received.

“But  why  are you cleaning?” Margo asked, disgusted by the notion as she peered into the murky brown water.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Smithers,” Fred shot back, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Whatever,” Molly huffed. She gestured for Margo and the others to follow her as she continued walking, going back to ignoring their antics easily. Cressida held back slightly, letting the others walk ahead.

She peered into James’ bucket of water and then up at the frame he was currently scrubbing with a smirk. “You missed a spot.”

James turned, red-faced, gripping the sponge so tightly in his hand she thought it was going to rip in half.

Thomas looked up from his own cleaning station, yellow marigold gloves doused in soap, looking hopeless. “Can’t you tell us which one it is already, Cressida? We’ve been cleaning all morning and we want to have a go on the lake before everyone else ruins it!” He begged.

“Who do you take me for?” Cressida laughed.

James threw his sponge into his bucket of water and strode towards her. “Come on, Knightly. I  know  you know which exact painting it is. So just tell us!” He ordered stopping inches from her own face.

Cressida could hardly contain her smug grin. Today was her birthday, she deserved to torment them a little more than normal today. “Nice try, Potter, but I’m not that easy to persuade.”

James glared at her for a moment then turned, picking his sponge back up and continuing cleaning. “I admire you, Knightly.”

“That’s one word for it,” Fred huffed. He had moved on to the next painting, the lounging lady, who smiled contently as her golden frame started getting wiped down with warm soapy water.

“Only a Slytherin could come up with this kind of mind-numbing torture,” James continued.

Cressida looked back to James, her smug grin growing slightly wider. “And only a Gryffindor would be stubborn enough to clean every single portrait instead of just asking them where the passageway was.”

All three boys froze as if the thought had never even entered their heads. Cressida gave a content shrug as she departed, knowing the three sets of eyes were watching her every move as she walked away.

“We really are idiots,” Fred said, as he finished cleaning the golden frame.

“Passageway is through there,” the lounging lady said, pointing a fat thumb to the tapestry beside her, and eating a grape with the other hand.

James kicked the bucket of water out of frustration and knocked it over, spilling the soapy water all over the floor.

At that moment McGonagall passed, glancing at the water only for a second, not stopping on her walk. “Clean that up, Potter.”

Thomas held his head in his hands, looking as though he might start sobbing.

“Morning, Head Mistress!” The four girls called to McGonagall as she came up behind them.

“Good morning, ladies,” she smiled back at them. “Getting some ice skates, are we? I advise you to be careful out on that lake, some people have lost fingers this time of year.”

“We’ve got it handled, Professor,” Molly said as she found the cupboard and disappeared inside it with Margo.

“Miss Knightly, could I borrow you for a moment?” McGonagall called just before Cressida could follow her three friends inside the cupboard. “This is for you-” the Professor said holding out a small package for her. “It arrived late last night. I suspect it’s from your mother and step-father.”

Cressida took the package and quickly hid it in her hoodie pocket, checking the three girls hadn’t seen. “Gareth isn’t my step-father.”

McGonagall looked at Cressida curiously. “Do your peers not know it is your birthday?”

“No,” Cressida replied quietly. “I didn’t want them to make a fuss.”

McGonagall thought for a moment then nodded curtly. “If that is how you wish to celebrate your special day then who am I to judge… however if you should fancy it, I will ensure there will be three different types of cake available at the feast tonight… for no reason in particular.”

“Thank you, Professor,” Cressida smiled gratefully at the Head Mistress who gave her a knowing look before continuing down the corridor.

“We got the skates!” Jac said coming out of the cupboard with them held above her head.

“Let’s not keep Finnigan waiting any longer,” Molly said linking arms with Margo and leading the way.

Jac passed Cressida the skates and jokingly linked arms with her, copying Margo and Molly, dragging Cressida alongside her back throughout the halls while she laughed. Cressida had no choice but to go along with it.

 

*

 

As far as birthdays go, Cressida thought she had never had a better one. She had spent all day skating on the lake with her friends and drinking hot chocolate. Felix had been an amazing skater, similar to how Thomas was on a broom. Molly and Margo had been rather good as well. Jac and Cressida, however, were very poor on the skates for the first few hours, neither of them having much experience with the activity.

Just as Felix had predicted, the lake was filled with students skating or lounging in the cold weather nearby drinking hot chocolates. Not long after midday, the trio of Gryffindor boys had made their way to the lake to join in the fun. Cressida had allowed herself a grin when she saw James still had soap suds in his hair from cleaning the portraits.

At dinner, there had been three different types of cake, just like McGonagall had said there would be, and Cressida allowed herself to eat multiple helpings of all of them to celebrate. 

At around 9 o’clock, the girls had left the common room beside the fireplace with Felix and returned to their dorm for the night. After the events of the day, it didn’t take long for all the other girls to pass out from exhaustion. Felix had been right about needing their energy.

Cressida lay in her bed with the curtains closed, her wand lit with the Lumos charm for some light. The package from her mother was lying unopened by her bare feet. Rasper was rolling around on the bed beside her playing with a feather that had fallen out of a pillow.

She knew she had to open it eventually. She had been pretending it wasn’t burning a hole in her pocket all day, but now she was alone she knew she had to open it.

If she was honest, she didn’t expect to get anything from her mother this year, especially after the letter about the Christmas holidays. She knew money was tight and she could make herself understand if her mum didn’t have the money to waste on a birthday present for her. After all, her mother had already swayed the money for her hobo bag for her books before coming to Hogwarts. Perhaps if her mother was smarter, she could have kept it safe until her birthday, or, knowing Cressida's luck, Gareth would have found it before then and sold it for cigs.

Either way, Cressida knew whatever was in the small package wasn’t to be glamorous or expensive, but it was still a gift.

Her bed curtains were pulled open slightly to reveal Jac poking her head in. Cressida scrambled to try and hide the package under her pillow but by then it was too late.

“I saw your wand light was still on,” Jac said pretending not to notice the package Cressida had just hidden. “Can I come in?”

Cressida didn’t need to nod before Jac climbed in and sat cross-legged opposite her. Once Jac had joined them, Rasper grew bored with the feather and instead darted into Jac’s lap. Jac's eyes kept glancing towards the pillow, obviously wanting to know what Cressida had tried to hide but not knowing whether to ask about it or not.

Accepting defeat, Cressida pulled the small package back out and placed it in between the two of them. “It’s from my mum… it’s my birthday present.”

Jac’s eyes snapped up to meet Cressida’s. “Today is your birthday? Why didn’t you say anything?”

Cressida shrugged and looked down at the present again. “Can you open it for me?”

Jac looked at the present unsurely before reaching down and picking it up, doing as Cressida had asked. Cressida waited patiently as Jac unravelled the paper to reveal a framed photo and a card.

Cressida reached out and looked at the front of the card, it had a single cupcake with a candle on the front.

“My daring girl,

I hope you are having a wonderful birthday and that this reaches you in time.

You’re growing up so quick and I’m not even there to see it.

All my love, Mum xx’

Swapping with Jac, Cressida saw what was within the frame. It was an old photo from when Cressida was a child, slightly yellowed from sun exposure. She had barely turned three in the photo, her mother didn’t have any lines on her forehead from stress yet. Alice was holding Cressida on her hip, the familiar leather jacket draped comically around her tiny shoulders. The space to the left of Cressida and her mother was strangely blank, as though something or someone would have been there.

Cressida knew this photo well. It had lived on her mother’s bedside table her whole life. She was embarrassed to feel tears running down her cheeks again with Jac present.

Sensing Cressida’s sadness, Rasper made his way across the bed and nudged his head against Cressida’s knee to comfort her.

Jac didn’t mention the tears, to Cressida’s relief. “It’s a nice photo… you look a lot like your mum when she was younger.”

“She was twenty one in this photo,” Cressida said running a thumb over the photo fondly. She knew that time hadn’t been kind to her mother’s looks and felt bad for hoping that it was slightly more forgiving on her as she grew.

As if sensing it was time to go, Jac moved to the edge of the bed. “Happy birthday, Cressie,” she whispered before disappearing back through the curtains leaving Cressida alone to look at the photo and cry in peace.

Chapter 18: First Year: The Night Before Christmas (holidays)

Saturday 19th December 2015

 

Jac had kept quiet about Cressida’s birthday, but Molly and Margo had noticed the appearance of the picture frame on Cressida’s nightstand. Luckily, whenever they mentioned it, Jac would come up with an excuse or change the subject until both girls had given up trying to figure out where it had come from.

She thought that this previous week was her best one yet at Hogwarts. Everyone was friends once again, the trio of Gryffindor boys seemed to be less interested in talking to Molly recently, and everyone seemed to be getting in the Christmas mood. Even the teachers seemed to be getting themselves in the Christmas spirit by wearing tinsel around their pointed hats or, in Slughorn’s case, a tie with mistletoe berries on. Professor Longbottom had even placed tiny Santa hats on all of his plants in the greenhouse.

Cressida knew that this wouldn’t last of course. With every passing day, she was becoming more aware that she would soon be alone for Christmas while everyone else went home. Jac had offered to stay but then a letter arrived demanding she come home from her mother and Shari Redwick seemed like a force to be reckoned with. According to her letter, Jac’s mother was concerned about her behaviour after being informed Jac had received a total of two detentions- both were Cressida’s fault. Jac told Cressida not to worry about it, she would explain to her mother what had happened and it would all be fine. Cressida doubted this very much.

Molly and Margo would obviously be returning to their families, although Molly seemed to be dreading the Christmas and New Years' parties stuck with her cousins.

The only one who remained ambiguous about where he was spending the Christmas holidays was Felix, who whenever they asked him, would brush it off and start a new conversation.

However, it was currently 5 am and Cressida had hardly slept all night. Everyone would be leaving tomorrow morning and there was nothing she could do to stop it, but she also wanted a distraction from thinking about it.

She lay staring up at her ceiling once again, wishing she could do anything other than think about spending Christmas alone while everyone else was with their families. She debated reading by wand light but that would wake the other girls up. She could wander the halls again but she didn’t want to spend any time wandering the halls while her friends were still present. She’d have plenty of time for that once they were gone. She could play with Rasper but the kitten was pleasantly asleep on the pillow beside her. One good thing about being stuck at Hogwarts for Christmas was that Rasper remained a secret from her mum and Gareth for a little longer.

In moments like this at home, she would have listened to music or sat on top of the garages watching the sunrise. She sat bolt upright. Jac’s portable player.

She had been promising herself she would get Jac her Cd player back since it was confiscated and she had yet to make good on that promise, but now seemed like the perfect time. Plus, her brother might want to know where it is if Jac returned without it.

With a plan forming in her mind, Cressida opened her curtains slightly and glanced out. All three girls were sound asleep and she wanted it to stay that way. There was no reason Jac should get into trouble for something Cressida did again, especially if her mother was keeping score.

Rasper purred himself awake and stretched across the pillow before looking up at Cressida. As Cressida pulled on her trainers and a warmer jumper, the kitten got to his feet expecting to join her on her adventure.

She glanced back at him, shaking her head slightly. “Not this time, Rasper-”

The kitten let out one of his signature raspy meows in protest.

“Okay, fine!” Cressida hushed the kitten, allowing him to jump up onto her shoulder. “But you have to be my lookout.”

Rasper settled onto her shoulder with an appreciative purr.

Cressida grabbed her wand from her bedside table, shoved it through her tied up hair, and crept along the floor, carefully avoiding the creak in the floor until she snuck out into the long green-lit corridor towards the common room.

Gabriel had said the portable player would be in Slughorn's office and so that’s where she would go. She knew he wouldn’t be in there, the teachers all had their own dorm rooms for sleeping. Theoretically, the plan should be full-proof.

She glanced around the abandoned common room one more time, checking she was alone and spotted the notice board beside the exit. Creeping over to it, she untacked one of the posters and removed the paper clip holding them together.

“So far so good,” she muttered to her kitten before continuing on.

She made it out of the Slytherin common room and stood in the long, cold corridors of the dungeons. Slughorn’s office was only a short walk from the common room and Cressida found it easily. Rasper jumped down from Cressida’s shoulder as she crouched in front of the lock. Cressida debated using her unlocking charm talent, but if she knew Hogwarts, she knew that’s exactly what the teachers would expect students to do. 

The best part about Hogwarts was it didn’t update with the times, meaning the lock was easily pickable by muggle standards.

She uncurled the paper clip and started fiddling with it within the lock until it gave the expected click and the door creaked open.

Rasper was the first in the room, Cressida following slowly behind. She searched the walls for a light switch and then remembered she was a witch.

She produced her wand and whispered the spell, lighting up the room. The room was smaller than she had expected but not as cold as the common room. It still brandished green everywhere she looked but the chairs were well used and comfier, the mantel place was filled with moving pictures of students from the past. On the walls, there were newspaper articles, letters and postcards magically pinned to stick to the stone.

Lighting them up better with her wand, she saw a newspaper clipping showing a man who looked vaguely familiar. The name mentioned in the article read  ‘Harry Potter: The Boy Who Saved Us All!’

“James’ dad…” she said out loud. “No wonder he has such an ego.”

Rasper gave a faint meow and Cressida snapped back to the original plan. She moved away from the wall of memorabilia and headed towards Slughorn’s mahogany desk, using the same paper clip to unlock his drawer. When she pulled it open, she was disappointed to find it was completely devoid of Jac’s portable Cd player. The only contents in the drawer were a set of Gobstones, some snap cards, a bottle of amber liquid and a colourful box Cressida refrained from opening.

“Dammit!” She cursed slamming the drawer shut again. 

The main lights of the room flicked on and Cressida froze as she turned to face the door. Slughorn stood in the doorway wearing a striped robe and holding a cup of tea, staring at her in shock.

“Miss Knightly?” He exclaimed. “What are you doing here so early? It’s nearly six in the morning!”

To Cressida’s surprise, the old wizard didn’t look angry, but she still gulped anyway, wondering how she would talk herself out of this. “I needed to talk to you, sir,” she lied quickly. 

Slughorn nodded and walked further into the room, clearly not questioning how Cressida managed to unlock his door. “By all means, Miss Knightly, sit-” he offered.

Cressida watched as Slughorn sat comfortably in his office chair and waited for her to sit in one of the green chairs opposite him.

“Tea?” He asked.

“If you have any,” Cressida replied as casually as she could. Rasper darted across the room and jumped into her lap once Cressida was sat.

She remained silent as Slughorn flicked his wand and a second cup of tea appeared and floated its way to land in front of Cressida.

“So-” he started, sipping his own tea loudly, “-what seems to be the problem, Cressida?”

Cressida faltered. What could she possibly say? There were no real problems other than slight annoyances here and there. She glanced around the fully lit room and saw the full extent of the eclectic Professor’s memorabilia decorations.

“Are all of these your students, Professor?” She asked, distracting him until she could come up with a better answer to his question.

Slughorn smiled up at the pictures fondly. “Most of them, yes. I’m rather a collector you see-”

“Of people?” Cressida asked confused.

“I suppose so,” Slughorn laughed heartily. “I like when a witch or wizard shows excellence. I like to talk to them and learn their stories and wonder what achievements they will rise to once they leave us here.”

Cressida sipped her tea and glanced at the walls once again. “Are all of them Slytherins?”

“Oh, no-” Slughorn said shaking his head. “Not all of them. I collect them from all houses. Gryffindors are quite frequently picked out, the occasional Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Slytherins come in flurries every few years. I’ve not had a good amount of Slytherins attend the Slug Club in a long time, it feels like. I thought it’d be best to not single them out after-”

The old Professor stopped and looked down at his tea.

“The war?” Cressida guessed. She hadn’t given the war much thought at all since learning about it from Felix. “I’ve heard Slytherins were on the wrong side of it all.”

Slughorn looked up at Cressida and gave a grimaced expression. “Quite. Not their faults… not all of them anyway… I’ve always said not all of them were bad but sadly the high tensions of war and family class got into everyone’s heads.”

Cressida gulped down the last of her tea. She felt like she was venturing into a heavy conversation she wasn’t ready for. “Did you know him-” she said nodding her head towards Harry Potter’s poster. “Everyone else seems to.”

“Know him?!” Slughorn exclaimed sitting up more in his chair. “I had the pleasure of teaching him  and his mother! A wonderful set of skilled wizards. His mother was the brightest witch of her generation. Harry... well, he was a rather strained boy, with the war and all, but skilled nonetheless. I remember he won my liquid luck competition… he was rather cunning about what he used it for too, come to think of it. Harry would have made a good Slytherin,” Slughorn started rambling aimlessly, cradling his tea in his hands. “Perhaps, if he  had  been put in Slytherin the war wouldn’t have divided everyone up so much… Nonetheless, Gryffindors are always the heroes, I suppose.”

“Seems like they’re well-liked… the Potters,” Cressida said once it seemed Slughorn was done with his rambling.

“They were  loved . Every single one of them. Never met a kinder witch than Lily Evans. James Potter, Harry’s own father, was well-liked too. He used to run around these halls with his best friends causing all sorts of trouble,” Slughorn remembered fondly. “Then came Harry, all alone in the world after that terrible night in Godrick’s Hollow. I wasn’t here at the time, Severus held the position of Potions Professor, but Minerva told me what it was like. Luckily, the Weasleys were around to take him in, I dread to think of what would have happened if they hadn’t.”

Cressida was beginning to understand what Felix meant when he said Hogwarts’ history ran deep, but the families ran deeper. 

“Sir…” Cressida started tentatively. “Is being in Slytherin… bad?”

Slughorn had a strange look on his face as he looked at her. “Merlin, no… not all the time anyway. It’s true we’ve been given a bad rep as of late but there were good ones during the war. Regulus Black, for instance, he was a hero in secret for the longest time. Even his own brother wasn’t aware of Regulus’ sacrifice for the war effort.” Cressida could tell the look on his face for definite then, he was mourning. “I suppose that’s the thing about us Slytherins… we tend to like our secrets. For what reason I’m not sure. Maybe we don’t want the credit, maybe we do things to prove to ourselves that we simply can… maybe we think it makes us more interesting.” Slughorn finally looked at Cressida again as though he had remembered the reason she was sitting opposite him. “Wasn’t there something important you wanted to talk about, Cressida?”

Cressida sat up slightly in her chair. After this slightly reminiscent conversation with Slughorn she imagined she could ask him for anything and he would say yes without question, he seemed like the type to be too trusting of people’s intentions. She didn’t want to lie to him if so.

“A few weeks ago Gabriel confiscated my friend’s Cd player and said it would be with you… I wondered if it was possible to have it back. We won’t play it after hours again, I promise.”

“Oh, stuff like that goes to Filch’s office. I’m sure he’d be more than willing to give it back if you ask nicely,” Slughorn replied.

Cressida got to her feet, placing Rasper onto her shoulder as she did so. “Thank you, Professor.”

“My pleasure, Miss Knightly,” Slughorn smiled back up at her. “Pop by anytime you like.”

Cressida smiled over her shoulder at the Professor as she exited his office and headed back into the common room. To her surprise, her friends all came rushing up to her just as she made it through the entrance. Even Felix was traipsing behind the three girls, yawning slightly.

“Where  have  you been?!” Molly asked at once. As expected, she didn’t look happy about Cressida being out of bed. Some things never changed.

“You never willingly get up before ten on the weekends,” Jac said. “We thought something had happened.”

“I was talking to Slughorn,” Cressida answered them truthfully.

“Well, could you warn us next time so I don’t have to get out of bed for nothing,” Felix complained.

“What did you need to talk to Slughorn about?” Molly asked curiously.

“You’re not in trouble again are you?” Margo asked.

Cressida hardened her eyes on Margo until she shrank slightly behind Molly. “No, I’m not in trouble,” Cressida replied. “I was asking where confiscated items go and then he started rambling about Harry Potter.”

“Good luck getting anything back from Filch,” Felix laughed. “You’ll have to steal whatever it is back from his office.”

Molly turned to Felix, sighing knowingly. “Don’t give her ideas, Finnegan.”

“Cressida wouldn’t try and  steal  it back-” Jac started but then caught the look on Cressida’s face and faltered. 

“I  knew  you were up to something!” Margo rebuked.

“It’s not stealing if it’s rightfully yours,” Cressida defended herself moving out of the entrance and over to their usual alcove. “Besides, Slughorn didn’t even notice I had unlocked his door and his desk drawer when he caught me.”

The four of them remained standing, staring at Cressida as she sank into the comfortable cushions. “You managed to get into his office?” Felix asked impressed. “I thought there were anti-magic locks on the doors.”

“I didn’t use magic… I picked it like a normal person,” Cressida explained.

Felix turned to the three girls. “You have to admit that is some good thinking-”

“Shut up, Finnegan.” Molly interrupted him, her eyes hardening on Cressida the same way they always did when Molly was about to give a lecture. “Promise me you won’t try and break into Filch’s office.”

“Yeah!” Margo said, gaining more confidence beside Molly. “You’re going to end up getting a reputation if you’re not careful.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. 

“Margo’s right,” Molly continued, although somewhat reluctantly given the slight tension that still remained between Margo and Cressida. “Leave this sort of idiotic thinking up to my cousins.”

“Fine,” Cressida agreed. “I’ll get it back the proper way.”

“Good,” Molly smiled. “Breakfast then?” She offered, deciding the situation was dealt with.

“I’m going to need some coffee if I’m staying awake,” Felix agreed.

Jac looked down at Cressida then at the other three. “You lot go ahead. It’s too early for my stomach to have anything in it yet.”

Molly sent a suspicious look between Cressida and Jac but turned. “Try and stay out of trouble.”

With that, Molly led the other two Slytherins out of the common room. 

“Does Felix know he’s still in his batman pyjamas?” Cressida asked as she watched them depart.

“He’ll realise soon enough,” Jac said slumping down on the sofa beside Cressida.

The two sat in silence for a moment.

“You were trying to get my Cd player back,” Jac said finally.

“It’s my fault it got lost in the first place.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?” She asked turning her head to look at Cressida.

Cressida shrugged slightly. “I didn’t want you to get into any more trouble.”

Rasper climbed his way over and curled up in Jac’s lap. “Molly’s right, you know…” Jac continued after a beat. “This is the sort of stuff her cousins pull. We’d never get away with something like this.”

Cressida's mind started whirling with an idea. Molly and Jac were right, the trio of Gryffindors seemingly got away with stuff like this all the time. If Cressida could convince them to do the deed for her then she wouldn’t be breaking her promise to Molly.

Jac sat up straighter, examining Cressida’s face. “Don’t even think about it-”

“Think about what?” Cressida asked innocently.

“That face. That’s your idea face!” Jac said jumping up, startling Rasper.

“I don’t have an idea face,” Cressida rebuked.

“But if you did it would look like that!” 

Cressida raised her eyebrows at Jac staring down at her. “Do you want your Cd player back?” 

Jac’s shoulders slumped. “Yes,” she sighed. “But I leave tomorrow, there’s no way you’ll get it back before then.”

Cressida stood up, scooping Rasper into her arms as she did so. “Your lack of faith in me is upsetting, Redwick.”

Jac couldn’t keep back the smile that crept onto her face as she followed Cressida out of the common room.

 

*

 

Cressida had sent Jac ahead with an excuse to give Molly and the others for the day while she started the first phase of her plan. She had been camped out inside the secret passageway behind the tapestry for only thirty minutes before she heard familiar voices approaching. She shouldn’t have been surprised to see them using the secret passageway after finding out how to get in it, but still having them in it at the same time as her felt strange after navigating the tunnel alone for so long.

The trio of boys stumbled into one another once they saw Cressida leaning against the stone wall, pretending like she wasn’t waiting for them.

“Alright, Knightly,” James whispered with a grin. He was acting like them both being in the tunnel at the same time was something scandalous.

“Why are you whispering?” Cressida asked him.

James paused as if considering her question. “Seemed like the sneaky thing to do,” he shrugged after a moment.

Fred jutted his chin out towards Cressida. “How come you’re lurking in here?”

Cressida tried not to grin as she sighed deeply and turned back to staring at the wall again. “I’m thinking. Go away.”

The trio of boys all looked at one another for a moment. Eventually, James nudged Thomas forward as tribute. “Thinking about what?” He asked curiously.

“Filch nabbed something of mine and I can’t get it back,” she answered knowing they were hooked. “I was going to break in and get it back myself but apparently  no one  can break into Filch's office,” she said. “It’s a shame too, I hear he has some really good stuff locked away already this year.”

Fred was eyeing Cressida suspiciously. “Don’t think that will work on us-”

“We can break into Filch’s office easily!” James spoke over him.

Fred slumped back against the wall. “Apparently, it will work.”

Cressida sent a sly smile to Fred before focusing on James. “If I can get you the key, can you grab something specific for me?” She asked. “Everything else in his office is yours for the taking.”

James pondered this for a moment. Fred stood beside him, arms folded awaiting his answer. Thomas leant closer to James, keeping an eye on Cressida at all times. “Think of all the Weasley and Zonko's products he’s confiscated over the years. We’d be stocked for the entire year,” he said enticingly.

“Forget the year, imagine the chaos we could cause at Christmas dinner!” James said excitedly. He then turned to Fred. “Is it doable?”

Fred debated this silently. “The last two to break into Filch’s office were my dad and Fred,” he said. 

“We’re doing it then!” James decided instantly. “This is now a matter of family reputation. We'll be just like our namesakes!"

"Dead?" Fred questioned.

"I was going for legendary but way to bring the mood down, Freddie," James rebuked. Fred crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. "Come on, we can’t let someone else  be the first to break into Filch’s office!”

James and Thomas turned to Fred with their best imitation of puppy-dog eyes and the taller boy relented, giving a curt nod.

“Great, I’ll get the key to you by tonight,” Cressida said.

“Tonight!?” Thomas squeaked. 

“I have to have it back before everyone leaves tomorrow,” Cressida told them pushing herself up off the wall. “But if that’s too much for you to handle-”

“Tonight is fine!” James cut her off proudly, which was met with Fred rolling his eyes dramatically.

“Great,” she smiled. James laced an arm around Thomas and pulled their heads together, descending the rest of the tunnel in deep whispers.

Feeling rather content with herself, Cressida turned to start walking away herself when she felt a hand tug on her arm and spun around to see Fred holding her back.

“I know what you’re doing, Knightly. Why do you need us to break into his office for you?” He asked quietly.

Cressida pulled her arm out of his grip and continued walking forward. “I’m not stupid enough to try and do it myself,” she lied. “Besides, don’t you want the glory of getting the job done? I thought something this dangerous would be right up your alley.”

“You’re hiding something, Knightly. James may not see it, but I do.”

Cressida turned her steely eyes on him properly. “Guess I’m just your typical Slytherin then, aren’t I. We apparently always have a secret to keep us interesting,” she commented before walking off entirely.

 

*

 

Cressida felt bad that despite it being her last full day with her friends, she hadn’t seen them at all. She had fully thrown herself into getting the key, and therefore the Cd player, off Filch before the others left in the morning. The only problem was she didn’t know how she was going to get that key off Filch.

She knew he always had it on him, she could hear it rattling whenever he was chasing a student through the hall. She had to think harder, this couldn’t be solved in any muggle way. She’d have to think like a witch for this one… not only that, she’d have to think like a Slytherin.

Perhaps that was why she was struggling so much to come up with the second phase of the plan. So far she had been pacing in the common room for an hour while Jac distracted the others with Gobstones and lunch.

Luckily for Cressida, the common room was devoid of any other students for a change. She suspected they all had better things to be doing on their final Saturday before heading home.

Rasper was perched on the chair watching Cressida walk back and forth with only the occasional meow to remind her he was there and wanted a head scratch.

“ How  am I going to knock Filch out?!” Cressida groaned, throwing herself into the chair beside her kitten. She had thought of everything. She could trick him into running into a wall, spiking his drink, simply hitting him over the head with a bat. None of these seemed to be the right solution if she wanted to get away scot-free. She imagined assaulting a caretaker wouldn’t look good on her school record.

Someone nearby cleared their throat elegantly and Cressida looked around the room confused. No one else was in there with her. She definitely wouldn’t be talking to Rasper out loud about her plans if someone was.

Thinking she was imagining it, she slumped back down in the chair. “I could wait for him to fall asleep…” she mused out loud but then scowled. “ Does  Filch sleep?”

Rasper gave a meow in response.

Someone cleared their throat more clearly this time and Cressida jumped to her feet, scanning the common room with her eyes. “Who’s there?”

“If my memory serves correct,” a rather dignified voice came. Cressida spun around and saw the portrait of the person named R.A.B was talking, but not looking at her. In fact, he was barely moving out of his picturesque position. “Students of a pranking nature used to put sleeping draught into tarts.”

Cressida wandered closer to the rather stiff looking portrait. In all her months in the common room, R.A.B was the only picture that didn’t seem to be alive until this moment. Most of the time the frame was completely empty, come to think of it. “How do I get sleeping draught?”

R.A.B gave the faintest shrug of his shoulder. “That sounds like a you problem.”

Cressida thought hard for a moment. “Lupin!” She exclaimed. R.A.B looked at her fully then, a confused look on his face as if she were mad. “Teddy will undoubtedly have something like that stashed away.”

RA.B’s face relaxed then, as he settled back into looking like he didn’t move at all. Cressida gathered her things into her hobo bag and placed Rasper on top of her books to come along for the ride. “Thanks for your help!” She called to the portrait as she started leaving.

“Please  never  mention it.”

 

*

 

It had taken no convincing to get Teddy on board with the plan. As soon as Cressida had mentioned Filch and sleeping draught in the same sentence he produced a tart with the potion in within the hour and wished her the best.

After phase two of her plan was sorted, she returned to her friends to spend what little of the afternoon she had left with them. They had decided on sitting in their usual alcove with hot chocolates and chocolate frogs was the best way to spend their final evening together before heading home for Christmas. 

Cressida kept her potioned tart hidden in a napkin in her bag and didn’t tell the others any aspect of her plan. The only one who knew Cressida was even up to something was Jac, but it had seemed to slip her mind while they all sat laughing together.

Now it was nearing bedtime, and Molly was doing her usual rounding up of conversations and ushering people off to their respective dorm rooms. Cressida remained sat on the sofa while the others got up preparing to have an early night.

“Aren’t you coming?” Molly asked. 

“I’m not tired yet,” Cressida replied. “Besides, I don’t have anything to wake up for in the morning like you lot.”

Molly gave an understanding nod before turning towards the girl's dorm. “Just try and be quiet when you come in.”

Jac seemed to remember the plan at that moment and narrowed her eyes at Cressida suspiciously. Cressida tapped the side of her nose with a grin as Jac dutifully followed behind Molly and Margo.

Once all four of her friends had turned in for the night, Cressida got to her feet and started phase three of the plan.

Cressida had set everything up perfectly, in her opinion. Within half an hour, Cressida had positioned the potioned tart outside of Filch’s office on a stool with a note that read  ‘Merry Christmas’  and then hid herself around the corner to make sure she grabbed the key as soon as he fell asleep.

To her annoyance, Filch hadn’t started doing his rounds yet or appeared by his office in the last twenty minutes and her time to meet the Gryffindors with the key was fast approaching. 

Cressida glanced around the corner to see the tart still placed perfectly and huffed.

“What are we waiting for?”

Cressida jumped when she heard Jac’s voice. “You’re supposed to be in bed!” She scolded her friend.

“So are you,” Jac countered. “And it’s  my  Cd player.”

“Your mum will kill you if you get another detention because of me.”

“Do you think we’ll get caught?”

“Well… no.”

Jac smiled and peered around the corner towards the waiting tart. “Then we have nothing to worry about.”

Cressida couldn’t argue with that logic and peered around the corner with Jac. Luckily, while she had been talking, Filch had appeared and eaten the tart whole. The old caretaker now lay slumped over on the stool with crumbs cascading down his front. Mrs Norris lay curled up at his feet, also sleeping soundly

Feeling rather proud of herself, Cressida nudged Jac to follow behind her as she snuck closer to the slumbering caretaker and carefully rummaged around for the key in his jacket pocket.

“I’ve got it,” Cressida whispered retreating back to the safety of the corner.

“Why are we walking  away  from the office?” Jac asked confused.

Her question was answered ten minutes later when the two girls met the trio of boys in the secret passageway.

“And you’re sure he’s out for the count?” Fred asked cautiously.

“I got the draught from Teddy myself,” Cressida told them.

“Oh, he won’t wake up until morning,” James laughed. 

Thomas wrung his hands nervously. “Filch may be dealt with but what about McGonagall?”

They all paused and looked at one another. None of them had thought about her.

“No guts, no glory,” James said after a moment. This seemed to give Thomas and Fred all the convincing they needed to go through with it. “See you on the other side, Knightly,” James grinned as he lead his two counterparts through the tunnel to complete the mission.

Chapter 19: First Year: Happy New Year

Sunday 20th December 2015

 

Jac and Cressida had returned to their dorm room at around one in the morning, growing bored of waiting for the trio to return.

Jac fell asleep as soon as they returned, but as normal Cressida lay awake for the whole night wondering if the boys had managed to pull it off. Turning to her side, she could see the light of morning shining in through her bed curtains. Rasper was still peacefully asleep on the pillow beside her and Cressida didn’t bother waking him up this morning.

To her surprise, all the other girls were still asleep as well, their trunks open and nearly filled to the brim for the Christmas holidays. She hated to think about waking up tomorrow without them here.

Pulling on her trainers and shoving her wand through her tied up hair, Cressida crept out of the dorm room and into the common room. As expected, there were students from all years milling around saying their goodbyes early or packing up the last of their things that they had left lying around the shared space. Cressida’s eyes fell upon R.A.B as still and motionless as he had always been. A part of Cressida thought that she had made him talking to her up.

Without talking to anyone, Cressida walked out into the hallway and snuck behind the tapestry, meeting the trio of boys halfway up the stairs.

Fred was yawning and Thomas was half asleep slumped onto Fred’s arm for support, but James looked as awake as he always did.

“What time did you go to sleep?” Cressida asked them.

“We haven’t,” James grinned at her. “We only left Filch’s office three hours ago. Spent the rest of the night looking through what we scavenged.”

“We dropped the key back into Filch’s pocket before we left,” Fred yawned again. “He won’t suspect a thing until he enters his office but even then he can’t prove it was us.”

Cressida didn’t dare ask what magical objects the three now had in their possession. “Did you get what I needed?”

James passed her the portable Cd player, looking at it curiously. “What is that thing anyway?”

“It plays music,” Cressida answered him.

Thomas was starting to drool onto Fred’s arm. “Why not just use a record player like the rest of us?” Fred asked unbothered.

“Not all of us can afford something that expensive,” Cressida said somewhat defensively. “Don’t let me keep you, I’m sure you three have lots of packing to do.”

Fred nudged Thomas awake and turned to leave leaning on each other for support. James let the two walk ahead for a moment before turning back to Cressida. “Merry Christmas, Knightly,”

Cressida avoided looking at him straight on, instead, staring at the floor. “You too, Potter.”

With a grin, James saluted her and then turned to run after his two best friends while Cressida went in the opposite direction. 

When she returned to the dorm room, she found that all the girls were now awake. Molly was storming around the room finding the last of her Christmas homework that needed to be packed as well as her favourite quill.

“Here it is,” Margo said guiltily, pulling the quill out from under her bed.

Molly snatched it back and stared at it in horror. “Margo, you chewed it!”

“I’m sorry, you know I’m a nervous chewer!” Margo replied, hurrying off into the bathroom.

Jac was sat on her bed calmly, her trunk packed and ready to go by her bedside, playing with Rasper. Once Cressida had re-entered the room, Jac looked up and smiled at her. “You got it back!”

Molly whirled around and spotted the Cd player in Cressida’s hands.

Cressida held it up in surrender. “Before you lecture me,  I  didn’t steal it back myself. I just happened upon it.”

Molly pursed her lips, knowing Cressida was lying but decided not to lecture her. “Well if you  happen  upon my homework, let me know.”

Cressida moved away from the door and sat beside Jac on the bed, holding out the Cd player for her to take. To Cressida’s surprise, Jac shoved it back into Cressida’s chest. “You should keep it here over the break,” she said.

“After all I did to get it back for you before you left?” Cressida asked in a hushed voice. “Won’t your brother care it’s missing?”

Jac laughed. “Cress, we have phones and internet connection back home. No one’s going to care about the Cd player. Trust me, you need it here more than I need it.”

Cressida smiled gratefully at her before moving and placing the Cd player safely under her own bed. At that time, Molly had seemingly packed everything of importance and was now dragging her trunk towards the door.

“Come on, we don’t want to be the last ones on the train!” She urged the other two girls.

Rolling her eyes, Jac rolled off her bed and grabbed her trunk joining Molly in the doorway. Margo ran out of the bathroom and grabbed her own trunk just as the girls started making their way into the common room to meet Felix.

To their surprise, Felix was lounging comfortably on the sofa in their usual alcove, still in his pyjamas and with no trunk in sight.

Molly looked horrified. “Finnigan, we leave in half an hour!”

“ You  leave in half an hour,” Felix corrected them merrily. “I get to eat breakfast in a quiet hall in half an hour.”

“You’re not going home?” Cressida asked him confused.

Felix looked at her with a grin. “I couldn’t let you stay here on your own and have all the fun.”

If the room hadn’t been filled with every Slytherin going, Cressida would have hugged Felix in that moment.

Slughorn appeared in the common room, cutting the moment short. “All Slytherins start heading towards the Entrance Hall. First Years are to be loaded onto the carriages first!” He instructed. He was wearing a tie embroiled with dancing mince pies this particular morning. “And Merry Christmas to all of you and your families!”

“That’s our cue to go,” Molly said glancing over at their Head of House starting to round up all the First Years. “Are you sure you two will be okay?” She asked turning back to Felix and Cressida.

“What do you think we’re going to do, burn the whole school down?” Felix joked.

“I wouldn’t put it past the two of you,” Margo commented under her breath.

“First Years, follow me please!” Slughorn called again.

Jac moved forward and pulled Cressida into a tight hug and then Felix. “Merry Christmas,” she said to both of them.

After five minutes of goodbyes and Christmas wishes, Molly had to practically drag Jac away from Cressida and towards Slughorn to leave.

Once all the years had been filtered out of the common room, it only left a total of seven students including Cressida and Felix, which meant it was suddenly very quiet.

The two remaining Slytherins were still staring at the entrance to the common room in silence for a while, taking in the fact the others had really gone.

“So,” Cressida said, breaking the tension. “Breakfast?”

“You read my mind.”

 

 

Friday 25th December 2015

 

The week since the others had left had passed by incredibly fast. Cressida and Felix spent nearly every moment together, not admitting to missing the company of the others, but enjoying having the other one there to pass the days with.

Cressida had never realised how much Felix actually talked until she was alone with him. She now also knew he was a lot smarter than he let on, throwing out random facts and tips about magic that Cressida would never have known otherwise.

One night in the common room, neither of them wanted to go to bed at curfew, and with no one there to snitch on them, they stayed up in their alcove all night practising spells. Thanks to Cressida, Felix could now perform the unlocking charm flawlessly and had taken to unlocking every locked cabinet or door around Hogwarts whenever he saw one. On another night, the two of them practised the ticking spell on each other until the early hours of the morning, finding it highly entertaining to make the other one wriggle along the floor. Cressida thought this particular spell would be very entertaining to use on the trio of Gryffindor boys next time they tried to antagonise her.

It was finally Christmas day and Cressida awoke to an empty bedroom, just like she had for the last five days, but she didn’t mind so much this morning. She had always woken up alone on Christmas morning at home anyway.

Looking at the clock, she found it was nearly eleven in the morning. Perhaps having a late night with Felix in the common room had been a mistake. The two had camped out in front of the fireplace with hot chocolates, wondering if Hogwarts would enchant anything to come down the chimney. Unfortunately, it did not, and at two in the morning both of them accepted defeat, returning to their own rooms.

It didn’t really matter she had woken up later than normal for Christmas morning, Cressida reminded herself. She had nowhere to be and no one to see. She sat up and looked towards Rasper. She had made him a collar out of tinsel as a joke for the special holiday a few nights ago and now Rasper refused to let her take it off.

Reaching over, Cressida awoke the kitten with a firm kiss on the head, which was met with an annoyed meow. “Merry Christmas, Rasper!”

Cressida pulled her bed curtains open and got up. To her surprise, there was a tiny pile of wrapped presents at the foot of her bed. She wasn’t sure how they got there. They definitely hadn’t been there when she went to bed last night, and she hadn’t heard anyone come in.

Not caring how they appeared, Cressida took action and emptied her hobo bag of all school supplies and shoved the pile of presents in there so they were easier to carry. Once she had brushed her teeth and put on a warmer jumper, Cressida grabbed her bag and her sleepy kitten and ventured out into the common room.

Felix was already up and waiting for her, as he had been every day since the others left, with a hot chocolate in hand and a mince pie in the other.

“What a healthy breakfast,” Cressida teased as she sat beside him in front of the fire. Felix silently shoved a mince pie of her own into Cressida’s hands. 

“Christmas tradition. Usually, me and dad would drink hot brandy with them first thing in the morning but McGonagall refused to give me any alcohol,” he swallowed his mince pie loudly. “She says I’m too much like my old man for my own good. I think she just wants all the wine to herself.”

“Did you get any presents?” Cressida asked taking a large bite out of her mince pie. 

Felix nodded his head to the pile he had already brought out beside the sofa. His pile was much bigger than hers, but Cressida had expected as much.

She turned her attention back to the fireplace in front of them. Sat here eating mince pies with Felix was perhaps the most picturesque Christmas setting Cressida had ever been in. Even the usually cold and eerie Slytherin common room felt cosy and warm for the first time. 

Still, her mind wandered back to her small home town flat. They never had a big tree or fancy decorations, but her mother tried. She hoped she was awake right now thinking of Cressida, but she knew her mother was likely too tired from work to be thinking of anything coherently.

“Felix,” Cressida said suddenly, still staring at the fireplace. Felix looked towards her mid-sip of his hot chocolate, causing whipped cream to be plastered to the tip of his nose. “Why didn’t you go home?”

Felix wiped the cream from his nose with the back of his jumper sleeve. “I was going to, but then I realised Jac was going to be forced to go back and I didn’t want you to spend Christmas alone after the letter your mam sent.”

“What about your family?”

“Dad and Dean don’t mind. They were on about going to the Potter’s Christmas party this year anyway and I don’t think I could face Margo on Christmas day, or deal with Molly’s family drama. I’d honestly rather be here with you,” he shrugged. “And it’s been fun… don’t you think?”

Cressida grinned and took the hot chocolate from Felix, taking a big sip. “It could have been worse,” she joked. Felix pushed her over onto her side laughing as he stole his hot chocolate back.

“Shall we open our presents now?” He asked climbing onto his knees and reaching for his pile.

 

 

Thursday 31st December 2015

 

Christmas day had been better than Cressida could have imagined, which made her feel incredibly childlike when she remembered how she had acted when she found out she would be stuck in Hogwarts for the holidays, but she knew this was all partly due to Felix.

If he hadn’t stayed behind to keep her company, Cressida imagined her first Christmas at Hogwarts would have gone very differently.

Even her presents had been better than she could have expected. She had a new bobble hat and gloves from her mum and Gareth, a pack of chocolate frogs from Margo, new quills from Molly, and Felix’s gift to her was staying behind and supplying her with snacks and hot chocolates whenever she fancied them. 

The best gift, however, had been from Jac. She had sent a Cd of  ‘Hot Fuss’  by the ‘ Killers’.  The note attached to it revealed it had been her brother’s favourite Cd growing up, but she thought Cressida might like to listen to it before she returned to Hogwarts.

Cressida had done just that, revealing the Cd player to Felix in the process. Every day since Christmas the two had played the Cd in the common room. Felix’s favourite song on the album was obviously  ‘Mr Brightside’  accompanied by terrible dancing and loud singing on Felix’s part, whereas Cressida preferred ‘ Smile Like You Mean It’  followed closely by  ‘Change Your Mind’.

The Christmas feast was also better than anything Cressida had ever experienced. The feast included roast turkey, potatoes, chipolatas, peas, gravy, cranberry sauce, and flaming Christmas puddings. At the staff’s table, the teachers spent enjoyed their meal while sipping on some mulled wine, which Felix complained about in between mouthfuls.

Cressida also got to experience Wizard Crackers for the first time, which exploded loudly and contained more impressive prizes inside than their muggle counterparts, such as proper hats and bonnets, live mice, and Wizard's Chess sets.

However, now it was New Year's Eve and the two remaining Slytherins were counting down the days until the remaining three of their group returned, wanting to tell them everything they got up to while they were gone. The rest of the students were due back early Sunday morning and Cressida didn’t want to admit how much she missed her friends over the last two weeks. At least missing her friends distracted her from missing her mum.

“Fifteen minutes to midnight,” Felix called over to her. He was lounging across the sofa in their alcove with a Quibbler magazine in his hands.

Cressida sat in front of the fire, playing with Rasper and one of Felix’s shoelaces. “Do wizards kiss at midnight like muggles?” Cressida asked curiously.

“Yes, but don’t get your hopes up,” Felix said throwing his magazine at her. “I’d rather kiss one of Slughorn’s toads than you.”

Cressida was inclined to agree. Even if she was at the age of kissing boys, Felix would not be at the top of the list. 

She let Rasper get the string and got to her feet, moving to stare at the window revealing the gloomy-looking lake beyond the glass pane. “Do you think they’ll do fireworks?”

Felix snatched his shoelace back from the kitten and started threading it back through his shoe. “Even if they did, we can’t see anything from down here. We have no need for windows as Margo likes to point out.”

“We could find somewhere else to watch them,” Cressida suggested.

Felix laughed like she had made a joke. “It’s after hours, Filch will be on the lookout. He’s been extra ruthless on duty for some reason recently.”

Cressida turned towards him suddenly, an idea forming in her mind. “We can easily avoid Filch,” she said pulling Felix to his feet and grabbing Rasper from the floor.

“Wait- where are we going?” Felix asked as Cressida dragged him behind her. Rasper perched onto her shoulder, meowing excitedly as the two Slytherins snuck out of the common room.

Cressida motioned for Felix to be quiet and follow her until they came to a stop and she pulled the tapestry to the side revealing the passageway inside. “Think of it as my Christmas present to you,” she whispered to him. “But it’s a secret, you can’t tell anyone.”

“How in Merlin’s baggy ball-sack did you know this was here!?” Felix yelled.

Cressida covered his mouth and yanked him inside the tapestry just as Filch came running around the corner. Rasper hissed at the tapestry until Cressida covered his mouth as well.

“Even on the holidays these filthy, lying students cause me trouble,” the caretaker complained. “Come, Mrs Norris, I’m sure they’re lurking about somewhere.”

Cressida didn’t remove her hands until she heard Filch grumble and walk away again. Once the initial shock of the secret passageway had gone, Felix’s demeanour returned to normal. “I may have overreacted.” 

“You don’t say,” Cressida replied leading the way forward. 

Once they emerged on the other side, Cressida continued leading the way through the halls, navigating every turn and corridor she knew until finally, they reached the Astronomy tower.

“Wow,” Felix gasped looking out at the view. They had their lessons in this room, but usually, the dullness of the lesson took away from the beauty of the view.

Cressida settled into one of the window ledges looking over the view for herself. It had snowed a few hours ago, so the grounds were covered in a thin layer of untouched snow, and the sky was perfectly clear and full of stars. Once again, she thought of her mother and her friends, all cooped up in their respective homes far away looking at the same sky and bringing in the new year.

There was an unexpected loud bang and suddenly the sky was lit up in a brilliant red coming from Gryffindor tower. Next was a vibrant blue from Ravenclaw tower. Then came a soft yellow from somewhere near the greenhouses. Finally, an emerald green exploded into the sky from near the lake. 

Cressida assumed each Head of House was to thank for the fireworks show, and she thanked them silently.

“Happy New Year, Felix,” Cressida smiled as she stared out at the scenery.

“Happy New Year, Cressida,” Felix replied looking out at the sky filling with the four house colours as well. “To you and your shoelace stealing cat,” he joked lifting Rasper onto his own shoulder to watch the remainder of the show.

 

Sunday 3rd January 2016

 

There was a signature bang against the door of her dorm room and Cressida woke up. Not even bothering to make herself look decent or put on slippers, she opened her bedroom door to see Felix’s shoe lying on the floor. Picking it up and storming down the hall to meet him, she waved the smelly shoe above her head. “You’ve  got  to find a new way to get my attention!”

Felix grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her violently. “It’s ten o’clock. You overslept!”

Cressida was fully awake in an instant. Throwing his shoe back at Felix, she took off running barefoot through the castle.

She had already made it to the Entrance Hall before Felix caught up with her. The doors were flung open letting flurries of snow into the already cold hall, but Cressida didn’t care. The oldest students came in first, dawned in thick robes and new scarves and bobble hats.

“Good morning, Cressida. Have a nice Christmas, did ye?” Hagrid greeted her in his usual Northern accent as he passed, leaving giant snowy footprints in his wake.

Cressida and Felix positioned themselves by the Grand Staircase awaiting their friends impatiently. Annoyingly, the trio of Gryffindors came in before any other First Years got the chance.

“Miss us, Knightly?” James called over to her. He had a new knitted red scarf with tiny snitches sewn on. She noticed Fed was wearing the matching bobble hat and Thomas had on the matching fingerless gloves.

“Can’t say I have,” Cressida shot back at them as they got closer. “In fact, I’ve rather enjoyed the peace and quiet.”

“Nice pyjamas, Knightly,” Fred commented. “Do you have a matching pair, Finnigan?”

“Sod off, Weasley,” Felix said, although it didn’t sound like he meant it. “How was the Christmas party?”

“Awful!” Molly's voice answered before either boy got the chance.

“That would be our cue to go,” Thomas said pushing his two best friends up the staircase. “I want to avoid getting cursed today if I can help it.”

Once they were gone, Molly and Margo revealed themselves from behind the trio. Cressida noticed Molly had a similar hat to James, but in green with tiny books instead of snitches. 

“You survived the holidays then?” Felix joked.

“Barely,” Margo said shaking the snow out of her dark hair.

“Every single day they pulled a prank,” Molly said irritably. “Where they got all their supplies, I have no idea. Uncle George said he didn’t give them any of it, but he still found it funny. One day I saw him conspiring with the idiotic trio on how to blow up Grandma Molly’s Christmas pudding.”

Cressida decided against informing Molly on where the trio had gotten their stock from. If she was lucky, Molly would never find out the truth at all.

“Cressida!” Jac’s voice called.

Margo was practically shoved to the side as Jac came running into the hall and hugged Cressida. “How was your Christmas?!” Jac asked excitedly moving to hug Felix just as enthusiastically.

“Absolutely terrible,” Felix said. “Knightly and I can barely stand each other now-”

Cressida punched him in the arm and was met with a grin.

“Well, come on then, you can tell us everything in the warmth of our common room. It’s bloody freezing standing by here,” Molly instructed.

Cressida was thankful the exchange was being moved back to the warm common room as she was starting to lose feeling in her toes and was getting annoyed at all the funny looks people passing by were giving her at her state of attire.

Chapter 20: First Year: A Spot Of Revenge

Monday 15th February 2016

 

Unfortunately, the new year brought long nights and rainy days to Hogwarts making the cosiness of Christmas seem like a distant memory. Cressida was beginning to think that Scotland was perhaps the only place that rained more than Wales.

She hadn’t heard from her mum since her birthday, some part deep inside her thought that now her mum had figured out how to use owl mail that she would write more often, but she had resigned herself to accepting that it wasn’t likely to happen.

Besides, she had other things to occupy her mind at the current time. Since coming back after the Christmas break, what little sympathy the Professors had for learning First Years had now dispersed and they were now setting more homework than ever to complete. Much to Cressida’s horror, Slughorn had mentioned the end of year exams in passing during one of their lessons.

She hadn’t previously been paying attention, Fred had dared Thomas to drink whatever potion he had concocted and he had started turning a funny shade of blue as a result, however, the word ‘exam’ had brought her crashing back to reality.

“It’ll be a breeze,” James said beside her at the table. He had his feet cocked up on the desk and was twiddling his wand in between his fingers. “We’ll pass with flying colours thanks to my dad’s book. I’m amazed Sluggie hasn’t clocked on yet.”

This week they were learning about the antidotes to common poisons, which Cressida thought Thomas would need to memorise sooner than everyone else if he was adamant about drinking whatever Fred dared him to. 

At the current time, the top of the class position for Potions was a tie between James and Molly, purely because Fred and Thomas messed around too much to be in the running. Cressida thought that Molly deserved the title without question, she didn’t have a tiny book to cheat from like James did.

Cressida was still rather middle ground in terms of lesson ability, apart from Charms, which she always seemed to excel at much to the annoyance of the trio. She kept telling herself as long as she got at least one good mark she didn’t care about the others. It’s not like her mum would understand the marking system anyway.

The past two months had proved eventful for another reason. Since coming back from Christmas break, Arabella Chauncey and her brother seemed to have a bigger vendetta against Cressida than before. Following Molly’s advice to stay out of trouble and avoid confrontation, Cressida let the little jabs and comments in the hallway slide. 

Arabella had been telling a Hufflepuff that Cressida was a father-less down and out that didn’t belong in Hogwarts. Cressida had simply smiled in their direction and agreed with them, which seemed to anger Arabella more.

Apparently, Victoire had overheard Arabella and Declan talking badly about Cressida and her friends and gave them both detention for it, putting her Head Girl duties to good use.

In fact, the only people Arabella didn’t seem to bad mouth were the trio of Gryffindors- James specifically. She must have learned her lesson after the Quidditch game fiasco in October and refrained from mocking Thomas for being on the team, instead, praising him loudly whenever James passed her by.

Cressida and Jac had witnessed this in passing on their way to Charms. Arabella was coming out of the classroom as the Slytherins and Gryffindors were preparing to go in.

“Hiya, James,” she smiled sweetly at him.

“Arabella,” James nodded back at her as he passed by accompanied by Fred and Thomas. He barely gave her a second glance before he settled against the wall beside Cressida and Jac. “I heard we’re learning about the Knock-back jinx this week, Knightly,” he grinned at her.

“If I remember correctly you have some expertise with this particular Charm,” Fred added on, sending a glance towards Arabella still standing in the hallway with them despite her class already departing for the next lesson. Molly, who was standing nearby with Felix and Margo, simply rolled her eyes. 

“ Please ,” Arabella scoffed annoyed. “If I had known she was going to jinx me I would have countered her easily.”

“I doubt it,” Thomas said. “I reckon Knightly is the best in our year at Charms.”

“No, she’s not, I am!” Arabella snapped.

While Arabella took to arguing with the trio about who was the most skilled at Charms, Jac leaned closer to Cressida. “Aren’t you going to get involved?” She whispered.

Cressida looked over to Molly and then back at Jac. “I’ve been ordered to avoid confrontation… besides,  they  seem to be doing all the arguing for me.”

“Knightly!” James called at once, bringing Jac and Cressida’s attention back towards the group. “Prove you’re the best at Charms. Do something amazing.”

Cressida narrowed her eyebrows at him. “I can’t just  do  something amazing, Potter.”

“Sure you can,” Fred encouraged. Based on the look on his face, he would be amused whether this went well or horribly for her.

“James says you do amazing stuff all the time without realising,” Thomas added on, which was met with a whack around the head from James and Fred. A small flurry of laughter spread amongst the on-lookers in the hallway at that, meanwhile, Arabella looked even more furious. 

At that moment, Flitwick opened his door and started ushering students in. “Miss Chauncey, you will be late for your next lesson,” Flitwick said noticing her still standing outside his classroom. “You best hurry along. I don’t want to dock any points from my own house.”

Resentfully, Arabella turned and stormed down the hall as the group started disappearing inside.

“So,” Cressida said as James fell in line with her entering the classroom. “You think I’m amazing?” 

James’ face remained deadpan as he looked straight ahead. “I may have said it once or twice. Don’t let it go to your head, Knightly.”

“Too late,” she smirked.

Molly came up on the other side of her. “Don’t encourage him, Cressida. He’ll only end up making a fool of himself.”

“I find that highly offensive, Weasley,” James said pointedly. While the cousins were still not talking to each other directly, they had developed a new habit of talking through Cressida or any poor bystander that happened to be around at the time one of them wanted to make a petty jab at the other.

“Yeah,” Fred said coming up and lacing an arm around James’ shoulders. “He makes a fool of himself perfectly fine without Knightly’s encouragement.”

“Settle down, students!” Flitwick ordered walking to the front of the classroom to stand on his pile of books. “We have much to learn in preparation for your exams in a few months.”

 

 

Saturday 20th February 2016

 

The morning passed in a haze of music and laughter with Jac as the two girls got through a hefty chunk of their homework at a decent pace, until dinner had arrived. Jac had brought back some more of her brother’s albums after the Christmas break and the two girls had listened to them relentlessly in the evenings, much to the annoyance of Molly and Margo. So far the new current favourite to play in a loop was  Queen’s Greatest Hits , and a few nights Felix had demanded he be levitated into the girl’s dorm to listen to the album with them.

Once Jac had turned on the Cd player and the first chords of ‘We will rock you’ started filling their dorm room first thing in the morning, Molly and Margo banished themselves to the library to finish their homework in peace.   Since then, neither girl had seen Molly or Margo all day, but had found Felix in the Great Hall and was glad to have his company improve their already triumphant moods.

“You two are far too happy for a Saturday afternoon when all you’ve done so far is homework,” he grumbled at them as he discarded his own pile of homework.

The two girls had decided not to inform him they were listening to the Cd without him on this particular morning. It was a lot of work to sneak him in without being spotted on a busy Saturday morning.

“What’s not to be happy about?” Jac replied easily. “I got a lie-in, we’ve got no lessons until Monday, my stomach is full, and we’re free from the Gryffindors for a whole day!”

Cressida, Jac and Felix were now all sitting together in their alcove in the Slytherin common room. Jac was sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the coffee table with her books spread out in piles according to the lesson they related to. Cressida was lounging across one of the green sofas twirling her wand in her hand. Felix sat on the sofa opposite her, lifting his foot off the floor every twenty seconds irritably.

“Cressida, could you control your cat, please! He’s going to ruin my shoes if he doesn’t stop soon,” he complained.

Cressida sat up, amused to see her kitten pouncing on Felix’s feet trying to attack his shoelaces as if it were a snake. “Take your shoes off then,” Jac suggested while skimming through a new book.

Felix removed his shoes and threw them across the small space to Cressida who only barely caught them in her hands. “God, Finnigan, these stink!” She gagged throwing his shoes back to the floor away from her.

Much to Felix’s annoyance, Rasper didn’t run after the shoes and instead started climbing up his trouser leg.

“I think Rasper’s obsessed with you, not the shoes,” Jac laughed. Felix tried to lift the kitten off him to no avail, and instead, Rasper latched his claws into Felix’s trouser leg even more so he couldn’t be pried off.

“Make him stop!” Felix demanded as Rasper jumped and started circling in his lap, purring happily.

“You should count yourself lucky. You’re finally someone’s favourite person,” Cressida teased.

Felix rolled his eyes, but gave in, stroking Rasper on the head slightly as the kitten started to fall asleep. “You’re lucky I like you, Knightly, or your cat would be chucked out of the common room altogether,” Felix replied jokingly.

At that moment, Molly and Margo had appeared in their alcove. As usual, Margo looked like she had been crying. Over the past few months, Cressida had come to learn that Margo could cry and complain about anything imaginable. “What’s happened?” Jac asked concerned as the two girls sat down with them.

“Arabella Chauncey said I had a pig nose,” Margo sniffed.

Molly started getting her own homework out beside Jac’s already large pile. “She thinks she’s better than everyone else just because she hangs around with her brother.”

“But he’s only a stupid Second Year,” Margo added on. She was smoothing the edges of her short, black hair sulkily.

“Exactly, so don’t let whatever she says get to you, Margo,” Molly comforted her in her usual blunt tone.

“Even if you do have a slight pig nose,” Felix nudged her playfully.

All three girls froze, glaring at Felix. Margo rounded on him with her eyes welling up once more. “You’re such a stupid boy!” She yelled at him before getting back to her feet and running toward the girl's dorm.

Felix looked at the remaining three girls guiltily. “I was just joking around,” he defended himself.

Molly sighed irritability, packing her things away once again. “Margo isn’t the type of girl who can handle joking around with much grace.”

“Do you want us to come?” Jac offered.

Molly threw her bag over her shoulder. “No, it’s okay. You two shouldn’t have to listen to her complain about this for hours.”

“I really didn’t mean to-” Felix started.

“It’s fine, Felix,” Molly called over her shoulder as she departed. “Just keep your mouth shut next time!”

Jac and Cressida continued to glare at him once Molly was gone. Cressida lightly punched his arm. “Here’s a tip, if you want to remain friends with a girl- don’t tell her she has a pig nose!”

Felix rubbed the spot Cressida had hit. “She does though! Not in a bad way, I happen to like her nose-"

Jac and Cressida both hit him this time.

 

Wednesday 24th February 2016

 

It had been another day full of lessons and more teachers than ever were reminding students to be mindful of the end of year exams. Not only that, but with all the added homework they were handing out, Cressida didn’t stop working until around seven in the evening when she eventually threw herself back on the sofa with a loud sigh.

Margo currently refused to talk to Felix since he said she had a pig nose, and instead dragged Molly off to the library to do their homework. Meanwhile, Felix had resigned himself to finding an easier way into the girl’s dorm room rather than face his growing pile of homework, meaning he was also elsewhere this evening giving very little entertainment for the two remaining girls. Homework always went much faster when all five of them worked together.

Jac groggily lifted her head from her own books, which she hadn’t been able to make sense of for the last twenty minutes. “If this is the pre-exam homework I dread to think what the actual exams are going to be like,” she grumbled.

Cressida winced at the mere thought. “If I knew magical school would be more effort than regular school I wouldn’t have been so excited to come,” she complained sitting back up. With a quick thought, Cressida nudged Jac with her foot to get her attention. “Fancy exploring?”

Jac looked up, closing her book instantly. “I thought you’d never ask.”

With that, both girls threw their books to one side and started making their way out of the common room.

“Not so fast,” Gabriel said blocking their exit. “Where are you two going this late?”

“It’s only seven,” Cressida said innocently. “We just wanted some fresh air.”

Gabriel folded his arms unconvinced, but then shrugged indifferently. “You know what, I honestly don’t care. Just don’t get caught whatever you’re up to. We can’t afford to lose any more house points,” he said moving past them and heading over to the sofas.

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other hiding smiles as they left the common room quickly. “Do you think we have a reputation, Knightly?” Jac joked as they started sneaking their way down the hall.

“He’s just mad we got our Cd player back. He can probably hear Queen from the common room,” Cressida replied pulling aside the tapestry to the passageway.

After an hour of endless searching, the two girls were starting to believe they had nothing left to explore around Hogwarts. They always seemed to end up on the same corridors, talking to the same portraits, and never unlocking or finding anything new to indulge themselves in.

The two were currently wandering along a hallway in the East Wing, accepting their grand mission had been a failure. “We can’t go back yet. It’s still another hour until curfew,” Jac complained as they trudged their way through the quiet halls.

Cressida was ashamed to admit that staying out of trouble sounded preferable for once. She had a bad feeling about wandering the halls after curfew tonight. The halls had been too quiet. “Felix is probably waiting to tell us his new idiotic ideas to get in our dorm room by now,” she said instead.

Jac rolled her eyes. “Anything’s got to be better than his idea of coming in through the ceiling.”

“Wait-” Cressida said suddenly, gesturing for Jac to stop. “Did you hear that?”

Both girls froze in the hallway listening to their surroundings. There was a set of footprints coming around the corner.

“Is it Filch?” Jac whispered nervously.

Cressida shook her head. “Too light-footed.”

Creeping towards the corner, Cressida kept listening intently. The footsteps seemed to stop just on the other side of the corner similarly to Cressida. A part of her wondered if it was James sneaking around like usual, or perhaps it was Teddy up to something for a change, but she knew them well enough to know they would have revealed themselves proudly by now.

One of the knights lining the halls was suddenly pushed over and both girls jumped around to look at it. A tall figure seemed to disappear out of sight before either girl could see who it was.

“Furnunculus!”

Cressida instinctively stepped in front of Jac once she heard a spell being thrown towards them. There was a flash of yellow and both girls shielded their eyes from the light.

“Did you see who it was?” Cressida asked, rubbing the spots out of her eyes.

“No,” Jac said. When Cressida gained back her sight, she saw Jac was staring at her with wide eyes. “But whoever it was  really  hates us.”

Cressida was beginning to grow nervous. “Why?”

Jac removed her robes from over her uniform and threw them over Cressida’s head, blindfolding her. “Just stay under there until we get back to the dorm room.”

Cressida had no choice but to let Jac lead her back to the dungeons by the hand.

After much fumbling and stumbling, both girls had re-entered the Slytherin common room just before curfew, the robes still covering Cressida’s face. Felix was waiting for them on the border to the girl's dorm rooms, his fingers tapping his chin in deep thought.

Once he heard Jac and Cressida approaching, he wagged a finger in the air, not turning to face them straight away. “I think I have an idea. If I Polyjuice Potion myself- why is Cressida hiding in your robes?”

“Believe me when I say I have no idea!” Cressida said irritably from under the robes. No matter how much she had begged Jac to tell her on their way back to the common room, she had refused to remove the robes from over her face until they were somewhere safe.

“We don’t have time for this, Felix,” Jac said pushing Cressida over the border where Felix couldn’t follow.

“Wait-” Felix said abruptly. “Wait for me!  Leviosa! ” He said pointing his wand at his shoes.

Felix flew into the air and then bounced unevenly across the hard floor until he landed outside of the girl’s dorm room.

“What just happened?” Cressida asked, not being able to see what was causing all the noise. “Is Felix on fire again?”

“Actually, he’s over the border,” Jac said surprised as she continued leading Cressida forward.

The three of them entered the dorm and Jac finally removed the robes from Cressida’s head, which was met with a shriek from Felix. “That can’t be good,” Cressida muttered searching for the vanity mirror, although, when she looked at her reflection she regretted it. Every inch of her face was covered in yellow and red boils and pimples, with an especially large and gross looking one on the tip of her nose.

“Did you dunk your head in a vat of grease?” Felix asked staring at her in the mirror.

“Yes, Felix. Obviously, that’s what we’ve been doing for the last two hours. We thought it would give us a nice healthy shine,” Jac said sarcastically.

“I was cursed,” Cressida said turning away from the mirror. “And I know who did it.”

At that moment the dorm room door opened again and the two remaining girls entered. Molly’s face instantly recoiled whereas Margo hardly noticed and instead glared at Felix sitting on the edge of her bed.

“What’s he doing here!?” She demanded to know.

“I think we have a more pressing issue right now, Margo,” Molly told her, gesturing to Cressida’s grotesque looking face. “How did you do this?”

“Someone cursed her,” Jac explained.

"Chauncey cursed me," Cressida corrected. She thought back to the knight being pushed over as a distraction. "This has Arabella written all over it."

Molly took a deep breath. “Are you positive it was Arabella?”

“Who else would it be?” Cressida asked hotly.

Molly shrugged. “Some people like to throw curses around. Maybe it wasn’t even meant to hit you.”

“It was  meant  to hit me!” Cressida said surely. 

Molly moved to sit on the edge of her bed. “Just promise me you won’t go after her until you have proof.”

Cressida crossed her arms and decided against making promises she didn’t intend to keep.

“Out of curiosity,” Jac said slowly. “Does anyone know the counter curse?”

All eyes turned to Molly. “Don’t look at me, I’ve had no need for this spell yet,” she said.

“You could go to Madame Pomfrey,” Felix suggested.

“No,” Cressida said suddenly, her mind working quickly. “I have a plan.”

“Oh  great ,” Margo huffed. “I’m sure this will end well for everyone involved as always. Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to take a hot shower which means Finnigan has to get out,” she snapped disappearing into the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.

 

 

Thursday 25th February 2016

 

Although this plan had seemed like a good idea last night, now she actually had to carry it through, Cressida was starting to have some doubts. For instance, her plan relied on her walking around Hogwarts with her face in its current state, acting as though she didn’t care one bit about it or the strange and disgusted looks she was bound to get.

Evidently, all four of her friends had these same reservations. 

“Cressie, are you sure-” Jac started whispering as they were making their way towards Defence Against the Dark Arts first thing in the morning. The group had completely skipped breakfast in favour of saving Cressida’s dignity until she absolutely had to reveal her face to the whole school.

“I’m sure,” Cressida answered them as she led the group through the halls. This particular morning she made sure to cross by Gryffindor Tower to get the exact reaction she needed. As expected, the trio of Gryffindor boys proved as reliable in being nosey as ever.

As soon as they saw Cressida’s face, they abandoned their usual route to whatever class they had and instead took to following behind the five Slytherins. Cressida had told everyone to stay quiet and follow her lead.

Only once they were nearly at the Defence Against the Dark Arts class did she finally acknowledge them. “If you must know, I was cursed,” she said loudly. They’d been badgering the group with questions for the last five minutes.

James’ face turned into a strange frown. “Who did it?”

Jac coughed purposefully, alerting Cressida to Arabella standing nearby. “I don’t know, but whoever did it must be really good at Charms,” Cressida carried on. “We can’t seem to undo it.”

“I reckon a Second Year did it,” Felix lied. “No First Year could pull this off.”

“If it was a First Year, they’re definitely better at Charms than me,” Cressida embellished.

Behind them, they heard a faint chuckle. “What’s so funny, Chauncey?” Molly asked her.

Arabella could hardly contain her smug smile as she stepped closer to the group. “Well, I just find it funny that Knightly admitted I’m better than her at Charms right in front of you. Now there’s no denying I’m even  more  amazing than she is.”

Jac and Cressida discretely fist-bumped and even Molly looked impressed that Cressida’s plan had worked so well. Fred and Thomas glanced at each other, whereas James glared at Arabella.

“So you cursed Knightly to prove something?” James asked.

Arabella’s face fell, looking at James nervously. “I just wanted to prove I was better than her.”

“Funny that,” Fred started, “Because all you’ve proved is that you’re a spiteful cow.”

Arabella opened and closed her mouth several times as the trio of Gryffindor boys turned and left for their lesson. Once they were gone, Cressida turned to Molly patiently. “Can I do it now?” She asked.

“Be my guest,” Molly agreed stepping back.

Cressida produced her wand.  “Furnunculus!”

Arabella’s face erupted into terrible boils and spots just as horrific and painful-looking as Cressida’s own face. Cressida had spent all night reading up on that spell and how to perform it, but even she couldn’t have expected it to perform it so well first try.

 Professor Mickledge opened his classroom door to find the two girls and groaned. “It’s nine in the morning, girls!” He lectured them. “Both of you to Madame Pomfrey this instant, and as I’m sure you’ve guessed, you both have detentions.”

“Worth it,” Cressida shrugged as she left for Madame Pomfrey without argument.

Chapter 21: First Year: Rumours

Tuesday 22nd March 2016

 

After the affair with Arabella Chauncey being sent to Madam Pomfrey to cure her Cressida inflicted boils, she didn’t seem as eager to try and challenge to co-ord of Slytherins anymore. Now, the Ravenclaw girl took to spreading gossip and false rumours about Cressida in particular.

So far Cressida had heard she was secretly from a family of dark wizards, that she was in cahoots with Professor Flitwick, and that she was actually a year older than everyone else and got held back for bad behaviour.

Unfortunately for her, the trio of Gryffindors also took great pleasure in adding preposterousness to these rumours. Fred had started one that Cressida was actually part mermaid and the Welsh accent was simply a rouse for trying to talk without water in her lungs. Thomas started one that Cressida was from the future, sent back purely to embarrass Arabella. James had taken great pleasure in telling everyone that Cressida was Filch’s illegitimate child.

Once the Filch rumour had spread around, people started to realise that the rumours were probably not true and so didn’t believe any of them, much to Arabella’s annoyance.

Jac, Felix and Cressida had started to find the whole affair rather comical, playing into the more ridiculous rumours at times. Molly and Margo, however, did not find it amusing.

“You could be putting our whole house under fire!” Molly lectured the group as they made their way to Transfiguration.

Cressida rolled her eyes after hearing this for the third time this month. “No one’s going to blame the whole of Slytherin for my mistakes.”

Margo tugged nervously on her hair. “If any house can be chastised for one person’s mistakes it's Slytherin. Just look at our history-” 

“Yes!” Jac cut her off bored. “Bad wizards made of evil intentions and snake-like abilities. We’ve heard it all before.”

“It’s not like we’re engaging in a war, Molly. Cressida just put Chauncey in her place,” Felix defended her.

Molly’s lips tightened as Professor McGonagall opened her classroom door ready for the lesson to begin. “You say that now, but Chauncey is smart. If anyone can turn this feud into a house war, she can.”

Cressida decided not to argue with the ginger witch and instead walked dutifully into the lesson with everyone else. To her surprise, only Thomas and Fred were sat waiting at their table today.

“Where’s Potter?” She asked curiously sitting down beside Fred.

Fred grinned as he threw a balled-up piece of parchment at someone’s head across the room. “Don’t tell me you actually  care  where Potter is?” He mocked turning to face her.

Cressida got her parchment paper ready with a scoff. “Forget I asked.”

“Good morning, students,” McGonagall greeted them from the front of the class. “Today we will be focusing on the Transfiguration formula-”

This was met by a widespread groan as McGonagall started the less than thrilling lesson.

After a boring twenty minutes of the lessons had passed, Cressida thought her brain was going to melt out of her ears. The transfiguration formula was excruciatingly mind-numbing and complicated for someone who wasn’t skilled in the subject.

Even Fred and Thomas were struggling to find entertainment in this particular lesson and instead stared at their parchment in confused silence. Cressida would give anything to have some entertainment at that moment. 

“Do you know what this means?” Fred whispered, pointing to the work.

Thomas shook his head staring at the parchment blankly. “James is the one skilled in Transfiguration.” 

Suddenly, as if summoned, James burst into the classroom, panting as if he had run the length of Hogwarts before finding his two best friends. “Malcom Havoc broke his leg!” He was yelling, running through the desks to reach Thomas and Fred at the front.

McGonagall looked up over her spectacles at James but didn’t seem annoyed by his tardiness or interruption of her lesson.

“Thomas- Malcom Havoc broke his leg!” James said again, leaning on the desk, practically yelling in his face. He turned to McGonagall at the front. “Malcom Havoc broke his leg!”

“We’ve gathered Havoc has broken his leg, why are you acting like that’s a good thing?” Molly snapped from her desk. She was the only one who had been doing the work at an effective pace before the interruption.

“Merlin’s beard!” Thomas jumped up, seemingly coming to the same elated realization as James. “Malcom Havoc broke his leg!”

“For God’s sake. Do we all hate Malcom Havoc or are you more sadistic than I thought, Potter?” Cressida asked.

James and Thomas turned to McGonagall smiling so much it looked like their faces were about to split in half. She sighed and gave a small nod. “Do you know all the manoeuvres for the game, Potter?” She asked without looking up.

“I’ve watched them practise every week since arriving,” James nodded eagerly.

“He even drew up his own charts the one week until Aslow threw him out,” Fred added on.

“Welcome to the team, Potter,” she decided after a moment.

“What?” Molly said at once. “You’re actually letting him on the team?!”

McGonagall closed her book and looked up properly. “Against my better judgement, yes, I’m letting him on the team.  Only  as a stand-in until Mr Havoc is fully healed.”

“Good enough for me. I get to play in the game next Saturday!” James beamed as he sat down in his seat beside Cressida and Fred.

Fred leaned across to whisper to James. “You didn’t break Havoc’s legs on purpose did you?” He asked with a grin.

“Of course not,” James laughed.

“Based on your reaction, I wouldn't put it past you,” Cressida chimed in. “I’d hate to see how you’d have reacted if he’d broken his back instead.”

James had completely de-railed the lesson with his ecstatic entrance and now the whole class seemed to be discussing the oncoming Quidditch match. McGonagall seemed rather amused with this change in topic.

“Knightly-” James said suddenly, jumping in his seat to face her. “You  have  to come to the game now!”

Cressida picked her quill back up and continued pretending to know what she was writing. “I still hate Quidditch, Potter. You playing in the game makes no difference to me.”

“But we’re playing Slytherin,” Thomas enticed her. 

“And there’s a twenty percent chance Jamsie will break a bone of some sort while filling in for Beater,” Fred added on. “It’s how Havoc got injured in the first place.”

Cressida had to admit the image of James plummeting to the ground on a broom sounded appealing to watch. “I’ll consider it,” she said finally. “But only if we  all  agree to go.”

All three of their faces went slack. “Molly will never agree to come!” James complained.

“Then I guess I’m not coming,” she shrugged indifferently. 

 

 

Saturday 2nd April 2016

 

If James, Fred and Thomas hadn’t been insufferable before, they definitely were now. Ever since James had been asked to stand in for Havoc, meaning there were two First Years to make the Gryffindor Quidditch team, it was all they could brag about at any given opportunity. Even when the opportunity to brag about it didn’t present itself, the boys still somehow found a way to bring it up.

It seemed to all come to a head on the Saturday morning of the game at breakfast. All the students had received their owl post as normal, apart from Jac and Cressida who were still slightly fascinated and annoyed by the impracticality of it all. Cressida was fed up with feathers getting in her orange juice every time someone nearby got mail. Margo also had yet to hear from her parents and every morning she watched with disheartening sadness as the owls came and went without a note for her.

Normally, Molly was unbothered by the owl post, finding it normal to watch the owls fly overhead and deliver the post, but this morning her face flashed with anger as she watched a red envelope be dropped in front of James at the Gryffindor table. The hall seemed to hush at the sight of it.

“What’s that?” Jac asked confused.

“A howler,” Felix answered while spreading a third slice of toast with jam.

James took the red envelope in his hands and held it in mid-air. Cressida and Jac sat up in their seats slightly to watch whatever was about to happen. Although Cressida had heard of howlers on Molly’s birthday, she was still unsure of what they actually did.

The red envelope transformed to resemble a mouth talking down to the boy it was addressed to. “JAMES SIRIUS POTTER, YOU ARE  UNDOUBTEDLY  GOING TO BE THE BEST QUIDDITCH PLAYER AT HOGWARTS SINCE ME! WHEN YOUR FATHER AND I HEARD FROM NEVILLE, I HAD TO STOP YOUR FATHER FROM COMING TO VISIT YOU STRAIGHT AWAY TO CELEBRATE!” 

The envelope rang out across the hall in an ecstatic women’s voice. At the teacher’s table, Cressida saw Professor Longbottom grin at the commotion.

“Is that your Aunt Ginny?” Margo asked looking towards the howler too.

“Yes,” Molly replied irritably.

“She sounds happy,” Felix laughed.

“A THUNDERBOLT IS ALREADY LINED UP FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY, YOUNG MAN! WE’RE SO PROUD!” A man’s voice, Cressida suspected James’ dad, yelled through the howler now.

“SEND OUR CONGRATULATIONS TO OLIVER’S BOY AS WELL! SEE YOU SOON, JAMES. WE LOVE YOU! MAKE GRYFFINDOR PROUD!”

The red envelope shrivelled up in mid-air and disappeared. The trio of boys all got to their feet and rushed out of the hall in excited whispers, their heads ducked closely together. The hall went back to talking and eating their breakfasts as they had never stopped. Molly’s face was as hard as stone as she ate the rest of her breakfast in silence.

Jac slowly turned back around to face Molly. “I guess that means we’re not going to the game anymore?”

Molly’s eyes snapped up to her. “No, Jac. Funnily enough, I do  not  feel like going to the game anymore.”

“But It’s Slytherin versus-” Felix had started to complain until Molly cast her glare on him instead. “Okay, we won’t go to the game,” he recoiled.

Cressida idly pushed around her porridge. She was amazed Molly had agreed to go to the game in the first place when Felix suggested it, but now it looked like that momentary plan had been thrown out of the window as easily as it had come in. However, she was painfully aware of how much Felix was looking forward to the game. Even Jac seemed excited about it this time, after learning so much about it from Felix.

This whole 'having friends' thing was making her selfish tendencies harder to act upon.

“It’s a shame too,” Cressida started. “I’d love to see the look on Potter’s face if he lost to Slytherin.”

Molly dropped her spoon into her breakfast and looked up like she’d had an epiphany. “Now you mention it, Slytherin does have a good chance at beating them.”

“Especially considering there are  two   First Years on their team now,” Margo interjected. “And James can hardly concentrate on anything for more than two seconds. There’s no way he’s not going to lose them the game.”

Molly pushed her breakfast away from her entirely. “Alright, we’ll go to the game. But if Gryffindor pulls ahead we leave straight away,” she decided.

Convincing her friends to attend the game had been an easy mission, getting herself out of going is what would prove difficult. She knew she would undoubtedly dislike Quidditch as much as she hated wizard chess. Sports were not her forte, especially sports that involved flying on brooms and chasing randomly sized balls through the air. 

She also knew that the trio of Gryffindors would be looking out for the Slytherins to be attending the game by now. She just hoped that once they saw the group, they wouldn’t notice Cressida was missing.

“We better be going,” Molly said rounding up the group as she often did once breakfast was drawing to a close. “If we’re going to this stupid thing, I want good seats.”

Cressida was quick to get to her feet, acting as though she had every intention of following the group down to the pitch. Only once they reached the Grand Staircase, did she stop walking.

“What are you going?” Jac asked, being the first to notice Cressida no longer walking beside them, followed quickly by the other three. 

“I forgot I have detention with Professor Mickledge this morning,” she lied.

Apparently, it was more believable than Cressida thought because Molly didn’t look suspicious for once. “Alright, we’ll catch up with you after the game,” Molly said turning and leading the others away instantly.

Even Jac didn’t look back knowingly this time before following after Molly. Cressida was starting to wonder whether she was actually that troublesome that everyone expected her to have detention at any given moment.

Deciding not to dwell on it, she started making her way up the Grand Staircase, hoping to find a quiet hallway to wander down while everyone was at the game. She had yet to explore the West Wing in depth. Perhaps if she was on her own, she’d be more concentrated on finding new passageways to use. She tended to be too distracted while Jac was searching with her.

However, since using her secret passageway to cut out the Grand Staircase, she had seemed to have forgotten the exact routine timing of the magical staircase and before she could stop it, she was being transported in the opposite direction of the destination she had in mind.

She decided not to fight it, wondering where she was going to be dropped off this time, and secretly glad the staircase had caught her off guard. Now she had spent so long avoiding it, she found the surprise rather fun. 

The stairs eventually came to a stop somewhere on the sixth floor.

Cressida aimlessly strolled forward, just as she always did whenever she went wandering, taking in the noticeable statues and portraits surrounding her. There weren’t as many moving portraits on the sixth floor making it seem a lot quieter than the other corridors of the magical school. She already knew of the secret passageway behind the knight on this floor too, so she doubted there would be another one on the same floor, but she didn’t completely rule out the possibility.

She had been walking with her hands in her pockets, deep in thought about what she would do with the next few months in Hogwarts before the summer when she heard a familiar voice from up ahead.

The trio of Gryffindors were coming out of the boy's lavatory, James and Thomas now dressed fully in their scarlet Quidditch uniform. Compared to last time, Thomas looked completely confident in his own abilities as he and James talked about strategy.

Knowing she would likely be dragged down to the pitch by the three boys, she started looking for a hiding place. The knight’s passageway was too far ahead, meaning she’d have to pass the trio in plain sight.

Looking to her left, she saw a dusty tapestry depicting a beautiful phoenix. Taking a chance, she lifted the side of the tapestry ducked behind it only to find there wasn't a wall to stop her from falling backwards.

It wasn’t so much a secret passageway as a stone archway that had been covered up, or long since forgotten about. Inside the archway was a set of stone steps spiralling upwards, instead of the uneven carved out steps she was used to forming a secret passageway. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure she was still concealed by the tapestry, she started the climb up the stairs. After all, it had worked out well last time she blindly followed hidden stairs.

It was incredibly light, considering it was a passageway, and after a short walk Cressida understood why. The stairs only went up one flight and brought Cressida into a completely secluded room all on its own. It was decently sized and hexagonal in shape, with large windows on three points of the wall, giving the best view of the Hogwarts grounds that Cressida had seen so far. It reminded her vaguely of her alcove in the Slytherin common room but this felt warmer and more secluded. The walls were a nice shade of light brown, that gave everything a pleasant glow, and the ivy growing over one of the windows blocked out the sun nicely.

She walked further into the room, glancing around at the objects contained in it. Clearly, it had been used as a storage room from years ago as most things had a thick layer of dust and were covered by a white sheet. The only thing not covered by a sheet were some planks of wood which were propped up against the stone wall in the furthest corner.

Kneeling down on the hardwood floor, she pulled the sheet off, coughing at the dust she sprung into the air around her, to reveal some wooden trunks and boxes concealed underneath.

Prying open one of the boxes, she found blankets and pillows of various colours concealed inside. Shuffling to the left, she found a much bigger box with a padlock around its handles. She produced her wand from in her hair and pointed it at the lock.

“Alohomora!”

The padlock fell to the floor instantly. Inside this box, she found a rolled-up ornate rug, a lamp in the shape of a duck, some candles, and some more blankets.

She almost couldn’t believe her luck. Her first thought was that Rasper would adore this room and all of the comfy cushions contained in it. Secondly, she thought that she had a secret room all to herself that  no one  knew about yet. By the state of the room, it looked as though even Filch hadn’t visited this room in years.

Getting back to her feet, she walked towards the middle window and used all her force to pry it open. A large gust of wind blew into the room as the stained glass window swung open. From here, Cressida could see the whole of Hogwarts, including the Quidditch pitch down in the distance. She could see someone, she assumed Madame Hooch, hovering in the air and the faint sound of a whistle blowing before the figure disappeared.

Realising the game was about to start, she returned to focusing on her new discovery. She moved forward and kicked one of the objects concealed under the white sheet to find it was soft. Kneeling down, she pulled the sheet off entirely to find a mound of cushions double the size of normal cushions and covered in ornate and beautiful detailing.

Deciding this would be preferable to returning to her common room or wandering around the rest of the castle, Cressida plumped up one of the larger pillows, pulled it underneath the open window and settled down on it.

From here she could hear the faint cheering of the game, and watch secretly from far away while imagining the possibilities this room could hold.

Chapter 22: First Year: The Chauncey Conspiracy

Sunday 3rd April 2016

 

Cressida awoke in the tiny room, not even realising she had fallen asleep amongst the sheets and comfy cushions. Although, waking up in the secluded hideout with the sun shining in through the large windows was massively preferable to the Slytherin dungeon.

Stretching her arms, she forced herself to get to her feet and dust herself off. The room was still in need of a good clean but she didn’t mind that. She had tried tidying it up a bit the day before, moving trunks and old lamps around to make more room for herself. Although it didn’t look vastly different from how it did before, it was still a major improvement, and her footprints no longer caused marks in the thick dust that had been lining the floor.

Still drowsy from the unexpected sleep, Cressida snuck back into the corridors of Hogwarts. She knew the others were likely wondering where she had got to, and wondered if Rasper had even noticed she wasn’t in bed beside him.

A group of Ravenclaws passed her by in the hall as she was yawning. “Filthy Slytherin,” one of them muttered.

Cressida glared at the girl but took no notice. Since Arabella, the Ravenclaws had taken to disliking the Slytherins and Cressida in particular.

Continuing through the hallways she started to feel more awake. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept through the whole night. She was silently wondering who had won the Quidditch match, although she’d never admit that to James, and was hoping Molly would tell her the victor as soon as she returned to the common room.

“You’re brave showing your face, Knightly.”

Cressida turned to see Penelope McFadden of Hufflepuff standing with Beatrix from Gryffindor. Both girls looked cautious about talking to Cressida in the hall.

“You better watch out for McGonagall. I heard she’s on the warpath for you,” Beatrix whispered nervously.

Cressida narrowed her brows. “Why is McGonagall after me?”

Penelope stepped closer as if Cressida had lost her mind. “For what you did at the Quidditch match.”

Cressida stared back at the two girls blankly. “I didn’t go to the match-”

“Well, obviously you weren’t going to show up and risk getting caught, but your prank caused a huge stir,” Beatrix cut her off.

“Arabella is in the hospital wing because of you,” Penelope said.

“What?” Cressida said, feeling vaguely like she was still dreaming suddenly.

The hall started filling with the crowds preparing to head down to breakfast and the two girls retreated away from Cressida instantly, disappearing down the hall whispering to each other.

Cressida remained frozen in place, trying to wrap her head around what the two girls had said. Surely they were making it up. She hadn’t been near the Quidditch match. However, the looks on people’s faces as they passed by suggested that Cressida had indeed done something horrible.

Ducking her head slightly, she rushed for the Slytherin common room. Jac and Molly would explain what was going on.

The strange looks didn’t stop until she reached the common room, in which her usual group were pacing in the alcove. Molly was looking particularly perturbed while Jac was nervously braiding her hair on the sofa beside Felix.

“There you are!” Margo said jumping up, being the first to see her.

Everyone was on their feet then, strange looks on their faces as they made to come towards Cressida, but Gabriel stepped in front of them before they could reach her.

“McGonagall has requested a meeting with you as soon as you resurfaced,” he said coldly.

Cressida shook her head. “What for?!” She demanded to know. “Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?”

Jac pushed her way forward desperately. “I’ve tried telling them you didn’t do it, Cressie, but they won’t listen.”

Gabriel gestured for Cressida to follow him as he started walking towards the exit of the common room. Her friends remained stood watching silently as Cressida had no choice but to follow the Head Boy.

Don‘t panic,  she told herself. If she couldn’t get the answers from Jac, McGonagall will definitely have to tell her what’s going on.

She silently followed Gabriel through the school until they reached the Headmaster's Tower, accessed through the Gargoyle corridor.

“Snuffles’ bone,” Gabriel whispered to the gargoyle.

The gargoyle stepped aside in response to the password to reveal a circular, moving stone staircase. Cressida was faintly reminded of the staircase to her secret room.

“Good luck,” Gabriel muttered as he left Cressida to walk up the stairs alone.

Trying to remind herself she was innocent for once, she walked up the stairs and knocked on the door to the Head Mistresses’ office.

“Come in!” The Head Mistress called. Her voice sounded no different to how it usually did, but that wasn’t exactly a comfort. 

Nervously, Cressida stepped into the extravagant office to find McGonagall sitting behind an enormous, claw-footed desk writing on parchment paper. It was a large and circular room that occasionally made strange noises at random intervals. A number of strange silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames. One frame in particular, of an old man with a long white beard and half-moon glasses, looked as though he had just finished a rather pleasant conversation with McGonagall before Cressida entered.

“I take it you know why you’re here,” McGonagall said without looking up. 

“Actually no,” Cressida answered truthfully, trying not to stare around at the artefacts in the room. McGonagall looked up then. “I have no idea what the bloody hell has happened to make everyone so mad at me.”

McGonagall set down her quill and folded her arms on the desk. “Take a seat, Miss Knightly.” Cressida obliged and sat awkwardly opposite the Head Mistress. She was much more intimidating in the office compared to her classroom or in the hall. “Are you expecting me to believe that you have no clue what happened during the Quidditch match between your house and Gryffindor yesterday?”

Cressida tried to keep eye contact. She knew she often looked guilty but this time she was desperately trying to look innocent. “I didn’t go to the match, Professor. I don’t even know who won.”

“No one won, Miss Knightly,” McGonagall shook her head in disbelief. “Somebody… we have it on good authority it was  you … hexed the Gryffindor team’s brooms to throw them all off or fly around uncontrollably making it impossible for them to land, essentially making them forfeit the match. It was an extraordinary use of charms. Three people were injured in the process.”

“Including Arabella Chauncey?” Cressida caught on suddenly. “But she wasn’t even playing-”

“She rushed onto the pitch to try and stop Mr Potter and Wood from plummeting into each other,” McGonagall explained. “Miss Chauncey is the one who suspected it was you from the beginning, and I have to say given the evidence, you are the most likely suspect.”

Cressida sat forward in her seat. “Wood and Potter got hurt?” She asked first then thought better of it. She had to save her own back before she could worry about the Gryffindor boys. “Professor, I wasn’t at the match, I swear-”

“But you weren’t in detention like Miss Redwick said you were,” McGonagall countered. “In fact, nobody can account for your whereabouts since breakfast yesterday until this very moment.”

Cressida felt her chest tighten. “I know what it looks like, but I had nothing to do with this. I wouldn’t purposefully hurt-”

McGonagall had that look on her face that made Cressida stop mid-sentence. “Miss Knightly, given your past with violence as well as your feelings towards the Gryffindor boys and Miss Chauncey as a whole, I must admit it looks bad for you… unless you have undeniable proof it wasn’t you.”

Cressida thought hard for a moment. “I don’t know the spell to make brooms go mad,” she said at once. McGonagall looked willing to hear her out. “I may be the best at charms in my year but even I-” she stopped herself, another realisation dawning on her. “Professor, this was Chauncey. She’s trying to frame me!”

McGonagall’s willingness to listen to Cressida’s excuse was wavering slightly. “But Miss Chauncey was one of the students hurt, Miss Knightly,” she said logically. “Are you expecting me to believe she would do this to the two boys she has been seen fawning after and then purposefully get herself hurt trying to save them?”

Cressida sank in the chair slightly. “I know it seems ridiculous-”

“Ridiculous is an understatement,” McGonagall interrupted.

“But I really had  nothing  to do with this,” Cressida continued. “I always admit when I’ve done it if I’m caught.”

McGonagall looked at Cressida thoughtfully over her glasses for a moment. “Are you willing to tell me where you have been hiding out while all this was happening?”

“I found a room,” Cressida answered.

“A room?” McGonagall repeated.

“Yes,” Cressida nodded. “A secret room behind a tapestry, looked like it was used for storage. The view was nice so I hid out there and accidentally fell asleep.”

McGonagall rearranged the objects on her desk so they were all perfectly in place. “Given what you have told me, Miss Knightly, I am willing to believe you are not behind this entirely. After all, innocent men have been condemned with less evidence… however, I am unlikely to believe Miss Chauncey is behind this either. In the meantime, you shall have two days of detention and we shall move on from the matter while I search for the next prime suspect.”

“But if you believe me why do I still have detention?” 

McGonagall stood and extended her arm towards the door, signalling it was time for Cressida to go. “Because you still were out of bounds after curfew, Miss Knightly. You had Miss Weasley and all your friends in quite a state at your disappearance.” Cressida got to her feet and walked towards the door silently. Once she reached it, McGonagall squeezed her shoulders gently. “I warn you, Miss Knightly, your name has been spread around a lot in the last twenty-four hours. You may find it unpleasant for a while until we find the real cause of the incident.”

“Yes, Professor,” Cressida nodded understandingly. “Thank you for hearing me out.”

McGonagall removed her hand and smiled tightly.

Cressida left the office then and found her friends waiting outside for her. Molly stormed towards her as soon as Cressida was in sight. “Now you’ve done it. Everyone hates us-”

“I’m innocent, Molly,” Cressida cut her off. “But thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I knew you were,” Jac said coming to stand beside Molly.

Felix pushed both girls out of the way to stand in front of Cressida. “What did McGonagall say?”

“She believes I didn’t do it,” Cressida answered. Even standing in the hall now, people were looking at her and whispering. “I think Arabella did this.”

“Oh, not this again!” Margo snapped from behind everyone. “Jesus, Cressida, Arabella is lying in the hospital wing with a broken wrist!”

“So you believe  her  that I was the one behind this?!” Cressida snapped back.

Molly grabbed Cressida’s arm and kept her in line, glancing around the hallway nervously. “Let’s just go back to the common room. Everyone’s staring at us.”

 

*

 

It was late into the evening now. The group had all hid out in the girl’s dorm to talk about what had happened. By the retelling from Jac, Cressida missed quite the show. James and Thomas seemed to have been affected the most, ending up in the hospital wing. None of the Slytherin team was hexed with manic brooms and watched in bewilderment. Everyone on the Gryffindor team either abandoned their broom from twenty foot in the air or were thrown off.

If Arabella was the one who pulled this off, Cressida knew it would take an immense amount of skill and preparation. Maybe she had underestimated her, but that was probably what Arabella was counting on. Molly had been right, Arabella was on the verge of turning the whole school against Slytherin with one simple act.

Cressida glanced around the dorm room, Molly and Margo had walked Felix back into the common room, but she suspected they were really talking about her. She had told them about the secret room but Margo refused to believe the story as true, knowing nothing of the secret passageways. Jac was sitting on her own bed, her hands over her eyes feeling exhausted after endless interrogation by Molly.

Cressida’s one saving grace was that she knew Jac believed she was innocent no matter what. It was an incredibly clever plan for Arabella to run in and look like the hero once James and Thomas got hurt. Nobody would suspect her to be the cause of it after getting hurt herself. She just had to prove to everyone else Arabella was smart enough to think of it and pull it off.

“Hey, Jac,” Cressida called through the silence of the room, surprising even herself. Jac opened her eyes and looked towards Cressida sitting on her own bed. Cressida picked the skin around her nails instead of looking at her. “How badly were they hurt?”

“Thomas and Potter?” She asked knowingly. Cressida nodded. “James fell first, his broom was the worst out of the whole team. Thomas gained enough control to fly towards him in an attempt to save him from hitting the floor, but his broom went mad and instead he flew right into Potter. It was bad,” Jac said thinking back. “James was badly winded with bruising, potentially a cracked rib. Wood was knocked unconscious and broke his arm.”

Cressida brought her knees up to her chest. “And Arabella only broke her wrist?”

“I don’t even  know  how she got hurt,” Jac admitted. “She wasn’t on the pitch until after the two boys had plummeted. Then she started telling everyone you were behind it.”

Cressida felt her chest tighten as she imagined it happening in her head. If only she had gone to the stupid match like she was supposed to.

 

 

Sunday 9th April 2016

 

It was impossible for Cressida and her friends to go anywhere since the incident. McGonagall was still searching for the true culprit but had come up with nothing, leaving Cressida as the main suspect to everyone else.

If the rumours and taunting about Cressida had been bad before, it was almost unbearable now. People from all houses outside of Slytherin were whispering about her in the hall or calling her names. Even Molly and Margo had been heckled in the corridor. Molly believed Cressida was innocent now, but she was still less than thrilled this had happened despite her numerous warnings not to get involved with Arabella Chauncey. 

The worst rumour going around at the moment was that Molly had concocted the whole thing instead of Cressida. Everyone knew Molly disliked her cousins the most out of everyone in the school, and she didn’t have a good excuse other than she simply didn’t do it.

Jac and Felix pretended like they didn’t care about the name calling but Cressida could see Jac wince every time someone from another house came near them.

Fred looked entirely lost without Thomas and James by his side in lessons. He cornered Cressida as soon as lessons started on Monday and asked her if she did it. Cressida said she didn’t and Fred accepted it without hesitation.

“I just wanted to double-check,” he admitted sadly before he sulked back off again.

Cressida wished the rest of Hogwarts would accept it as easily as Fred did.

James and Thomas had yet to leave the hospital wing, and Madame Pomfrey was getting annoyed at all the visitors that had stopped by to see the two boys. Apparently, the whole of Gryffindor Tower tried to stop by at once with Teddy and Victoire at the front, causing mayhem in their wake. Arabella Chauncey, only having a broken wrist, was ushered out of the room the day after much to her annoyance. 

Cressida had seen the Ravenclaw girl dramatically retelling to story in the corridor one morning, and then when Cressida passed, smiled slyly and showered her now healed wrist to the group.

Since Madame Pomfrey had limited visitors to one person at a time, it was mainly Fred who spent his afternoons tucked away in the wing with his best friends, bringing them the week's homework. Cressida knew their injuries must have been really bad to warrant a week in bed. Madame Pomfrey was brutal with healing you and getting you out of her medical wing as soon as possible.

She had debated stopping by to visit them late into the night when she couldn’t sleep. Since waking up in the secret room, she had yet to sleep at all with everything playing on her mind.

She had even paced in front of the infirmary for a while the day before, building up the courage to go in, but Arabella and her new sea of adoring fans had spotted her before she got the chance. 

“Guilty conscious, Knightly?” Arabella called. “Only psychopaths visit their victims.”

After that Cressida stormed back into her dorm room and shut her curtains for the night.

It was pathetic, she told herself. She knew she was innocent, so why was she acting like she was guilty by hiding or running away.

Sitting up in her bed, she checked the clock on the wall. Two hours until curfew. 

“Where are you going?” Molly asked nervously once she saw Cressida get to her feet.

“I need to do something,” Cressida answered.

“Cressida,” Molly pleaded. “ Please  just stay here.”

Even Jac seemed reluctant to let Cressida go out alone this late into the evening.

Cressida bit the inside of her cheek. “I’m not going to do anything stupid-”

“You don’t have to anymore,” Margo commented from the chair. “Everyone already hates us, thanks to you.”

Jac grabbed her pillow and threw it at Margo to shut her up. Cressida used this as a distraction to walk out of the room without further argument. She had to do this.

It was a short walk filled with the occasional glare, but luckily the castle was quiet this time of the night. She paused outside the doors to the medical wing, as she had the other day, not having the courage to go in just yet. Some stupid part of her was scared that Thomas and James believed Arabella. Some other part of her didn’t want to see the two boys badly hurt despite her feelings towards them.

The door was pulled open and Cressida froze like a deer in headlights for a moment until she realised it was Fred. “You going in, Knightly?” He asked.

Cressida didn’t have an answer to give straight away, watching as the door shut behind the dark-skinned boy. Fred moved and stood beside her with a deep sigh. “I’d suggest going in now. Pomfrey is strict with curfew times.”

Cressida turned to Fred. “You told them I didn’t do it, right?”

Fred smiled back at her, a tired kind of smile. “I didn’t have to tell them,” he said as he turned and walked away.

Cressida watched him curiously, unsure of exactly what that meant. Then, finally having enough courage, she opened the door and walked inside.

“And I’m telling you, I’m fine!” James was yelling at Madame Pomfrey from his bed beside Thomas. “See-” he said waving both arms above his head. 

“It’s just one more day for observation, Mr Potter. I’m sure your fans can survive another twenty-four hours without you,” Madame Pomfrey told the younger boy as she left his bedside and disappeared into her office, not even noticing Cressida standing silently in the doorway.

James dramatically flung himself into a lying down position while Thomas laughed at him.

Cressida walked forward, revealing herself.

“Knightly?” Thomas said surprised when he noticed her.

“KNIGHTLY!” James sat up and turned to Cressida grinning wildly. “Took you long enough to visit. Even Molly beat you here.”

“Molly’s visited you?” Cressida asked as she stood in between the two beds containing the injured boys. She imagined they had looked a lot worse in the days prior, but now the only indication of injury were the bruises scattered on their bodies. James’ was the worst. He was in his pyjamas but even so, Cressida could see his whole side and right arm was purple and black. Thomas’ left arm was less bruised than James’ and he had a tiny cut on his forehead.

“Everyone’s been by to visit,” Thomas said getting up from his own bed and clambering to sit on the end of James’. “It was fun in the beginning but then Pomfrey limited it to just one person.”

“Obviously Freddie was the one person allowed every afternoon but sometimes he would swap with Teddy,” James added on, rummaging around on the table beside his bed for a specific bag of sweets. It appeared as though everyone who visited had brought the two boys more sweets and chocolate frogs than they could ever eat. “But now we just want to get out of here. At this rate, our bruises will be completely gone before anyone gets to see them!”

“Have we missed anything good?” Thomas asked eagerly. “Fred and Teddy have told us nothing but we  know  it must be chaos out there after what happened.”

“Have they done anyone in for it yet?” James asked while shoving green jelly slugs into his mouth.

Cressida sat down on Thomas’ bed facing the two boys. “You don’t know.”

James and Thomas’ faces dropped slightly. James had the tail end of a jelly slug hanging out the corner of his mouth. “Know what?”

“Everyone’s blaming me for it,” Cressida told them. “McGonagall can’t seem to prove anyone did it.”

James sat up furiously, then winced in pain and led back down. “But  we  know who did it!”

Cressida grew hopeful. “You do?”

“Of course. We know everything,” James boasted. “Our theory is it was Declan. Thomas saw Declan muttering spells right before the game started.”

“He has to be the one behind it, no one else has it in for us,” Thomas agreed.

Her hope diminished slightly. A theory was not proof according to McGonagall. “I tried blaming Arabella, but because she was one of the people hurt, no one will believe me,” Cressida told them. “I reckon it will be just as hard to convince them it was Declan.”

Thomas and James looked at each other instantly, as if having a silent conversation before looking back towards Cressida. “Chauncey was never hurt,” James said.

Cressida looked between the two boys. “She broke her wrist trying to save you two.”

“I was unconscious so I wouldn’t know,” Thomas muttered thoughtfully. “I suppose she could have been hurt-”

“No,” James said surely. “I saw her run up once we hit the ground. She asked if I was okay and helped me up just before everyone else came over. She was perfectly fine.”

“But she was in here with you for a whole day,” Cressida told them, her mind working a mile a minute putting the pieces together.

“The whole of Hogwarts was in here with us after it happened, Knightly. We wouldn’t have noticed her if we tried,” James reasoned.

Cressida jumped up then. That was proof Arabella was lying about  something . “Have you spoken to McGonagall about this?”

James tried sitting up again, this time Thomas aided him. “We can go right now-”

“Oh no, you don’t!” Madame Pomfrey yelled, storming over from her office. “You two are staying put until  I  say so,” she said lying James back down and ushering Thomas into his own bed. Then she turned to Cressida. “I think it’s time you went now.”

“But she just got here!” James argued sitting up again.

Madame Pomfrey turned to face him with her hands on her hips. “Do you want me to keep you here an extra forty-eight hours?” She threatened.

James sank back down into his bed sulking like a toddler. “No.”

Madame Pomfrey nodded curtly and then went to start ushering Cressida out of the room. “Before I go,” Cressida started before she was too far away room the boys. They both sat up intrigued at whatever Cressida was about to say. “Did Arabella Chauncey come in with a broken wrist after the game?”

The medi-witch thought for a moment. “Not that it’s any concern of yours, but yes she did.”

“From the game?” Thomas asked, leaning forward in his bed.

“Of course not,” Madam Pomfrey said gesturing for him to lie back down. “She came in an hour later with it, said she slipped on the staircase. It was a rather inconvenient time to do it as well, I was swamped trying to take care of these two.”

Cressida smiled for the first time in a week as she let the nurse usher her out of the room while ignoring James and Thomas’ pleads to let her stay. 

Chapter 23: First Year: The Aftermath

Notes:

It is a well known fact that teenage boys are in fact, often stupid. James Sirius Potter is an excellent example of this.

Tuesday 12th April 2016

 

Once she had spoken to the boys in the hospital wing, she ran the entire way back to the common room to tell the group what she had learned. Molly was still doubtful this would be pinned on the Chauncey siblings, but Jac and Felix were hopeful. Margo, as usual, was neither helpful nor useful and just kept repeating how everything was Cressida’s fault.

Cressida had managed to corner McGonagall before lessons started first thing on Monday and explained everything James and Thomas had told her. At first, she looked doubtful, but when Cressida saw her later in the day, the Head Mistress smiled in Cressida’s direction. She took that as a good sign.

James and Thomas were due back today and the whole of Hogwarts was waiting with anticipation for the dramatic recreations of the incident, looking at it in good humour when it came to them, but still chastising Cressida and all of Slytherin for it in the meantime.

'It’ll be okay,' she kept telling herself. McGonagall will fix this. The trio of boys know who really did it.

However, waiting for that to happen was less than pleasant, especially in lessons. The insults towards the Slytherins were getting worse by the day and even Victoire and Teddy couldn’t stop people from hurling them in the corridors anymore. Cressida didn’t blame them for not getting involved entirely, it wasn’t their battle to fight.

The group were currently huddled together waiting to go into Defence Against the Dark Arts. To no one’s surprise, Arabella was coming up the hall towards the classroom, accompanied by all her Ravenclaw friends telling them the story of how she  ‘saved ’ James and Thomas.

“The nerve of that girl,” Felix cursed under his breath as the whole group glared in her direction.

“She’s getting exactly what she wants,” Molly countered. “Everyone hates us and loves her.”

“That’s all about to change though, if what James said is true,” Jac said.

“As long as Cressida keeps her mouth shut and doesn’t do anything else,” Margo muttered.

Cressida rounded on the smaller girl, fed up with the constant jabs. “You ought to remember who stood up for you when Arabella said you had a pig-nose, Smithers.”

Margo avoided eye contact and moved to stand behind Molly silently.

“Speaking of terrible incidents,” Arabella said loudly coming up to the group. “Here’s Knightly and her crew now.”

Felix went to move forward but Molly kept him in place, which meant she didn’t have a hand spare to stop Cressida. 

“How’s your wrist, Chauncey?” Cressida asked pointedly.

“Perfectly fine, no thanks to you,” Arabella sneered, holding her wrist daintily as if it were still in pain.

“How did you hurt it again?” Cressida continued despite Molly’s attempt to stop her. “I wasn’t at the game so I didn’t see it.”

Arabella scoffed, looking at the group on her side. “James landed on me obviously. Everyone saw it happen.”

“Interesting,” Jac said moving to stand beside Cressida. “Because Potter says otherwise.”

Cressida could see the slightest change in expression on Arabella’s face. “As if James would talk to you lot after what Knightly did.”

“James thinks Cressida is innocent,” Felix told her.

“You’re lying!” Dahlia, one of the Ravenclaws stood beside Arabella said. “Arabella is the only one allowed in to see them. She’s there every night.”

Cressida met Arabella’s eyes. She looked nervous.

“You really love making up stories, don’t you, Chauncey?” Cressida mocked.

Arabella was growing red with rage. “Everyone knows it was you who cursed their brooms, Knightly. After all,  you’re  the best at Charms, you said so yourself.”

“And you hate the Gryffindors,” her friend agreed.

The classroom door opened and Professor Mickledge appeared, holding the bridge of his nose once he saw Cressida and Arabella talking to each other “Not again, girls-”

“One moment, Professor Mickledge!” Professor McGonagall’s voice called. Everyone turned to see the Head Mistress thundering up the hall towards them, Professor Flitwick, Declan Chauncey, and the trio of Gryffindor boys at her side. “I would like a word with Miss Knightly and Miss Chauncey.”

Cressida looked towards the trio of boys who were pulling faces at Declan behind McGonagall’s back. James and Thomas looked even better than they had in the medical wing, but as they feared, most of their bruises were unseen under their uniform by now. 

Arabella looked like she had swallowed a frog whole as she and her brother stared at each other. Declan’s face was unreadable.

“Of course,” Professor Mickledge said gesturing for the two girls to follow the Head Mistress. “I’ll have someone else collect their homework for the lesson.”

McGonagall nodded gratefully to Professor Mickledge as the two girls joined the group waiting to go to the office. Naturally, Arabella stood beside her brother, trying to look as unbothered and bored as Declan did. Cressida ended up walking beside McGonagall as they departed down the hall. 

“Told you I didn’t do it,” Cressida muttered under her breath not knowing whether the Head Mistress could even hear her. Glancing up, she saw a small smile appear on the old witch’s face as she continued ushering the group through the hall.

 

 

Thursday 5th May 2016

 

Despite Cressida and the trio of boys having their theories about Declan and Arabella, the Chauncey siblings had a counterargument for everything they did. 

‘Arabella didn’t want to bother Madame Pomfrey straight away with her sore wrist so returned an hour later once it hurt too much to deal with.’

‘Declan wasn’t muttering spells but instead words of encouragement and concern to the Gryffindor team once he saw things were going south.’

‘James didn’t realise he had landed on Arabella in the crash due to the madness of the situation.’

As expected they tried turning it on Cressida again, pointing out that she was nowhere to be seen and had no good excuse for her mysterious disappearance, as well as the argument about who was best at Charms.

The trio of boys were outraged by these excuses. James even leapt across the desk towards Declan at one point until Fred and Thomas held him back.

Cressida, to her own surprise, remained completely calm and silent during this hour-long discussion in McGonagall’s office. She had no counterargument to any of the points the siblings had said about her, and she couldn’t prove that Arabella hadn’t in fact hurt her wrist in the plummeting of James and Thomas, but she knew McGonagall believed her to be innocent.

However, despite McGonagall’s beliefs and the evidence James had provided, the Chauncey siblings had managed to talk their way out of being accused, leaving the incident still open to interpretation. Cressida realised at that moment exactly why the Chauncey siblings were in Ravenclaw. They were smart. Smart in a way Cressida didn’t fully understand yet, but in time she promised herself she would outsmart them and get them back for this.

Once another week passed, McGonagall gave up trying to find the culprit for the incident, instead urging the students of Hogwarts to come forward if they knew anything. As expected, no one came forward with anything helpful.

The Slytherins were still under speculation massively for it. Although McGonagall and the trio of Gryffindor boys had gone around insisting Cressida was  not  the culprit, it had shown how prejudiced some of the students still were to Slytherins in general as they continued heckling them despite the proven innocence, claiming that Cressida had charmed her way out of it somehow and was still secretly behind it.

Some people turned against Arabella and Declan for a while, especially Victoire Weasley who rained down her wrath on the siblings like nothing Cressida had ever seen. Teddy was also seen targeting the siblings more than usual whenever he had a prank occurring.

Molly was still furious and upset that everyone had turned against Slytherin during all of this and had insisted Cressida pull no more disappearing acts and stayed out of trouble until the end of the year.

Understanding how upset and scrutinised Molly was because of her mistakes, Cressida agreed.

Staying out of trouble would be easy, she told herself, as exams were coming up and she desperately wanted to do well on them. She knew the rest of her friends would undoubtedly get good grades, especially Molly, and she didn’t want to look like she was dumber than them even though she likely was.

This meant a lot of study sessions in the alcove of their common room, listening to Molly’s revision plans and extensive notes. Cressida, although grateful for the extra help, sometimes wondered if it was all worth it. Especially when Molly and Felix started arguing about Imps and Vampires.

In times like that, she would imagine being in her secret room looking out over the grounds in blissful silence. After promising to pull no more disappearing acts, Cressida sometimes panicked it might have disappeared, as things were rumoured to do around Hogwarts. However, those worries were easily squandered by a simple stop by the tapestry to peek behind it with Jac to check the staircase was still concealed behind it.

Jac and the others knew about the room since the incident in April of course, but none of them had asked to see it apart from Jac. Margo still refused to believe it even existed. 

Unfortunately, imagining the secret room could only do so much to help Cressida struggle through the revision sessions on top of their assigned homework.

“It’s these stupid quills!” She complained throwing the feathered writing utensil down which was instantly pounced on by Rasper. “Every time I start to get into a rhythm I need to stop to re-dip it in ink.”

Jac lifted her tired eyes from her own set of homework. “I  do  miss being able to use pens,” she agreed. “I miss being able to search up the answers on google even more.”

Felix was led across the sofa behind them throwing a ball up and down in the air with one hand. “One thing you can say for certain about Hogwarts is that it’s not very good at keeping up with the times. It’ll probably be another century before McGonagall allows pens or technology in these walls.”

Cressida ran her hands through her hair. “There’s got to be a way around it. Surely, they won’t notice if I sneak a pen in.”

“I think they would notice when you tried to write in class,” Felix shot her idea down. 

Cressida thumped her head down on the table hopelessly.

“What’s bitten you?” Molly’s voice asked from behind her. She and Margo had gone on a snack run to lift everyone’s spirits but only Molly had returned.

Felix spun around at the sound of her voice and the ball he had thrown in the air landed on his head. Molly rolled her eyes and gestured for him to move up so she could sit down on the sofa beside him.

“We’re not dealing well with the transition from pens to quills in high-stress situations,” Jac explained.

“Where’s Margo?” Cressida asked.

“Ran off crying,” Molly answered picking up a quill and twirling in her fingers curiously. “We saw Arabella in the hall and she made pig noises at her.”

“Such a lovely girl,” Felix commented dryly.

Molly didn’t disagree and changed the topic. “What’s the problem with the quills?”

“I have to keep stopping to dip them in ink,” Cressida explained. “I’m trying to think of a way to sneak a pen in without the teachers noticing.”

Molly thought hard for a moment. “You could transfigure them.”

“Would that work?” Felix asked intrigued. 

“We’d have to test run it but I imagine it’s not that hard to do,” Molly said. “If you can find me a pen I’ll try and come up with a spell for you before the end of the year.”

Cressida was looking at Molly hopefully. “And this doesn’t constitute me getting into trouble?”

Molly raised an eyebrow over her book. “If you manage to find a way to make quills and pens troublesome, I’ll be impressed.”

 

Monday 16th May 2016

 

Cressida thought she had an excellent plan to get pens into Hogwarts after a week of hard thinking. She had considered writing to her mum using one of the school’s owls asking to send pens back, but then she remembered money was tight and Gareth was now living in the flat. So she turned to her most reliable method- Teddy Lupin. 

The problem was tracking him down when he was alone. Lately, every time she saw him he was with a group of older year students, shoving his tongue down Victoire's throat, running away from teachers, or putting on a show for a crowd.

Unfortunately, while on her hunt for Teddy, she often ran into the trio of Gryffindors. Since the incident with Arabella, the Gryffindor house as a whole was weary of Cressida and the Slytherins, still sensing it was foul play so Slytherin would win the game. The trio of boys, however, continued on like nothing was wrong.

Cressida often conducted her searches for Teddy alone this close to curfew. Jac wasn’t as good at taking heckling and putting on a brave face in the halls as Cressida, so she wanted to spare Jac from facing more than she already had to. Jac didn’t seem to mind this, not seeing the thrilling side of searching for a pen, and instead took to playing snap cards in the common room with Felix.

By seven o’clock Cressida felt like she had searched everywhere for Teddy on that particular day and was just about to give up when she saw Victoire wandering the halls on the seventh floor. Pushing herself up off the wall, she ran after the older girl.

“Knightly,” Victoire smiled brightly as Cressida walked in time with her. “You’re brave wandering around on your own this late. Up to trouble, I suppose?”

“No,” Cressida answered truthfully. “I’m looking for Lupin.”

“Oh,” Victoire said surprised. “He was around here somewhere. I think he was talking to James-”

Victoire was cut off when suddenly Filch appeared around the corner. Both girls froze as the ugly caretaker strode toward them. Cressida instantly started to panic. It was far too early for Filch to be doing his rounds and Molly would kill her if Filch gave her a detention for no good reason. “My, my, what do we have here?” He sneered getting closer. “Two students wandering the halls. Someone will undoubtedly think you’re up to something.”

Cressida watched in horror as Filch came to stand right in Victoire’s face so their noses were almost touching. Her mouth fell open in shock and revolution as she watched Victoire smile and then kiss Filch on the cheek.

“Nice try, Teddy,” she laughed.

Before Cressida could fathom what she had witnessed, it got even weirder. Filch’s face morphed and changed shape until it was Teddy’s features in front of Victoire. Filch’s greasy long hair, shrunk back into the usual blue mop of hair that Cressida had been searching for.

James and Thomas rounded the corner then and James laughed when he saw the expression on Cressida’s face. “I take it Teddy showed you his trick.”

Cressida turned her wide eyes on James. “His  trick ? He can fucking shapeshift!”

“If it makes you feel better, I fainted the first time he did it to me,” Thomas said to Cressida. “He transformed into my dad after I had broken a broom at the Potters’. I thought I was going to be grounded for my whole life.”

Teddy had his arms wrapped around Victoire now as he spoke to Cressida. “My mum was a Metamorphmagus. I inherited her abilities to change my appearance.”

“Into anything,” James boasted on Teddy’s behalf. “He turned into George once at Christmas as a joke, gave Grandma Weasley a huge fright…. we felt really bad when we realised our mistake.”

“In fact, the only person Teddy hasn’t turned into around here is McGonagall,” Victoire added on teasingly. “He’s scared he’ll get caught.”

“Please,” Teddy scoffed. “I could run this castle looking like ol’ Minnie and no one would suspect a thing.”

“I bet they would,” Thomas countered. 

“You couldn’t last a day pretending to be McGonagall,” James added on.

“Oh yeah?” Teddy said ruffling James’ hair and sauntering forward to stand in front of them all. “I bet you I can take McGonagall’s place for a whole week and not get caught,” Teddy wagered.

“You’re on!” James agreed, shaking Teddy’s hand enthusiastically.

Teddy’s face transformed into McGonagall right in front of them. “Now go to class or I’ll give you detention, Mr Potter the third,” he said in a convincing McGonagall impression.

Cressida was too bewildered and caught off guard by the whole affair to remember why she had been searching for Teddy Lupin in the first place.

McGonagall then winked and started walking down the hall with her hands behind her back yelling at random students to go here as there. James and Thomas thought this was great fun. Cressida held her head in her hands knowing better. 

“This is going to end terribly,” Thomas laughed.

“And  he’s  the Head Boy!” Victoire smiled adoringly as she broke away from the group and started walking after her boyfriend pretending to be an old Scottish woman.

James turned back to face Cressida then. “We’re going to sneak into the kitchens, Knightly. Want to come?”

“I’m staying out of trouble,” Cressida answered turning away to leave as well. There was no point running after Teddy now.

James and Thomas jogged to walk beside her. “That doesn’t sound like you,” Thomas said on her left.

“Since when do you stay out of trouble?” James asked on her right. “You  are  trouble!”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “And look how well that’s worked out for me. Everyone hates Slytherin now.”

James waved a dismissive hand through the air. “People hated Slytherin before, they just wanted a new excuse to use against you guys.”

Cressida came to a stop outside of the Gryffindor portrait hole. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The portrait hole opened and Fred stepped out right into the middle of a brewing argument unknowingly. Thomas grabbed the taller boy and pulled him to one side to watch in silence as Cressida and James faced each other.

“I just meant that people are always going to be prejudiced against Slytherins but it’s not your fault,” James tried to redeem himself. “Besides, you’re not like the rest of them-”

“Not like the rest of them?” Cressida repeated offended.

“Bad wording, mate,” Fred muttered beside Thomas.

“I just meant that you’re not stuck up or boring like the others,” James carried on. “You’re not evil-”

“No,” Cressida cut him off. “But I’m sneaky and conniving and mistrustful like them, aren’t I? If I wasn’t like a typical Slytherin, everyone would believe me when I said I had nothing to do with what happened to you on the Quidditch pitch.”

James faltered for an answer straight away. Thomas and Fred were looking at the floor awkwardly. “It’s just that it’s easy to make Slytherin’s the bad guys given everything in the past,” James said. “But we know  you  aren’t bad, just your house-”

Cressida laughed and turned away before he could finish his sentence. “I knew it.”

James and the two boys were quick to run after her. “Knew what?” Thomas asked.

“Knew that you  were  like everyone else. Molly was right,” Cressida snapped. Perhaps all the bad-mouthing and heckling from the other students had finally gotten to her. Maybe the constant reminders from Margo and Molly about what their house had been like in the past was playing on Cressida’s mind more than she’d like to admit. Most of all, she was surprised that after everything, James Sirius Potter of all people seemed to agree that Slytherins as a whole was generally regarded as bad and that Cressida had somehow become an exception to his thinking.

“Knightly, wait-” James called trying to grab her arm to stop her from storming off.

“Sod off, Potter!” She snapped speeding up. Luckily, as she glanced back while turning a corner, she saw Fred had the common sense to stop James from running after her still.

 

Friday 20thth May 2016

 

Cressida hadn’t told the others about her argument with Potter and if she had it her way no one would ever know. She didn’t want to look like it had affected her. She had to keep reminding herself that they weren’t her friends anyway so she wasn’t missing out on anything.

“You’re weirdly quiet,” Jac said breaking Cressida out of her thoughts. Cressida rolled her head to one side on the sofa in the alcove to look at Jac sitting on the floor beside Felix at the coffee table, working on their homework together.

“Just thinking about how to get pens into Hogwarts,” Cressida lied. “My last idea turned out to be a dead end.”

“Finnigan comes to the rescue yet again,” Felix bragged, throwing a package at Cressida. She sat up and turned it over in her hands to see it was a pack of at least twenty pens balled together with a rubber band. “I sent an owl to Dean asking for some. They arrived this morning but you never came down to breakfast with us.”

“Felix, you’re a genius!” Jac grinned shaking him by the shoulders.

“I know,” Felix replied proudly. “As soon as you and Molly figure out how to turn them into quills, I want one for personal use… something like that will be like gold dust around this place.”

Jac leant forward and took the pens from Cressida. “Do you reckon we could sell them?”

“Sell what?” Molly asked appearing in the alcove with Margo at her side. She looked like she had been crying again.

“Finnigan got some pens for us to turn into quills,” Cressida answered as Molly took the pack of pens from Jac to look at for herself.

“Who made you cry this time?” Felix asked Margo.

Margo wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Two Forth Years made hissing noises at us as we passed them.”

Molly sat on the sofa beside Cressida, focusing solely on the pens and not addressing what Margo had been crying about. “I don’t think this is going to be enough pens.”

“There’s twenty of them!” Felix argued back. “We only need five to work!”

Molly passed the pens back to Cressida. “Yes, but it’ll take a few tries to get the spell to work. We want it to be perfect before we risk using them in class.”

Felix sank back against the sofa behind him. “I’ll send another owl tonight then, but you owe me money for the second batch.”

“Money won’t be an issue,” Molly scoffed. Cressida ducked her head at this. She hoped Molly would take over paying Felix back for the pens so she didn’t have to explain she couldn’t afford something even as small as that currently. “Cressida, can you stop by the library and check out any advanced Transfiguration books?”

Cressida rolled off the sofa and onto her feet. “I’m not sure Madame Pince will appreciate seeing me but I’ll do my best.”

“Do you want one of us to come?” Jac asked.

Cressida looked down at her and then at Margo, who was still crying quietly. “No, I can handle it on my own.”

With that, Cressida left the common room and ventured out into the halls of Hogwarts. She had the library insight when she heard a familiar voice calling from behind her.

“Go away, Potter,” Cressida snapped without turning around to face him. James ran in front of her regardless, Thomas and Fred lingering slightly behind her. 

“I’m really sorry about what I said the other day,” he rambled. “You just took it the wrong way.”

Fred slapped his hand to his face. Cressida raised an eyebrow at James. “I don’t care what way I took it, you still think Slytherins are bad. I shouldn’t be the only exception.”

“You’re not!” James said at once. 

“But you’re the only one that really talks to us,” Thomas added on.

“Gee, I wonder why,” Cressida said sarcastically, pushing forward. Fred and Thomas ran in front of her this time to stop her.

“Just hear us out, Knightly,” Fred said. “I know James can be an idiot-”

“Hey!” James interrupted.

“-But he really didn’t mean to upset you.”

Cressida glared at the three boys in front of her. “Why do you even care? I’m not your friend.”

“But you can be!” Thomas offered sweetly.

“Admit it, Knightly, you’re more like us than Molly anyway,” Fred said.

“And we really don’t care that you’re a Slytherin,” James said. Cressida didn’t answer straight away, instead continued glaring at them. In the silence, James’ grin had started to grow again. “I can see you considering it.”

“No, I’m not,” Cressida scoffed.

“Yes, you are,” James countered, grinning wider still. “No one can resist us, especially you. I reckon you hating us is all an act.”

Fred and Thomas had sensed the two were entering one of their bickering matches again and stepped back. 

Cressida folded her arms across her chest. “Have you considered I’m not pretending to hate you?”

James’ demeanour had changed completely from grovelling to boasting as if the previous argument was over and done with and this was a fun new game. “If anything you just hate us because you know we’re better than you,” James said stepping closer to her so he was right in front of her face

“Are you serious, Potter?” Cressida asked irritably. This was not a simple game to her.

The boy grew a wide smirk and looked her dead in the eye. “No, I’m  James Sirius  Potter.”

Cressida punched him square in the nose. Thomas and Fred fell to the floor laughing as Cressida stepped over James and stormed into the library.

 

*

 

It had taken Cressida longer than she would have liked to find the right Transfiguration books for Molly while under the watchful eye of Madame Pince and by the time she made to leave it was nearing curfew. 

However, when she exited the library she saw James and Thomas standing around the hallway waiting for her. James had his tie waded up into a ball and shoved under his nose to stop the blood. She felt slightly bad about punching him now, but at the moment she felt like he deserved it.

Thomas was the first to spot her, and instantly nudged James with his elbow. 

Cressida remained standing in front of the library, waiting to see what excuse James would babble at her now, but to her surprise, James stayed perfectly still just looking in her direction.

Thomas was looking between the two so rapidly she thought he might give himself a headache, so, sighing deeply and cursing herself, she started walking towards them. She had cooled down quite a bit while searching for the books. After all, James and the other two boys had been one of the few people actually sicking up for her and Slytherins over the past few weeks. Maybe she had taken it out on James unfairly, even though she still thought what he said was unfair.

“Sorry I punched you,” she muttered once she came to a stop in front of the two boys. 

“S’alright,” James replied dabbing his nose with the blood-stained tie. “Someone was bound to punch me at some point anyway.”

Cressida refused to let James see her smile at that so she turned to Thomas. “Where’s idiot number three?”

“Fred snuck down to the kitchens to find some ice,” Thomas answered. “He should be back soon.”

There was a slightly awkward silence while the three looked at each other. Cressida debated saying something to break the tension. Apparently, James had the same idea because he also opened his mouth to speak, but all three of them got distracted when they saw McGonagall round the corner.

Seeing the Head Mistress around Hogwarts this past week had been a very strange occurrence for everyone involved. Thanks to Teddy’s bet of pretending to be McGonagall, he spent every spare moment wandering the halls as her, giving out random detentions- particularly to any friends of the Chauncey siblings-, saying odd phrases and general incoherent nonsense. On Wednesday, Teddy pretending to be McGonagall had pulled the trio of Gryffindor boys out of Potions early with the excuse that ‘fun needed to be had elsewhere.’ Nobody was sure what that meant, but the following day all of the knights lining the halls were suddenly wearing pink boxer briefs covered in polka dots. 

Evidently, the only people who were aware it was Teddy doing all of this were the trio of boys, Cressida, and Victoire who had to explain why she was walking around hand in hand with the Had Mistress one evening.

“Potter, what on earth happened to your face?” McGonagall asked peering down at James. 

“Knightly whacked me one,” James answered casually. Thomas and Cressida stared at him wide-eyed.

“Why on earth did she…  whack you one ?” McGonagall asked.

“Because I was being a pratt,” James shrugged. Cressida had the sudden realisation that during this past week, James had become so accustomed to Teddy being McGonagall that the real McGonagall showing up unannounced had slipped his mind as a possibility. “She’s got a killer right hook by the way.”

“Well, naturally I will have to issue a detention, Miss Knightly,” McGonagall said looking at Cressida. “ Whacking  people is not prohibited within Hogwarts.”

“Oh, come on, Teddy. I know it’s you!” James laughed, punching her lightly on the arm. 

The look on McGonagall’s face was one only the real witch could muster. “MR POTTER!”

“Uh oh,” Thomas whimpered hiding behind Cressida. James now realized the fatality of his mistake and gulped nervously as McGonagall towered over him.

“I don’t know what has gotten into you students lately but I know  you  have something to do with it!”

James smartly lifted a finger as if to pause McGonagall mid-rant. “Technically, you can’t prove I have anything to do with it. I’m an innocent bystander.”

“You’re a Potter. Yes, I  undoubtedly can  prove you’ve got something to do with this. Now tell me what is going on this instant!” McGonagall demanded.

Teddy disguised as McGonagall rounded the corner whistling a happy tune to himself, unaware the real McGonagall was interrogating the First Years.

James spotted him first, then Cressida. Teddy tried to turn and walk away before he was caught, but his body went suddenly rigid and he was floating backwards through the air towards them until he was in front of McGonagall. “Hi, Minnie. How’s it going?” Teddy tried to fake innocence as his face morphed back into his own.

“Of course,” she sighed releasing Teddy of whatever spell she had used to bring him to them. “ Of course,  a Lupin and a Potter are in cahoots. If Sirius Black had an ancestor I have no doubt they would be present as well!” McGonagall rambled to herself. The four teenagers looked between themselves not knowing how much trouble they were in. “Detention!” McGonagall yelled after a moment. “All four of you! Especially you, Mr Lupin. You’re supposed to be Head Boy!”

“So was James Potter but look what he got up to-” Teddy started.

McGonagall turned, muttering to herself and rubbing her temples. Evidently, she didn’t have a counterargument to previous trouble making Head Boys. 

Once she was out of sight, Teddy clapped his hands together. “Well, I’d say that was a job well done. I made it five whole days!” He said proudly.

“That’s not a week though,” Thomas pointed out. James gained a smug grin.

“Pay up, Teddy-boy!” He said holding his hand out expectantly.

Teddy reached into his robes and produced more Zonko’s stink bombs and Honeyduke’s sweets than Cressida could ever imagine hiding in her own set of robes. “You win this round, Potter,” Teddy sighed once he had handed his pranking fortune over.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Lupin.” James grinned as he threw a Burtie Bott’s all flavoured Jelly Bean into his mouth.

Teddy suddenly grabbed James’ face then, looking at his bloody nose as if he had only just noticed it. “What did I miss?”

“Knightly whacked him one,” Thomas answered stealing one of the sweets from James. He instantly pulled a face after giving away he had gotten a bad flavour.

Teddy nodded appreciatively at her. “Killer right hook, Knightly.”

“That’s what I said!” James exclaimed. He then turned to Cressida, offering his box of sweets out to her. “Are we even now?”

Cressida took one of the sweets and threw it in her mouth. “We’re even,” she said turning to leave. “But I’m still not your friend.”

Chapter 24: First Year: Quill-Pens

Wednesday 15th of June 2016

 

Exams had turned out to be just as bad, if not worse than Cressida expected. If it hadn’t been for Molly she doubted she would have even managed to complete half the exams she had already taken.

Transfiguration had been the first exam at the end of May and Cressida thought she did awful at it given that she had never been particularly skilled in the subject, but Molly, who had been working tirelessly on transfiguring the pens into quills in her spare time, felt like she did rather well.

Defence Against the Dark Arts hadn’t been as bad as Cressida expected, but that was only because she had surprisingly learnt a lot from listening to Molly and Felix arguing about the differences between all the creatures and curses in the common room. Unfortunately, during the exam, Arabella spent every second she wasn’t writing glaring daggers into the back of Cressida’s head which was rather distracting.

Herbology had been rather pleasant and Professor Longbottom would often give words of encouragement as he passed her writing the exam. Jac had finished her exam before anyone else, giving away she had done well and felt rather proud of herself.

Astronomy had been awful for Cressida, made worse by the fact Margo was the only one who felt confident she had done well on it.

The only three exams she had remaining this month were Charms, which she felt like she would do best at, Potions, and History of Magic. She wasn’t as confident about her prospects in the other two lessons.

Luckily, the stress of exams was lightened slightly when Molly floated Felix into the girl's dorm room one evening demanding they have a private meeting.

“I’ve done it!” She exclaimed to the group sitting around the beds in front of her. She was covered in ink and her white blouse was definitely ruined. Cressida thought she vaguely resembled her cousins for the first time all year. “Look!”

She held out a normal looking quill at arm's length as if it was the Holy Grail.

Felix stood up, taking the quill from Molly and examining it for himself. “You’re telling me this is actually a pen?”

“Try it out,” Molly insisted.

Cressida reached over and took the Daily Prophet newspaper that Margo was reading right out of her hands and passed it to Felix for him to scribble on.

After Margo had yelled at Cressida, they all crowded around as Felix scribbled with the quill onto the paper like a normal pen.

“You really did it,” Jac said amazed, trying out the pen for herself. “This will cut our writing time in half if we don’t have to re-dip in those stupid ink wells.”

“Where are ours?” Margo asked.

Molly took the quill back for herself and put it in her robes, swapping it for four normal-looking pens. “Here.”

Felix looked at her like she was mad. “I hate to break it to you, but these still look like pens.”

“I’m going to teach you how to do the spell yourself,” Molly said pushing a pen into everyone’s hands. “The pens still run out like normal so occasionally you’ll have to restock.”

 

*

 

It had taken many hours and having to put out a fire accidentally caused by Felix before all four of the Slytherins had a working quill-pen. Margo still had yet to get hers working effectively and instead of continuing to try was now pouting in the corner. Cressida had never struggled so much to complete a piece of magic since the very beginning of the year.

Her first attempt had done nothing but change the colour of the quill feather. Her second attempt had turned it into a pen, but the ink didn’t work. Her third and fourth attempts had caused a weird hybrid pen that still needed to be dunked in an ink well to work.

Luckily, by morning the next day, Cressida had her own working pen-quill and was proud to show off discreetly in lessons that she no longer needed an ink well to work. Unfortunately, Margo and Felix were still in the weird hybrid stage of occasionally needing to dunk the pen-quill in ink, but only half as often as before.

However, this wasn’t good enough for Margo and in a fit of rage during their Charms lesson she had tried to transfigure it into a better pen again, causing it to explode.

“Oh, dear,” Professor Flitwick said turning towards the explosion. “Has Mr Finnigan done something again-”

“It was Margo this time, thank you very much!” Felix said defensively.

“Oh,” Flitwick said slightly surprised. “Oh well, no matter. Come to the front and I’ll give you a new quill, Miss Smithers. Mr Finnigan, you can help clean up the mess.”

Margo and Felix begrudgingly slid out of their chairs to do as Flitwick had asked. Cressida thought that there were some benefits to being a teacher’s favourite student after all. Flitwick never picked on her to do anything unless it was a demonstration. She was beginning to understand why Molly was so desperate to stay on all the teacher’s good sides.

“ Psst,  Knightly!” James called from behind her. Cressida looked over her shoulder at him. “How come your quill doesn’t need ink?”

“I don’t know what you’re-”

“Don’t lie, we’ve been watching you all morning,” Fred said quickly.

“Fine,” Cassie huffed. She should have known better than to try and do anything without the trio finding out. “It’s actually a pen,” she whispered back. If anyone would appreciate the spell, these three would. “Molly and I figured out a way to transfigure normal pens to look like quills but still write the same.”

“That’s genius!” Thomas gasped looking at his own quill.

“Why didn’t we think of that?” Fred asked James.

“It’s called muggle insight, boys.” Cressida grinned at them smugly. “You think too much like wizards for your own good.”

“Are you going to sell them?” Fred asked intrigued.

Cressida debated that for a moment. The idea of selling them had come up a few times but was always shot down by Molly and Margo. Neither of them needed the money, but Cressida sometimes wondered what her mum would say if she came home with some extra money for them to use over the summer.  It’s not fair , Cressida reminded herself. She couldn’t sell them behind Molly’s back and take all the money for herself.

“I’m not selling them,” she said to the boys. “They’re a secret for now.”

James pressed his lips together tightly, leaning forward even more. “Can you show us how to do it?”

“Not a chance,” Cressida said instantly. “It was  my  idea and Molly’s hard work.”

James tapped his fingers on the desk thoughtfully for a moment. “What if we made you a deal for the spell?”

Cressida put her quill-pen down and turned fully in her chair to face the boys. “I’m listening.”

The three boys huddled their heads together whispering for a moment until they resurfaced, clasping their fingers together in an attempt to look like serious businessmen.

“We won’t annoy you for two whole weeks,” James offered.

“Make it the end of term and I’ll consider it,” Cressida wagered.

Fred folded his arms. “You drive a hard bargain, Knightly.”

“Add in two chocolate frogs and I won’t tell Molly about it either,” she smirked.

“Deal!” Thomas replied instantly.

 

 

Tuesday 21st June 2016

 

Cressida had slipped James a piece of parchment with the enchantment on to turn pens into quills in the secret passageway and promptly left, looking forward to living out the final two months of Hogwarts solely with her Slytherin friends and without interference from the trio of Gryffindor boys at nearly every turn.

Since then she had completed her Charms exam. The practical side of the exam had gone better than she could have imagined, showing off her skills for levitation once again, but the written section had nearly put her to sleep. Thankfully, the pen-quills had made the writing process a lot quicker so she hardly lost any time.

Cressida was finding it awfully hard to concentrate on anything at the current time given how she didn’t sleep at night and instead stayed up doing some last-minute revision every night. To counter this problem, Cressida had taken to drinking coffee at the breakfast table instead of the usual tea Molly offered. It had taken a few days to get used to being on caffeine, but now Cressida felt like she could at least get through the days without needing a nap at lunchtime.

She was currently walking through the halls after getting some extra notes after class from Slughorn about the next upcoming Potions exam. She was quickly scanning the notes in her hands as she walked through the corridors until a loud crowd up ahead caught her attention instead.

Everyone seemed to be crowded around something set up near the Lounging Lady’s portrait. She shoved her notes into her bag and started elbowing her way through the crowd.

“Watch it, Slytherin,” a Third Year boy spoke down to her. “You’ll have to wait in line to get a quill-pen.”

“A what?” Cressida snapped.

“You heard me,” he replied irritably. “Wait in line like everyone else.”

Cressida turned away from the older boy and continued elbowing her way to the front, ignoring the curses and complaints from everyone around her. Once she broke through the crowd she saw a tiny table set up with the trio of Gryffindor boys sitting behind, handing out quills and counting money.

She instantly stormed towards the boys, cutting off a Second Year girl who had been handing money over to Fred. “These are  my  quill pens!” She said throwing one down on the table stand they had set up.

James took the pen and placed it in a box marked  ‘for sale’ . “We enchanted these ourselves, Knightly.”

“You’re selling them using the spell  I gave you!” 

“We really were just going to use them for ourselves like you, but then we realised how effective they were,” Thomas explained, less smug than his two counterparts.

“Besides, the spell became free for us to use how we see fit once you taught it to us,” James said cleverly.

“And they’re selling like wildfire,” Fred boasted waving money in front of Cressida.

Cressida was shoved out of the way by a Fourth Year coming up to buy a box of enchanted quill pens and handing James five galleons. 

“You’re making a  profit !?” She asked furiously as the Fourth Years walked away.

“Not to would be bad business,” James told her matter of factly as he threw the money into a tin already half-filled with coins.

“That money should be mine, it’s  my  spell!” She said leaning on the table to get into James’ grinning face. 

“It’s called hustling, Knightly. Look it up,” he replied. “You said yourself you weren’t going to sell them, so we decided to instead.”

“You don’t even need the money!” She yelled.  I need it,  she thought selfishly to herself.  My mum needs it.  “I’m going to get you back for this,” Cressida swore at him.

“You’re not going to punch me again, are you?” James asked nervously.

“No,” Cressida answered him coldly. “Something worse.”

Thomas had grown cautious of her tone, meanwhile, Fred and James laughed. “Good luck with that, Knightly. You may be good but even you can’t outdo the doers!” Fred called after her.

“Watch me!” She snapped backing away from them furiously.

“Guys, I think she was serious,” Thomas whispered nervously to his two best friends.

“What’s she going to do, Wood?” Fred asked unbothered. “Tell on us to Longbottom?”

 

 

Wednesday 22nd June 2016

 

Cressida and her co-ord of Slytherins were walking through Hogwarts, hoping to do some afternoon revision in the sun instead of being tucked away in their little and stuffy alcove. Margo had indeed been wrong about it getting stuffy in the Slytherin common room.

Once they had reached the grounds, they found the majority of the school doing the same, and some older students lounging peacefully having completed all of their exams before everyone else.

Molly paused before they could find a place to sit down and scanned the groups of people sitting around on the grass sensing something was off. “Cressida,” she said slowly. “Why is no one using an ink well?”

Cressida cursed under her breath. She had only told Jac about her predicament with the trio of Gryffindor boys late last night once Molly and Margo were already asleep, but neither girl had come up with a way to get back at them for it yet.

“Sure they are,” Jac stepped in. “Penelope is using an ink well,” she pointed out.

The Hufflepuff girl heard her name and turned toward them. “If you’re after Potter’s stock, he won’t have any more quill-pens in until tomorrow. He’s completely sold out today,” she pouted, and then her eyes grew wide. “Knightly, can you put a good word in with Potter for me? I’m dying to get one before the Potions exam tomorrow.”

Cressida could feel Margo and Molly glaring at her as she spoke to Penelope. “I’ve got nothing to do with this, so no.”

“Oh, okay,” Penelope shrugged getting to her feet and collecting her things. “I suppose it was a long shot asking you anyway. I heard you guys were on the outs at the moment.”

Cressida got her back up slightly. “Who told you that?”

Penelope took a cautious step back. “Fred was telling us how you punched Potter in the nose. They even re-enacted it for us. It was rather funny at the time.”

“Right, well, nice talking to you Penelope!” Felix said grabbing Penelope by the shoulders and directing her away. “Good luck in the exam and whatever. Bye-bye now.”

With that, Penelope disappeared back into the castle, giving a weary look at the group over her shoulder as she departed, and Cressida was forced to face Molly. “You  did  have something to do with this, didn’t you?”

“Not intentionally,” Cressida answered. 

“The teachers are bound to know about the pen-quills if  everyone  is using them!” Margo complained.

“We know that, Margo!” Jac snapped back. “Cressida’s going to fix it, aren’t you, Cressie?”

All eyes turned to Cressida. “Sure,” she answered after a moment.

Molly flailed her arms in the air as she sat down in the space Penelope had left. “Oh, that fills me with confidence!” She said sarcastically as she started getting her books out. 

A flash of blue hair caught Cressida’s eye across the grounds and an idea popped into her head instantaneously. “In fact, I’m going to fix it right now.”

Molly followed Cressida’s eye-line and instantly got back to her feet. “Knightly, don’t you dare-!”

It was too late, Cressida was already walking away from her group toward the older boy. “Lupin!” Cressida yelled, running up up him as he was lounging in the shade of a large tree. 

“Hey, you’re that Slytherin Teddy’s cousins are friends with, right?” One of the boys standing with him asked, smiling down at her. “I’ve heard stories about-”

“I’m not their friend,” Cressida cut him off rudely.

Teddy laughed to himself. “This should be interesting,” he muttered to his group. “What can I do for you?”

She glanced at the group of boys watching her and rolled her eyes. She grabbed Teddy’s robes and pulled him away so they could talk privately.

“Do you know how to reverse a spell cast by someone else?” She asked in a hushed voice.

Teddy glanced around and then bent down to Cressida’s height. “What are you planning, little witch?” He asked intrigued.

“I need to get back at them for something,” she answered.

“Was punching them not good enough this time?” He joked.

“I’ll punch you in a minute-”

“Okay, okay,” Teddy laughed. “Merlin, calm down. Try using  Finite Incantatem  if you want to undo a spell.”

“Thanks,” Cressida said backing away. “And don’t tell them I’m planning it.”

Teddy was walking back towards his waiting group of friends. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he grinned.

Cressida re-joined her group all staring at her as she sat down with them. Molly had grown so tight-lipped she looked like she had sucked on a lemon. “It’s being dealt with,” Cressida smiled at her innocently.

Chapter 25: First Year: End Of Year

Summary:

Cressida returns home for summer.

Notes:

That concludes Year One. It may take a few days for me to get Year Two completely ready to upload so please bare with. Thank you to everyone who has left comments and Kudos, and I hope you all continue to enjoy the story!
I also went back and merged some of the shorter chapters together now I have a better understanding of the site to lessen the number of chapters going forward, so my apologies if any comments got deleted in the change :)

Monday 27th June 2016

 

The Potions exam had been a disaster. Annoyingly, they didn’t work in pairs for the actual exam and so Cressida was left to fend for herself while knowing full well that the trio of Gryffindors had essentially cheated by revising out of James’ dad’s book instead of the same one as everyone else.

Still, she didn’t let this discourage her. She had a plan in motion, and that was always something to be excited about. Jac, especially, was intrigued about what Cressida would pull this time but Cressida refused to tell her the plan, wanting it to be a surprise. Another reason she didn’t tell Jac the whole plan was because she was slightly worried it wouldn’t even work.

She had tried using the spell Teddy had told her to multiple times over the week and the results from it were only fifty-fifty, which didn’t fill her with absolute confidence she could pull it off to the extent she wanted to.

Molly was still amazed Cressida had, in fact, managed to make pens into something troublesome but let her continue with her plan, sensing trying to stop her would make it worse.

Cressida knew she had to set her plan in motion before the final exam of the year, otherwise, no one would care, so she had to do the spell now even though she hadn’t perfected it yet.

They were all sitting in their History of Magic classroom settling down for another long and boring hour of Mr Binns prattling on in preparation for their final exam.

“Quills out please,” Professor Binns told the students before turning to his blackboard to start writing.

She had used the spell on their latest stock once she figured out they were stashing them in the secret passageway behind the tapestry. Clearly, the three boys weren’t concerned about Cressida finding them. As expected, the whole stock had been sold before the day was done. Now all she had to do was wait.

Cressida grinned to herself knowingly as everyone put their quills to parchment. Behind her, three large shouts and curses sprung up. All eyes turned to see James, Fred and Thomas covered from head to toe in black ink. Around them, four more students had ink splattered over their robes and faces. Anyone remaining who had bought a quill-pen from the trio of boys threw it down to avoid meeting the same fate.

“Oh, no. Did something go wrong with your precious pens?” Cressida mocked as she touched her own quill to the parchment without a problem.

“You did this!?” Fred yelled wiping the black ink from his eyes.

“I  told  you she would do more than tell on us!” Thomas complained beside him.

Professor Binns noticed the disturbance and turned around. “What happened to you boys?” He asked, still in his usual drawn-out voice. “You best go and get yourselves cleaned up.”

The three boys got to their feet along with anyone else who was unfortunate enough to fall victim to the exploding pens. As he passed by, James momentarily leaned on Cressida’s desk in front of her. “Not bad, Knightly. Not bad at all,” he complimented her. “How’d you do it?”

Cressida faked innocence and continued writing perfectly with her pen quill. “I have my ways. You’re not the only smart one around here, Potter.”

His mouth twisted in an attempt to hide his grin as he straightened up again and followed his two friends out of the classroom to wash the ink from their faces.

Feeling rather proud of herself, Cressida looked toward Molly, Margo and Jac across the classroom. Jac was trying not to fall off her chair laughing, even Molly looked amused by seeing the trio covered in ink and being sent out of the classroom.

“I’d say you dealt with that gracefully,” Felix laughed beside her.

“Don’t I always?” Cressida countered as she continued writing perfectly normal.

 

*

 

After a long day of passing students who looked like they had been attacked by a squid, Cressida and Jac broke away from their group as they were heading down for dinner. Neither girl was hungry after the events of the day, and Cressida instead wanted some time to revise for the last exam tomorrow. Just before the two girls started heading down the stairs towards the dungeon, they were stopped by Teddy and Victoire heading into the Great Hall along with everyone else.

“I must say, Knightly, you give me a run for my money with those cunning ideas of yours,” Teddy praised her.

“She is but a Slytherin,” Victoire smiled at her. For once, someone calling Cressida a Slytherin wasn’t meant as a bad thing. 

Teddy looked around then broke away from Victoire and walked closer to the two First Years. “I know you know about the secret passageways,” Teddy whispered. “And I know you’re the one that told my cousins about it.”

“How’d you know?” Jac asked.

“I saw their stock hidden in the Lounging Lady’s,” Teddy said. “And I’ve seen you two sneaking around here for months.”

“We only told them about that one,” Cressida deflected, folding her arms. “They can find the other one for themselves.”

“We think there’s still more than the two we found though,” Jac said.

Teddy nodded, rolling on the balls of his feet casually. “There are. Loads of them. Some of them even lead out of Hogwarts completely.”

Cressida hardened her eyes on the older boy. “You know about every single one, don’t you?”

Teddy laughed. “Who do you think made and found all of them?” He asked leaning down to their height. 

“How?!” Jac asked impressed.

“Most of them got blocked off during the second war, but when I started I had my father’s legacy to live up to. I started poking around, looking in all the places there was rumoured to be a passage and cleared it out. I found some totally new ones too, they must have opened up after the battle with all the explosions and rubble.” 

“And you never told anyone about them?” Cressida asked surprised.

Teddy shrugged. “What fun would that be? Then everyone would know about them… you see, some things are better to keep a secret around here.” 

With that, Teddy tapped the side of his long nose and strode into the hall, arm in arm with Victoire. Jac turned to Cressida. “He sounds just like-”

“Not another word, Redwick,” Cressida interrupted, knowing where she was going with her sentence.

Linking arms with Jac, the two continued down into their dorm room. “You do realise giving Teddy Lupin a run for his money isn’t technically a good thing, right?” Jac smirked as they entered. “He’s notorious for getting in trouble.”

“It’s going to be boring around here next year without him,” Cressida replied sitting down on her bed. She didn’t want to admit she had grown fond of going to Teddy for answers. When she returned in September, she would be on her own to some extent. 

“I imagine some other troublemaker will take up his mantle,” Jac shrugged. “Let’s just hope they like Slytherins.”

As Cressida sat down, she noticed a round, silver tin lying on her bed. Curiously, she opened it to find an array of coins inside along with a note.  ‘You outdid the doers. Let the war commence!’

“What’s that?” Jac asked looking at the object in Cressida’s hand.

Cressida put the note to one side and sifted the money through her fingertips. This was more than half of the profit the boys had made from selling her enchanted pens. Perhaps enough to pay her mum back for the hobo bag she bought at the beginning of the year.

“It’s from the idiots,” Cressida answered her. “I think I can guess who’s going to take up Lupin’s mantle next year.”

“And they’ve already declared war on us,” Jac laughed reading the note for herself. “Molly will be thrilled.”

“Hopefully by September they will have found a new target,” Cressida replied.

Rasper purred and nudged his head against Cressida’s hand for attention. She put the money back in the tin and lifted the kitten onto her shoulder and re-read the note, settling on her bed beside Jac.

“One question though…” Jac said thoughtfully. “How did they get in here?”

Cressida paused then, looking around the room. Even she wasn’t sure how they managed that.

 

 

Saturday 16th July 2016

 

It was Cressida’s final day of her first year at Hogwarts. She was awoken before ten by the girls talking like normal. She had gone down for breakfast and was given copious amounts of tea by Molly while Felix and Margo argued as normal. Across the hall, the trio of Gryffindor boys were putting on a performance that was aided by Teddy nearby. 

McGonagall was sat at the front of the hall talking to Longbottom and Slughorn as she often was. The ghosts were floating by here and there, making pleasant conversation with the students. Jac, as always, was sat low in her seat wanting to avoid any ghostly interactions.

Everything was the same as it had been all year, and Cressida was glad.

She didn’t want the last day to be a big deal filled with emotions. Luckily, her friends weren’t much for emotional goodbyes or dramatic exits like some other people she knew. If the girls had let her sleep in past ten, or if Felix had refused to jab back when Margo made a stupid comment, that would confirm it really was the last day they would all be together for six whole weeks.

She was glad to be going home to her mother, of course, she missed her and she couldn’t wait to tell her everything she had done over her school year, but she had grown used to waking up with three other girls in the room. She liked being served tea without even asking for it, and Felix’s quick wit despite him complaining it was too early to be awake. She liked having Jac beside her, seemingly always reading her mind and thinking what she was thinking without having to say it. As much as she hated them, she liked having the upper hand and teasing the trio of Gryffindor boys and their performances in the hall. 

She knew it wasn’t guaranteed everything would be the same in September when they returned, but she could hope. She could even put up with the occasional heckling from some of the other students if everything was exactly as it was now.

All four of them were doing the last of their packing together before lunch. Packing had been easy, given that Cressida never really brought anything with her in the first place. She threw everything messily into her trunk, and in doing so, found her mother’s leather jacket. She hadn’t thought about it since she decided Hogwarts was not the place to wear it. The school wasn’t her own territory then, it wasn’t her home. 

It still wasn’t now, Conwell would always be her home, but Hogwarts was slowly becoming her territory.

“Is that your dad’s?” Jac asked coming up behind Cressida.

Cressida slammed her trunk shut and spun around to face the other girl. In her thoughts, she had completely forgotten there were three other people in the room.

Jac had Rasper perched on her shoulder as she flitted about the room packing. Once Cressida’s case slammed shut, Rasper jumped down and sat on that instead, meowing up at her. Cressida still wasn’t sure how she was going to get Rasper around Gareth once she returned home.

“I recognised it from your photo,” Jac said, pointing to the birthday gift still on her bedside table.

Cressida recomposed herself and shuffled Rasper onto the bed and pulled the jacket out of the trunk. “No,” she said rubbing her thumbs along the tarnished collar. “It was my mum’s.”

Molly dropped the last of her books into her case and locked it. “Why did you bring it to Hogwarts?”

“I don’t know,” Cressida answered. “I wore it a lot at home. I guess it was a comfort thing.”

“But this is the first time we’ve seen it,” Margo commented, sitting on her case trying to force it shut. “It’s no wonder really, it looks ancient. Maybe you can buy your mum a new one for Christmas this year.”

Jac could see Cressida glaring at Margo and stepped in, taking the jacket from Cressida and examining it for herself. “It’s called vintage, Margo, and I think it looks cool. You should wear it today.”

Cressida scoffed, putting her picture frame carefully in her case. “Leather jackets aren’t exactly trendy around here.”

“Cressida, we wear robes with tassels and pointy hats around here,” Molly said. “Wear the damn jacket if you want to. It’s our last day, no one’s even going to notice.”

The matter was taken out of her hands when Jac grabbed the jacket and forced in on Cressida. All three girls looked at her, Jac smiling the widest, as Cressida adjusted it properly.

“It’s a little big-” Margo started.

“It’s perfect,” Jac interrupted, throwing a pillow at the smaller girl. “It suits you.”

Molly walked past them towards the door. “Now that Cressida looks like she’s in an eighties biker gang, shall we make sure Finnigan has packed all of his things? He has a terrible habit of leaving stuff in the alcove.”

“I have four of his shoelaces to give back,” Margo said getting up towards the door as well, following Molly out. “I don’t know how they keep ending up in here.”

Jac grinned to herself as she too left the room. “It’s an unsolvable mystery, Smithers.”

Cressida couldn’t bring herself to move just yet.

The train was leaving at noon, meaning they had a final hour to themselves before having to head to the train. Cressida put her hands in her pockets and found a single cigarette leftover from selling to Albie and his gang. She twisted it in between her fingers, never taking it out of the pocket, a physical reminder of the life she was returning to.

 

*

 

Felix had indeed left a plethora of his objects in the alcove in the common room and was promptly lectured by Molly about how irresponsible it was. Felix, faking incompetence, dragged his trunk out into the alcove and somehow convinced Molly to pack it for him while he and Jac played Burtie Bott’s bean roulette, guessing who would get the bad one each time.

After half an hour had passed, and Felix’s trunk was neatly packed in a way only Molly could achieve in such a short amount of time, the five Slytherins were suddenly very aware of how little time they had left.

“Shall we wander?” Molly asked unexpectedly.

All eyes turned to Cressida, who had her bag concealing Rasper on her shoulder, ready to go at a moment’s notice. “Yeah,” she said gratefully. “That sounds good.”

Naturally, Molly wasn’t very good at wandering the castle and completely bypassed the secret passageway on her way up towards the Grand Staircase. Cressida gestured for Jac and Felix not to draw attention to it. It was Molly’s turn to lead the way.

“We don’t want to go too far,” Margo said as they ventured onto the fifth floor. “They’ll be calling us for the train soon.”

“We can find our way around,” Jac told her. “Besides, this is one of our last moments before-”

“We’ll see each other in September,” Felix interrupted, not wanting to talk about leaving. “Six weeks isn’t that long to wait.”

“And we’ll be writing to each other in the meantime,” Molly nodded.

“Molly and I will be together all summer of course,” Margo said happily, walking in time with the ginger witch. “It’s one of the perks of being next door neighbours.”

“Lucky you,” Felix countered sarcastically. “Spending the summer with Molly also means spending the summer with the three musketeers.”

Margo’s face fell as she suddenly realised that this summer would be slightly different to all the previous ones.

Cressida looked down at Rasper poking his head out of her bag. “I don’t think I will be able to write,” she told the others. “My… step-dad… he’s a muggle. He won’t understand the owls.”

Molly looked back over her shoulder at Cressida sympathetically, then a twinkle returned to her eye. “If I can find time to write while dealing with my cousins over the summer,  you  can outsmart your step-dad.”

Cressida smiled at the compliment. “You have too much faith in me.”

“Besides,” Jac said linking arms with Cressida. “I’m only in Bristol. Maybe I can catch a train and come visit you.”

Cressida would have liked this, but the thought of any of her friends seeing the state of Conwell made her want to shrivel up inside. “Maybe,” she lied.

The five Slytherins were all nearly knocked to the floor as the trio of Gryffindor boys came running around the corner. Cressida had been wondering if she’d run into them before the train, but for once they didn’t stop to talk.

“Sorry!” Thomas called hurriedly.

“No time to explain!” Fred said over his shoulder.

“Too busy running for our lives!” James laughed manically as they ran around the next corner. Cressida allowed herself to visibly smile at James before he disappeared.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom came around the corner next. McGonagall had the look on her face that seemed to be reserved specifically for when the trio of boys got into trouble; a mixture of anger, impressiveness, and nostalgia.

Longbottom stopped, resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath for a moment as McGonagall thundered on after them.

“What did they do now?” Felix asked him curiously.

Professor Longbottom looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Professor Snape’s portrait…” he panted. “They enchanted a giant moustache on him.”

Molly rolled her eyes as Professor Longbottom took off again. “If we’re lucky those three might grow up a bit over the summer,” she complained as she continued leading the group forward. It was nearing the time to board the train.

 

*

 

Six hours later, and having stuffed their faces with all the sweets they could afford from the trolley, the Hogwarts Express pulled into platform 93/4.

The parents and families of all the students were lined up waiting for their children to run out and see them after a whole year away. Cressida glanced out the window but it was impossible to see her mother amongst the sea of everyone else’s parents. She did, however, spot the Potter/Weasley clan, standing at the forefront of the platform talking to each other and some other people standing nearby.

“My dad’s here!” Felix exclaimed pressing himself against the window. “He and Dean are talking to Potter now.”

Cressida looked to where Felix was pointing and saw a short and stocky man standing next to a slender and much taller man she took to be Dean. The short stocky man, Seamus Finnigan, was laughing with Dean and James’ mother about something.

“Well then,” Molly sighed glancing out at all the parents as well. “I suppose we should all get off.”

Margo and Molly were the first to get their things and start leaving the train compartment. Felix was next, hastily shoving his wand behind his ear and stumbling out to see his dad and Dean. Jac patiently waited for Cressida to hide Rasper in the bag before leaving with her.

“How are you going to explain him to your mum?” Jac whispered, giving Rasper one last head scratch before the summer break.

“Honestly,” Cressida said as they made their way along the train. “I have no idea.”

The two girls stepped out onto the platform and started scanning the crowd for their mothers.

“Knightly!” Both girls turned to see James, Fred and Thomas running off the train behind them. 

“We didn’t have a chance to say goodbye before the train,” Thomas said.

“We were too busy getting in trouble,” Fred grinned. “Had to let McGonagall know what to expect in September.”

Cressida looked around at the crowd pretending to search for her mum so she didn’t have to look at them. “You don’t owe me a goodbye.”

“We know,” James shrugged. “But it’s the gentlemanly thing to do, I hear.”

“Plus, we wanted to say goodbye to Redwick as well,” Fred said.

“Me?” Jac asked confused.

“You’re Knightly’s accomplice!” Thomas said spreading his arms out at her. 

“Come September, we’re coming after  both  of you,” Fred told them with a wink. “It would be unfair to wage a war on Knightly if there’s three against one. We reckon three against two is a fairer fight where you’re concerned.”

Jac smiled proudly and looked towards Cressida, who was trying to fake indifference. This was exactly the soppy goodbye she didn’t want. Luckily, at that moment she spotted her mum talking quietly with Jac’s.

“We should really get going,” she said, finally turning to meet their eyes. “Try not to get yourselves killed in the six weeks holiday.”

“We make no promises,” Thomas laughed as the three boys started walking toward their awaiting families.

James turned so he was walking backwards through the crowd to look at Cressida. “I like the jacket, by the way, Knightly!” He called. “Makes you look more confident.”

“As if that was possible,” Fred laughed over his shoulder at them. Shaking his head, Fred turned James back around by the shoulders to prevent him from falling over his own feet.

Cressida twisted her mouth to the side to try and stop the smile that was starting to appear on her lips. Her hand found the single cigarette still hidden in her pocket. “Come on,” she said to Jac. “Time to go home.”

Chapter 26: Summer 2016

Summary:

Cressida returns to Diagon Alley to take a break from her life at home

Notes:

Be Warned, Gareth isn't very pleasant so if parental figures talking down to people/ arguing affects you, this chapter may not be entirely enjoyable for you (nothing too drastic, and no physical abuse, don't worry). Feel free to skip or just focus on the Diagon Alley trip if you just want the happy upbeat parts of the story. Hope this helps :)

Wednesday 27th July 2016

 

‘Dear Cressida,

 

Hope the owl didn’t spook your step-dad but I don’t know your home number to ring instead.

The cousins are driving me mad. Grandmother Molly is hosting nearly the whole family this summer at the Burrow, as usual, and so every day I’m subject to at least one prank from the troublesome trio. Everyone keeps complimenting them on how well their magic is coming along, especially Uncle George and Ron, but me and dad agree they’re being foolish. They should be studying ready for next year, not looking up how to make extra stinky stink bombs. At least Aunt Hermione seems to understand me.

Still, at least I have Margo, but since Fred accidentally set her diary on fire while trying out a fireworks spell she refuses to come to the Burrow with me unless Grandma Molly is cooking a big feast. No one can resist her cooking.

I miss the peace of the dorm room terribly. September can’t come quick enough.

Hope to see you at James’ birthday party, I’ll need the moral support.

Margo says hi as well.

 

Kind regards

Molly Weasley II’

 

 

Friday 29th July 2016

 

‘Knightly,

Please come to my birthday party on the 3rd of August. 

I’m finally going to be twelve like the rest of you, which means a big cake made by Grandma Molly. Everyone will be there, including the younger, less likeable Molly. Finnigan and his dad are coming as well.

Send an owl back if you can make it.

 

James Sirius Potter’

 

 

Monday 1st August 2016

 

‘Cressie,

 

Owl mail is extremely strange outside of Hogwarts, I wish I had thought to get your real number before coming home.

Did you get an invite from Potter for his birthday?

I was thinking of going but since mum doesn’t know the parents she said I couldn’t go. I bet Molly is going to be fuming if neither of us can make it, but at least she’ll have Margo and Felix.

I mentioned going to Diagon Ally together before school starts again and mum seemed up for it. I still think she’s a bit mad about all the detentions we got together though, so be warned.

How did you manage to keep Rasper a secret from your step-dad after? I hope you still get to keep him, if not you’ll have to sneak him over to Bristol and I can take care of him for you. My dad’s allergies will just have to deal with it over the summer.

I miss you loads. My stupid brother is no fun, but he let me have all of his Cds! He says he doesn’t have a use for them anymore anyway.

Hope to hear back from you soon,

Jac x’

 

 

Monday 8th August 2016

 

‘To Cressida,

 

I’ve been dragged to Potter’s birthday this year. Apparently, my dad and Dean got talking to Harry about it at the station and now I’m sleeping over and everything. I think it’s just so my dads can catch up with everyone, but they’re clueless about the fact I’m not one of Potter’s real friends.

Plus, I’m stuck with Margo and Molly, who only talk about boring girl stuff or school. It’s the summer holidays for Merlin’s sake! I might befriend the trio of boys just to talk about something other than next year's book list.

I wish you and Jac could have come to the party, it was actually good fun. Lupin even jumped out of the cake, which didn’t go over well with their Grandmother.

I told my dad and Dean about you, by the way. They already love you just by the stories. They said you can come and visit us in Ireland next summer if you like. 

Hope everything is okay on your end.

 

Felix’

 

 

Saturday 27th August 2016

 

Cressida was awoken by a loud knocking on her bedroom door. “Up you get, you lazy bag of-”

She heard Gareth be shoved out of the way by her mother, who knocked tentatively on the door before poking her head in. “Morning, Cress.”

Cressida sat up in her bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Nearly ten,” her mother answered walking in fully and opening her curtains. “I just got off the phone with Shari, they’re going to meet us at the Leaky Cauldron later.”

Cressida was wide awake in an instant. After a summer of being alone in her room reading letters, today she was going to see Jac for the first time. “I’ll be there now.”

“Don’t be too long,” Alice said, attempting to tidy some of the mess around the small room. “We don’t want to be late. I want to spend as much time as possible out of the flat today,” she muttered under her breath.

“Tough night at the home?” Cressida asked knowingly.

“Tough life,” she answered with a hint at a joke. Alice reached over and kissed Cressida on top of her head before walking back out. She smelt like the nursing home again. Cressida wondered if she’d even slept.

As her mother left, she could see Gareth looking into her room with distaste before her mother shut the door behind her. Gareth wasn’t thrilled about having Cressida back in the flat, especially because his cigarettes had gone missing again due to Cressida selling them to Albie for some extra change. She’d upped the prices this summer, knowing the gang of prepubescent boys hadn’t found a better offer while she was away.

Climbing out of bed, Cressida knelt on her stained carpet floor to look under her bed. There she kept the letters from her friends all tied together nicely, her Hogwarts trunk, the tin can of money, and a tiny cardboard box.

“Morning, Rasper,” she whispered opening the cardboard box to reveal the tiny kitten snuggled up in an array of blankets. It wasn’t perfect, but Rasper didn’t seem to mind, and Cressida let him out as often as she could. “You’ll have to wait outside for me today. I’m going to see Jac.”

Rasper gave a small meow of recognition as he climbed his way out of the blankets and slinked into Cressida’s hobo bag.

The door to her bedroom suddenly burst open revealing Gareth, a cigarette hanging from his mouth, the eggs he had for breakfast staining his shirt.

Cressida stood up slowly, aware of the kitten hiding in her bag, and glared back at him. “Can I help you?” She asked pointedly.

Gareth eyed up her hobo bag on her shoulder as he puffed on the cigarette. “Wearing your pyjamas to London are you, Cress?”

“Of course not,” she spat. “I was just getting everything else ready first.”

“Don’t see why you’ve got to go to London anyways,” he puffed. “That school’s going to make you think you’re fancier than you are.”

“Gareth!” Alice called from the living room. “The washing machine’s knackered again!”

Gareth eyed Cressida up suspiciously as she didn’t move out of her spot. The owls delivering her friend’s letters had started to catch his attention. She knew he was waiting to catch her out in something but she had been careful all summer not to give anything away about her life at Hogwarts. With a final puff on his cigarette, he closed the door and went to help her mother.

Letting out a breath of relief, Cressida placed the hobo bag carefully in her wardrobe where Rasper couldn’t fall out while she picked out some clothes for the day. Luckily, Gareth wasn’t going to drive them to London himself. Apparently, he had a job interview down at the building site, but Cressida doubted he’d get it. He hadn’t got any of the jobs he’d interviewed for all summer.

Once she threw on whatever clean clothes she had lying around (her mother hadn’t been on top of the washing since Cressida had returned) she pulled on her leather jacket and stared out her window. The view was of desolate houses and flats, grubby, unkempt fields, rubbish tipped on the corner of the streets, and half-opened and broken into garages. This was her home, she reminded herself. Hogwarts was beautiful, but this is where she came from. This is who she was.

“Cressida!” Alice shouted again before bursting into the room. She was pulling on some slip-on shoes. “We’re going to miss the bus, are you ready?”

“I’ll meet you outside,” Cressida answered.

Her mother nodded quickly before disappearing again. Cressida reached under her bed and pulled out the tin of magical money the trio of boys had given her before the end of school. She’d stashed it away with this particular day in mind. Cressida opened her bag to check on Rasper. Although a stubborn and contrary kitten, he never minded having to stay quiet in her hiding spots. “Wish me luck, buddy.”

Cressida walked out into the flat. Gareth sat on the sofa watching the weather forecast. A half-empty packet of cigarettes lay on the table behind the sofa. As if sensing Cressida eyeing them up, he turned to face her. “Don’t even think about it!” He snapped, reaching over and snatching the packet away from her. “I know you’re behind my missing cigs.”

“You can’t prove that,” she said smartly. “Maybe you keep forgetting where you’ve put them, or smoked them all without realising. All you do is sit around and smoke anyway.”

Gareth got to his feet, reaching out to grab her but she stepped back instantly, making for the door. At the sudden jerky motion, Rasper let out a surprised chirp that stopped Gareth in his tracks. “What’s in that bag of yours, Cress?” 

“Nothing,” she lied turning quickly, tightening her grip on the bag. “Mum’s waiting.”

Gareth stayed stood in the middle of their sad excuse for a living room, lighting up another cigarette. “I know you’re up to something, Cress,” he said before exhaling. “You’re always up to something.”

Cressida glared at him over her shoulder as she walked out of the flat and slammed the door behind her. She ran down the three flights of stairs and stopped just outside the main door to the flat. Alice’s back was to her, talking to the Powell brother’s mother and her eldest daughter, Callie. Taking her chance, she knelt down and opened her bag for Rasper to crawl out of. The kitten nudged his head against her knee before trotting away and slinking under the abandoned couch outside of the block of flats.

“Cress, what took you so long?” Her mother asked as she came up beside her. “Say good morning to Mrs Powell.”

Cressida looked up at the foul woman. She had frizzy ginger hair slicked back in a greasy ponytail, a long and chubby face, and what teeth she had left in her mouth were stained yellow. “Good morning, Mrs Powell,” Cressida said politely. 

“Return the favour, Callie,” Mrs Powell said nudging her daughter on the shoulder.

Callie Powell, who resembled her mother greatly at only fifteen, removed one of her earphones and looked up from her phone. “Alright?” She asked uninterestedly. “Can I go now?”

“Go tell the boys to get lunch going,” Mrs Powell said. Callie gave no indication she had heard a word her mother said as she put her earphone back in and disappeared into the flats. “Sorry about her. You know what they’re like as teens, Alice. I’m just glad she’s not pregnant,” she laughed.

“Yes, I imagine that would be terrible,” Alice replied tightly.

Mrs Powell grinned down at Cressida instead, moving past her own dull daughter. “How’s that new school of yours then, Cress?” She asked. Her breath smelt like smoke. “My boys were sad to see you weren’t going to Conwell Comprehensive with them this year. I reckon you would have been a good influence on them. If we’re lucky, you and my Mitch might-”

“Well, we should really get going,” Alice interrupted the other woman, steering Cressida away by the shoulders. 

Mrs Powell gave a loose wave as she disappeared back into the block of flats while Cressida and Alice headed for the bus stop. “Do we even like Mrs Powell?” Cressida asked in a hushed voice as they waited for the bus to take them to the train station.

“She’s not that bad,” her mother answered. “Always willing to offer some milk or bread if we run out, but she’s got this stupid idea in her head that you’ll end up with one of her boys.”

Cressida couldn’t help the disgusted look that came onto her face. “I’d sooner marry Potter.”

Alice’s eyes snapped down to her. “Who’s Potter?” She asked. “A boy from school?”

Cressida had been careful to leave out any details about her adventures around Hogwarts, and extremely careful to leave out any information about the trio of boys. She only told her mum about the group of Slytherins. “He’s not important.”

Alice stared back at her daughter. “Is he giving you some sort of trouble?” She asked concerned. “Because you know you don’t have to go back-”

The bus arrived at that moment, cutting her mother’s thoughts short. Ever since returning, Alice had been asking her at any chance if she was sure she wanted to go back to Hogwarts in September. Cressida assumed her mother missed her while she was gone more than she let on, but then she remembered how little she had actually seen her mother over the summer. There was always something that took up her time instead- work, Gareth, running errands. There was always something her mother had to do that stole her away from Cressida.

“Come on,” Cressida said, grabbing her mother’s hand and pulling her onto the bus. “You don’t have to worry about me, mum. I can handle myself.”

Alice shuffled around in her purse for the bus money. “That’s what I’m worried about,” she muttered.

 

*

 

After catching the bus to Conwell train station, and then the long and stuffy train ride to London, Cressida and her mother finally made their way through the busy streets until they came to the Leaky Cauldron and the entrance back into the magical world.

Alice was less nervous this time, knowing what to expect, but Cressida noticed she still had the dazed look in her eyes as she stared around the old and strange-looking pub. She wondered sometimes if her mother thought she was strange or different now she was a witch. Alice refused to talk about it in detail or changed the subject quickly as if it was never mentioned, so Cressida had learned quickly not to talk about it too much over the summer. Not that she had much chance to talk about it anyway with Gareth around constantly.

“Knightly!” Cressida and her mother both spun around at their name being shouted.

To Cressida’s relief, Felix came pushing through the tables towards them, a strange drink in his hands spilling everywhere.

“Friend of yours?” Alice whispered as Felix approached.

“Yeah,” Cressida smiled. “One of the best.”

Felix stumbled forward, giving Cressida a short one-armed hug, glancing awkwardly at Alice as he did so. “Nice to meet you, Miss Knightly,” he nodded.

“Mum, this is Felix Finnigan,” Cressida introduced him.

At that moment, Seamus Finnegan came up behind Felix, offering his hand out to Alice. “Pleasure to meet you,” he said shaking her hand enthusiastically. “How are you settling into our ways? Felix says you’re muggles. Must be hard coming into all this without a clue as to what’s going on.”

Alice removed her hand from Seamus’, the same strange expression coming over her face. “We’re doing the best we can. Cress adapted instantly but I’m still finding it a bit strange… it still doesn’t seem real.”

Felix looked from Alice to Cressida with narrowed eyes. Cressida stared at the floor avoiding eye contact. She didn’t know how to explain her mother’s reactions to him. Seamus seemed to sense Alice’s change in demeanour and opted to change the topic slightly. “We’ve heard a lot about your daughter.”

Alice snapped back to normal, looking down at Cressida. “You have?”

“Oh yeah,” Seamus nodded. “Right little prankster from what I hear-”

Cressida coughed loudly, elbowing Felix in the side discreetly. She gestured with her eyes to her mum, hoping Felix would get the message.

“No, Dad, you’re mistaken,” Felix fumbled stepping into action. “Cressida doesn’t get into  any  sort of trouble. You must be thinking of someone else. Potter and his friends, maybe.”

Seamus looked at Cressida knowing that Felix was lying. 

“Nice to meet you, Mr Finnegan,” Cressida said, offering him the best innocent smile she could muster.

Felix moved behind his dad, using all his strength to push him forward. “We should really get going, got lots to buy and people to see-” he babbled as they departed. “See you in school, Knightly!”

Cressida gave a small wave as she watched Felix and his dad return to a table filled with other wizards drinking the same sweet-smelling drink.

Alice looked to Cressida once again. “He said that Potter boy was trouble, are you sure-”

“Look- there’s Jac!” Cressida interrupted, pulling her mother forward to the round table concealed in the corner.

Jac and Shari sat around it in silence, two glasses of water between them. Once Jac saw Cressida approaching, she looked visibly relieved. She stood up, causing the chair to scrape against the floor loudly as she did so, and ran over to meet Cressida halfway.

“Finally,” Jac said pulling Cressida into a hug instantly. “We’ve  got  to get away from my mother,” she whispered in her ear before moving back and adopting the same forced smile.

“Alice, nice to see you again,” Shari said standing up and shaking Alice’s hand politely.

“You too,” Alice replied, taking a seat at the round table. “Sorry, we’re a bit late.”

Shari waved a dismissive hand through the air but the tight-lipped smile on her face said otherwise. “It’s no bother. I’m just glad my Jacqueline managed to make such a good… if not adventurous… friend in her first year.”

“Mum, I was thinking Cress and I could look around for ourselves while you two have a chat,” Jac suggested, refusing to sit down again in fear of being stuck there.

Shari looked at Cressida for a moment, then shrugged elegantly. “I have no objections as long as you stay within the street and stay out of trouble. We’ve already got your books after all.”

Cressida turned her eyes on Alice and found she was already counting the change in her purse. “Here,” she said pulling out the tin of money and handing it to her. “There should be enough for a few coffees in there… maybe even a piece of cake.”

Alice took the money, glancing at Shari embarrassed. “Can I talk to you a moment, Cress?” Alice got up from the seat and pulled Cressida to one side, holding the money tin in her hand and keeping her head low. “Where did you get this?”

Cressida smiled proudly up at her mum. “It’s wizard money. My friend gave it to me in Hogwarts.”

Alice looked at her suspiciously. “Which friend?”

“Does it matter how I got it?” Cressida countered, sensing her mother wasn’t as grateful as she imagined her to be.

Alice gulped, glancing back at Shari once again. “Did you  steal  this?”

Cressida couldn’t stop the offended look that appeared on her face. “Why would you even ask me that?”

“Gareth said-”

“Gareth says a lot of things,” Cressida cut her off. “Since when do we listen to Gareth?” Alice’s eyes didn’t move away from her daughter’s. Her deep brown ones contrasting greatly with Cressida’s steely grey ones- her father’s eyes. When her mother didn’t say anything further, Cressida took charge. “Can I go with Jac now?”

Alice finally broke, looking down at the tin. “Fine,” she sighed conflicted. “But you take half if you say you got it fair and square,” she said separating the money into two piles and handing her back the tin. “I don’t want you thinking your money is automatically my money.”

Cressida put the tin back into her bag and moved away from her mother, returning to the table where Jac was waiting impatiently. 

“Ready to go?” Jac asked, ignoring the stern look of her mother.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Cressida huffed leading the way out of the Leaky Cauldron.

 

*

 

After over an hour of wandering around the main shops on the wizard high street, Cressida and Jac had decided to go into  Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes  shop last, knowing the trio would likely be in there causing some sort of scene.

Jac had spoken in length about everything she had done over the summer- going camping, fighting with her brother, seeing her old school friends, her parent's petty arguments. All perfectly normal stuff for a twelve-year-old, Cressida thought.

Then Jac asked Cressida what she had done. Reluctantly, she thought back over the last few weeks- keeping Rasper hidden in a box under her bed, selling Gareth’s cigarettes to Albie’s gang, sneaking out to watch the sunrise over the garages at four in the morning, avoiding the Powell brothers at every turn.

In the end, she lied and said she just listened to music in her room.

“I’ve packed all my brother’s old Cds ready for next week,” Jac had said in response to this. “I was dying to get my hands on some newer albums before going back but I don’t have enough pocket money, and mum won’t buy me anymore once she saw how many I had already packed.”

Cressida threw a Burtie Bott’s jelly bean into her mouth. “Which Cd did you want?”

“All my home friends were bragging about how they had One Direction’s latest Cd, but I really wanted Paramore’s album from a few years ago,” Jac answered. “I bet even Molly would like that album as well.”

Cressida nodded knowingly. She had heard a few of their songs on the music channel over the summer. 

Jac came to a stop and Cressida realised they had reached their final destination. Looking up at the building with the weird mechanic of a man lifting his top hat on and off his head, she thought it resembled something from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

“Why are we going in here again?” Jac asked.

“Everyone gets the best stuff from this shop,” Cressida answered. “And this year  we  need the best.”

“Ah, yes,” Jac smiled fondly. “The war. Come on then. Let’s get it over with before our mother’s come looking.”

With that, Jac grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the shop.

The inside of the shop was the most chaotic thing Cressida had ever seen. There were at least two different levels to the shop and everywhere she turned there was a product on show fighting for her attention. Fireworks and red sparks went off overhead, pins whizzed and tops whirred. She thought she saw paper aeroplanes fly past of their own accord shooting rubber ends out the bottom like tiny bullets.

There were students and people of every age in the shop, trying out products and gadgets. One child, no older than seven, ate a sweet out of a tub and suddenly turned bright red and had smoke fly out of his ears.

She imagined this is what it must be like inside of James’ head twenty-four seven.

“Look at all this stuff!” Jac exclaimed, grabbing two of everything from the shelves as they passed and piling them in Cressida’s arms behind her.

Cressida took note of the price tags on everything Jac was handing her. Extendible ears, self-propelling pies, a self-writing quill, and a screaming yo-yo. All stuff Cressida desperately wanted but didn’t have enough funds for.

“Jac, wait-” Cressida said, struggling to be heard over the noise of the shop. Jac paused mid-way through rummaging around in a sweet bin. “I can’t afford all of this.”

Jac removed her hand from the bin, pocketing a hand full of sweets for later, and took stock of what they had collected. “Okay,” she said thoughtfully. “What can you afford?”

Cressida glanced in her tin of money left over. “The yo-yo and some sweets,” she answered dismally. She had been so excited with the idea of buying everything over the summer that she forgot about the reality of getting it all, and now she felt rather embarrassed she had got her hopes up for nothing.

Jac threw one of the sweets into her mouth, but it seemingly had no effect on her appearance. “Then I’ll buy enough for both of us.”

“That’s not fair-” Cressida started.

“It’s okay,” Jac cut her off kindly. “You can pay me back some other way… you said yourself, we need this stuff.”

“Yeah, but-”

“I’m buying two of everything anyway,” Jac said smartly. “If you happen to use some of the products for yourself to show me how they work, you’d be doing me a favour.”

Cressida stared back at Jac for a moment. She didn’t know what to say, all she knew was that she would find a way to pay Jac back. She felt like she’d always be paying Jac back for something one way or another. 

Jac smiled contently when Cressida didn’t argue back and returned to looking around the store.

“Ten Second Pimple Vanishers!” Jac said excitedly, pulling Cressida through the shop to a display near the staircase, leaving their previous conversation behind them. “These could come in handy.”

“Especially if Arabella is as lovely as she was last year,” Cressida agreed, grabbing a packet for herself. How Jac had found these amongst the chaos she didn’t know. It felt impossible to focus on one thing for longer than a second.

Her eyes went up, following an odd purple object floating through the air. She heard a girl nearby say it was something called a Pygmy Puff. Once the fuzzy object floated off and got lost in the chaos, Cressida settled her eyes on something else entirely.

James Sirius Potter had rushed past, running halfway up the stairs in front of the girls. Thomas was dutifully at his side, his arms filled with one of every product in the shop. Neither boy seemed to notice the girls standing nearby. 

“Hey, how much for this?” James called up the staircase. His Uncle George and Fred II turned around to look at the love potion in his hand.

“Five galleons,” they both answered instinctively.

“But I’m family!” He complained.

Fred and his dad looked at each other with a knowing grin before turning back to James. “Ten galleons!” 

James sighed disheartened as his cousin and uncle disappeared up to the second floor.

Thomas clapped him sympathetically on the shoulder trying to hide his amusement. “You should have seen that coming.”

James leant back against the bannister defeated and then he spotted the girls before they could get away. “Knightly!” He called getting her attention with a grin. Thomas rolled his eyes and settled beside his best friend awaiting whatever was about to happen. “What business do you have in a prank shop?” He asked looking at the number of objects in her arms.

“I need some sort of self-defence against you, Potter. I learned my lesson last year,” Cressida replied. She noticed the pink vile in his hand. “What poor sod are you planning to use that on?”

James tried to hide the love potion behind his back embarrassed. “No one! I was just looking,” he stammered. Jac raised an unconvinced eyebrow. “I figured it would come in handy at some point,” James shrugged faking allusiveness.

“I imagine you’ll need it, Potter,” Jac smirked at them. “No girl will be dumb enough to go out with you without it.”

James’ face fell in offence as Thomas failed to contain his laughter.

Cressida smirked at him, relishing the look on his face before she motioned for her and Jac to keep moving. 

“Smooth,” Thomas laughed beside him which was met with a glare.

 

*

 

It had taken another two hours in Diagon Alley before Cressida and Alice caught the train back home to little Conwell. While she and Jac had been out gallivanting in the shops, Shari and Alice had gone and gotten Cressida’s needed books for the oncoming year and chatted about their daughters being thrust into the wizarding world. Shari had also bought Jac all-new robes, as well as a green and silver striped scarf for the winter. Luckily, Cressida still had her robes that were too big since First Year and had yet to grow an inch all year, meaning hers were  still  too big. She imagined she wouldn’t fit in them properly until Fourth Year at this rate, but she didn’t mind. It saved her mother money.

On the journey back home, Alice hadn’t mentioned the tin can of money or how Cressida had spent her half in the hours they were apart. Cressida assumed this would be added to the ever-growing list of things they ignored for an easy life with one another. 

Jac had agreed to take all the Zonko’s and Weasley & Weasley produce back to Bristol with her, understanding that Cressida was struggling to keep the ‘wizard’ lifestyle under wraps as it was. 

“Cress,” Alice said rather unexpectedly once they were on the bus riding back to their flat. “This new life of yours… do I- I mean… do you tell me everything?”

Cressida had the sense her mother’s question was more loaded than it first seemed.

“Do you  want  to know everything?”

Her mother thought for a moment, staring out the bus window. “It’s not easy for me. It didn’t seem real and then all of a sudden you’re whisked away for most of the year and Shari was repeating all these stories Jacqueline had told her and I wonder… am I doing enough to support you?”

Alice turned her brown eyes on Cressida, she was struggling to keep her emotions in check. 

“You’re my mum,” Cressida replied, putting her small hand over her mother’s. “You’re doing the best you can.”

The bus pulled into the stop and Alice seemed to shrug off the conversation like it had never happened. “Right then,” she sighed, standing up. “I wonder how Gareth’s job interview went.”

Cressida dutifully followed Alice off the bus and walked behind her in silence all the way back to the flat, where Cressida could barely believe her eyes.

Lee and Mitch Powell were in the front yard, poking a stick under the abandoned couch and menacingly cooing something out towards them. More sticks and water guns lay on the gravel path behind them.

With a crushing realization, Cressida moved forward and heard the distinctive raspy meow coming from under the sofa.

“Get away from him!” She yelled as she stormed towards them, grabbing Mitch by the ankle and dragging him backwards. The two boys had had a growth spurt over the summer, unlike Cressida, and were now a head taller and extremely lanky.

“Get off me!” Mitch fought back, kicking Cressida with his free foot until she was forced to let go.

Lee spun around, Rasper held aloft in his hands by the scruff of the kitten’s neck. “I got it!”

Cressida went to move forward again, to do anything to get Rasper away from the two horrid boys, but Alice held her back by her arm. “What do you think you’re doing, Cress?” Her mother asked shocked.

“It’s  my  kitten!” She cried, escaping her mother’s hold and running towards Rasper. “They’re going to hurt him!”

Lee held the kitten up in the air just out of reach from Cressida, an amused grin coming across his face. “He’s a stupid stray, what do you care?”

“They probably have a lot in common,” Mitch laughed behind his brother. “They both have fleas-”

Mitch was cut off by Cressida grabbing one of the sticks from their pile and winding him in the stomach, then she rounded on Lee, preparing to swing again. “Let him go,” she demanded. 

Lee could see he would meet the same painful fate as his brother unless he did as she said, and dropped the kitten onto the sofa before darting to his brother’s aid. Cressida dropped the stick and scooped Rasper up into her arms, checking for any marks. There was a tiny scratch on Rasper’s right ear, but other than that the kitten looked fine, hissing at the two boys from within her arms.

Alice grabbed Cressida by the arm and pulled her to one side again. “What the hell, Cress? You can’t hit them like that-”

“He’s mine!” Cressida said, cutting her mother off. She had to make her understand. “I took him with Hogwarts with me in my bag. His name is Rasper and he’s  mine .”

Alice stared at her for a moment, taking in everything she was saying. “You took him?”

“Yes.” 

“Even when I said we couldn’t have a pet?”

“You only said we couldn’t  afford  a pet… Rasper was a stray. He doesn’t cost anything and he’s mine.”

Alice shook her head. “You can’t keep him, Cress.”

“I can,” she said adamantly. “He’s been hiding under my bed all summer and the one time I leave him alone for a day these two idiots try and kill him. He needs me… and I need him.”

Alice looked at the tiny black and white kitten perched on her daughter’s shoulder, then at the two Powell boys lingering by the sofa watching curiously. “Gareth won’t let him stay-”

“Gareth won’t know,” Cressida said turning away. “We’ve managed all summer perfectly fine, four more days won’t hurt, and then we’ll both be carted back off to Hogwarts.”

Alice watched as Cressida walked past the two brothers, who flinched away from her as she passed, and disappeared into the flat. The tiny kitten jumped down from her shoulder and into the hobo bag like he had done it a thousand times.

 

Tuesday 30th August 2016

 

Gareth didn’t get the job. Cressida had heard Alice and him arguing about it while she hid out in her room the day they returned.

Alice didn’t mention Rasper again since returning from Diagon Alley either, but she always seemed to glance around the room searching for him whenever she entered.

Rasper went back to hiding in the bag, under the bed, and in the wardrobe as Cressida needed him to, but when it was just her and Alice in the flat she risked letting Rasper explore her room.

It felt very tense in the days that followed the Diagon Alley trip. After the argument about Gareth’s job, hiding Rasper, and Alice’s unspoken concerns about Cressida, the three hardly saw or spoke to one another.

Cressida figured it was best to keep herself to herself until she was allowed to return to Hogwarts. Although, Alice didn’t seem to mind this, keeping to herself and working extra hours as well.

This gave Cressida a lot of spare time to get some extra money from Albie while she had the chance, taking Rasper with her to the transactions. The gang had comically become fond of the stubborn kitten, Butchy had even brought some catnip for him the one day in exchange for an extra cigarette.

However, the downside to Alice working even longer hours was that Cressida was forced to spend more one on one time with Gareth whenever she was stuck in the flat. If she thought Gareth was disgusting and piggish before, it was even worse now he was living with her. The flat seemed to stink of him.

By this time, Cressida had done everything she could think of to lift her spirits. She got some more letters from Jac and Felix saying how excited they were to see each other in a few days' time. She already packed her Hogwarts trunk ready to go and practised her wand movements without actually completing any spells, and read through her new books late into the night. She had panicked that six weeks without practising magic had suddenly made her terrible at it. She also realised once she pulled them out that they were second hand, but that didn’t bother her. 

She was currently sitting at the dining room table, a Transfiguration textbook concealed behind one of her mother’s gossip magazines so Gareth wouldn’t get suspicious.

“Oi!”

Cressida’s head snapped up to see Gareth entering the kitchen. He threw down a pile of mail on the table as he took the seat opposite her.

Cressida slowly slid her book under her chair and looked at Gareth cautiously. He never sat down with her like this before. As she was taking in the weirdness of the situation, her eyes found a letter that didn’t match the others. A brown letter with a red Hogwarts seal. 

Panic started to rise within her. Had an owl delivered it? Was Gareth going to try and confront her about magic?

He was silent for a moment, getting a cigarette out and lighting it. “Want a puff?” He asked, holding out the cig for her.

“I’m twelve,” she replied coldly. As much as she sold them to other people, it never occurred to her to smoke them for herself.

Gareth withdrew, puffing on it obnoxiously. “Your mum will be home soon.”

“So?”

“I reckon she’s going to try and kick me out.”

“Good.”

Gareth smiled as he exhaled. “She won’t do it though.”

“I’ll make sure she does.”

Gareth shrugged, turning sideways in the chair and smoking as if Cressida was barely even there. “But you’re going in two days, Cressie-”

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped.

“Why not?” Gareth asked. “Isn’t that what your weird posho friends call you?”

Cressida felt the colour run out of her face. “You read my letters.”

“You stole my cigarettes,” he countered. “I figured if what’s mine is yours, then what’s yours is mine. I know about the cat too-”

“How?”

“You were out doing God knows what,” he started. “So I decided to have a look around your room, see if any of my cigs happened to be lying about in there, but I found something a bit better than my cigs. That cat isn’t the friendliest creature is he-”

Cressida stood up, slamming her hands down on the table. “What did you do to him!?”

“He’s a stray. Stray’s belong outside.”

Cressida stormed out of the room towards the front door, but when she pulled it open her mother stood on the other side. 

“Christ, Cress, you scared me half to death-” Alice gasped, clutching her chest.

“He went through my stuff!” Cressida told her. “He read my letters and threw Rasper out!”

Alice blinked a few times then gently moved Cressida to one side to walk into the flat.

Gareth walked out of the kitchen into the hallway, finishing off the last of his cigarette. “Before you start, I was teaching the girl a valuable lesson-”

“What did I tell you, Gareth!?” Alice shouted at him. “Pull one more piece of crap and you’re gone!”

“You always take her side-”

“She’s  my  daughter!”

“Yeah,” Gareth scoffed. “You can see that.”

Alice’s mouth clamped shut, glaring at Gareth for a moment before turning to Cressida. “Cress, honey, can you go next door and get some milk off Mrs Powell? I didn’t have chance to go shopping before coming home.”

Cressida didn’t say anything before she did as she was asked, slamming the door behind her. She knew this drill well. Her mother would send her on an errand run so she could argue with Gareth thinking that Cressida was none the wiser. Cressida had come to realise that most adults thought children were clueless when they often never are.

She immediately ran out of the flats and skidded onto her belly, searching for Rasper under the abandoned sofa. Her heart sank when he wasn’t there.

She stumbled back to her feet, clawing her hands through her hair trying to think what terrible place Gareth might have thrown Rasper. There were certainly plenty of horrid places at a short distance to hide something you didn’t want found.

“Cressida.”

Cressida spun around. Butchy was approaching from across the road. All the street lights were on now and it was getting dark, making his large physique look rather intimidating as he walked toward her.

“I’ve got your cat,” he said pulling Rasper out of his hoodie pocket and passing him over. “Albie and the boys saw Mitch toying with him down by the creek. Threatened to jump him for you- kid ran off crying.”

Cressida placed Rasper onto her shoulder, smoothing his head. The tiny kitten was shaking and his fur was wet. “Thank you,” Cressida nearly cried. “Here,” she said emptying her pockets of everything she had. “Tell Albie I owe him one-”

“Keep your things, Knightly,” Butchy said pushing her hands away. “Just have some good stock for us next summer, yeah?”

Cressida nodded, her head filled with too many terrible thoughts to reply.

“Here,” Butchy said offering something to her. She focused her eyes on a bottle containing a fizzy blue liquid. “It’s just WKD. You look like you could use a pick me up.”

Without thinking, Cressida took the bottle and had a large swig. It tasted fruity and vaguely metallic. Wiping her mouth with her sleeve, she passed the bottle back to Butchy. 

A loud bang could be heard from one of the flats above them. Third floor, flat 2. The silhouettes of Alice and Gareth could be seen behind the blinds. Both of them yelling at one another so ecstatically she could practically hear what they were saying to each other.

When she looked around again Butchy was gone, the night sky now too dark to see which direction he had gone in.

Rasper let out a tiny meow once they were alone and pressed his damp head against Cressida’s cheek. 

“I’m so sorry, buddy,” she whispered to the kitten. “Just two more days and we’ll be back with Jac, I promise.”

Taking a deep breath, Cressida turned and re-entered the block of flats. Her legs felt like lead as she forced them to carry her back up to the third floor. From the other side of her front door, she could clearly hear the extravagant curses and yelling coming from inside.

Forcing an unbothered look onto her face, she knocked on the door opposite. She waited patiently, trying to block out the noise from her own flat until the door was pulled open. Callie stood there dressed in a scruffy teddy-bear onesie and pulled out one of her earphones.

“What do you want?” She scowled when she saw Cressida.

The older girl paused once she heard Gareth and Alice arguing loudly.

“Milk,” Cressida said once the arguing had gone quieter again.

A look of understanding came across Callie’s face. “Mum’s out, something’s happened with my stupid brothers, but help yourself or whatever.”

Cressida followed Callie into the incredibly messy and over-cluttered flat, trying desperately to ignore the smell. If she thought her own flat was bad, this was worse. Callie led Cressida through the living room to get to the kitchen.

“Everything alright over there?” Callie asked as she led down on the couch, letting Cressida fend for herself.

Cressida took the half-empty carton of milk out of the fridge and tried not to think about the rotting chicken carcass attracting flies on the counter beside her.

“Fine, thanks,” Cressida replied starting to head for the door again when something caught her eye. On the side table behind the sofa was the Paramore album Jac had desperately wanted. Callie must have sensed Cressida lingering because she suddenly sat up.

“My overbearing uncle gave that to me for my birthday…” she said once she saw what Cressida was staring at. “As if I would actually listen to Paramore,” she said ungratefully.

“So you’re not going to use it?” Cressida asked coolly.

“Nah,” Callie said lying back down on the couch. “Probably swap it for cigs. Albie might go for it if I promise to snog him as well.”

Cressida kept her eyes on Callie while her hand lingered on the Cd in front of her. She thought back to how she promised to pay Jac back for the prank supplies in Diagon Alley, and how Callie didn’t even want the Cd in the first place.

When Callie was led on the couch, Cressida noticed she was in her blind spot. 

Trying to convince herself this was justified, Cressida slipped the Cd into the back of her jeans and replaced it with the two leftover cigarettes she had in her pocket. 

“Cheers for the milk,” Cressida said as she turned and promptly started leaving the flat. Callie gave a grunt of recognition that Cressida was leaving and then the door shut behind her.

Entering back into her own flat had brought Gareth and Alice to a standstill. Clearly, her return had interrupted their heated argument momentarily.

“That damn cat-” Gareth started, glaring at Rasper perched on Cressida’s shoulder.

“Don’t bring the cat into this!” Alice yelled back and the standstill was promptly over. 

Cressida rolled her eyes, putting the milk into the fridge and then saw the brown envelope still lying on the dining table. Grabbing that as she passed, Cressida disappeared into her room for the remainder of the night.

Chapter 27: Second Year: Gotta Get Back To Hogwarts

Summary:

Second Year

Thursday 1st September 2016

 

Cressida couldn’t imagine being so excited to return to school as she was at this moment.

Much to her disapproval, Gareth was still living in the flat. He had apparently apologised to her mother and begged her not to chuck him out and Alice, being as naïve as she was, listened to him. Cressida had tried to tell her mother that Gareth had dropped Rasper into the creek but Alice only blamed Mitch Powell for the incident saying that Gareth wouldn’t intentionally hurt the kitten.

Since then, Cressida refused to voice her opinion on the matter. Her mother would always be with Gareth it seemed, no matter how horrible he was. She was beginning to wonder what exactly her mother even saw in him.

But none of that mattered today, or for the next three months, because Cressida was preparing to board the train back to Hogwarts. Her family troubles didn’t matter in Hogwarts, much like her Hogwarts troubles didn’t matter in Conwell.

Cressida had no qualms about running through the barrier at Platform this year, but Alice still needed a moment to convince herself she wouldn’t face-plant straight into a brick wall.

Once they were on the other side, Cressida felt her spirit lift. The air around them buzzed and hummed as people dressed in pointy hats, school robes and funny outfits passed by in the large crowd. 

Magic, she realised. She could feel the magic in the air.

“Are you sure Rasper is okay in there?” Alice asked as the two made their way through the crowd.

Cressida glanced down at her hobo bag where the kitten was peacefully asleep on top of her pile of books and school supplies. “He’s fine.”

“Well, well, well… look who we have here-”

Cressida spun around to find James and Fred coming towards her through the crowd. James had his usual lopsided grin on his face while Fred towered beside him, looking calm and collected as usual. Cressida would have normally walked away from them, not wanting to subject her mother to their torment, but she knew that if they were here Molly was sure to be nearby.

“Have a nice summer, Knightly?” Fred asked.

“Fine, thanks,” Cressida answered looking behind the two boys in search of their ginger-haired cousin.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends, Cress?” Alice asked, looking between her and the two boys.

“Fred Weasley,” Fred said before Cressida could react. “And this is J-”

“George!” Cressida cut him off. Both boys looked at her curiously. She hardened her eyes on the two boys, warning them to go along with it. “This is Fred, and this is  George. ”

“Right,” Fred said, nodding along. 

“George Weasley… that’s me,” James agreed, holding his head high.

Alice looked between the two boys doubtfully. “Are you two… brothers?”

James and Fred glanced at each other, then turned back to Alice with wide grins.

“Twins.” They said in unison.

Cressida had to restrain herself from putting her head in her hands.

“Right,” Alice said uncomfortably. “Well, nice to meet you both.”

“Look,” Cressida said turning her mum around. “Shari’s over there with Jac. I’ll meet you there in a minute.”

With that, Cressida ushered her mother away toward the awaiting duo, before turning back to the two boys. “ Twins , seriously!?” She scorned James. “You could have just said you’re cousins like you actually are!”

The two boys could hardly contain their laughter. “You’re the one that blind-sided us into a name change,” Fred countered. “Honestly, making James pretend to be George was inspired.”

James’ attention was now on other matters, and when Cressida followed his gaze she found him staring at her mum talking to Shari. “Hey, Knightly, your mum’s kinda ho-”

“Finish that sentence and I will hex you to death as soon as I’m legally allowed,” she snapped, feeling bile rise in her throat at the thought of James having a crush on her own mother.

James cleared his throat, head snapping back around to face Cressida with a slight blush. Fred laughed even harder.

James shuffled his shoulders, forcing an easy smirk back onto his features. “Why didn’t you want your mum to know my name?” He asked. “Are you embarrassed by me, Knightly?”

“ Yes !” She snapped through gritted teeth, turning her trolley and walking away.

Once she met up with her mum, Shari was in the middle of complaining about London traffic while Jac stood beside her looking bored. Once she saw Cressida, she instantly perked up.

The whistle for the train blew meaning people could start boarding, although very few people went to board until the second or third warning. Cressida, however, had other ideas. Sending a quick glance to Jac in preparation, she turned to the adults.

“Jac and I need to board the train early,” she said.

“Why’s that?” Shari asked suspiciously.

“Molly put us in charge of finding the best seats,” Jac lied easily, catching on. “And poor Cressida gets awful travel sick if she doesn’t have a compartment with a window.”

Shari still looked doubtful but agreed, hugging and kissing Jac in a stiff and dignified manner. “Very well,” she said stepping back once the goodbye was done with. “Enjoy your school year and stay out of trouble.”

Cressida turned to her own mum. Although the two had had their differences over the summer this year, none of that seemed to matter as Alice pulled Cressida into a bone-crushing hug. 

“I’ll try and write more this year,” Alice whispered as she hugged Cress. “Promise me you’ll be okay.”

“I’ll be okay,” Cressida replied, although it was muffled by her mother’s jacket.

Alice broke out of the hug and kissed Cressida on the cheek. “I love you, Cress.”

“Love you more, mum!” She called as she and Jac started heading towards the train. Once they were out of earshot, Cressida and Jac put their heads close together. “You realise all the compartments have windows, right?” Cressida laughed.

Jac shrugged, briefly glancing back at her mum. “She doesn’t know that. Why did you want to get away so soon?”

“I have a few surprises for you,” Cressida said cryptically, speeding up to get on the train before they got interrupted.

It didn’t take long to find a nice empty compartment as no one else had started boarding in large groups yet. Once they sat down, Cressida set down her bag and Rasper practically leapt across the seats to get to Jac.

“I’ve missed you too, Rasper,” Jac cooed over the kitten.

“Be glad he’s even here,” Cressida mumbled, continuing to rummage around in her bag. “Gareth nearly drowned him in a creek.”

Jac tightened her grip around the kitten as though he was still in danger. “So he found out about him then?”

“Unfortunately,” Cressida sighed. “Caused a massive argument between him and mum too… but that doesn’t matter now.”

Jac smoothed Rasper and silently watched Cressida searching in her bag for a moment. The second whistle had gone off and people were starting to make their way onto the train in small groups now. “What are you looking for?”

“This!” Cressida said, pulling out the brown envelope that had fallen to the bottom of her bag.

Jac’s eyes widened. “You haven’t opened it yet?!” 

“I didn’t get chance with mum and Gareth on high alert recently,” Cressida said staring back at her. “Is it important?”

Jac snatched the letter from her and examined it for herself. “Cress, it’s your exam results.  Yes , they’re important.”

“Oh,” Cressida said suddenly uninterested in the letter. “You open them then, I don’t want to know.”

“You don’t want to know?”

“No,” Cressida replied. “If I did bad it’ll ruin my first day back.”

The compartment door slid open revealing Molly and Margo. “Merlin, am I glad to see you two!” Molly exclaimed walking in and hugging both girls.

“Good summer, Margo?” Jac asked as Margo lingered in the doorway. She was a funny shade of pink and her nose was peeling.

“Brilliant… if it hadn’t been for Molly’s cousins-”

“Would you stop complaining?” Molly sighed, taking a seat beside Cressida. “Summer’s over now. They’re not our problem anymore.”

“No, they’re Cressida’s,” Jac teased.

Margo turned her dark eyes on her instantly. “Don’t tell me you’ve started already!”

She was suddenly pushed forward as Felix forced his way into the compartment. Unlike Margo, he had tanned rather nicely revealing freckles across his cheeks. 

“Your saviour is here!” He exclaimed holding his arms out proudly.

“Whoop-dee-doo,” Molly said sarcastically but sent the Irish boy a fond smile. Margo scowled at him, but he didn’t seem to notice as she took a seat between Molly and the window.

Felix took a seat beside Jac, yanking the envelope out of her hands easily. “What’s this then?”

“Cressida’s results,” Jac answered. Rasper jumped out of her lap and had instead taken to attacking Felix’s shoelaces.

“You haven’t opened them yet!?” Molly asked horrified. “But then you don’t know how you did!”

“I’m aware of how it works, Molly,” Cressida replied. “I’m not opening them for that exact reason-”

“You did well,” Felix said suddenly. Cressida turned to see he had opened and started reading her results while they were talking.

Cressida reached over and snatched the letter from him, but deciding she didn’t want to look at it still, immediately passed it to Molly in a panic. Molly took a moment to read the results and then passed them to Jac.

While this was happening, Cressida sat with her arms crossed over her chest, watching all of her friends reading her results and making odd noises when something surprised them. Eventually, Jac passed the letters back to Cressida.

“I said I don’t want to read them,” she said stubbornly, batting the letters away.

“Okay,” Jac said cheerily. “You got a P in Astronomy-”

“Is that good?” She asked, too curious to keep up the unbothered façade.

“It stands for Poor,” Margo explained.

“See, I knew I’d done terrible!” Cressida complained

“But an A in Transfiguration, Potions, History of Magic, even in Defence Against The Dark Arts!” Molly added on quickly. “And an E on Herbology.”

“This is the best part,” Felix started enticingly. “You got an  O  in Charms!”

“The scale goes O for outstanding, E for exceeds expectations, and A for Acceptable,” Molly explained slowly, giving her time to take it all in.

Cressida started at them blankly. “So I passed everything apart from Astronomy?”

“None of us passed Astronomy anyway,” Felix comforted her.

“I did-” Margo shot in, but Felix shoved a cherry Bakewell into her mouth to shut her up.

“What did you guys get?” Cressida asked the group.

“A in everything, E in Herbology, P in Astronomy,” Jac answered.

“E in everything,” Molly said. “Although, I feel like I should have gotten an O in at least  one  thing.”

“You’ve got to leave room to improve,” Felix comforted her, eating a Bakewell for himself. When all three girls stared at him expecting his answer, he shrugged, focusing on his tart. “I won’t bore you with my results, just know it was good enough for me to come back this year.”

 

*

 

The train had reminded Cressida exactly why she loved Hogwarts, hours spent laughing with her friends in the train compartment and talking about the upcoming year, and then the arrival of the trio reminded her exactly why she sometimes hated Hogwarts.

“We come in peace,” James said surrendering before anyone had even said anything. The three Gryffindor boys all squeezed themselves into the doorway of the compartment.

Molly, who had previously been retelling a story about Felix at Potter’s birthday party over the summer, instantly stopped talking and glared at her cousins. “Can’t you at least wait until we’re actually at Hogwarts before you start annoying us?”

“Yeah,” Margo agreed, adopting the same glare as Molly. “It’s bad enough we had to put up with you all summer.”

“No one said  you  had to spend every second at the Burrow this year,” Fred told her.

Before Margo could argue back, James stepped forward gaining everyone’s attention again. “This is exactly  why  we’re here. We want to make amends.”

Molly instantly grew suspicious. Cressida remained silent in the corner watching, catching James’ eye she saw him try and hold back a smirk.

“How are you planning to make amends?” Felix asked sitting forward.

“We brought you some gifts!” Thomas said eagerly, shouldering Fred out the way so he could step forward.

“Gifts?” Jac asked as James and Thomas started passing out small objects to the group of Slytherins.

“Yeah, we felt bad about last year so we brought you all some sweets to enjoy once we get off the train as a peace offering,” James said. He had come to a stop in front of Cressida, winked, and then turned away from her.

“Don’t I get a gift?” She asked watching the trio start to leave the compartment.

“We don’t feel  that  bad,” Fred grinned over his shoulder as he and the others disappeared down the train again.

Cressida rolled her eyes then turned to her friends all eyeing up the sweets in their hands. “I don’t recognise them,” Molly said unsurely. “So they can’t be from the shop.”

“Maybe they really are trying to make amends,” Felix suggested.

“But then why didn’t Cressida get one?” Margo asked.

Jac and Cressida shared a look. “I didn’t want a sweet anyway,” Cressida said easily. “It would probably only make me sick once we got on those stupid boats anyway.”

“Oh, but-” Molly had started but then the train came to a stop.

Everyone instantly looked out the compartment window and realised they were pulling into the station.

“Finally,” Felix breathed, pocketing his sweet and standing up to stretch his legs. 

Molly had also stood up and started gathering her things. “We want to get off before the First Years so we get a good carriage.”

Cressida scooped Rasper back into the hobo bag as the group of Slytherins started following Molly off the train. “Carriage?” She asked running to keep in time with the ginger witch storming ahead.

“That’s what she was trying to tell you before we stopped,” Margo answered instead. “Only First Years have to take the boats. The rest of us get to take the carriages.”

“First Years follow me!” Hagrid boomed from the platform. “Evening, ladies,” he bowed his head as the giant man passed.

“You know, I’m here too!” Felix complained but it was no use, Hagrid was too far gone in search of the new First Years. It all made Cressida feel slightly nostalgic, watching the new students be amazed and confused by Hagrid greeting them off the train.

Jac pulled Cressida along so they didn’t lose sight of Molly as they left the platform and started walking up a path.

It didn’t take long before they, amongst the rest of the students getting off the train, found a long line of black carriages waiting for them. In front of the carriages were boney, ill-looking black horses with bat-like wings.

“What the hell are they?” Cressida asked as she watched people walk right past them and get into the carriages, while others stood and pet them.

Molly paused mid-climb into their chosen carriage. “You can see them?” 

All eyes were on Cressida then. Only Jac looked as confused as her.

“See what?” Jac asked.

“Them,” Cressida said moving forward to stand in front of it. The weird creature bobbed its head up and down to Cressida’s presence. 

Molly was glancing in the vague direction of the creature. “They’re Thestrals. Only people who have witnessed death can see them.”

“What?” Cressida laughed as though it were ludicrous. “But I’ve never seen anyone die.”

Margo moved to stand beside Cressida and outstretched her hand towards the creature. “You must have. I can only see them because I saw my Grandmother die when I was seven.”

Molly and Felix shared a glance before Molly continued climbing into the carriage. “Come on, we don’t want to get left behind.”

The others were quick to follow Molly in, but Cressida remained in front of the weird creature. “Who did you see die?” Jac whispered, lingering outside with her.

“I have no idea,” she said turning and getting in the carriage.

 

*

 

It was a quiet and awkward carriage ride up to the castle after that, no one seemingly wanting to mention Cressida being able to see the Thestrals. She didn’t let it bother her though, maybe she had watched a grandparent die extremely young like Margo and had forgotten about it, or the creatures were simply mistaken.

Still, Cressida was more focused on trying not to repeat last year's sickness fiasco on the carriages. Although, after travelling on the train and bus to London a few times now she had gotten a good hold over her travel sickness and found pinching the inside of her thumb helped distract her from the funny feeling in her stomach.

Once they had reached the castle, they found Professor Longbottom waiting to lead the Second Years into the Hall this year.

“Hi, Professor Longbottom!” Jac and Molly said in unison.

“Hello girls, have a good summer?” Longbottom asked them both in the midst of trying to round everyone up. “I had been hoping to catch up with your family over the summer, Molly, but I got caught up with other things, you see.”

“Trust me,” Molly said, glaring at the trio of Gryffindor boys being greeted by the rest of their house nearby. “You didn’t miss much.”

“Yes, well, if you’d like to all follow me, we’ll be going in for the Sorting Ceremony shortly!” Longbottom shouted over the crowd.

All the Slytherins followed Molly’s glare at the trio of Gryffindors. Feeling their eyes on them, James turned and grinned at them, nudging Thomas and Fred with his elbows. Fred turned then, holding up one of the sweets they had handed out earlier in the air as a toast before eating it for himself.

“This way, if you don’t mind!” Longbottom called. 

The trio were among the first to follow behind Longbottom, seemingly engaging in conversation with their head of house as they started venturing into the castle.

Margo pulled out her sweet from her pocket and eyed it up hungrily. “Do you reckon they’re safe then?”

“Must be,” Felix said doing the same. “Weasley is a lot of things but he’s not dumb. He wouldn’t eat the sweet if it’d do something bad to him.”

“Well hurry up and shove them in your mouths then,” Molly said ushering the group forward. “I don’t want you chewing through the ceremony.”

Margo and Felix glanced at each other before both throwing the sweet into their mouths. Jac pulled hers out to do the same until Cressida forced her arm back down.

“Look,” Cressida whispered, pointing out James looking at them every ten seconds over his shoulder. “They’re making sure you eat them.”

“But Fred just ate one?” Jac whispered back.

It seemed as though Cressida was the only one who believed Fred was, in fact, stupid enough to eat the sweet to prove a point to the others.

“Fine,” Cressida replied, eyeing up James suspiciously. “Eat at your own risk.”

Jac looked at the sweet in her hand, then at Margo and Felix acting perfectly fine, before reluctantly shoving it back into her pocket and trusting Cressida’s judgement.

 

*

 

The Sorting Ceremony was a lot less interesting if you weren’t involved in it and a lot less engaging considering Cressida didn’t know anyone who was being sorted this year. Occasionally, a familiar last name would be shouted out giving away that a sibling of someone was being sorted but nothing that took her attention for more than a few seconds. 

Instead, she spent most of the Sorting Ceremony watching the Gryffindor table and Felix and Margo. It was nearing an hour since they ate the sweets and still, nothing had happened. James was still glancing over to their table every few minutes, but Jac pointed out halfway through the ceremony that he does that even when he’s not up to something.

Once the last new First Year had been sorted- Slytherin had the least amount of students sorted into it this year- and McGonagall had started her beginning of year speech, Cressida started to think she was being paranoid. Perhaps the trio really were trying to make amends with the rest of the Slytherins after last year. Maybe they left her out because of the self-proclaimed war they had set on her.

“Enjoy your feast!” McGonagall’s Scottish voice yelled over the hall.

Instantly, food appeared on the table in front of the students and everyone started digging in, glad to be back in Hogwarts.

Cressida held back still, watching Margo immediately start eating a chicken leg and Felix start filling his Yorkshire puddings with copious amounts of gravy with one hand and shovelling mash potatoes into his mouth with his other.

Jac had started piling up her plate with cauliflower cheese when Cressida started patting her down, searching for the sweet.

“What are you doing?” She asked with a mouth full of food once Cressida had pulled the sweet out of her pocket.

Everyone apart from Felix paused as they watched Cressida examining the sweet carefully. She unwrapped the paper from around the sweet and held it up in the light. There was a faint outline of a W&W on the inside.

“This  is  from the shop!” 

Molly reached over the table and snatched the sweet wrapper from her. “I’m telling you this wasn’t made by Uncle George. His sweets are always colourful, this is completely white. The white ones are always useless, he throws them into a box separate from all the others.”

“Uh-oh.”

All eyes turned to Margo as she held her stomach.

“No!” Felix said, dropping his fork, only now turning into the conversation. “Keep it in, Smithers!”

Margo had already turned a funny green shade, glancing at the others nervously. “Molly-”

“Madam Pomfrey, go!” Molly told her, forcing Margo to her feet and pulling her towards the door.

Jac and Cressida looked towards Felix then, watching him turn the same funny shade of green but not willing to admit what was happening.

“I refuse to throw up everything I just ate-” he started but then he had to cover his mouth with his hand. “On second thought, I’ll see you guys later.”

With that, Felix got to his feet and ran out of the hall after Margo and Molly.

Cressida and Jac turned in their seats to see the trio of Gryffindors raising their glasses triumphantly to them from across the hall.

“Remind me never to doubt you again,” Jac mumbled.

Chapter 28: Second Year: Strike One

Summary:

Cressida has a scheme afoot

Notes:

The songs mentioned are from Paramore's self titled album 'Paramore'

Monday 5th September 2016

 

It appeared as though a stomach bug had taken over Hogwarts ever since the Sorting Ceremony. Not only did the Second Year Slytherins get sick, but so did a vast majority of the Ravenclaw House and the occasional Gryffindor.

Molly had demanded they go to McGonagall and tell on the trio of Gryffindors but Cressida had convinced her to stay quiet about it for now. Cressida desperately wanted to know how to trio had made their own magical sweets but she had to wait for the right moment to corner them.

The first day of lessons had been introductory and so the Professors let them sit where they wanted and talk to one another about their summers, and the weekend was taken up unpacking and lounging about in the common room with one another, so when Monday’s lessons presented themselves Cressida saw this as her chance to strike.

She walked into Transfiguration and sat down at her usual table accompanied by the trio of boys while her friends sat at the next table over.

McGonagall had already started the lesson off by saying this year was very important and that they and to start thinking about their futures but Cressida hadn’t been listening as much as she normally would for one of McGonagall’s talks. Instead, she waited for the moment the Head Mistress told them to write everything they remembered from last year onto their parchment paper as their first task.

As expected, the classroom was filled with quiet chatter from the students with their heads bowed low, knowing McGonagall would ask for complete silence if they ever got too loud.

Cressida didn’t even have to instigate the conversation. As soon as there was a chance to talk, James shuffled so close he was bumping shoulders with her, his head bowed low over his parchment paper. “So, what did you think of our first prank?”

“Could have been better,” she replied coolly. “Everyone’s blaming it on a stomach bug.”

James looked affronted. “Yeah, but  you  know it wasn’t that.”

Fred bumped up against her other shoulder then, so Cressida was squished between them and no longer had arm room to write. “I told you she wouldn’t be impressed. She never is.”

“Why would I be impressed by you making people puke?” She asked.

Thomas leaned over then, practically sitting on top of Fred to join in the conversation. “Because you gave us the idea last year on the boats.”

“We thought it’d be funny if this year loads of people threw up and not just you,” James added on. “But it took longer than we expected for the sweets to kick in.”

“Everyone was supposed to eat them on the carriages and throw up at dinner, but everyone just seemed to throw up when they wanted,” Fred explained disappointedly. “Some people took three days to start throwing up.”

Cressida hardened her eyes on them. “Is that why I was the only one left out?”

“We assumed you’d just be sick on your own,” James shrugged. 

Cressida sighed irritably. “Somehow over the summer, you’ve managed to upgrade from obnoxious assholes to pompous douchbags.”

“ Pompous douchbags?! ” James repeated in mock offence with a hand over his chest and his mouth agape. “ Obnoxious assholes … how you wound us, Knightly!”

“Someone clearly learnt some new insults over the summer,” Fred commented beside him. 

“I should give you up to McGonagall right now,” Cressida said, ignoring James trying to pull the most scandalised look he could summon to get a rise out of her still.

Thomas raised an eyebrow at her. “So why don’t you?”

“Because,” she started. “I want to know how you did it.”

“We thought you might,” James grinned, dropping his bad act instantly.

“First you have to sign this,” Thomas said. He pushed a piece of parchment across the table towards her. 

“What’s this?” Cressida asked looking at it.

“A contract saying if we tell you, you won’t go around selling our products,” Fred said.

Cressida rounded on him again, ready to shout about how hypocritical it was, when McGonagall cleared her throat from the front of the classroom. Cressida and the three boys looked towards her to find her reading a textbook, not even looking in their direction, but they all got the sense she knew they were up to something.

“I’m not signing anything,” Cressida snapped at them, once they all returned to pretending to write. “Now tell me how you did it or I’ll rat you out to McGonagall.”

“Fine,” James said. “We made them ourselves out of Uncle George’s rejected sweet bin.”

“Freddie had been working in the shop with George over the summer and was stashing them in his pockets over the weeks,” Thomas whispered.

“And while we stayed at the Burrow over the summer, we all stayed in Uncle Fred and dad’s old room,” Fred added on. “They had all sorts of stuff hidden in there, including the original recipe for Puking Pastels.”

“But we’re not as good at making them as the twins it seems,” Thomas finished.

Cressida pretended to write, glancing at McGonagall cautiously before the spoke. “Couldn’t you just take the real Puking Pastels and give them out to save yourselves the trouble?”

“You think Molly wouldn’t recognise a real Puking Pastel if she saw one?” Fred asked smartly.

“Miss Knightly,” McGonagall’s voice called calmly from the front. “Is there something you and your Gryffindor accomplices would like to share with the class?”

All three boys stared at her wondering if she would give them up to McGonagall. Molly was also looking over from her table curiously.

“No, Professor,” Cressida said slowly, ignoring the look on Molly’s face. “We were just talking about what we learned over the summer.”

McGonagall glanced up over her glasses, a small knowing smile appearing on her face. “Very well.”

 

 

Saturday 10th September 2016

 

With the first full week at Hogwarts over, Cressida was already firmly settled back into her routine, which also meant her first few nights of blissful sleep in her canopy bed had worn off and she was now back to staring at the cloth ceiling for hours as the night ticked by.

She had already completed all her homework for the weekend by wand light, which Rasper didn’t appreciate, looked through some of her new textbook spells, and practised her wand movements silently. 

It was bound to be nearing morning by now, and with a quick glance through the bed curtains at the clock, Cressida saw it was four in the morning. Throwing herself back down on her cushions, she rolled her head to see Rasper stretching after a long sleep. 

“Morning, buddy,” she whispered, giving the kitten his morning scratches. 

Rasper gave an appreciative purr before lying back down and closing his eyes again. Evidently, the kitten was not in the mood to play just yet. Sighing to herself, Cressida peeked out the bed curtains again, glancing around the room. All three canopy beds containing her friends were closed and soft snoring was coming from within them.

Then, on the trunk at the end of her bed, was Jac’s portable Cd player and an idea sprang into Cressida’s head.

She rolled back into her bed and scooped the kitten up, against his raspy protests. “Go wake up Jac,” she whispered to the kitten before dropping him to the floor outside of the bed.

Rasper gave a few grumpy meows and stretched his legs, before trotting across the wooden floor and jumping in through the tiny gap in Jac’s bed curtains.

Cressida waited patiently, trusting Rasper to do as she asked and not just imminently go back to sleep on the other girl’s bed. Sometimes Cressida thought it was strange how clever Rasper was, especially since he was only a stray street cat, but she was extremely glad he understood nearly every command she gave him.

It only took a minute or so before Jac was peering out through her bed curtains, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Cressida was already on her feet, Cd player and hobo bag in place ready to go, waiting by the door.

“It’s four in the morning,” Jac mumbled, glancing at the clock.

“So you’re not going to come?” Cressida asked as Rasper jumped down from Jac’s bed and into the hobo bag knowingly. 

Jac, although looking very grumpy about the interpretation of her sleep, got to her feet and pulled on her trainers. “Of course, I’m coming.”

“Good,” Cressida smiled opening the door quietly. “Watch the creak.”

Jac carefully stepped over the creaky floorboard and the two girls left the dorm room. 

“Where are we even going?” Jac asked once they had walked through the secret passageway to get to the third floor.

“I have a surprise for you,” Cressida whispered back as they wandered through the halls by wand light.

“A good one or bad one?” Jac asked. “Because sometimes your surprises are amazing and other times I wish I could have deniability.”

Cressida glanced back at Jac over her shoulder. “Since when do you get so grumpy in the mornings?”

“Since I had six weeks without someone waking me up at four in the morning,” Jac countered. “I’m beginning to think you have insomnia.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Cressida asked concerned.

“No,” Jac answered. “It just means  I  never get to sleep either.”

It wasn’t long before the two girls had climbed to the sixth floor and were ducking behind the tapestry into the secret hexagonal room. It was like second nature to be back sneaking through the secret passageways and navigating the staircase for Cressida.

Cressida sat down on the dusty cushions and started rummaging around in her bag. Rasper climbed out of the bag and only made it two steps before he collapsed back down on a red cushion, happily falling back to sleep. 

Jac stared out the window just as the sun was beginning to rise over the Scottish mountains. “I forgot how beautiful this place was.”

“Sometimes I wish I could sleep here instead,” Cressida replied as Jac moved to sit in front of her. “I don’t think you can get a better view than from this room.”

“The roof,” Jac said, pointing to Gryffindor Tower to the left of the view. “It’s higher up.”

“And when I learn to fly, I’m sure it’ll be amazing,” Cressida replied dryly. “Now shut up and appreciate your gift.”

Jac turned around just as Cassie loaded the Cd into the player. The first drum beats of  ‘Fast In My Car’  by ‘ Paramore’  filled the room and Jac’s face burst into a grin.

“How did you get it!?” She asked, shaking Cressida violently by the shoulders.

“It’s payback for the prank stuff you bought,” Cressida replied. “Speaking of which, we need to retaliate.”

Jac was bobbing her head happily to the music as the song changed over to  ‘Now’ , which woke Rasper instantly. “It’s only the first week, shouldn’t we get settled in before getting detention? My mum specifically said not to get in trouble this year.”

Cressida watched as Rasper ran across the room and buried himself under a white sheet, trying to find peace and quiet to sleep out the rest of the morning. “You won’t be getting in trouble,” Cressida said turning back to Jac. “In fact, no one’s going to get into any trouble at all.”

Jac narrowed her eyebrows confused. “How?”

Cressida smirked as the song changed to  ‘Grow up.'

 

 

Tuesday 20th September 2016

 

“What if McGonagall doesn’t let me on the team?”  James’ voice panicked.

“She has to,”  Fred’s voice replied.  “You played well last year until Chauncey ruined the game for everyone.”

“And she saw how much better I played with you beside me,”  Thomas’ voice came.  “I was too busy trying to keep you in check that I forgot all about my own nerves.”

“What if we just curse everyone else trying out for the team so I’m the only option to pick?”  James suggested then.

“It might look a bit suspicions if you were the only one to turn up, Jamsie,”  Fred replied logically. 

The three boys seemed stumped for a moment. 

“We could ask everyone politely to let James win, ” Thomas suggested after a moment.

“No,”  James sighed.  “If I’m getting on the team, I’m going to have to do it fair and square-”

“You literally just debated cursing everyone-”  Fred chimed in.

“I was panicking,”  James rebutted.  “We’ll just have to make sure I don’t get any more detentions or distractions before Friday so I can spend every minute practising for the Quidditch tryouts,”  James said finally. 

“Speaking of distractions, has anyone seen Knightly and Redwick today?”  Fred asked.

The trio of boys got up from the bench and headed down the Courtyard path.

Cressida pulled the Extendible Ears back up to the first floor window where she and Jac had been listening to the boys for the last half hour, concealed in a broom closet.

“I still think this is the most devious plan you’ve concocted yet,” Jac said as Cressida tucked the Weasley product back into her robes.

“Give me time, Redwick, it’s only the beginning of the year,” Cressida grinned as the two girls snuck out of the closet and back into the halls of Hogwarts.

“It’s not a good thing,” Jac replied. “It’s essentially spying on them.”

Cressida thought that spying on them was a bit extreme. She had only used the Extendible Ears a total of four times and for very good reason. 

The first time, the two girls had hidden an ear nearby while the trio of boys practised their Charms on each other, and Cressida had learned that they were trying to perfect the Dancing Feet Charm to use in their next prank. The second time Cressida had used the ears to overhear James telling Fred that despite his  ‘surprisingly swishy hair’ , he still looked like a drowned banshee whenever it got wet. The third time it had been Fred and Thomas arguing about who had to tell James neither of them had done their part of the Astronomy homework, meaning all three of them would get a bad mark as they always worked as a unit.

Cressida thought this all to be very useful information for her own plan. Jac, however, struggled to understand the relevance of James’ wet hair and lack of academic preparation.

“Luckily for you, phase one of my plan is going to happen soon,” she said to Jac as the two girls came to a stop outside of their Astronomy classroom.

Molly looked up from her conversation with Margo as the two girls joined the group. “What are you two up to now?”

“Nothing,” they said in unison.

“That’s  really  convincing,” Felix replied sarcastically, offering Jac a Burtie Bott’s jelly bean as she lent against the wall beside him. Jac happily took a bean and threw it into her mouth, seemingly getting a pleasant flavour.

“Are either of you trying out for the Quidditch team on Friday?” Margo asked, clearly offering out the conversation she was having with Molly moments ago to the group.

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other for a moment. “We hadn’t thought about it,” Jac answered. “We’ve been too busy with-”

“Homework,” Cressida cut in before Jac gave away their plan. Molly looked doubtful, but Cressida kept the conversation going before she could question it. “What about you three?”

“I considered it,” Felix answered, throwing another bean into his mouth lazily. “But then I considered the fact I rather like my afternoons relaxing in the common room and not getting thrown about in mid-air trying to outrun a crazed death-ball.”

“ Obviously , we’re not joining the team. There’s a rumour going around about a school newspaper starting, so we’re going to do that,” Margo spoke up then. “You couldn’t pay us to try out for that Quidditch team instead, right, Molly?”

Cressida saw the faintest wince in Molly’s expression before she answered. “Right. It’s totally beneath us. Only people with no concern for extra academic studies or their bodily health would trouble themselves with such a needless sport when they could be doing something better with their time.”

“I think it could be fun,” Cressida spoke up, watching Molly closely. “It seems like a good way to let off some steam.”

Molly opened her mouth to answer just as the trio of Gryffindor boys rounded the corner, and she instantly withdrew.

“Molly,” James nodded curtly as he came to stand in front of them.

“Not now, James,” Molly sighed irritably, turning away.

“As usual.” He turned his attention to Jac and Cressida. “Heard about the tryouts this Friday, girls?”

“Obviously, they have,” Felix answered for them, shoving more jelly beans in his mouth. “The whole school’s talking about it.”

Fred leaned on the wall beside Jac, grinning down at her. “You going to try out, Redwick?”

Jac brushed her long braid over her shoulder, turning away from him slightly. “Not this year, I’ve got better things to do.”

“What’s better than Quidditch?” Thomas asked offended.

“The school newspaper, haven’t you heard?” Cressida answered, glancing at Molly again. “It’s a far better use of our time.”

“It is?” Jac and Margo both asked, surprised by Cressida’s response.

“You’re going to join the school newspaper?” Fred asked taken aback. “That doesn’t seem like your kind of thing, Knightly.”

“I can be studious when I want to be,” Cressida replied. “After all, I’ve outsmarted you three, how much harder could a school newspaper be?”

James scoffed just as the classroom door was opened and people started piling in. Professor Sinistra stood in the doorway, accepting people’s homework as they entered her classroom.

“Anyone who has not done the assigned homework shall receive detention. No excuses. No exceptions,” Professor Sinistra said sternly.

Cressida watched Fred and Thomas sharing glances behind James, who was still clearly unaware he didn’t have any homework to hand in like he expected. She waited until the others had all walked into Professor Sinistra’s class before turning to the trio of boys.

“Lads, the homework-” James said, holding out his hand expectantly.

Thomas rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, with tryouts and all-”

“And our…  extra studies ...” Fred continued, glancing sideways at Cressida. It wasn’t hard to de-code their terminology.  Pranks.  “We didn’t exactly get chance to do all of it.”

“Or really… any of it,” Thomas finished guiltily.

James rounded towards Professor Sinistra with fear. “I  can’t  get detention this afternoon or tomorrow! What are we going to do?!”

“Gee, if only there was someone  studious  who had three extra parchments with the assigned homework on,” Cressida said dramatically.

“And you just happen to have three extra copies?” Fred asked sceptically.

“Do you want to risk getting detention?” Cressida countered.

James took the three parchments from her instantly. “You’re an angel, Knightly!”

Cressida could hardly contain her smirk as it was nearly their turn to hand the homework in. “I knew you didn’t have time to complete it yourself, so I thought I’d help you out. Three different essays, mimicking your writing, all about Uranus and its proportions. ”

“But how did you know we didn’t-” Fred started, but James whacked him on the head with the parchments.

“Don’t question it, just be grateful,” Thomas said, taking the same grateful stance as James.

James turned to Cressida with a grin. “I think this is a real turning point in our friendship-”

“Not your friend-”

“Whatever,” James waved away her input. “We owe you one, Knightly.”

“Morning, students,” Professor Sinistra greeted them. “Have you completed your assigned homework?”

“We miraculously have,” Fred said, still slightly suspicious.

“All about Uranus!” Thomas added on, pointing to the parchment Fred was handing over.

Professor Sinistra skimmed the parchment James handed over and then narrowed her eyes at the boys confused. “What is this, Mr Potter?”

“The assigned homework,” James said confidently.

Professor Sinistra looked down at the parchment again. “Mr Potter, I fail to see how …” she squinted to read the messy writing, “‘ Uranus being obnoxiously large and incredibly bloated’  has anything to do with the assigned homework.”

James’ eye twitched slightly. “Come again, Professor?”

“The assigned homework was on the constellations we studied last year, boys,” Professor Sinistra lectured. “Do you ever pay attention?”

On queue, Cressida tutted loudly, stepping in front of the three boys. “I guess some people are just too concerned with other things such as Quidditch to listen, Professor,” she said as she handed over the correct homework.

The three boys glared at her. 

“I knew this was a set-up, she’s never this nice,” Fred muttered under his breath.

“You devious little-” James started.

“You could learn a thing or two from Miss Knightly, Mr Potter,” Professor Sinistra cut him off sharply. “ She  managed to complete her work on time and without using it to make childish jokes. Naturally, I must issue detention for the three of you. Now come in and settle down before I double your punishment.”

Cressida turned and glided into the classroom, stifling a laugh, while the three boys trudged behind the Professor.

Taking her seat at the table with her friends, all eyes turned to her. 

“What have you done now?” Molly asked instantly.

“How do you know she’s done something?” Felix asked.

“She’s smiling,” Molly and Margo said in unison.

 

Thursday 22nd September 2016

 

With every day that passed, the excitement for the Quidditch tryouts grew. As they were all Second Years now, the opportunity to be on the team was open to anyone who wanted to try out. 

Obviously, nearly every Gryffindor of note was going to try out. The occasional Ravenclaw boasted about their amateur Quidditch skills in the corridor. The Hufflepuffs seemed to all band together to decide on the best applicants of the group to try out instead of an everyone for themselves approach. Cressida noticed, however, that none of the Slytherins spoke outwardly about their desire to try out.

According to Felix, Jeremiah Vonce had mentioned maybe trying out in their dorm room on Wednesday but wasn’t sure if it was worth it. 

She came to the conclusion rather quickly, that there was a reason for this, she just didn’t know what it was. Which was why, when the moment arose, she got Molly on her own.

They had all been sat around the alcove until Margo and Felix got into an argument about wizard chess and had stormed off to their respective rooms, and Jac had gone to help Professor Longbottom in the greenhouses for some extra house points.

Molly sat, examining her homework like she was the teacher about to grade it, unaware that Cressida had been staring at her for the last ten minutes in silence.

When she came to the realisation Molly was perfectly happy to sit in silence forever without looking up, she spoke. “I know you want to try out for the Quidditch team.”

Molly paused in her writing, but still did not lookup. “What makes you say that?”

“Despite your best efforts, Molly, I do happen to know you.”

Molly sighed, going back to her writing. “It’s not like it matters anyway. Margo was right, the newspaper is more my style. If I did try out I’d only get shown up by my cousins yet again.”

“Why aren’t any of the other Slytherins trying out?” Cressida asked.

“Do you expect me to know everything, Cressida?” Molly asked sharply. When Cressida didn’t answer, Molly sighed again, putting her quill down finally. “Fine, I  do  know. After what happened with Chauncey last year, and you getting the blame for so long, people are worried we’re going to have a bad reputation as cheaters.”

“But that’s ridiculous!” Cressida said affronted.

“That’s Hogwarts,” Molly replied. “Not only that, but Slytherin already has a decent team made up of older students. The Captain, Luke Faro, hardly ever accepts Second Years regardless. There’s just no point.”

Cressida sank back in her chair. “If things were different… if I hadn’t messed up last year and if your cousins weren’t-”

“If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, then yes,” Molly cut her off knowingly. “If I was put in Gryffindor like I thought I would be, if I was placed with my cousins like I was  supposed  to be, then I would probably be practising to try out right now, yes.”

Cressida stared at her for a moment. A part of her wondered whether Molly would ever get over being placed in Slytherin, whether she would ever stop seeing it as a bad thing. She wondered, at that moment, if things had gone the way Molly wanted, whether they would even be friends.

“I’m going to go find Jac,” Cressida said, scooping Rasper into her hobo bag and getting to her feet.

“Try and stay out of trouble,” Molly replied, picking her quill back up. “If you leave your homework on the table I can look over it for you.”

“That’s okay,” Cressida said, turning to leave the common room. “I’ll take my chances with what I got.”

Cressida had every intention of going to find Jac and take her mind off Molly, however, when she saw the trio of Gryffindors badly concealing themselves behind the tapestry in the dungeons, she couldn’t help herself.

She reached into her bag and pulled out Rasper, attaching one side of the Extendible Ears to the underside of his stomach. “Sit over there,” she whispered, putting the kitten on the floor. She watched discreetly as Rasper, as always, did exactly what she asked of him. The tiny kitten perched just out of view by the bottom of the tapestry concealing the trio of boys.

“Shhh, she might spot us,”  James’ voice came through the other end of the ear in Cressida’s robe pocket.

Cressida, smiling to herself, pretended like she didn’t notice the tapestry and sat against the stone wall, getting out a Charms textbook, pretending to read it.

“Thank Merlin, she’s just doing homework,”  Thomas’ voice came.

“Probably trying to come up with a new way to set us up again,”  Fred grumbled.  “Where do you suppose Redwick is anyway?”

“Redwick isn’t important right now. Knightly is the one that’s been spying on us,”  James said sternly.  “We just need to figure out how she’s doing it.”

“And we’ve definitely ruled out that she’s a mind reader?”  Thomas asked.

The sound of someone behind being hit over the head came in reply.

“Let’s look at this logically, boys,”  James went on authoritatively.  “We need to figure out how Knightly is spying on us before we do anything embarrassing.”

“Like what?”  Thomas asked.

“Like Fred practising the Dancing Feet Spell on us fifty billion times because we can’t ever get it right,”  James answered.

“Or your weird ABBA performances in the shower,”  Fred teased.

“You can hear those?”  Thomas asked quietly.

“That’s not embarrassing, ABBA is elite music taste,”  James countered.  “However, I would argue Queen is the go-to shower performance for optimal coolness.”

“You’re both wrong,”  Fred said.  “Bowie is the best.”

Dramatic disgusted noises came from the other two boys at that comment and Cressida was struggling to not give away that she could hear every word, although she was positive the boys weren’t paying her attention anymore anyway.

“In a choice between Bowie and any other artist from that era, the other artist would always win,”  James argued back.

“Sorry, Freddie, but ABBA and Queen top Bowie,”  Thomas chimed in.  “It’s just basic fact.”

“Just for that, I should perform Bowie’s greatest hits next time we're home-”

“You wouldn’t dare-”

There was a sound of a fight breaking out, and Cressida rolled her eyes, getting to her feet. She called Rasper back over, putting the Extendible Ears safely in her bag along with the kitten, then started strolling closer to the tapestry.

Fred had been shoved out into the corridor, fists out, right in front of Cressida.

“Weasley,” Cressida greeted calmly.

“Knightly,” he nodded in response, keeping his eyes firmly on the tapestry. Then his head whirled around. “ KNIGHTLY !”

Two sets of hands shot out of the tapestry and pulled Fred back behind it.

Cressida waited for a moment, listening closely to the trio.

“Do you think she saw us?” Thomas whispered.

“I’m going to have to go with  yes! ” James whispered back furiously.

All three boys opened the tapestry and pulled Cressida inside shortly after.

Once she had joined them in the dim light of the secret passageway, she folded her arms. “You’ve not got the knack for spying on people, have you?” She asked. “You’re not supposed to be spotted.”

James matched her stance. “You can’t prove we were spying on you.”

She decided to humour them. “Why else would you be acting so weird?”

“That’s a trick question,” Thomas countered. “We always act weird.”

“Besides,  you’re  spying on us!” Fred pointed out.

Cressida turned her grey eyes on them with an innocent smile. “Can you prove that?”

“Well… no,” James said, slightly defeated. “But how else would you know about our homework?”

“And the fact you look like a banshee when your hair is wet?” She asked.

“Exactly!” James agreed enthusiastically. “ Wait -” 

“Spooky,” Fred and Thomas said under their breaths.

“Have you considered that you three are just extremely loud?” Cressida asked, making her way up the stairs.

The three boys pursued after her, nearly falling over each other in the narrow stairwell. “We were in our dorm room, Knightly. There’s no way-”

Cressida turned and raised her eyebrow, and their faces dropped.

“No,” James scoffed, as they all continued on. “There’s no way Knightly is clever enough to sneak into our dorm room without us noticing.”

“Willing to bet on that?” Cressida challenged. She knew she hadn’t actually been in their room, they discussed this kind of nonsense all throughout the castle, but she would take any chance to get under their skin and make them think she had been.

“Okay, what colour are our bedsheets?” Thomas asked cleverly.

“Red,” Cressida answered instantly. If she knew one thing for definite, it was that everything was the same colour as your house in Hogwarts.

“Lucky guess,” Fred rebuked.

“Wait-” James said suddenly. “If you really  were  in our bedroom, what poster do I have hanging up beside my bed?”

Cressida paused for a moment, thinking hard about how to bluff her way out of this one. “A Quidditch team poster,” she said, sounding sure of herself.

James hardened his eyes on her. “Which team?”

She was extremely lucky she had guessed right in the first place, but to guess the specific team would give her act up in an instant. She racked through her brain, trying to remember any instance in which James had mentioned supporting a specific team. Annoyingly, the only time she could recall paying attention to the trio talking about Quidditch teams was during their first flying lesson, and then it was as if a light bulb went off in her head. “Your mother’s team.”

The three boys stood in stunned silence, staring at her. 

“Boys,” James said after a long moment, his voice cracking slightly. “I do believe we need to hold a group meeting.”

With that, the three boys ran up the rest of the passageway and disappeared from sight.

Cressida looked down at Rasper, poking his head out the top of the bag. “They make it too easy,” she smiled, lifting the kitten onto her shoulder and continuing up the stairs alone.

 

*

 

It hadn’t taken long for Cressida to track Jac down, but deciding against dealing with the aftermath of Margo and Felix’s argument, and still feeling strange about her conversation with Molly, the two girls decided to spend the remainder of the afternoon hiding out in the secret room.

Cressida had been playing with Rasper, using her wand as a laser pointer around the room for him to follow and pounce at. Jac had listened to the Paramore album three times over before she changed it to another Cd from the cardboard box full of the albums her brother had given her.

“Joy Division or Green day?” She asked Cressida.

Cressida stopped playing with Rasper and turned her attention towards Jac, eyeing up the box filled with old CDs. Then an idea started forming in the back of her mind. “Do you have any Bowie?” 

Jac rummaged around in the box and pulled out a dusty Cd with David Bowie spread across the front. “Will this one do?”

“It’s perfect,” Cressida smiled as Jac loaded up the disc. “Fancy helping me out with a new spell tonight?”

Jac looked sceptical. “Will it cause me pain?”

Cressida thought for a moment, then pursed her lips. “Maybe we should recruit Felix instead.”

Chapter 29: Second Year: Let's Dance

Friday 23rd September 2016

 

After a tireless night tucked away in the secret room with Felix, Jac and Rasper, Cressida had finally completed the final step of her devious plan.

Felix, upon seeing the secret room in person for the first time, asked if Cressida always had a secret she wasn’t telling everyone, but had agreed to let her practise the required spell on him for the majority of the night if she bought him some chocolate frogs in return.

Cressida had made Felix promise not to mention her practising the spell on him, and to make sure her plan got ruined before it even started, she refused to tell him why she was practising it on him in the first place.

The three of them snuck back into the respective dorm rooms ten minutes before Molly woke up to start the day, suspecting nothing. In fact, they had made it through the entire day without Molly suspecting anything was afoot. 

Cressida thought this was partly due to the fact Molly seemed rather distracted with other things that day- precisely, Quidditch tryouts. It was all anyone was talking about, so much so that McGonagall even finished her lesson ten minutes early to let people go in preparation for the tryouts after last lesson.

If the rest of Hogwarts was obsessed with the tryouts, Margo was as equally obsessed with the prospect of the school newspaper, which Victoire was running. It was all Margo had spoken about since lunch, and Cressida was sure she saw Molly roll her eyes as Margo asked her about  ‘whether Victoire will be biased towards House related news and gossip’  for the second time.

Eventually, Felix had sent a chocolate frog flying across the alcove and into Margo’s mouth to shut her up.

“Thank Merlin,” Jac whispered under her breath once Margo’s incessant chatter stopped.

Cressida glanced at the clock ticking above the mantelpiece. “I might go watch the tryouts,” she said to the group casually.

Margo raised an eyebrow. “But Slytherin tryouts aren’t for another hour or so, it’s Ravenclaw now, then Gryffindor is next-”

Cressida shrugged, getting to her feet. “Alright, so I’ll go for a walk in the meantime,” she said quickly. She glanced at Molly cautiously, wondering if she would finally catch on to her scheming something like she normally did. “Want to come, Molly?”

Molly sank lower in her chair, her head stuck in a book. “Not bloody likely.”

“Right,” Cressida said, hiding her relief. “Jac?”

Jac was already on her feet, bag in hand. “Let’s go.”

“Hang on-” Margo said, watching the two girls sceptically. “This seems suspicious.”

“Fancy some tea from the kitchens, Weasley?” Felix spoke over Margo.

Molly glanced up, considering it. “Yeah, alright,” she said closing her book.

Margo followed suit instantly, forgetting her previous thought in favour of Molly’s attention. “In that case, I’ll come too-”

“Don’t worry, Margo,” Molly said, gesturing for her to stay seated. “We won’t be long.”

Margo sank back into her chair sulking, watching Felix and Molly leave the room together. Linking arms with Jac, Cressida smiled smugly at Margo before leaving as well, exiting the common room just as Margo started complaining again.

“You’re going to give that girl an aneurysm one day,” Jac laughed as the two girls walked through the halls heading for the Quidditch Pitch.

“She shouldn’t be so nosey,” Cressida replied. “Did you remember the stuff I asked for?” She asked, running the plan over in her head.

Jac rummaged around in her bag and showed the Cd player to Cressida. “It’s all ready to go… Are you sure Felix won’t spill to Molly before it happens? You know he’s not good under pressure and we just left him alone with her.”

“He’ll be fine. Besides, he doesn’t know what we’re actually up to,” she said cleverly.

The two girls walked onto the pitch and found tryouts in full swing. The Ravenclaw recruitments were currently mid-air trying their best at the sport. Some of them seemed to be doing quite well, others not so much. Madam Hooch was pacing on the field, looking up at them along with the Ravenclaw’s team captain, discussing their manoeuvres and who would benefit the team the most.

Glancing up at the height of the players, it confirmed Cressida’s belief that Quidditch was the stupidest and most hazardous sport she had ever encountered- and she’d watched Albie and his gang play rugby on the tarmac between the garages without protective gear.

“Fancy seeing you here.” Both girls spun around to see Fred leaning against one of the posts. “Trying out for the team after all?”

“Where’s dumb and dumber?” Jac asked, ignoring his question.

Fred nodded his head towards Thomas and James standing with five other Gryffindor tryouts. “We’re waiting for McGonagall to arrive before they start. Apparently, she doesn’t trust us not to cause chaos without her supervision… if you ask me, I think she just wants to watch for old time’s sake.”

“Got nothing planned to make Potter win, Weasley?” Cressida asked curiously.

“I debated it,” Fred said mischievously. “I’ve been teasing him all day saying I’m going to sabotage him instead though.”

“Why aren’t you trying out?” Jac asked.

Fred gave an allusive shrug. “Not my turn for glory just yet.”

Before either girl could ask what that meant, Madam Hooch’s whistle blew and all the Ravenclaws flew down to the ground to meet their captain to find out who had made the team. Thomas and James broke away from the others and made their way over to the group.

“Knightly!” James greeted her. “Come to wish me luck?”

“You wish,” Jac scoffed, which was met with a small snigger from Fred.

“Actually, yes,” Cressida contradicted. All of their faces dropped. 

“This is another trick, isn’t it?” Thomas asked.

Cressida ignored him, looking at James purposefully. “I came to see if you were as green as Thomas is when he plays.”

James laughed boastfully. “ As if - no offence-” he added on quickly to Thomas. “I can fly circles around the others. They don’t stand a chance.”

“Aren’t you worried you’ll make a fool of yourself?” Jac asked.

“Please,” James laughed. “I  never  make a fool of myself. It’s not in my nature.”

“Some would beg to differ,” Fred said under his breath. James caught it and playfully shoved the older boy with his shoulder.

“There’s McGonagall,” Thomas said, pointing out her walking towards the pitch in the distance. “And she brought Longbottom.”

James’ confident demeanour faltered slightly as he looked at the broom in his hand. “Well, wish me luck.”

“You don’t need it, mate,” Fred said ruffling James’ hair. “Show em’ you’re a Potter through and through. Quidditch is in your blood.”

Madam Hooch’s whistle blew again. “Potter, get over here. You’re holding us up!”

James gulped and walked towards the middle of the pitch with Thomas at his side.

Cressida faked a sneeze as the signal and Jac snapped into action. “Hey, Weasley… do you know where the best place to watch is?”

“Half way up the stands, probably,” he answered, not moving from his spot.

“Can you show me?” Jac asked hurriedly.

Fred looked down at her. “What about Knightly?”

“I’m not a Quidditch fan,” Cressida answered, keeping her eyes firmly on James and Thomas’ backs. “You two go ahead.”

Fred coughed awkwardly, an odd shade of pink coming onto his cheeks as he walked off in front. “Then yeah, sure. Follow me, I guess.”

“You owe me for this,” Jac whispered to Cressida before following Fred.

Cressida made sure she could see Jac and Fred sit next to each other on the stands before she moved. She snuck around the edges of the pitch, finding the closest spot to where Madam Hooch was laying out the rules of the tryouts.

“No tomfoolery. No hi-jinx. No cheating, and most importantly,  no  funny business!” Madam Hooch was saying sternly just as James and Thomas joined the group.

Cressida signalled to Jac and then produced her wand from out of her robes, discreetly aiming it towards the two boys. Jac hid her bag under the wooden stands and pretended to drop her wand, bending down to do her part of the plan.

“Tarantallegra,”  Cressida muttered.

It started gradually. James started swaying his hips while Thomas tapped his foot. 

“Boys, I know you’re itching to go but remain still until I’m done laying out the rules-” Madam Hooch was lecturing them.

The beginning chords of ‘Let’s Dance’ by David Bowie suddenly blasted across the pitch.

Then, as the music grew louder, James and Thomas’ dance moves grew more noticeable.

James had started doing the Macarena while Thomas was doing the chicken dance.

The people surrounding had an odd mixture of confusion and amusement on their faces as they watched the two boys, unsure whether they were doing it on purpose or not.

Within seconds, James and Thomas were uncontrollably dancing, their feet moving at immense speed while their faces looked utterly bewildered. 

The other tryouts and Madam Hooch stared at them as they danced circles around the group. Fred jumped up, running towards the two boys at the same time as McGonagall and Longbottom came storming onto the field. Cressida, knowing better than to be out in the open during this, hid behind one of the stands, watching with glee.

“What do you think you’re doing? This isn’t the ballet!” Madame Hooch was reprimanding them. “Stop this dancing right now!”

“We can’t!” Thomas shrieked.

“Our feet have a mind of their own!” James complained as he started doing the jive. “We would  never  dance to Bowie in public!”

“LUPIN!” McGonagall called, glaring around the field for the culprit. Longbottom leaned over to her, discreetly whispering that Teddy Lupin was no longer at Hogwarts, and McGonagall looked dumbfounded for a moment. “Oh… of course. I got so used to him being the harbinger of chaos around here for the last few years-”

Nobody could control their laughter as they watched James and Thomas dance their way around the Quidditch Pitch. Fred now followed behind them, singing along loudly. “I knew you’d come around to Bowie!”

Jac grabbed her bag and snuck to stand beside Cressida as the two girls doubled over laughing. “You were right, Cress. This is the best one yet!”

“This is just the beginning,” Cressida grinned.

“Make it stop, Freddie!” Thomas begged, starting to waltz with James against his will.

Fred folded his arms, watching his best friends with an amused grin. “It’s not me doing this.”

“It has to be!” James yelled as Thomas dipped him. “You’re the only one who can do this spell out of the three of us and you know how much we hate Bowie!”

“I’m telling you it’s not me!”

Thomas and James locked eyes just as they started shimmying in time with each other, both coming to the same realization.  “Knightly!”

Molly and Felix appeared on the pitch, watching the scene with wide eyes. 

“I  knew  you were hiding something! You always sweat when you’re lying to me,” Molly said, glaring at Felix. She spotted the two girls concealed behind the stands instantly. “What have you done now?” Molly asked, storming towards them.

Cressida looked up to see Felix grimacing as the two walked toward them. “I tried, I really did-” he was rambling.

After Molly had brought everyone’s attention to the two of them, Fred ran over as well. “This is genius!” Fred laughed, standing beside Jac. “How did you come up with it?”

“ I  was wondering the same thing!” McGonagall said, appearing behind Molly tapping her foot. At the sight of the Head Mistress, Jac forced the Cd player into Felix’s hand.

Professor Longbottom walked onto the pitch, casting the undoing spell and the two Gryffindors fell to the grass mid-samba, which produced even more laughter from Fred despite McGonagall glaring down at them. 

“Miss Knightly, I had hoped you’d learned your lesson on involving yourself in frivolous pranks, especially where certain Gryffindor students are concerned.”

“It was funny though,” Fred chimed in. McGonagall gave him a stern glare and the dark-skinned boy stepped back behind Jac.

James and Thomas limped their way over to the group of Slytherins, interrupting whatever lecture McGonagall was about to give. “How did you do that?” James asked bewildered, verging on impressed. “You somehow knew we hated Bowie  and  you perfected the Dancing Feet spell before we had the chance-”

“Did you use Occlumency?” Thomas asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Mr Wood,” McGonagall said. “Miss Knightly may be a talented witch, but that is far beyond any of your capabilities. What is not beyond your capabilities, however, is receiving detention. My office. Tonight. I expect you to be precisely on time, Miss Knightly.”

“Yes, Professor,” Cressida replied.

“Now, if your foolish pranks are done with for today, I believe there are more tryouts to be had,” McGonagall said primly. 

“You’re going to let them try out still?” Madam Hooch asked affronted, joining them. “After that performance!?”

McGonagall’s face remained completely neutral as she adjusted her pointed hat on top of her head, avoiding looking directly at James. “The way I see it, Rolanda, Mr Potter was a victim of a badly timed prank-”

“Yes, but-”

“And it is no question that he comes from a good, dare I say, pedigree Quidditch bloodline,” McGonagall continued.

“Yes, Minerva, however-”

“And to not allow him the opportunity to prove his skill set on the pitch would be highly unfair, especially alongside Mr Wood here, another highly skilled Quidditch player as I see it…. don’t you think, Rolanda?”

Madam Hooch’s yellow eyes were unmoving from McGonagall. “And I suppose him being a Potter has nothing to do with it, Minerva?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” McGonagall replied. “Gryffindor needs skilled players and you won’t find more skilled than him. Let him try out and you will see that.”

Madam Hooch turned her eyes on James. 

“I really am good,” James said eagerly.

“Fine,” Madam Hooch agreed. “But any more antics and you’re off the team, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.” James and Thomas nodded in unison.

“Good. Now that that’s sorted, I shall see you all in detention this evening,” McGonagall said making to leave again.

“Why do  we  get detention?” Fred asked.

“Think of it as a pre-meditative punishment, boys,” McGonagall said over her shoulder. “I’m sure this isn’t the last we shall see of your antics.” She turned to Madam Hooch again, along with the rest of the Gryffindor tryouts still waiting to start. “Good luck to those wishing to get on the team, and good luck to Madam Hooch in dealing with you all.”

With that, the Head Mistress turned with Longbottom in toe.

“You’re going soft,” Longbottom whispered to McGonagall as they departed.

“I can still fire you, Longbottom.”

Once the two Professors had disappeared back into the castle, the trio of Gryffindors all turned their attention back to Cressida.

Finally, Thomas opened his mouth. “Are you sure you’re not a-”

“She’s not a mind-reader, Thomas!” Molly cut him off exasperated, storming back into the castle. “When I turn around, you three better be following me!”

Jac and Felix instantly hopped into action, following after Molly as she left the field. Cressida turned her eyes on the trio of boys one last time. 

“Still think she's a mind reader, ” Thomas said as Cressida followed behind her friends.

“Wood, my boy, with that girl nothing seems impossible,” James replied.

 

 

Monday 26th September 2016

 

Ever since tryouts on the previous Friday, James and Thomas being on the team was all anyone could seem to talk about, as well as the prank Cressida had pulled on them moments before James made the team. However, after the commotion, Madam Hooch rescheduled Hufflepuff and Slytherin try-outs for today after lessons in the hopes of avoiding more chaos.

The people who found the prank funny were seemingly awaiting the Gryffindors counter-prank with eager interest. People would stop them in the halls to compliment Cressida on her wand work and good ideas. People even came up to Jac and asked her for inside information on what Cressida was planning next. 

Some people, as usual, thought it was incredibly stupid and called Cressida a bully, reminding everyone of what she pulled last year. The people who called her a bully refused to believe the Chauncey siblings had been the cause of the accident.

She couldn’t help but think that if she was in any other house, she wouldn’t be called anything at all. Cressida tried not to listen to the bad words and instead focused on what was important. Being one step ahead of the Gryffindor boys at all times. Rasper had since eaten half of the Extendible Ears in protest to no one playing with him one night in the dorm, so Cressida’s ability to overhear their conversations had momentarily gone out the window until she found a way to replace her stock. However, she didn’t need to overhear their conversations much at all, as they were generally incredibly loud and bad at faking innocence.

Molly had avoided speaking about the incident at tryouts, instead, pretending like it never happened. Margo, however, had made her viewpoint on it completely clear and yelled at Jac and Cressida late into the night about being reckless and stupid. Even Felix got a telling off for not asking why Cressida was so desperate to try out spells on him. In hindsight, warning Felix about asking the reasons why before agreeing to do something seemed like a good idea in the long run.

Cressida could handle a few rants from Margo, she was always ranting about something, but she had begun to wonder why Molly didn’t seem bothered anymore. If she had pulled that stunt last year, Molly would have reprimanded her and demanded she not do it again. Now, she simply seemed to not care, and that didn’t sit right with Cressida. Molly Weasley II was not the type of person to just not care.

Margo, on the other hand, was doing enough berating and lecturing for her and Molly combined, refusing to let the prank go and bringing it up in snide remarks at any given opportunity.

“I’m just saying, Cressida is going to cause trouble for us again this year, and I don’t want to be a part of it!” Margo was saying on the way back to the common room Monday afternoon.

After completing the majority of their homework on the green, Molly suggested they return to their usual alcove in the common room. 

“You’ve said- multiple times- and you’re not a part of it,” Felix said rather harshly. “Just because you and girl Weasley are goody-two-shoes, doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be.”

Margo huffed a reply under her breath, but Cressida wasn’t paying any attention. She was watching the Hufflepuff and Slytherin students heading down to the Quidditch pitch for their second chance at tryouts. Cressida noticed Molly purposefully didn’t look towards them as she hastily led them back into the castle.

They had been in their alcove for over an hour before someone entered the common room and caught their attention. Margo had been talking about the school newspaper again, and Molly was the only one faking interest. Jac and Felix had taken to trading chocolate frog cards, meanwhile, Cressida played with her wand light to entertain Rasper.

“Hey-up,” Felix nodded his head towards Jeremiah Vonce returning from the Quidditch pitch. “He doesn't look too happy.”

Molly’s interest was piqued and her head spun around as Jeremiah stormed toward them. “Don’t bother trying out, Weasley. Faro won’t even let Second Years near the pitch!” Jeremiah said as he continued thundering towards the boy's dorms.

Molly winced as Margo’s attention whipped towards her. “You  were  thinking of trying out!” She said it as though it was an accusation.

“Don’t be stupid,” Molly said, returning to staring at her textbook. “He must have me mixed up with the other Weasley.”

“Yes, because you definitely look like your multi-racial, male cousin,” Felix chimed in dryly. “Easy mistake for anyone to make, really.” Molly sent him a glare so harsh that Felix collected his things and stood up. “I do believe I have a book calling me in the library- see you later!”

Margo pursed her lips and kept her eyes firmly on the parchment in front of her. “If you wanted to try out you could have told me.”

Molly equally refused to lift her eyes from the objects in front of her while talking to Margo. “I told you, he got it wrong. I was never going to try out.”

“Yeah, but I know you love Quidditch, and I know you always dreamed of being on the Hogwarts Quidditch team-”

“Just leave it alone, Margo,” Molly snapped.

“You were the one that said Quidditch didn’t matter anymore the other week, but I  knew  something was wrong! Why didn’t you try out, Molly?”

Molly stood up abundantly, so much that it made Jac jump. She cleared her throat pointedly. “I think I’ll join Felix in the library,” Molly said firmly.

Chapter 30: Second Year: Strike Two

Tuesday 4th October 2016

 

“I would like to remind all students that although pranks seem fun and harmless, Hogwarts is a place for learning,  not  tomfoolery!” McGonagall had said at breakfast Monday morning. James, Thomas and Fred were grinning up at the Head Mistress as she made her speech, unphased by her warning. She was purposefully ignoring them as she continued. “Any students caught tampering with objects around the castle, or interfering with their peer's ability to concentrate in lessons will be appropriately punished.”

Molly gave a loud scoff over her cup of tea but said nothing outright as everyone returned to eating their breakfast. Once she felt Cressida’s watchful eyes on her, she lifted the Daily Prophet and hid behind it.

Molly seemed to be on edge a lot recently, which wasn’t exactly out of the norm but was still a rather large hindrance to the functionality of their group. This was made worse by Margo, who at every chance accused Cressida of attempting to ruin her life.

“Can you pass me the juice, Finnigan?” Jac asked, pretending everything was normal between the group.

“Careful, the Gryffindor boys might have done something to it to get back at Knightly,” Margo muttered under her breath as she buttered her toast.

“They’re not going to poison our juice, Margo,” Jac said as Felix ignored Margo and did as she asked.

“How do you know?” Molly asked coolly while turning a page of the Daily Prophet.

Cressida rolled her eyes and turned around. Two tables over, the three Gryffindor boys were entertaining their house by retelling a story for probably the fourth time. “Potter!” All eyes turned towards Cressida. “Are you going to poison our juice?”

The whole hall went silent, awaiting the trio’s answer. McGonagall held the bridge of her nose, muttering to Longbottom beside her.  “Why do I bother?”

Fred, Thomas and James ducked their heads together, whispering for a moment before looking at her again. “We hadn’t considered it!” James answered from across the hall.

Cressida nodded her head and turned back toward her friends. Molly’s fingernails were digging into the wood of the table but still looked like she was giving no reaction to anyone who didn’t know better. Margo had turned a funny shade of pink. The rest of the hall continued on as if the interruption had never happened. Cressida ignored both of their reactions as though it was normal. “The juice is safe.”

“For now, anyway.” Felix nudged Cressida and pointed back towards the Gryffindor table. The three boys had abandoned whatever story they had been telling and were now scribbling on parchment. All the juice that had been present on the Gryffindor table was now compiled in front of them, and Fred was fumbling with his wand while James tried to instruct him. 

“Nice going, Cressida, now we can’t drink juice ever again!” Margo whined.

Cressida took a bite out of her toast, watching Molly closely. “You got snippy, I was just proving a point.”

Molly’s eye began to twitch, but she simply covered her entire face with the Daily Prophet again.

 

*

 

Herbology had only made Margo and Molly’s moods worse. Professor Longbottom usually let the class mingle and chat at the end of the lesson, and everyone had crowded around Cressida’s table, where she had been working with Felix and Jac, asking about what she was planning next. 

Beatrix Swinley even brought a notepad to write down everything Cressida said. Cressida noticed the Gryffindor girl had gotten extremely sleek looking braids in her hair over the summer, as opposed to wearing her afro naturally like last year. It suited her much more.

“How do we know you’re not compiling information to give to the terrible trio?” Felix asked the Gryffindor girl, once Cressida had admitted she hadn’t planned anything new yet.

“Is that what you’re calling them?” Beatrix asked excitedly. “Do they have a name for you?”

James came up behind Beatrix, wrapping an arm around her shoulders casually. “Are we doing nicknames now, Knightly?”

Fred did the same to Beatrix from the other side, and the small girl looked like she was about to combust from how red her face turned. “Because if so, we were hoping for a name that reflects our talents and doesn’t include the word  terrible . Sends a bad message to the ladies.”

“What talents would you like represented, Weasley?” Jac asked. “How annoying you can be, your lack of personal boundaries, or your total air of undeserved cockiness?”

Cressida smiled proudly at Jac. Her comebacks had gotten much better, thanks to a personal seminar from Felix and Cressida in the common room.

Fred and James removed their arms from around Beatrix promptly, and she looked rather upset about it. Thomas appeared, scribbling something down on his parchment with his quill-pen. “I say we pick the cockiness one… it’s the best choice out of the three.”

Fred nudged Thomas, causing him to cross out whatever he had just written. “Who’s side are you on, Wood?”

“What are you writing down anyway?” Cressida asked, snatching the parchment out of Thomas’ hand before anyone could stop her. Everyone crowded around her to read the list as well.

James and Fred knocked Thomas up the side of the head. “We told you to be discreet,” Fred chided.

Cressida handed the list to Jac and Felix, hoping the crowd would follow them instead and move away from her. “It’s a list tracking my movements over the last two days.”

The three boys all stood together, clearly fumbling for an excuse in their heads collectively. After a few seconds, James stepped forward. “We were worried in case you ever went missing that-”

“Save it, Potter,” Cressida stopped him. She turned to Felix with a smile. “Finnigan, you know what to do.”

Felix looked up from the parchment with an excited grin, while the trio all began to look horrified. He produced his wand within seconds and pointed it at the parchment.  “Incendio!”

The note burst into flames and people ran for cover. Professor Longbottom ran over, using his wand to extinguish what little remained of the parchment. “Mr Finnegan, we discussed you setting things on fire in my classroom… or in general-”

“It’s the only spell he’s good at sir, let him have this,” Jac chimed in. “Besides, they were spying on Cressida.”

“Is this true boys?”

“Only a little bit,” Fred shrugged.

“They’re  always  doing something to Knightly!” Margo yelled from her table beside Molly. “And it  always  results in some sort of disruption or someone getting chased through the halls! In fact, it would be more surprising if they  weren’t  doing something to Cressida for once!”

“You’re just jealous,” Beatrix replied.

Margo turned that funny shade of red again. “She has nothing to be jealous of, Swinley. Not everyone is dying to get the slightest bit of attention from them,” Molly spoke up out of instinct. When she saw Cressida raise an eyebrow, she huffed and went back to writing on her parchment.

Professor Longbottom wrung his hands, getting everyone’s attention again. “Alright, well, just don’t do it again… either of you. I'd hate to have to inform McGonagall about more of your antics.”

“Yes, sir,” they all chorused back.

Longbottom nodded as though he was content. “Right well, on that note, class dismissed!”

Beatrix was the first to disappear, gossiping with her Gryffindor friends about Margo and Molly. Next was Felix and Jac, laughing about setting the note on fire. Margo and Molly left next, Molly with her head down while Margo sent glares in Cressida’s direction.

Cressida remained in front of the trio of boys. “Sorry whatever you were planning got ruined before it even started.” 

Thomas rummaged around in his robes. “Oh, it’s okay, we have a spare in case-”

Cressida took the second piece of parchment out of his fingers easily. “Thanks, Wood.”

With that, Cressida pocketed the parchment and walked off. The sound of someone being hit over the head could be heard as she left the classroom.

The group of Slytherins were waiting in the hall for her. Margo refused to look at Cressida as she joined them, and instead pointed her nose towards the ceiling. 

Jac and Felix were watching the interaction curiously. Molly looked at Cressida and forced a smile. “Homework on the green?” She offered.

This was the first time Molly had offered to do homework with them in a week.

“Lead the way,” Cressida replied. Molly nodded and turned, walking off at a quicker pace than normal. 

 

 

Monday 10th October 2016

 

“Victoire has pushed back her newspaper meeting!” Margo complained as they sat down for breakfast

“She is studying for her N.E.W.T’s, Margo,” Molly reasoned while buttering her toast. “I’m sure she’s under a lot of pressure without trying to run a school newspaper on top.”

“Then why say you’re going to start one!?” Margo retaliated. “Now I’m stuck reading the Daily Prophet, or worse… the Quibbler.”

“Ay, what’s wrong with the Quibbler?” Felix asked affronted. “There’s some good stuff in that magazine, dad swears by it.”

“It’s full of nonsense,” Margo huffed. “Just like the people who write it-”

Molly had abruptly stopped buttering her toast and glared at Margo, bringing an instant coldness to the conversation. “Pardon, Margo?”

Margo shrank down in her seat. “It’s just my mum says... well, she says that the Lovegoods are… well, you know-”

“No,” Molly said tightly. “I don’t think I do know. Go on.”

Felix was looking between the two girls with a wide grin. “I cannot  wait  to see how you talk yourself out of this one, Smithers.”

“Don’t be so childish, Finnigan!” Margo snapped, looking vaguely like a scolded child.

“Don’t talk badly about people you don’t know,” Molly countered, returning to her breakfast routine. “And Luna is a Scamander now. She married a Magizoologist.”

“What do they do?” Jac asked curiously.

“Like David Attenborough for the wizarding world,” Felix answered.

Someone cleared their throat behind the group and they all turned to see Beatrix Swinley standing there, holding a box of Bertie Bott’s jelly beans in her hands. 

“Have you got the wrong table?” Felix asked as they looked at her.

“No,” Beatrix shook her head, causing her braids to whip around her shoulders. “I came to talk to Knightly- I mean Cressida. I came to talk to Cressida.”

“Whatever it is, Cressida didn’t do it,” Jac defended her instantly.

Cressida hardened her eyes on the Gryffindor girl. She seemed nervous. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Beatrix said again. “I just came to give you these,” she said, extending the box of sweets out towards her. “They’re a gift for pranking James the other week. It was well funny.”

Molly grew suspicious then. “And Cressida being funny results in gifts now? Why do I find that highly unlikely?”

“Who cares what you find unlikely? We just got free sweets!” Felix said, taking the box from Beatrix and opening them up.

“And once again Felix lacks the ability to control his sweet tooth,” Jac teased.

“Well, anyway, I should get going,” Beatrix said hurriedly.

Cressida watched the Gryffindor girl head over to her table, where she said something to the trio of boys and then promptly left. 

“Of course. I’m surprised they didn’t send her over with a sign saying  don’t ask me about the secret prank ,” Molly sighed, watching the interaction as well. 

Cressida snatched the Bertie Bott’s from Felix before any could make it into his mouth. “Hey, I was eating those!” He complained as she emptied the beans into their goblets of juice. When she looked back up, the trio were absent from their table.

“I’ll meet you in History of Magic,” Cressida said, grabbing her bag and standing up.

She heard the vague complaints of Molly and Margo behind her as she rushed out of the hall. 

At the bottom of the staircase, the trio of boys were huddled together, talking in hushed voices.

“You know,” she said, alerting them to her presence. “If you wanted to trick me, you might want to use a better actress next time.”

“Noted,” James replied, stepping out of the huddle. “I take it you didn’t eat any of the sweets then?”

“I drowned them,” Cressida answered.

“Dammit,” Fred said, shaking his head. “I told you she’d be too smart for this trick.”

“That I am, Weasley,” Cressida smiled. “So, what was it? Puking pastels again? Something that makes my tongue swell?”

James laced an arm around Cressida’s shoulder. “No sense in telling you now, Knightly. After all, it was ruined. You’ve been spared. We have to go back to the drawing board.”

Cressida shoved his arm off her, narrowing her eyes. “You’re acting strange.”

“We always act strange,” Fred countered.

“Anyway, can’t stay and chat,” James continued. “Lots of scheming to do. See you around, Knightly.”

James grabbed Fred and practically dragged him up the Grand Staircase. Cressida turned to Thomas, who was still standing beside her, watching his two counterparts go in equal confusion.

“Are you going to tell me what that was about?” 

“For once, I have no idea,” Thomas answered. “But for the record, I did tell them getting Beatrix to do the delivery would never work.”

“At least one of you is smart then.”

“One out of three isn’t bad. Bertie Bott?” He offered.

“Thanks, Wood,” Cressida smiled, taking one from his open box and throwing it in her mouth. “See you in History of Magic.”

 

*

 

“The International Warlock Convention of 1289 was a meeting held in 1289, and very little is known about the affair. Although, it is speculated that the Medieval Assembly of European Wizards may have contributed to-”

Felix banged his head against the desk. “It is speculated that if Professor Binns doesn’t speed up, I’ll be joining him as a ghost very shortly through him boring me to death.”

Cressida looked up from where she had been dozing. Even she had to admit this particular topic was incredibly mind-numbing, especially because according to Professor Binns nobody even knew what happened in the ancient meeting.

“Now, can anyone tell me which subcommittee was also involved in this convention?” Professor Binns asked the class, who were all silent and on the verge of going into comas. The ghostly teacher looked down at the class list. “Perhaps… Miss Knightly?”

Cressida looked to the front, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. She cleared her throat and opened her mouth to speak. “I invevere wed olvof isof iardinianie s the isubcelinvorsord olvof s ithare solitt.”

The class was silent still, but this time from confusion.

“I’m sorry, Miss Knightly,” Professor Binns said, adjusting his tiny glasses on the end of his nose. “Would you like to try again?”

“I t I'taly dng didin't I saly t thay I'mallking din't.”

Professor Binns blinked a few times.

Cressida placed a hand to her throat. In her mind, she was talking perfectly normally, but whenever she tried to talk nothing but gibberish came out.

Then, the distinct snort of laughter came from behind her and she rounded on the three boys.

“Ididid ou tou me!” She yelled.

The whole class had started laughing now, grateful for some entertainment after a long hour of Professor Binns dribbling on.

“Say that again, Knightly, I didn’t quite understand you,” James sniggered.

Cressida lunged over the desks and grasped James by the robes, pulling him out of his chair. “Hou yow yo tin d you cretidis?!” 

“Is this what Welsh sounds like, Knightly?” Fred teased smugly from beside James. “It’s such a beautiful language.”

Cressida sent him a gesture that could be understood without the use of language.

“Alright students, this brings us to the end of my lesson for today,” Professor Binns said at the front, seemingly unperturbed by the disruption. “Homework is to read up on the subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers by the next lesson. Dismissed.”

Cressida basically chased the three boys out of the classroom and down two flights of stairs, with her friends trailing behind her before they eventually came to a stop. Cressida had James pinned to the stone wall, unphased by the other students passing by wondering what she was going to do to him.

“Tell hondis d mel mell did thourt how di mell!” Cressida snapped, but her threats were less than useful in this state.

The group of Slytherins had caught up now, panting heavily and leaning on each other as they caught their breaths. “What did you do to Cressida?” Jac asked, clutching her chest.

“And whatever it is, undo it now!” Molly demanded. “Or at least before our next lesson.”

James was grinning, even as Cressida’s murderous glare bore into him inches from his face. “Turns out Wood was right. Using Beatrix to deliver the tampered sweets was a terrible idea. Having you take the sweet right from Wood’s hands, however, was very smart of us, don’t you think, Knightly?”

“It was a double bluff,” Molly realized. 

“ Wood  outsmarted you?” Margo asked.

“Don’t sound so surprised, Smithers,” Fred stepped in, clapping Thomas proudly on the shoulder. “He came up with the whole thing.”

Cressida let go of James and turned around slowly. Upon having Cressida’s attention, Wood looked worse than when he was about to play a Quidditch match.

Jac and Felix rushed forward to restrain Cressida as Thomas jumped into Fred’s arms with a petrified scream. “You can’t kill him, he’s only little!” James said, darting in front of her.

Molly stood between the two groups. “James, undo the curse on Cressida.”

“We can’t,” James said, stepping back a few paces for safety.

“Why not?” Felix asked.

“The cure was in the sweets Beatrix gave to you this morning,” Fred answered. “You know, the ones you destroyed in your brilliant stroke of genius…”

The group of Slytherins looked to Molly, who gave the smallest nod.

Jac and Felix released their hold on Cressida. The three boys screamed loud enough to deafen a Mandrake as they took off running through the halls with Cressida perusing after them.

 

 

Sunday 16th October 2016

 

The trio of boys had survived within an inch of their lives, and that was only because Cressida couldn’t cast any spells due to her newfound speech issue. She had chased them through the whole castle, bringing about a long line of teachers and students following after them. First came Longbottom, then Filch, then McGonagall, then half the school, all watching as the group broke out onto the grounds and Cressida single-handedly tackled them to the ground in a pile.

Fred had grabbed Thomas and managed to worm their way out of the dogpile, leaving James to fend for himself. He had been laughing the entire time, of course, as Cressida gave loud curses and threats all in a nonsensical language in between shoving mud onto his face and pinning him down in the grass. 

Half of the onlookers couldn’t tell if James was even trying to get Cressida to stop wrestling him, but eventually, McGonagall had the sense to step in and make sense of what had happened. However, she had made the mistake of asking Cressida, which caused another long stretch of laughter from the three boys as she had tried to explain.

“She’s reverted back to her home language, you see,” Fred had said. 

Fred did not enjoy having mud thrown in his face half as much as James.

Naturally, they’d all received detention- and were separated for the punishment.

Now, everyone was seemingly waiting to see who would react next. Based on the general gossip around Hogwarts, it was deemed Cressida’s turn to respond.

Molly had been less than thrilled when she heard this news. It had been made even worse when Penelope McFadden of Hufflepuff asked if Molly was involved and had anything to do with Cressida’s next prank. Apparently, Molly had denied any involvement and threatened to curse Penelope if she told people differently.

“So, what are we pulling next?” Jac asked excitedly as they made their way down to their common room. “It’s Wood’s birthday on Saturday, we could curse his cake to explode in his face or something.”

“Too simple,” Felix said. “Besides, it’s probably safer to avoid birthday pranks with Molly already in such a foul mood with us. You saw what she was like last year, I was convinced she was going to rip my head off at breakfast.”

“Birthdays are off the pranking agenda,” Cressida decided. “It’s unfair and Molly would definitely never talk to us again.” 

Felix shoved his hands into his robe pockets. “What are we doing for her birthday this year? I, for one, hope she lets me actually lets me stay for the whole party this time.”

The three Slytherins entered their common room. “That’s if she even lets us have a party together this year, she may want to spend it with Margo in the bathroom with how off she is with us at the moment,” Jac answered. “Cressie should probably threaten the Gryffindors to lay off us for the day again though, just to be on the safe side.”

Cressida shrugged. “I think they’re smart enough to know better this year anyway.”

“You put too much faith in their common sense abilities,” Felix grinned as they came to a stop at their usual alcove. 

Molly and Margo looked up from their homework at the arrival of the other three. “Where’ve you three been all afternoon?” Molly asked.

“Probably causing trouble,” Margo muttered. “I wouldn’t be surprised if those three horrid boys burst through that door any day now.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” Felix laughed, lounging on the sofa beside Molly. “They’d never make it past Cressida and her mighty fists.”

Cressida threw a cushion at his head to shut him up. “Have you done the Herbology homework yet, Mol?” 

“It’s in our dorm room,” Molly answered. “Follow me and I’ll get it for you.”

Felix sat up as the two girls started departing. “I don’t suppose-”

“No, Finnigan. You can do yours by yourself,” Molly said over her shoulder.

Once the two girls had entered their dorm room, Molly shut the door behind them and folded her arms over her chest.

Cressida sighed, recognising that stance well after a year. “Is this going to be a long lecture or a short one?”

Molly was not in the mood for jokes, it seemed. Nor was she in the mood to actually give Cressida the homework. “Do you know what you’re doing, Cressida?”

Cressida sat on the edge of her bed, glad when Rasper slinked out from under it and jumped into her lap. “What do you mean?”

“This prank war you’ve got going on with my cousins… I think it's a bad idea.”

“You think everything that goes slightly against the rules is a bad idea.”

“Rules are there for a reason!”

“Yeah, to be bent,” Cressida laughed. “Come on, Mol, don’t you find it the slightest bit funny?”

“You were talking gibberish for three hours!” Molly yelled.

Cressida shrugged indifferently. “Yeah, but those grass stains are never going to come out of Potter’s uniform.”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” Molly huffed. “Not everyone is going to react well to this. People are going to get hurt.”

Cressida stood up and faced Molly. “This is between me and your cousins. It’s under control. Stop thinking the worst of everything.”

Molly stared a Cressida for a moment, clearly thinking but not voicing it. “Just… just watch how far you go,” she said finally, moving out of the way of the door. “Remember who your real friends are.”

Cressida left without getting the homework.

Chapter 31: Second Year: Trouble's Brewing

Saturday 30th October 2016

 

The prank war was on in full effect and everyone knew about it. Cressida and Jac had never had so much fun. Molly and Margo, as was the norm lately, were  not  having fun. Felix, as always, remained the neutral party between the four girls for the most part, but even he found all the pranks funny.

Over the last two weeks, it became a competition of who could cause the most chaos between the two groups. 

The trio of boys had retaliated a second time before Cressida got a chance, using the excuse that Cressida pinning them to the floor and verbally abusing them in gibberish was enough of a show to warrant a response. A few days after it had happened, Cressida had gone to lessons with no quills or ink pots as the trio of boys had made all of hers invisible. Once Jac had offered to share with her, Fred turned hers invisible as well, leaving both girls unable to complete any class notes or do homework- resulting in yet another detention from the sterner Professors.

Cressida had turned their hair green to get back at them.

They had transfigured all the beans in their chilli to turn into beetles and scurry over their dinner. Margo had been the most furious at that one, as one nearly went into her mouth.

Cressida had sneakily placed dung bombs on their chairs in History of Magic, and when each of the three boys sat down, they filled the classroom with such a terrible stench they had to evacuate the room. That one had been Felix’s idea.

Thomas’ birthday had come and gone amidst the prank war, which took priority of the boy’s attention, and the usual amount of non-prank related chaos was created for the event. Breakfast had been nothing but singing and birthday punches. Lunch had been filled with party poppers and self-propelling cupcakes. At dinner, James compiled every dessert together to create a disgusting looking amalgamation of a cake, with custard and jam and vanilla frosting on top, complete with his wand stuck in the centre sending off red sparks. Fred had leant over the cake to lick the icing and accidentally caught his eyebrow on fire, causing eruptions of laughter as Longbottom used a spell to douse him in water and put him out.

McGonagall let them continue, of course, watching over the celebration with a fond smile. Surprisingly, Molly didn’t seem annoyed about the over the top celebrations this year and instead pretended like she didn’t even notice it happening.

Felix still stood by the notion that they should have pranked them on Wood’s birthday, but Cressida thought that Molly took priority over the pranks that particular weekend, so she didn’t look their way or interfere with them once. Even when the trio of boys tried to messily offer her some of the amalgamation cake James had made as they left the hall, she declined them. 

Molly’s birthday had been on Sunday, and she had insisted they do their new tradition of a sleepover in the girl’s dorm, complete with party games, sweets from the kitchen, and party hats. Felix even managed to stay in the room the whole time but had been banished to sleep in the bathtub at about two in the morning after annoying Margo.

During the night, once everyone had fallen asleep like the year prior, Cressida panicked Molly would try and talk her out of the prank war or lecture her again, but the ginger witch didn’t bring it up once. Perhaps she was coming around, Cressida thought fleetingly.

Cressida was glad this year's birthday affair had gone much smoother than last year's, although, she noticed Molly still looked slightly put out that her family had sent her birthday presents along with Thomas’ again, meaning she had to talk to them in order to receive her half.

As soon as the birthday weekend was over the pranks resumed. The boys' latest prank had been less targeted at Cressida, and more for the sake of chaos in general, whether they meant it to or not. One evening the knights lining the hallway had randomly come to life and started charging at people with their spears. She suspected it was only meant to target her and Jac, but the knights attacked any unlucky passer-by when the moment struck them.

Cressida and Jac had watched from the safety of the secret passageway as the trio of boys ran past them, screaming and shouting for everyone to move out of their way as a long line of clanging metal armour suits pursued them through the halls. Clearly, they hadn’t anticipated their prank backfiring on themselves.

It was made even better when Cressida had heard one particularly persistent knight chased Filch all the way through the third floor until he sought refuge in his office, meaning he was too scared to come out and do his usual rounds after curfew.

The one downside to all the fun, however, was that Cressida was spending so much time trying to think of pranks and ways to torment the trio of boys that she was drastically behind on her homework. Normally, Molly and Margo might have offered to help seeing Cressida was so far behind, but due to their annoyance at the prank war the two girls let Cressida suffer, and by extension Jac and Felix. All three of them were left to their own devices to try and catch up on their homework, and it quickly became clear that Molly had always been the academic brains of their group.

“Do either of you know the three main properties of the swelling solution?” Felix had asked one evening. The three Slytherins were holed up in Cressida’s secret room after Margo had gone on another rampage. Apparently, one of the knights was still running riot despite McGonagall removing the spell, and it had chased Margo on her way to the girl’s bathroom.

Jac was lying on the floor, a Charms textbook lying open across her face as though she hoped to absorb the information through osmosis. “Not a clue.”

Cressida ran her hands through her knotted hair, struggling with her Astronomy homework. Offering to help with Astronomy one was of the main reasons Cressida put up with Margo most of the time. She was the only one who could make sense of all the nonsense Professor Sinistra set them as homework. “Molly’s the best at Potions, maybe you should ask her later.”

“Not talking to me now,” Felix replied dismally, abandoning his homework completely. “After she spotted me copying off the homework she left in the alcove, she refuses to do her homework in the same vicinity as us anymore.”

Jac sat up, letting the book slide from her face into her lap as she looked at Cressida. “Has she spoken to you yet?”

“Not yet.”

Cressida was beginning to become impressed at how long Molly was holding out on ignoring their antics. A few times over the last two weeks she was sure the ginger witch was going to break and go on her usual rampage, but she simply refused to do it. Cressida was officially getting the silent treatment.

It had turned into a fun competition out of the three remaining Slytherins to see who could get Molly to shout at them first. Cressida was sure it would be her. Molly always shouted at Cressida for being the ring leader of most of the chaos caused in the group, but she thought Felix was giving her a good run for her money. It had become evident that Molly was  not  coming around to the idea of the prank war, but instead was keeping her opinions on it to herself- which was very un-Molly like.

They had been sat in the girl’s dorm with Felix discussing what they were going to do next to the trio of Gryffindors, just to see how far they could go before Molly finally chimed in. When Felix had suggested they make Polyjuice Potion to transform into the trio themselves and pretend to be them for a day, Molly simply refused to acknowledge it and closed her bed curtains, faking going to sleep early despite it only being eight o’clock. Margo on the other hand was bordering on having her head explode. She had sent curses and hexes at Felix until he ran out of the room.

Cressida could definitely tell that Molly was going to break soon if only to save Margo the stress. Although the more time went on, and the more pranks were pulled, Cressida was beginning to worry that when Molly  did  finally snap, she’d be coming for blood.

She could handle it, she told herself whenever this thought popped into the back of her mind. It was just a bit of fun. No one was getting hurt.

 

Thursday 3rd November 2017

 

Hallowe’en had come and gone in its usual Hogwarts fashion.

Everyone had seemed in good spirits about the holiday, and the decorations around the castle added to the excitement. Bats had flown overhead, more ghosts wandered the halls (much to Jac’s displeasure). Hagrid had grown pumpkins big enough to live in, and spiders the size of dinner plates had hung from cobwebs on the stone walls.

There was no denying it, Hogwarts just  knew  how to do Hallowe’en. So much so, that even Molly and Margo couldn’t bring themselves to be in a bad mood all day.

By the time Herbology rolled around, the Hallowe’en excitement had built up considerably, so much so that lessons got quickly de-railed at the slightest mention of the holiday.

“You know, we had a suspected murderer break into Hogwarts one Hallowe’en,” Professor Longbottom was telling the class. They had previously been studying Fluxweed, but this proved a much more interesting topic and the lesson soon derailed.

“That wasn’t a murderer!” Thomas called out. 

“That was Sirius Black, that was!” Fred joined in.

Professor Longbottom smiled at the three boys. “Obviously, we know now Sirius Black wasn’t a murderer, but at the time, we were all very scared for Harry’s safety.”

Molly rolled her eyes beside Margo.

“Any other stories about Halloween at Hogwarts, Professor?” Beatrix asked eagerly.

Professor Longbottom thought for a moment, sitting on the edge of his desk facing the class. “There was a Troll in the dungeons during our First Year… Harry had been involved in that too, come to think of it.”

“That sounds like dad, alright,” James beamed. “Probably took that stinking Troll down in one swoop!”

“He was trying to save Hermione. I think Ron stuck his wand up the troll's nose,” Longbottom said, which was met with equal laughter and disgust from the group. “Oh, and I can’t forget the time Fred and George-” he stopped himself, glancing guiltily at Fred.

“It’s okay, Professor,” Fred encouraged. “We like it when people tell stories about my Dad and Uncle Fred. He’d want to be remembered doing fun things around Hogwarts.”

“It’s his legacy,” James added on, as equally as proud as he was when talking about his father. “Managers of Mischief and all that.”

Longbottom nodded, a small smile as his enthusiasm returned. “Well, the twins had done an age spell to try and bypass the age line on the Goblet of Fire- we were holding the Triwizard Tournament that year, you see- but it didn’t work and they turned into old men wrestling on the floor. Oh, and you can’t forget about the parties!” The trio of Gryffindors seemed to be on the edges of their seats. “But I suppose that’s not an appropriate topic of discussion with a Second Year class,” Longbottom said, stopping himself.

The trio of Gryffindors deflated back into their seats as the lesson came to a close.

Jac and Cressida packed up their things, aiming to meet the rest of their group out in the corridor. 

“Did you hear Gryffindor are having a Hallowe’en party this year,” Felix said as the group started moving through the halls.

“And Ravenclaw,” Margo nodded.

“Are Slytherin?” Jac asked curiously.

“No,” Molly answered. “Not one that Second Years are invited to, anyway.”

“Are you talking about Hallowe’en parties?” James’ voice rang out. The group turned to see the trio approaching them. “Are you going to one?”

“Of course not,” Molly said rolling her eyes. She gestured for the group to continue moving, but the trio remained in step with them.

“I bet you three are going to a party,” Felix said, verging on sulking.

“Maybe,” Fred grinned mischievously. “We got invited to a few.”

“A  few ?!” Felix repeated in awe. “Don’t suppose you lads want to extend your invitation-”

Molly had sent him a look that made him stop talking. “Have fun at your party tonight, boys, but we’re going to be having a quiet night in and staying out of trouble.”

“Oh, we’re not going to any party,” James said resolutely.

“We’re not?” Thomas asked confused.

“Nah,” James shook his head. “Got more important things to be doing tonight.”

“Like what?” Jac asked, curiosity billowing out of her.

James tapped his nose mysteriously, and with that, the three boys walked off down the hall. Once they had rounded the corner out of sight, Molly turned to Cressida, Felix, and Jac. “Don’t even think about it.”

“We haven’t even done anything!” Felix replied defensively.

“I know, but you will,” Molly replied smartly as they continued down the hall. “And whatever it is you’re going to do, don’t.”

Even the teachers had gotten into the spirit. McGonagall wore orange robes with a pointed green hat, resembling a pumpkin as she gave her speech at the Hallowe’en Feast. 

Cressida thought that if Teddy Lupin had been there for this, he would have loved it. She found herself weirdly reminiscent of the last Hallowe’en in Hogwarts when Teddy had been there. She hoped, wherever he was, he had been having just as much fun as he had been having last year pieing the First Years alongside Peeves. 

There had been parties, of course, but Molly was right about Second years still being banned from joining in with the celebrations. Felix had snuck out of his room into the common room during the party in Slytherin and nearly got hexed by a drunken Fifth Year who thought he was trying to crash. 

Cressida and Jac had stepped out of their dorm room in the early hours of the morning once the party started dying down, and snuck past passed out students of varying drunkenness on their way to their secret room.

They weren’t the only ones sneaking about the hallways that night, however. As the two girls passed the One-Eyed Witch statue, they crossed paths with the trio of Gryffindors, who had their arms full of every sweet and chocolate bar imaginable.

Cressida paused, waiting for the usual onslaught of rambling and taunting from the trio whenever they crossed paths lately. This time, however, they seemed more occupied hiding things behind their backs than their rivalry.

“Been trick or treating, have you?” Jac had asked, nodding her head to the various amount of sweets they were failing to hide.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Fred countered.

The three boys had fumbled some excuse about them doing a kitchen raid and hurried off, dropping bonbons and ice mice in their hurried escape. Cressida had wondered where they had gotten their sweet supply from all night, knowing the kitchen didn’t have half of what the three boys were smuggling in their arms. She resided herself to tailing them in secret next Hallowe’en in the hopes they do it again.

However, once the Hallowe’en festivities were done with, so was Margo’s momentary good mood and Molly’s ability to talk to them in more than one-word sentences.

The three Slytherins were walking the halls on their way to the secret hideout again, as they often did these days. The smallest thing would set Margo off on an hour-long rampage now, so much so, that Gabriel had even told her to shut up complaining.

They turned the corner and found Arabella and Declan Chauncey, lounging in the halls accompanied by their new gang of giggling girls. “Oh look, it’s the Slytherins,” Arabella rolled her eyes as they approached. “Careful,” she carried on to her group dramatically. “They might prank  us.”

Cressida sent her a tight smile. “Don’t tempt us, Chauncey.”

Arabella scowled at them. “We’re too smart to ever fall victim to one of your pathetic tricks.”

Felix had opened his mouth to retaliate by Cressida pulled him along faster. It wasn’t worth it. Cressida had learned the hard way that simply cursing Arabella always caused more problems for herself in the long run. She wouldn't rise to her bait unless she absolutely had to this year.

Once they had rounded the next corner, Felix looked back over his shoulder with a frown. “I see Chauncey is as lovely as ever this year.”

“You should have heard her in class the other day, bragging about how she’d spent all summer learning the spells ahead of time to be top of the class,” Jac rolled her eyes. “Just once I want someone to make a fool of her and get away with it.”

“Knightly’s come close a few times,” Felix nudged her.

“Yeah, I just tend to struggle with the not getting caught part,” she replied.

“Probably for the best,” Jac said then. “If we started messing with the Ravenclaws on top of the Gryffindors I think Molly would actually blow her lid.”

“Margo would probably transfer schools just to get away from us,” Felix laughed. “Everyone knows how scared she is of Arabella’s wrath.”

 

Friday 4th November 2017

 

The Slytherins all awoke the next morning and carried on as normal. They ate their breakfast, they all avoided drinking their juice knowing it had been tampered with by now, Margo glared at Cressida, and Molly hid behind the newspaper.

Jac and Felix looked particularly put out by not being able to have their usual glass of refreshing juice for the last few weeks in fear of it being tampered with.

“Tea is just as good,” Molly said, pouring them both a cup.

“But it’s not  cold ,” Felix complained.

Margo scooped some ice into their teacups rather forcefully. “There. Now it’s cold… besides, you only have Knightly to blame-”

Jac used her wand to disappear Margo’s plate of breakfast in retaliation just as she was about to bite down on a particularly plump sausage. Margo looked like she was about to yell, but Felix got his wand out as a threat and Margo sank into her seat, sipping on her tea instead.

Cressida sat silently, watching the hall and concocting a plan. She was feeling extremely confident that morning. She was in the mood for some chaos and she wanted to see just how far she could push her luck right under the teacher’s noses. Besides, her conversation with Jac and Felix in the corridor yesterday had given her a few new ideas and she’d been up all night wondering whether she could pull it off. “You guys want juice?” She asked, tuning back into the conversation.

Jac and Felix looked at her suspiciously. “Preferably untampered if you can-” Felix started.

“Done,” Cressida grinned.

“What are you doing?” Molly asked nervously. Cressida flashed her a smile as she grabbed the jug filled with juice from their table and slinked out of her chair onto the floor.

She crawled on her knees and elbows under the benches and long banquet tables, narrowly being spotted or stepped on by the various students, oblivious to her sneaking around underneath them. Finally, she came to the Ravenclaw table and carefully sought out the perfectly shined, designer shoes sat next to the male equivalent.

“I hear Knightly and her pathetic friends have already been in six detentions,” Arabella Chauncey’s voice rang out above her.

“It’s from the idiotic prank war she’s got going on with the Gryffindors,” Declan said uninterestedly.

“ Please ,” Arabella scoffed. “James is too smart to be fraternizing with people like her for much longer. He’ll realise just how rotten that girl is soon enough. After all, he’s a Gryffindor and she’s a Slytherin. Everyone knows the hierarchy there-”

Cressida could feel the anger boiling up inside of her the longer she listened to Arabella mindlessly tittering on, but it made her feel much better about what she was about to do. She used her free hand to produce her wand from behind her ear and sent a spell towards the Gryffindor table next to them. It was like a strong gust of wind suddenly blew over everything on their table, and when Cressida chanced lifting her head to look, Fred’s breakfast had flown right into his face, leaving beans dripping from his curled hair.

As she had expected, people all turned to look at the commotion. Taking her chance, Cressida reached up and swapped the tampered with juice with the Ravenclaw’s perfectly normal jug of juice without being noticed.

She had crawled all the way back to the Slytherin table without anyone noticing her amongst the laughter coming from the Gryffindor table. Just as she popped back up in her seat, she turned to see Fred pouring tea onto James' head for laughing at him. James then, in turn, flicked an egg towards Thomas so he wasn’t the only one not covered in breakfast food.

“That’s enough, Mr Potter!” McGonagall called from the teacher's table, and the laughter died down slightly while the trio tried to remove the food from their faces.

Cressida proudly placed the jug of juice in the middle of the table.

All four of the Slytherins were staring at her.

“What must it be like inside your brain?” Felix asked, breaking the silence.

“You wanted juice, I got you juice,” Cressida shrugged pouring herself a glass.

Jac followed suit with a smile.

“Cressida, you really are asking for trouble, aren’t you?!” Margo hissed, refusing the juice when Felix waved it in front of her mockingly.

Before Cressida could retaliate, Arabella shot up out of her seat, grasping at her throat. When she seemed like she was about to explode, she let out the loudest and longest burp anyone could muster. Beside her, her brother was trying to hide the fact he was struggling with the same problem. Both Chauncey siblings rushed to gather their things and ran out of the hall uncontrollably burping.

The crowd burst into laughter once more, despite McGonagall calling for them to not be so childish. The trio of Gryffindor boys looked utterly confused until they looked to the Slytherin table. Cressida raised her glass of juice and drank it purposefully, facing no side effects whatsoever.

James shook his head in bewilderment, Cressida was sure she saw him mutter something to himself.

Fred and Thomas even gestured a round of applause in their direction.

“Come on,” Molly said getting to her feet and disrupting the juvenile moment. “Lessons start soon.”

 

*

 

Finally, once lessons were done, Molly suggested they do their homework on the green again as the frost still had yet to take over the grounds.

Nothing more had been said about the incident at breakfast, although, Margo seemed to have silently added it to her ever-growing list of complaints against Cressida.

Molly, however, did seem to be slightly more on edge as the day drew on. During lessons, she purposefully kept the group busy and shooed away any students asking what the next prank was going to be. Everyone seemed to be whispering about who had done the prank on the Chauncey siblings. No one seemed to be able to decide whether it was Cressida or the trio of Gryffindors. This kept both groups distracted throughout the day, so much so, that the trio of boys didn’t even attempt to annoy or talk to the group of Slytherins during lessons.

“Here seems like a good spot,” Molly announced, dropping her heavy bag full of homework to the patch of grass underneath a barren tree. 

The other Slytherins all followed suit, settling down on the grass in a circle. As Cressida pulled Rasper out of her hobo bag and placed him into the middle of the circle, Cressida’s eyes glanced upwards and caught something.

Up ahead, near the stone wall, the trio were handing out the clear sweets to two other Hufflepuffs. Clearly, the burping prank had bought them more business. Jac followed her eye line, shaking her head. “Who would be stupid enough to buy those sweets knowing they make you sick?” 

“For exactly that reason,” Felix answered, watching them now as well. “It’s like a free get out of lesson card. Chuck one in before going into your most hated lesson, make it halfway through, then run out throwing up and avoid getting the homework.”

“Except no one knows when the pastel will set you off,” Jac pointed out. “You could be stuck in the whole lesson then start throwing up at seven o’clock at night.”

Felix shrugged, revealing he had one of the clear sweets hidden in his pocket. “That’s the risk you have to take, Redwick.”

Molly silently snatched it out of his possession and threw it into the lake. 

“Let’s hope it doesn’t have the same effect on the squid…” Jac muttered, watching the ripples.

“This is your fault, Knightly,” Margo said harshly.

“As usual, then” Cressida muttered, turning her steely eyes on Margo.

“Just because  you  can get away with fraternizing with them, everyone thinks it’s alright to do it too,” Margo elaborated.

“So Felix buying a sweet is  my  fault?” Cressida repeated slowly. Molly’s eyes remained firmly on her book as though this conversation wasn’t happening around her.

“Yes!” She snapped. “And clearly, you haven’t learned your lesson since last year. People were whispering about you in the halls earlier, I overheard them-”

“What were they saying?” Jac asked curiously.

“Saying the burping prank was  definitely  you because only you could be that horrid.”

“Horrid?” Cressida repeated. “No one’s calling the trio of boys  horrid  for the prank… Besides, they don’t know it was me, they’re just blaming me for it-”

“But you  did   do it!” Margo yelled.

“It was  their  prank,” Felix said, gesturing to the trio of boys. “Cressida just redirected it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Margo snapped. “We’ll likely all get the blame anyway, and the detentions for it. You’ve already gotten tons of detentions, and it’s a miracle they’ve not pinned all the other pranks on you as well!”

“Everyone is finding the pranks funny apart from you, Margo,” Jac defended her.

“Not everyone,” Molly’s voice came then. “A few girls were really upset about the rogue knight, and Hugo Burch in Gryffindor didn’t make the team at tryouts because he was too thrown off after what you pulled. He was rather furious about it, apparently.”

“But he’s a Gryffindor… surely he should be happy for Potter?” Felix asked.

“Ironically, there is one or two people in this school who don’t adore my cousin getting his own way all the time… or the pranks being pulled constantly,” Molly replied.

“It was just a bit of fun,” Cressida said.

“Fun for who?” Margo asked snippily.

“Everyone who’s not a stick in the mud,” Felix answered.

“Oh, well as long as  you  lot found it funny, that’s okay then!” Margo snapped. “Whenever you and those boys get involved in something it always ends up badly for the rest of us.”

At that moment, Arabella Chauncey and her brother approached them on the grass. Molly and Margo instantly ducked their heads, but Cressida glared up at the duo obviously. She had been wondering when Arabella Chauncey would be brave enough to face her again. After all, if she could go around bad-mouthing Cressida and her friends to other people, she might as well do it to her face.

“Something you wanted, Arabella?” Cressida asked. Jac withdrew slightly, glancing between Cressida and Arabella with worried eyes.

“An apology would be a good start,” Arabella snapped.

“Whatever for?” Cressida continued innocently. Felix snorted, trying not to let his laughter out.

Arabella scowled down at them. “I know you pulled that stunt on us this morning, you pathetic, sneaky little-”

“Watch it, Chauncey,” Felix chimed in, all humour on his face gone. “We wouldn’t want you getting in trouble for bad language now, would we?” He gestured to Professor Slughorn patrolling the grounds with a tartan deerstalker on his head for warmth.

Arabella choked back her insult, pulling a face at Felix before turning her attention back to Cressida. “Honestly, Cressida, I’m surprised Hogwarts even accepted you back in the first place,” Arabella said condescendingly. “I thought they were re-evaluating their acceptance of pathetic lowlifes.”

“Sod off, Chauncey,” Jac snapped, gaining enough courage to speak up.

Cressida remained frozen, glaring right back at Arabella. “It’s okay, Jac,” she started. Molly instantly grew nervous what where this was heading. “She’s just mad I’m back because this  pathetic lowlife  showed her up last year and again this morning. Guess you’re not  too smart  to be pranked, after all, Chauncey.”

Felix let out a laugh, no longer keeping his composure.

Arabella gave a tight, forced smile. “That’s the difference between you and me, Knightly. I manage to use my skills to do well in lessons rather than targeting innocent bystanders. It must be like second nature getting into trouble for someone like you, though… rough background and all-”

“Someone like me?” Cressida repeated, getting to her feet. “And what exactly does that mean?”

Arabella didn’t lose her smile. “Just that in life, there are people who have bright futures, and there are people who prefer to waste their time on frivolous pranks and spending their afternoons locked in a classroom doing detentions…. can you guess which is which out of the two of us?”

As if Declan could sense something bad was about to happen, he moved to Arabella’s side, eyeing up the group of Slytherins. “Come on, Bella. We have better things to be doing with our afternoon.”

Arabella went to say something else when suddenly Jac and Felix were standing beside Cressida, and she changed her mind. “See you in class, Knightly,” she called as she turned away with her group. “Let’s see who shows who up this year.”

The sight of Arabella’s back walking away from her as if she had won the argument made Cressida’s illogical side of the brain take over for a moment. “ Locomotor Mortis!”

Arabella’s legs were suddenly stuck together and she face-planted on the floor in front of half the school.

“Cressida, for Merlin’s sake!” Molly chided her.

Cressida scooped up her bag and Rasper and walked off without another word, not even stopping to acknowledge Declan and Arabella cursing at her as she walked past, or Professor Slughorn yelling after her. 

 

*

 

Cressida hadn’t even made it to the common room before Slughorn had caught up with her, and Cressida accepted her fate easily. She did deserve detention, and the lost house points, but she thought it was unfair Arabella always got away with what she said. It’s not like Cressida could tell a teacher the reason she had cursed Arabella. She didn’t want to seem like a cry baby, and besides, she could handle herself.

He had lectured her in his usual fumbling manner about not cursing students, but to her surprise, that’s where the punishment stopped.

“What about the juice prank?” She had asked confused.

“What about it?” Slughorn asked in retaliation. “Potter, Weasley and Wood already came forward and took responsibility… unless, you  also  had something to do with it?”

“No,” Cressida had answered quickly. Although she didn’t like the idea of the trio taking the blame for her, she could really do with avoiding extra detention. “Just wondered if you’d found the culprit. Chauncey was blaming me for it-”

“Yes, well, in future let’s try not to let petty arguments escalate, shall we, Miss Knightly?” Professor Slughorn had said kindly, before ushering her along.

She didn’t tell the others about the discussion with Slughorn, but they all knew she had gotten detention for it.

Once she returned to the alcove she found all four of her friends waiting for her. Felix and Jac were hunched together on the sofa, alluding to the fact they had just had a stern telling off. Margo, on the other hand, was smiling contently. Cressida had half a mind to lock her in a cupboard with Arabella to wipe the smug look off her face.

Upon seeing Cressida, Margo got to her feet and left with her nose pointed in the air.

“Merlin, has she got a broom up her ass,” Felix commented.

Molly glared at him and he shrank back into the cushions.

“Come on,” Jac said, trying to relieve some of the tension. “Why don’t we do a kitchen run?” Felix nodded eagerly, getting to his feet with Jac. “Good luck, Cressie,” Jac whispered as she and Felix passed by.

It didn’t allude Cressida’s notice that she was now alone with Molly for the first time in weeks. 

There was a cold silence as Cressida and Molly looked at each other. Cressida desperately wished she could follow Jac and Felix to the kitchens rather than have this conversation with Molly. She knew the ginger witch was bound to break at some point, but she at least thought she’d have Jac and Felix beside her when it happened.

“Are you ready to shout at me now?” Cressida asked lightly, trying to break the tension. “I imagine you’ll be better at reprimanding me than Slughorn.”

Molly stared at her for a long moment, not saying anything. Finally, she sighed, sitting on the sofa. Cressida tentatively sat opposite her. “You shouldn’t have gone after Chauncey like that.”

“She deserved it.”

“Maybe,” Molly agreed. “But you need to be careful-”

Cressida scoffed. “I’ve got it under control-”

“You’re two weeks behind on homework. Felix and Jac have gotten more detentions in the first term than all of last year because of you. We can’t drink  juice  in the morning because of your stupid war with my cousins! Margo is now too terrified to go to the bathroom alone in case she gets caught up in another prank!” Molly listed. 

Cressida was shaking her head. When she put it like that, she made it seem like Cressida was out of hand. “It’s just a bit of fun-”

“Until it isn’t,” she cut her off. She was still completely calm, and Cressida felt like that was worse than her yelling. “One day it’s going to stop being about targeting you and starts being about targeting your house. Someone’s going to get hurt-”

“No it won’t,” Cressida said surely. “Your cousins wouldn’t do that to us.”

“Wouldn’t they?” Molly laughed, but there was no humour behind it. She got to her feet, turning her back on Cressida as she headed for the exit. “I happen to know my cousins a bit better than you, Cressida. I know that they don’t stop and think before things get out of hand. I don’t want you to end up being a martyr.”

“Molly, wait!” Cressida was quick to follow her, unwilling to finish on that note. The trio of Gryffindors knew where to draw the line, Cressida was sure of it. This was between them and her.

Molly ignored her and kept walking forwards. As soon as she stepped foot out of the common room, there was a loud bang. Cressida was next out, staring wide-eyed as Molly was now covered head to foot in red powder paint.

She coughed up a cloud of it as she tried to rub it out of her eyes. 

Cressida turned her attention as the trio of Gryffindor boys discreetly snuck out from behind the tapestry and then ran over to the two girls, worried looks spreading across their faces like wildfire.

“Shit. Molly, we’re so sorry!” James was saying as he approached rapidly.

Fred was next, fumbling for his wand out of his pocket. “It was meant for-”

“Let me guess,  Knightly !” Molly snapped, producing her own wand and doing a spell to remove all the red dye. Cressida sunk back against the wall guiltily. 

“We really are sorry, Molly,” Thomas said, trying to help.

Molly shoved him off, sniffing loudly. “When will you four  grow up ? Hogwarts isn’t about pulling stupid pranks-”

“That’s not what my dad says,” Fred said. Clearly, the three boys hadn’t picked up on the heavy mood surrounding the two girls.

“And who would want to grow up anyway?” James laughed.

“I do!” Molly snapped before storming down the hall away from them all.

Once she was gone, the trio of boys turned towards Cressida. “She seems more stressed than normal,” Thomas noted.

Cressida was staring at the Molly shaped mark in the paint explosion on the wall, thinking of everything Molly had said to her in the common room moments before. 

James walked up and laced an arm around her shoulders, sensing she was overthinking it. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Knightly. Molly’s always in a bad mood for something.”

“Yeah, she lost the ability to take a joke when she got sorted into Slytherin,” Fred joked.

Cressida shoved his arms off her with a glare. 

Thomas was rubbing the red paint in between his fingertips, oblivious to Cressida’s own bad mood still. “Out of curiosity, would you be willing to walk out again so our prank can-”

Cressida rolled her eyes and walked off before Thomas could finish his sentence. “Come up with something better next time” she snapped over her shoulder. “Maybe then you can think of a prank that actually affects me and not someone else.”

Chapter 32: Second Year: Strike Three. You're out

Notes:

The song mentioned is Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Greenday

Wednesday 9th November 2016

 

The bad weather had officially taken over Hogwarts. So much so that the first Quidditch game of the year had to be cancelled due to the conditions. Thomas Wood had both looked outraged, claiming that his dad had made him fly in worse, and relieved he didn’t have to fly in front of a crowd again. 

His talent for Quidditch accompanied by major stage fright was a very amusing enigma to Cressida.

Along with the bad weather came bad moods. Being locked inside the castle to avoid the miserable thunderstorms and downpours of rain would do that to anyone, but especially a splintering group of Slytherins stuck in the dungeons together for days on end. Their only refuge from one another was lessons, and even that proved to worsen their already dreary moods.

Filch had been on extra alert, knowing being cooped up often lead to trouble, and so every time a prank was looming it was stopped before it began. Filch had given the trio of boys a detention one afternoon for simply lurking near the dungeons.

To make matters worse, Molly was back to giving the silent treatment.

All the Slytherins knew it. The trio of Gryffindors knew it. Even Arabella Chauncey knew it.

“I see your little group is falling apart, Knightly,” Arabella had smiled cruelly in Defence Against the Dark Arts. “It’s no wonder, really, with you parading around like you’re untouchable.”

“Stay out of it, Chauncey,” Felix had snapped, leaning across Cressida to hiss so quietly that Professor Mickledge couldn’t hear. He was stood at the front of the class giving his usual enthusiastic re-telling of a werewolf attack as though it wasn’t horrific.

Arabella didn’t back down. “It must be hard,” she continued with fake sympathy. “To think you’re on the same level as James and his friends. To think that your worthy of their time and effort when you’re nothing but small-town scum in hand-me-down robes.”

Anger was licking at the back of Cressida’s throat. Arabella was smart with her tormenting of Cressida. She came for her insecurities, picking her apart until she saw red and fired a curse at her. Cressida was always the one who got in trouble for Arabella’s words.

“James clearly thinks I’m worth his time and effort,” Cressida said, keeping her voice level with great difficulty. Two could play that game. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be in this prank war. In fact, he’s probably off with Thomas and Fred now concocting a way to get back at me.”

Arabella’s eyes flashed with jealousy ever so slightly. “Is that so?”

Felix had shrunk back into his chair, watching Cressida and Arabella cautiously.

“And what does Molly think about that?” Arabella asked. Cressida faltered slightly. “Everyone can see she’s starting to get fed up with your pathetic little game, just like everyone else in the school. It’s about time you stop pretending you’re something you’re not-”

“Which is what?” Cressida snapped.

“A Gryffindor,” Arabella replied with venom. “No matter how much you try, you’ll always be a Slytherin. A scraggly little snake slithering her way into other people’s lives where she doesn’t belong, poisoning them until you bring them down to your level.”

Felix had held Cressida back. Pinning her arms to her side in her seat to prevent her from throwing herself at Arabella. “Not worth it, Cress,” Felix had whispered, keeping a cautious eye on Professor Mickledge at the front. 

“Let her go, Finnigan,” Arabella challenged, wand at the ready. “It’s funny when she resorts to violence like the thug she is.”

Cressida felt Felix’s wand tap her shoulder. “ Petrificus Totalu s.”

Her body went suddenly rigid, preventing her from moving a muscle. Felix was hoisting her out of her seat then, dragging her across the cold stone floor with his hands under her arms indelicately. Professor Mickledge finally turned to the commotion as Felix was nearing the door.

“What is the meaning of this, Mr Finnigan?” He called. “Is Miss Knightly alright?”

If Cressida could have sworn then, she would have used every curse word imaginable. Why was  this  Felix’s grand plan to stop her attacking Chauncey?!

Everyone turned to look at them then. Molly narrowed her eyebrows concerned, but Arabella was laughing loudly at the mortifying way Felix was dragging Cressida out of the room like a plank of wood.

“Fine, sir!” Felix had called. “We just need to pop out for a second!”

Professor Mickledge made to move forward. “But-”

“Trust me,” Felix said, already opening the door. “It’s safer for everyone if we go!”

The door slammed shut before Professor Mickledge could stop them.

 

*

 

She could have killed Arabella, and she could have killed Felix, at the moment, for cursing her. 

However, after she had calmed down quite a lot, and thrown multiple objects in his direction once he undid the body binding curse in the safety of the hexagonal room, she realised he had done the right thing. Although, she made him promise he would drag her out with more dignity next time.

Thankfully, Defence Against the Dark Arts had been the final lesson of the day, and so Felix and Cressida waited patiently for Jac to inevitably come rushing to the secret room to meet them, asking what had happened.

Once Felix had done most of the explaining, (Cressida was worried if she re-told the story she’d go searching for Chauncey and throw her off the Astronomy Tower) Jac seemed equally enraged.

“That  cow !” She had exclaimed once Felix had finished.

“I’d go for something with a little more punch, but cow works,” Cressida had sighed. She was led on a stack of cushions, watching the thunder flashing across the dark sky. Winter weather really was the worst.

“How are we going to get back at her?” Jac asked then.

“If Knightly gets back at her for this, she’ll kill her,” Felix said, putting the books Cressida had thrown at him back into their usual pile in the corner.

“And then Molly would kill me,” Cressida added on.

Jac huffed and sat back in her own pile of cushions. “Well, she deserves  something ,” she said indigently. “I saw her telling the trio of boys about what happened on my way here, and she was laughing and throwing her hair over her shoulder as usual-”

Cressida sat upright. “She was talking to the Gryffindors?” 

“Mhm,” Jac nodded. “I didn’t hear what she was saying, but they seemed to be listening intently. James even  smiled  at her, can you believe that?!”

A small pit settled in Cressida's stomach at the image of Arabella and James laughing together at her expense.

“Let’s go find Molly,” Cressida said standing up abruptly, shoving the image back down in her mind. “I bet she’ll want to know what happened as well.”

Felix and Jac followed Cressida’s lead and got to their feet. 

“She tried asking me once class finished, as if I’d magically know more than her,” Jac said as they made their way back into the halls of Hogwarts. The halls were usually busy this time of day, but to Cressida’s surprise, they seemed to be the only ones wandering that evening. “I think she was going to try and ask Chauncey as well until Margo blatantly refused to go anywhere near the girl.”

“Coward,” Felix huffed. “I don’t see why she’s so scared of Chauncey anyway. All she does is make fun of people. If Smithers should be scared of going near anyone, it should be Knightly-”

“Why me?” Cressida asked affronted.

“Because you actually fight people- better than some guys, even-” Felix said breezily. “If she keeps making petty jabs at you, soon she’ll say something so stupid you snap at her. I give it until Christmas before it happens.”

Cressida’s eyes bore into Felix, a second wave of hurt taking over her insides. “I don’t fight  everyone  that upsets me.”

Felix realised what he had said then, and immediately backtracked. “No, no! I’m not saying it’s a bad thing-”

“Sure sounds like it,” Cressida snapped. “Chauncey called me a thug, but I didn’t realise my own friends thought it too!”

“No, Cressida wait-” Felix pleaded, hurrying after her as she tried to walk away. “I’m just saying you’re good at standing up for yourself!”

It was no use, Cressida had stormed ahead.

 

 

Friday 11th November 2016

 

Felix had been banished to begging outside the girl’s dorm room for the last two days. Cressida hadn’t meant for it to drag out as long as it did, but once she had told Margo and Molly not to let Felix into the room, they obliged with unmoving persistence. She had begun to think Margo had forgotten the reason why he was banished outside in the first place.

“Are you ever going to let him back in?” Jac asked, sitting on her bed beside Cressida.

“Maybe when I need help with History of Magic,” Cressida replied, turning a page of her book.

“If I had my way he’d never be allowed back in,” Margo spoke up. She was using a spell to paint her nails different colours. “It’s improper for boys to be in our room.”

Another loud thud signified Felix had thrown yet another shoe. If Cressida was counting correctly, he’d have to start throwing socks any second now.

Rolling her eyes, Molly pulled open the door. “Hurling objects isn’t going to make us any more inclined to grant you access.”

“Just let me in,” Felix’s whiny voice called. “Or send Knightly out. Unarmed!” He added on quickly.

Cressida got to her feet and poked her head out of the door frame. “ That’s  why you’re banished!”

“Your violent tendencies are hardly a secret, Knightly,” Margo huffed.

Seconds later, Margo had joined Felix in begging from outside the door.

Molly and Jac turned their eyes on Cressida as she continued reading through her textbook perfectly content. 

“Are we sure leaving Margo and Felix out there alone is a good idea?” Molly asked. Apparently, this was worth abandoning the silent treatment for.

“Shh,” Jac cut in. “Or you’ll end up out there with them.”

Molly scoffed. “Surely not-”

“Listen to the pretty girl, Weasley,” Cressida chimed in. Molly’s mouth clamped shut as she returned to sitting on her bed. Another loud thud on the door was the only thing to break the silence, followed by Margo’s complaints about a missing shoe.

“Do you want to pick a Cd, Molly?” Jac asked, lying on her stomach to sort through the few Cd's she had brought down out of the secret room.

“No thanks,” Molly sighed, pushing her homework to one side. Cressida looked up, knowing that tone well. “You’re not going to make Margo sleep out there, are you?”

Cressida switched to smoothing Rasper’s fur as the kitten led across her lap. “I’m not heartless, Molly. She’s allowed to sleep in her own bed. Then as soon as it hits daybreak I’ll chuck her out again-”

“Cressida!”

“I’m joking!” Cressida relented. “I was going to let Felix back in yesterday afternoon but it had become entertaining to watch him whining, and then shoving Margo out there with him had just been a bonus-”

Molly tutted and grabbed her homework again. Silence filled the room once more.

Jac’s eyes kept darting from Molly to Cressida and back again. “So…” she said, breaking the silence after ten minutes. “Have you two happened to magically work through your issues yet?”

“Subtle,” Cressida said dryly.

Jac shrugged. “You two have to talk about it eventually… why not now while Margo and Felix are banished? I can act as the neutral party.”

“You’re Knightly’s best friend,” Molly pointed out.

“And so are you,” Jac countered smartly. “Supposedly.”

Molly sighed as she and Cressida looked at each other. 

“Might as well get it off your chest, Weasley,” Cressida said, turning a page of her book. “You’re stuck with me for a whole year and we can’t keep going on like this.”

Molly folded her arms across her chest. “It’s not like you listen to me-”

“You try to mother me too much. I have a mother. I don’t need one as a roommate,” Cressida replied.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt!” 

“Who would hurt me?” Cressida asked.

“They will!” Molly answered. Jac shrank back into her bed, looking like she regretted starting the conversation. “They don’t understand what it’s like for us! They’re not  like  us!”

Cressida put her book down and moved forward. “What makes them so different from us, Molly?”

Molly shook her head as though the answer was obvious. “They’re Gryffindors-”

“Funnily enough, that has been mentioned a few times over the last year,” Cressida replied dryly. 

“And when will you realise they’re held to a different standard than us?!” Molly snapped. “If I came down to a choice between your own house and them, do you even know who you would choose?” 

Cressida didn’t answer. She didn’t  have  an answer. “Are you giving me an ultimatum?” She asked finally.

Molly sighed, reserved. “You can’t keep doing this, Cressida. The detentions, the fighting, the pranks-”

“So you’re making me choose?” Cressida asked again, getting to her feet. “Between you and them?”

Molly faltered for an answer. Cressida’s grey eyes bore into the other girl as her mind flooded with thoughts- flooded with the choice, and all the consequences that came along with it.

She couldn’t think about it. She had to get out and buy herself time to answer.

Cressida turned and opened the door causing Margo and Felix to come stumbling into the room.

“Is all forgiven?” Felix asked hopefully, grinning up at Cressida from the floor.

“You’re forgiven,” she said. She stepped over him and Margo and walked out of the room alone.

 

 

Saturday 12th November 2016

 

Felix had pestered her about what happened during their talk in the dorm room ever since yesterday afternoon. Eventually, once they and Jac were in the secret room, Cressida let Jac explain to Felix what had happened.

“Choose?” Felix had repeated with a frown. “Choose between who?”

“Us and the Gryffindors, obviously,” Jac answered, rolling onto her stomach to change the Cd over.

“What’s there to choose between?” Felix asked then. “I mean, it’s going to be us, right?” Cressida smoothed Rasper’s fur down to distract the kitten from attacking Felix’s shoelaces, deep in thought. When she didn’t answer straight away, Felix grew worried. “ Right !?”

Cressida’s attention snapped back to the conversation then. “Of course, I’m going to choose you lot,” she said quickly. “But I just don’t see why she’s  making  me choose. I can be friends with whoever I want to be-

“I thought we weren’t friends with them?” Jac asked.

“Well, we’re not. But I suppose if I admit to Molly I’m choosing you lot, she’s going to expect me to stop the prank war.” 

Cressida had been thinking a lot about what Molly had said over the last twenty-four hours. Was a prank war worth losing Molly as a friend? If she kept going with the prank war, did it look like she cared more about them than her real friends? Was it really going to end up hurting someone in the crossfire? She didn’t want anyone to get hurt. She still wanted Molly as a friend, even if at the moment, Cressida didn’t consider her to be a very good one if she was making her choose. Surely the Gryffindor boys knew where to draw the line. 

Surely she could have the best of both worlds if she just tried hard enough.

She sighed and led back in the cushions. ‘ Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ was playing from the Cd player.

Cressida thought that if the trio ever did cross the metaphorical line, she would know and she would stop, but where was the line? When did it start being about her house and not her as a person?

The prank war had turned from fun to complicated in a mere forty-eight hours thanks to Molly getting in Cressida’s head. Maybe it had been complicated for longer than that and Cressida didn’t want to admit it.

Felix threw a bonbon in his mouth. “Who’s winning at the moment, anyway?”

“It’s their turn,” Jac answered.

“Technically, it’s mine,” Cressida contradicted, shoving her thoughts back down. “They tried to prank me on Friday, but caught Molly instead.”

Felix gave a small laugh. “That explains why she was in such a bad mood with you.”

Cressida purposefully let Rasper go, allowing him to attack Felix’s shoelaces without restraint.

Jac grinned as Felix flung himself backwards to avoid the tiny kitten. “So, what are we pulling next?”

Cressida gave a big sigh, getting to her feet. “Nothing, at the moment.” Jac and Felix turned their eyes towards her. “I want to sort this out with Molly before I cause more trouble.”

The two of them gave a nod and followed Cressida’s lead, getting to their feet.

“ How  exactly are you going to handle Molly?” Felix asked as they descended back into the halls of Hogwarts. “She’s not going to be happy unless you make a choice outright.”

Cressida was going to make a choice. She  was . She just needed some unrelenting reason to make the choice and tip her over the edge. She needed to know she was making the right choice.

“Yeah, but we can’t just stop the prank war,” Jac said. “Can we?”

Cressida shrugged, no longer wishing to think about it, as they walked through the halls. It was unusually quiet, despite it not being near curfew for another few hours.

“What’s that noise?” Jac asked as they joined the grand staircase to head down to the dungeons.

Cressida paused, listening intently. “Laughing.”

Felix rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Who wants to bet the Gryffindors have conjured something fun up? That’ll cheer you up, Cress.”

Jac was already smiling as they descended the stairs. “Let’s hope it’s backfired on them again. It’s so much funnier watching them run away from their own pranks.”

The group had to elbow their way through a crowd gathered at the bottom of the stairs on the ground floor. It appeared as though all of Hogwarts had gathered to watch whatever was happening.

Once the three Slytherins broke out from behind the crowd they saw just what everyone was laughing about. In the centre, the trio of Gryffindor boys all stood together laughing. James had his wand aloft, moving his hand elegantly. In front of them, was a large and hissing snake wearing a terrible and tangled blonde wig on its head, moving as though it was dancing to a song. 

“Merlin, is that supposed to be you?” Felix asked, glaring at the snake in the wig.

Looking up, Cressida saw Margo and Molly joining the crowd coming up from the dungeons. Molly quickly grabbed Margo and elbowed their way through the crowd to get to them amidst the chaos.

 Everyone around them laughed and pointed. Jac and Felix were no longer smiling, instead, they were staring at the commotion with equal shock.

Turning around, Cressida saw Arabella laughing and whispering with her friends from above on the staircase. “I can’t tell which one is the real Knightly,” Arabella called loudly.

“Give us a hiss, Knightly!” Someone called from within the crowd just as they all came together.

Cressida felt frozen, watching the snake and listening to the laughter echoing all around them in the hall.

‘Oh,’  she thought.  This  is what Molly had been trying to warn her about.

Margo appeared beside Cressida, Molly following slightly behind. “See, this is what happens when you-”

“Not now, Margo,” Jac cut her off. Looking down, Margo silently stared at the snake along with everyone else.

As if only just noticing them standing there, the three boys looked up with wide grins. “Here’s the Slytherin of the hour!” Fred called, bringing even more attention to her. The snake hissed and snapped agitatedly.

Cressida set her eyes on James, and when he realised Cressida wasn’t laughing along, his face fell again. “Alright, Knightly?”

She didn’t answer him. It’s not like anyone would have heard her over all the laughing and joke making. 

Fred and Thomas looked toward her and both boys grew nervous upon seeing the look on Cressida’s face. “Why isn’t she laughing?” Thomas asked Fred.

James withdrew his wand and the snake disappeared in a burst of smoke, leaving only the wig lying on the floor.

Professor Flitwick had appeared on the scene, not seeing the snake that had previously been the cause of the crowd. “Come on now, you’re crowding up the halls. Move along! Move along!” The tiny professor ushered the majority of the crowd along, sensing nothing had gone wrong.

Cressida felt everyone moving around her as she stood on the bottom step of the staircase. She could feel them looking at her and pointing. They were still laughing.

“What’s the matter, Knightly?” Arabella called from above with her friends. “Can’t handle a little joke at your expense?”

“Fuck off, Chauncey,” Felix snapped.

Arabella moved down a step but still towered over the group with a malicious smile. “Now everyone can see you for the snake you are. Try not to poison the rest of us when you eventually lash out again.”

Felix lifted his wand but Cressida forced his hand back down, watching as the Ravenclaw girl left with another loud laugh. She looked to Molly to find her already staring back, looking at Cressida as though she were a beaten puppy.

A choice, Molly had offered her. Between them and her.

An unrelenting reason.

A step over the metaphorical line.

James had moved forward through the crowd to reach the group of Slytherins now, bringing their attention back down to him.

Molly drew her wand and pointed it at her cousin instantly, and he stumbled back with his hands up. “It was just a joke, Molly, calm down,” James said.

“Yeah, it was real funny,” Felix snapped. 

Fred and Thomas were at James’ side now after disrupting the majority of the crowd along with Flitwick. “Everyone thought it was a good idea at the time,” Fred defended them instantly.

James nodded. “Yeah, when Chauncey-”

“Chauncey?” Jac repeated. “You listened to an idea given to you by  Chauncey?!”

Thomas gulped and stepped back, looking at the floor guiltily. “She said she had a spare wig we could borrow-”

“Did she suggest the snake as well?” Molly asked.

James tried stepping towards Cressida again. “She said that she was over your stupid arguments last year and that she wanted to help get involved with the pranks to break the ice-”

Cressida could have laughed. When Jac had seen Arabella talking to them after the lesson, she hadn’t been telling them about what happened in class, she was using them against her. 

“It was just supposed to be a bit of fun,” Fred added on. It was like he was throwing Cressida’s words to Molly back in her face. Now she realised how ridiculous that excuse sounded, coming from someone else. “We didn’t know it would upset you.”

“I’m not upset,” Cressida said firmly. All eyes turned to her.

“You’re not?” Thomas asked doubtfully. 

“No.”

“Are you going to punch us again so we’re even?” James asked.

“No,” she said again. After all, she had been the one to tell them to come up with a better prank that affected only her. This certainly met that criteria.

Fred knitted his eyebrows together. “So, what  are  you going to do?”

Silently, Cressida turned and left.

Chapter 33: Second Year: The Fallout

Summary:

Cressida deals with the repercussions of being a Slytherin

Sunday 20th November 2016 

 

Cressida realized by now she had a bad habit of disappearing whenever she was upset about something. Since the snake prank, she spent most of her time holed up in her secret room where the trio of Gryffindors couldn’t find her. Apparently, they had tried bribing Jac with anything she wanted in return for telling them where Cressida was hiding, but Jac knew better than to give into them.

Even in lessons, Felix and Jac stuck close by Cressida, deferring the trio from even attempting to come and talk to her during class hours. Margo had been suspiciously quiet about the whole affair in the moments Cressida decided to sit in the common room with them. She suspected that was the doing of Molly, who on top of not mentioning the pranks before the incident, was also not mentioning the snake or their argument before it happened. Although, Cressida was slightly glad about that. She didn’t need to be told ‘I told you so’ , or whatever variant Molly was undoubtedly thinking .

The snake had overtaken the gossip pools replacing the Quidditch prank easily. People had taken to hissing at Cressida and her friends in the hall again, reminding them of the terrible time last year when Slytherin house was being taunted for another one of Cressida’s bad decisions. Except, this time, people seemed to think it was an inside joke rather than taunting, and instead of doing it to all the Slytherins, only did it to Cressida.

This was preferable, she convinced herself. At least her friends weren’t having to deal with it this time.

On top of the hissing, people had started asking if her hair was a wig at any given opportunity. Arabella Chauncey and her friends were taking great pleasure in mocking Cressida’s hair whenever they saw her in the hall. One girl even offered Cressida a comb as a cruel joke.

McGonagall had heard of the jokes spreading around and was handing out detentions to anyone she heard telling them in the halls at Cressida’s expense. The trio of Gryffindor boys had been given two weeks detention for the prank itself, which Cressida thought was more than they deserved, especially since they took the blame for her about the juice.

However, not everyone in Hogwarts seemed to be berating Cressida. Some people still thought it was in good spirits for the prank war, and were still trying to ask Cressida what she was going to do in retaliation, but Cressida ignored them and continued moving through the halls.

If she was honest, she didn’t know how she was going to respond to it. She felt like she should do something, but everything that came into her mind over the last few days either felt too mean or not mean enough. At this precise moment, she just felt like avoiding the trio altogether for a while. She still wasn’t mad. She wasn’t sure what she was. It  was  only supposed to be a harmless prank, but the fact it had come from Arabella’s mind meant it was probably supposed to be vindictive, and the boys had just been too stupid to notice.

Arabella’s words had also annoyingly been swimming around in Cressida’s mind a lot recently.  “Someone like you!” “A scraggly little snake!” “Small town scum in hand-me-down robes!”

Did Cressida really look as rough as her upbringing was?

Were people still noticing and making fun of her second-hand clothes and used books?

Did her hair really look as unkept and tangled as the wig that had been on the snake?

Was  she a thug?

Not only was her appearance and upbringing becoming a rather large insecurity of hers as of late, but she also couldn’t shake her odd feelings towards the trio of boys. They had taken to blame for the juice prank, and yet nothing happened apart from them getting detention. No one called them bullies. No one said they had been childish or stupid. Arabella was even caught laughing about the prank with her friends a few days after it had happened, saying that James was full of good and funny ideas, acting as though she hadn’t thought Cressida was behind it the whole time. 

Even now, after the snake prank, nobody thought they were less than brilliant or in the wrong. People commemorated them in the halls for their smart thinking.

“Great job showing up that Slytherin, lads!”

“You put her right in her place. Wonder how she’ll get back at you now.”

It was all getting rather confusing and complicated, Cressida thought.

She had been sitting in the common room long after curfew, the only light was the fireplace glowing green in the early hours of the morning. Normally, she would have snuck to her secret room, but when the common room was empty, and she was only sitting with her thoughts, it hardly seemed worth the effort of avoiding Filch.

Her eyes trailed to the portrait of Regulus Black. It was empty, as it always was. He was hardly ever in his frame. She wished he was there now, to offer advice on how to be a Slytherin. He must have been good at it to get a portrait.

Someone cleared their throat and Cressida looked around. Molly was standing there in her golden snitch pyjamas. She was never up this late. “Fancy some tea?” She offered.

“You can do that?”

Molly produced her wand and a teapot and two cups flew over to the coffee table in front of Cressida, just as the ginger witch sat on the sofa opposite her. “It’s an old trick of Grandma Molly’s… she taught it to us all, but I was always the best at it.”

Cressida sat forward and sipped on her tea, as silence filled the space between the two girls. Cressida knew Molly must be dying to say something about it by now, she just hoped it would be over with quickly. “I know you’ve come out here for a reason… so spill.”

Molly cupped the tea in her hands, choosing to look at that rather than Cressida. “I knew something like this was bound to happen. James, Fred, and Thomas may not see the house war that’s still going on, but other people do… Arabella does. That’s why she suggested the snake in the first place… she did it to get back at you.”

Cressida sipped her tea again, glancing around at their cold and green embellished common room. She still hated the colour green, but she’d become used to being surrounded by it by now. 

“Why is being a Slytherin such a terrible thing, Molly?” Molly looked up, surprised by the question. “I know you hate it, and I know we get more crap than anyone else because of it… but why does it automatically mean we’re always the bad guys while the Gryffindors get celebrated for everything they do? If I had released a lion in the halls with a scruffy haircut, I likely would have been chucked out altogether.”

Molly shrugged, putting her tea down. “People who are put in Slytherin are often regarded as bad people, while the Gryffindors are the heroes. In the war, Slytherins didn’t get on with the other houses, they isolated themselves, they followed other Slytherins-”

“It’s no wonder,” Cressida scoffed.

Molly’s eyes grew wide. “What?”

“Well, do you blame them for sticking with their own house if the rest of the school treats them like this?” Cressida asked. “I understand Slytherin has a reputation, but how are we expected to break that reputation if no one is willing to think differently about us?”

Molly sank into her seat. “This is why I didn’t want us to get involved with my cousins. I knew the moment the hat called out Slytherin it was over-”

“So different houses can’t be friends?”

“Yes, they can,” Molly continued. “But we  have to be careful. Especially, when in a prank war with Gryffindor. It brings a lot of attention to us that can quickly turn negative-”

“Anything we do can turn negative, apparently!” Cressida said sharply.

A sad resolution spread across Molly’s face. “Now you’re starting to get it.”

Cressida sighed deeply, wishing to change the subject before she thought about it too much. “Does this mean you’ll go back to shouting at me now?”

Molly smiled. “If you’ll actually listen for once, sure.”

Cressida matched her smile. It was moments like this that reminded Cressida why she was friends with Molly after all. “All this time I thought you were just being stuck up or stubborn about your cousins but… you were just trying to protect us.”

Molly stood up and moved to sit beside Cressida on the sofa. “If it helps, if you had been put in Gryffindor, I think everyone would love you more than my cousins.”

Cressida laughed at the notion. “If  you  had been put in Gryffindor with them they probably wouldn't be as dense.”

A small comfortable silence descended over the two girls. 

“Cressida.”

“Yeah?”

“I really  did  want to try out for the Quidditch team.”

Cressida rested her head on Molly’s shoulder. “There’s always next year if we last that long.”

 

*

 

Despite all being well within the group of Slytherins again, they still had the rest of the school to deal with, and the trio of Gryffindors specifically were being ruthless in their efforts to get Cressida to talk to them. They waited outside class for her. They lingered in the dungeons. They threw notes at her head, which she passed to Felix without even reading, letting her friend set it on fire to send a message back to them.

She wouldn’t talk to them. Not yet. Not until she was sure she wouldn’t punch them, curse them, or do anything that resembled something a  thug  might do.

By the looks of it, the longer Cressida went without acknowledging them, the more anxious about what her retaliation would be they became. James looked like he had started pulling out clumps of his own hair.

After a week of jokes about the snake prank, people were starting to get bored and move on to wondering who was going to pull the next move and what was going to happen. Professor McGonagall had made another announcement at dinner one night that ‘anyone planning on pulling pranks should reconsider and take note of the severe consequences both academically and socially.’

People had started to notice as well that Cressida seemed to be ignoring the trio of Gryffindors more than usual, and so a whole new set of rumours had started about that.

“Did you hear Knightly and Potter broke up and she’s dating Fred now?” Felix said as he sat down in the alcove with the girls.

“Condolences on your breakup,” Jac joked.

“If she was dating Fred why would she be ignoring him as well?” Molly asked.

“Who cares?” Cressida replied, shutting her textbook with a sigh. “The fact that there’s a rumour about me dating  Potter  going around is bad enough, never mind me trading him in for Fred.”

“What’s wrong with Fred?” Margo asked affronted, but no one took any notice.

“Next thing you know, you’ll be married and have two kids with Wood,” Felix laughed.

“Lucky me,” Cressida faked swooning. 

“Honestly, I can’t believe they’re making rumours like this up when no one our age is even considering dating yet,” Molly said.

“Beatrix asked out Fred last week,” Margo chimed in. “Jeremiah has a thing for Penelope McFadden in Hufflepuff, and obviously Arabella has a crush on James.”

Everyone stared at her. “How do you know all this?” Felix asked.

“I ask Myrtle. Loads of girls in our year go crying in her bathroom about their crushes.”

“You actually  hang out  with her?” Jac asked, fighting off a shiver.

“She’s just a ghost, Jac,” Margo defended her.

“Yeah, and that gives me the creeps-”

“Knightly!” They all turned to see Gabriel had just entered the common room and was now storming towards them. “Potter and his friends are waiting outside for you.”

Cressida sat up straight. “But I don’t want to-”

“I don’t care. They threatened to find another way in if you don’t go out, so whatever childish break up you had-”

“They were never actually together-” Jac chimed in.

“Whatever. Just get your butt out there and deal with him,” Gabriel ordered turning away again. “He’s starting to scare the First Years.”

They all looked towards Cressida once Gabriel had left. 

“You don’t have to go out there alone,” Jac said.

Cressida sighed, getting to her feet. “No, it’s probably easier if I do. If I don’t return in ten minutes assume I’ve killed him and I’m on the run.”

“I’ll start the timer,” Felix replied.

Cressida reluctantly stepped out of the comfort of the common room and into the cold of the dungeon hallway, where the three Gryffindor boys were huddled together in deep conversation. Once they saw Cressida they all froze.

“Well, you  requested  I come out?” She said walking towards them.

Fred and Thomas shoved James forward to talk first. “You’re mad at us,” he said.

“Strong start, Potter. Tell me, how else am I feeling at this precise moment?”

“Told you this wouldn’t go well,” Thomas muttered, hiding behind Fred.

James gulped and tugged on his shirt collar. “Are you sure you don’t want to just punch us and get this over with already?”

Cressida rolled her eyes and turned around to leave.

James lunged forward, reaching out an arm. Cressida glared at his hand holding onto her wrist lightly. “Remove your hand before I break it.”

James removed his hand promptly and moved behind Fred, tapping him on the shoulder. “Your turn, Weasley.”

“Coward,” he muttered to James. “Look, Knightly, we know we messed up by listening to Chauncey about the snake, and we’re sorry. Just tell us what to do so you’ll talk to us again.”

“Have you considered I don’t want to talk to you right now?” 

“Over a snake in a wig?” James asked.

“It’s what the snake in the wig  did , Potter, don’t you get that!” She snapped. “People are hissing at me in the hall again. I’ve had three hairbrushes delivered to me through owl mail. I’ve got people asking whether I prefer my mice alive or frozen when I eat them. At least none of my pranks on you caused you to get tautened-”

“It’ll die down soon. We’ll tell everyone to stop-” Fred tried to cut in.

“No, it won’t  stop . If they stop tormenting us about the snake prank they’ll find something new to use against us because I’m a fucking Slytherin!” She told them. “Molly tried to warn me about this happening and I ignored her.”

“You’re listening to Molly now?” Fred asked, narrowing his eyebrows.

James moved forward again. “If people are giving you a hard time about being in Slytherin we’ll-”

“You’ll what?” She asked harshly. “Hex them? Tell them to stop?  Please don’t bully Knightly, she’s our only Slytherin friend ?”

James gulped and stared at her guiltily. “We didn’t mean to-”

“I know,” she said. “But Molly is right.”

Thomas moved to stand beside James. “What does that mean?”

“It means I don’t want to do this stupid prank war anymore,” she said turning away.

James followed after her as she tried walking off. “Knightly, you can’t be serious. We can fix this!”

Cressida made a beeline for the secret passageway, not feeling like facing the group in the common room. She’d been doing such a good job of acting like she didn’t care, she didn’t want to break the illusion now. She had the desperate desire to be alone again so she could sulk in peace. “You’re not magic, Potter-” she called as she disappeared behind the tapestry.

“Well, technically,” Fred spoke up, but Thomas shoved him to be quiet again.

James darted behind the tapestry after her and held it shut with his hand to prevent the other two from joining them in the narrow stairwell.

“Come on, Knightly. You can’t give up so easily.”

“You think I’m giving up?!” She snapped at him.

“Bad choice of words, mate,” Fred’s muffled voice called from the other side of the fabric.

Cressida rolled her eyes and stormed up the stairwell. James cast a sticking spell on the tapestry before running after her. “But what about… what about-”

“What about it, Potter?” Cressida interrupted, spinning around to face him. “We’re not friends, we’re not in the same house, we barely even get along. Why does it matter whether I talk to you or not?!”

James shrugged, dumbfounded. “I just thought that… I don’t know, I thought it was fun. You always stepped it up a notch, it was a game-”

“Well, I’m not playing anymore. Now go annoy someone else with your stupid pranks,” Cressida said firmly. “I hear Beatrix and Arabella are rather interested in your attention at the moment.”

With that, she turned and stormed up the stairs before James could follow or say anything else.

 

 

Thursday 26th November 2016

 

The group of Slytherins knew better than to bring up the trio of Gryffindors whenever Cressida was around in the following week. They had tried asking how the conversation went when Cressida eventually returned Saturday evening, and whether Potter had been left alive, but she simply said the prank war was done and then went to bed. They all knew she wasn’t asleep, however. They had come to realise by now that Cressida hardly ever slept, which meant they knew she was sitting inside her bed curtains thinking- or worse- scheming.

First thing Monday morning, Margo had asked Cressida if she was really done talking to the Gryffindors. When Cressida said yes, without any hint of a lie or notion of a prank looming, they finally accepted it. Jac pretended like she wasn’t disappointed for Cressida’s sake, plus she knew better than to admit she enjoyed all the chaos and excitement of the prank war while Molly was around.

At the breakfast on Tuesday morning, the trio of Gryffindors had attempted to leave their table and approach the Slytherins all sat together until McGonagall saw them and ordered them to return to their designated table. Cressida was sure she saw the Head Mistress sigh and whisper something to Professor Longbottom. She looked rather put out, which made Cressida wonder how much of the school gossip McGonagall knew about and whether she knew what was true and what was not. 

On Wednesday, James practically pinned Cressida down in Herbology to try and talk to her. Cressida discreetly threw one of the sickness sweets in her mouth before he even started talking, and to her relief, it started working immediately which meant she rushed out of Herbology and managed to miss her next three lessons, two of which she also shared with Potter. Molly told her eating one of the sweets was a stupid idea, but Felix commemorated her for her quick thinking then wondered how she had stolen the sweets from him in the first place.

By Thursday morning, she was dreading how she was going to avoid Potter that day. Fred and Thomas were easy to turn away, not wanting to get on her bad side any more than they already were, but Potter was perhaps as stubborn as her, and seemingly didn’t care how much he continued to annoy her as long as it got her to acknowledge him. 

James Sirius Potter was relentless when he wanted something, and it was becoming incredibly hard to keep avoiding him, especially when he knew her every move. It became a matter of pride to Cressida after realising this. She wouldn’t  give in to Potter. She wouldn’t let him think he had finally worn her down with his incessant rambling.

It was the early hours of the morning. None of the other girls would be awake for another hour yet, but as usual, Cressida was wide awake. She poked her head out of her bed curtains and found the three other girls sleeping soundly. Rasper was sprawled out on the chair purring happily in his sleep.

Climbing out of her bed and pulling on her shoes, she decided to have a solo adventure this time. Jac could probably do with the extra sleep anyway, after staying up most nights in case Cressida needed to talk or explore to distract herself. She’d be back before the other girls woke up anyway. She always was.

Avoiding the creak in the floorboard, Cressida snuck out into the common room and then out into the dungeon halls.

It was always better navigating the halls in the early hours of the morning when no one was awake or watching where she was going. The only problem Cressida had was avoiding Filch, but by this time in the morning she knew he was usually patrolling the West Wing of the castle, giving her a clear path to her secret room.

Thinking about what Cd of Jac’s she was going to listen to in her secret room for the next hour, Cressida pulled back the tapestry to the secret passageway, only to stumble over something on the stairs.

“ Lumos!” 

James’ wand light lit up both of their faces as they scrambled to their feet.

“What the hell are you doing sitting in the dark, Potter?” Cressida yelled at him, holding the lump that was now forming on the back of her head.

“Waiting for you,” he answered.

“At half four in the morning?” 

James shrugged. “You’re usually wandering about before anyone else wakes up. Fred has seen you doing it a few times.”

Cressida frowned. “I’ve never seen Fred while I’ve been out wandering-”

“It doesn’t matter,” James said quickly. “Can we talk?”

Cressida pushed past him on the staircase and started making her way up the steps. “I don’t have time.”

“Oh, do you have somewhere important to be at four in the morning?” He asked sarcastically, following after her with his wand light.

“Actually, yes,” she snapped back.

“Come on, Knightly, you know we didn’t mean to upset you-”

“Christ, Potter, do you ever listen. I’m  not  upset!”

“Well, you’re  something !”

“Annoyed. Irritated. Pissed off.”

“Those all sound like being upset to me,” James muttered. 

Cressida spun around on the staircase so she was looming over him two steps above. “Just sod off, Potter.”

James looked up at her, his wand light giving his face a slightly haunting look amongst the darkness. “There must be something we can do to get the prank war going again… what if you hexed us with any spell you like? We’ll give you a free shot, do your worst.”

Cressida folded her arms. “And then people will call me a bully for hexing you and I’ll end up back in detention.”

“What? No, they won’t. No one ever calls us bullies when we hex-”

“Exactly! They never call  you  bullies. They think everything  you  do is amazing.”

James had a look of utter confusion on his face. “But everyone loved your Quidditch prank-”

“Not everyone,” Cressida said, realising she sounded slightly like Molly. “People blamed me for putting them off so they didn’t make the team.”

“That’s ridiculous,” James scoffed.

“Well, it’s true,” she said turning away and storming up the staircase again. “Why do you care so much anyway?”

“Because I just do!”

“Oh, that’s a  really  convincing argument.”

“Merlin, Knightly, why do you have to be so sarcastic and stubborn all the time?” He asked as they burst out of the other end of the passageway.

“Why do you have to be so full of yourself all the time?” She yelled back. “You can’t handle that I don’t want to be involved in your stupid prank war anymore so you’re stalking me at four in the morning!”  Different standards,  Molly has said. That was the route of it all. James Sirius Potter was simply regarded as better than Cressida. Arabella’s words rang out in her head again and she started repeating them before she could stop herself. “Stop wasting your time on me!”

James frowned. “I’m not wasting my time-”

“Come on, Potter-” Cressida rolled her eyes. “We both know you’re above hanging out with someone like me.”

James blinked hard. “Above hanging out with you? I’m not  above  you, never have been-”

Cressida scoffed. “Yes, you are. Look at you… a rich, pretty boy from a rich, pretty family.  You  had the perfect upbringing,  you  got the good house sorting,  you  get brand new robes every year-”

James looked like he could hardly keep up. “Knightly, what the hell are you talking about?”

Cressida’s eyes shot down with embarrassment. “I’m not like you, Potter, just look at me-” she said tugging at her knotted hair. God, it really  did  look like that horrid wig first thing in the morning.

James was shaking his head frantically. “You look the same as always-”

James’ mouth clamped shut when he saw the expression change on Cressida’s face, sensing he had said the wrong thing once again. Cressida turned and tried storming away from him, worried that if she opened her mouth she might start crying altogether. Had James always viewed her like this- the poor girl from a small village?

James strode after her, reaching out to turn her back around. “Come on, Knightly, Why won’t you talk to me!?” He asked again, bordering on shouting.

“Because I’m a Slytherin and you’re not!” She snapped back, pulling her arm out of his grasp forcefully. That wasn’t the whole reason, or perhaps even the real reason, but it would do for now. “Starting this prank war was a mistake.”

There was a small meow and James turned his wand light on Mrs Norris. Cressida cursed and James fumbled to put out his wand light but it was too late.

“My, my… what do we have here?” James and Cressida looked up to see Filch approaching them through the darkness, lantern held out for his own source of light. “Students out of bed, that constitutes a detention.”

Cressida glared at James. “This is  your  fault.”

“My fault?!” He snapped back, as Filch grabbed them both by the scruffs of their collars to lead him through the hall.

“Yes. If you hadn’t tried to be the peacemaker like always, I wouldn’t have been caught.”

Filch tutted mockingly. “Trouble in paradise?”

“No!” Cressida and James both said, sending a glare at one another.

 

Monday 28th November 2016

 

After Filch had returned Cressida to her common room Thursday morning, she snuck back into her bed and shut her bed curtains with so much force she thought they had ripped. She had led down and tried to force herself to get twenty minutes of sleep, but all she could do was lie there staring at her cloth ceiling, seething about Potter, and receiving another detention because of him.

On Friday, Thomas had been sent as peacemaker for a change, and despite Cressida’s usual tolerance of Thomas Wood, she had snapped that she’d talk to Potter when she was bloody ready. Thomas quickly sulked off to relay the message. 

At lunch on Sunday, Cressida found Jac and Fred standing talking in hushed whispers. Once they spotted her, Fred made a quick getaway, careful to avoid crossing Cressida’s path. Cressida didn’t bother asking Jac what they had been talking about, she already knew.

Much to her annoyance, she lost another night of sleep due to Potter. It was bad enough that he was badgering her, now he was roping in his two best friends and targeting Jac. Eventually, he just had to give up, Cressida thought. The more he hounded her, the more likely she was to keep ignoring him.

Jac pulled open Cressida’s bed curtains much sooner than she would have liked on a Monday morning and climbed in. “Did you get any sleep this time?”

Cressida shuffled over to make enough room for Jac and Rasper on the bed. She had gotten good at pretending like nothing was wrong for her friend’s sake recently. “Nope. I’ve been up debating whether it is time to invest in Felix’s Polyjuice Potion idea just so he won’t recognise me today.”

“You could use it to turn into me, that would really mess with them!” Jac offered excitedly.

“I think that counts as a prank,” Margo said, coming out of the bathroom.

Jac threw her head back on the pillow. “You not talking to the Gryffindors anymore has taken all the fun out of Hogwarts.”

“Come on,” Molly said ushering the two girls to get ready cheerfully. “I’m sure we can find other ways to have fun around Hogwarts that don’t violate the no pranking rule.”

Cressida’s eyes followed Molly through their dorm room for a moment. The ginger witch seemed overly happy as of late, and Cressida knew it was because Cressida was actively avoiding her cousins and staying out of trouble. It was a pattern, Cressida noticed. Molly had done the same thing the previous year when Cressida had ignored the trio for a while. She was happiest when everyone had the same view of her family as she did- which was to pretend they didn’t exist or treat them like a nuisance.

Cressida didn’t mind, however. She preferred Molly when she was happy, and since their talk in the common room, Cressida felt like they had a better understanding of each other.

“If only there was something that could make you magically invisible,” Jac mused, bringing Cressida out of her thoughts. Neither of them had made any effort to move from the bed while Margo and Molly continued getting ready for the day.

“If only,” Cressida sighed.

After another half an hour, all four girls were ready for lessons and walked out into the common room, expecting to find Felix waiting for them to go to breakfast like normal.

To their surprise, however, Felix was pacing the centre of the common room in his pyjamas when the girls found him.

“Finnegan, what the hell?!” Molly yelled, striding across the room towards him. “Breakfast is in five minutes, you’re going to make us late!”

“It’s gone!” Felix said, grabbing Molly by the shoulders and shaking her.

Jac stepped in and pried Felix’s hands from Molly’s shoulders. “What’s gone?” She asked calmly.

“My uniform! All of it! Gone!” Felix rambled.

“How does a uniform disappear?” Cressida asked confused.

“You tell me!” Felix yelled at her frantically. “McGonagall is going to kill me!”

“Are you sure you didn’t just misplace it under your bed?” Margo asked.

Felix sent her a stony glare. “Gee, Smithers, if only I had thought to check  under my bed!”

Molly stepped forward again, running a hand through her curls. “We’ll tell McGonagall you have a cold… the same thing that made Cressida sick if they haven’t twigged onto the pastels yet. In the meantime, figure out where your uniform is ready for afternoon lessons.”

With that, Molly lead the other three girls out of the common room to head to breakfast.

“How do you think Felix lost his uniform?” Margo asked as they made their way through the dungeons.

“I dread to think,” Molly answered, getting her homework out of her book bag in preparation to proofread over breakfast. “Knowing Felix, it gained consciousness and crawled away.”

As the three girls came up by the Grand Staircase, Jac motioned for them to stop, her eyes growing wide. “I think I know what happened to Felix’s uniform.”

Cressida and the other girls looked up and followed her eye line. “What?”

Her jaw fell open when she saw the trio of Gryffindors, whom everyone was used to brandishing their usual red robes, strutting down the Grand Staircase wearing green ones instead.

Molly rolled her eyes, only briefly looking up from her parchment at the commotion. “Oh, for Merlin's sake!"

"That solves the mystery of Finnegan’s disappearing uniform at least,” Margo said.

Fred swaggered over to the four girls accompanied by his two best friends. “What do you think, girls?” He asked, proudly tugging on the stolen robes.

“I think you look like idiots,” Molly replied truthfully.

Cressida met James’ eye with a glare. Tensions were even worse since their discussion.

“Green really isn’t your colour,” Jac mused, looking Fred up and down. Felix’s uniform only barely fit over his taller frame, showing off his ankles very obviously.

“Why the hell are you in Slytherin's uniform?” Cressida asked, tearing her eyes away from James.

“You said everyone was giving you guys crap for being Slytherin,” James said affronted. “So we figured-”

“Figured what?” Molly interrupted, looking up again. “That if the most popular boys in school were dressed like Slytherins that everyone would magically love us?”

“Told you it was a stupid idea,” Thomas grumbled to James.

James shooed Thomas’ comment away, focusing all his attention on Molly. “We’re trying to prove it’s just a stupid uniform.”

“To  you  it’s a stupid uniform. It doesn’t matter because once you give Felix back his uniform you get to go back to being the adored Gryffindors… meanwhile, we’re stuck like this and all the connotations that go along with it,” Molly said bitterly. 

“Hope you avoid getting curses thrown at you in the hallway,” Margo snapped, disappearing into the hall along with Molly.

The trio turned their eyes on Jac and Cressida. “Did you find it at least a little bit funny?” Thomas asked hopefully.

“It was a little bit funny-” Jac started until Cressida cleared her throat. “But it’s not going to fix everything,” she finished.

James looked at Cressida desperately. “Come on, Knightly. Do you know how much effort it took to steal these robes just so you would talk to us? I practically have Filch tailing me every day to catch me out because I pulled this off!”

“Get the uniform back to Finnegan before he gives himself a heart attack searching for it,” Cressida said, linking arms with Jac and following after Molly.

“When are you going to give in to them?” Jac asked quietly. “They’re going to hurt themselves to get your attention before long.”

Cressida didn’t reply as they sat for breakfast.

 

*

 

She had been in a bad mood for the remainder of the day, and sensing her bad mood, the trio of boys knew better than to risk annoying her further with their continued badgering.

Cressida hadn’t snuck off to her secret room that evening, mainly because she had a backlog of homework that needed completing until the late hours of the night, and then it was time for bed before she knew it.

As usual, however, she was unlikely to sleep until an hour before sunrise, and so, just after midnight, she got out of her bed and walked into the small bathroom.

She turned the light on and was met with her reflection in the mirror above the sink. Her appearance had never been a big insecurity of hers, she always had worse things to worry about growing up- money troubles, Gareth, her mum’s workload. But in Hogwarts, those problems weren’t at the forefront. Different problems look priority.

Everyone in Conwell had money troubles. Everyone had family troubles and crappy jobs. It was just the way life was. There were always more important things to worry about than appearances. In Hogwarts, everyone was keeping up appearances. People  cared  about how they looked and how they were perceived.

Was she supposed to look different? Was she supposed to care?

Her friends all looked normal, Cressida thought. Felix was sometimes scruffy in appearance but he still had new robes and straight teeth and socks without holes in them. He was scruffy on purpose, the way some boys always were at this age. Molly and Margo would die before they allowed themselves to look anything less than perfect. Jac never openly said she cared about how she looked, but still, Cressida thought she didn’t look  rough . In fact, Cressida thought that Jac looked effortlessly pretty even when they were exploring the castle at god awful hours in the morning, running on minimal sleep.

James, Thomas and Fred were on another level completely. All they cared about was their image and how people saw them.

They all had money, Cressida reminded herself then, noticing that even the pyjamas she was wearing were more than two years old. They could afford to not look scruffy. Arabella had been right. Cressida was beneath them all in status and wealth and probably a bunch of other ways she didn’t even know yet.

Pushing her bitter thoughts out of her head, she tilted her head under the tap, awkwardly filling her mouth with water to soothe her dry throat.

“You okay?”

Cressida spun around so quickly that she nearly concussed herself on the faucet. Water was dripping from her chin as she faced Molly in the doorway of the bathroom. “What are you doing up?”

Molly stepped further into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. “Heard you come in here, thought you might need to talk.”

Cressida averted her eyes, staring down at the sink. Normally it was Jac who would seek her out, asking about her emotions. She wasn’t sure how open she could be with Molly just yet, especially about something as pathetic as this. “I’m fine.”

“You’ve hardly spoken in the last few days.”

She shrugged. “Had nothing interesting to say.”

Molly moved and sat on the edge of the bathtub, looking at her in an eerily similar way to James. “I know you too, Cressida. When you’re not talking you’re thinking… so what are you thinking about?”

‘How I’m small town scum with no future and awful hair’ 

“Nothing,” she answered instead.

Molly pursed her lips, staring at her inquisitively. “Is this about my cousins?” She asked after a moment. Cressida didn’t answer. “You’re allowed to be mad at them, you know.”

“I’m not mad-”

“You’re something,” she cut her off. “Look, I’m not their biggest fan, but you helped me deal with them-”

“I made things worse for you most of the time,” Cressida huffed.

“My birthday,” Molly cut in. “You helped me deal with losing them, with losing what it was like before… well, you know.” Cressida nodded. Somehow Molly always brought it back to being placed in Slytherin. “What I’m trying to say is, it sucks, and it’s lonely sometimes… but you don’t need them.  We’re  your friends. Everything’s just a game to them.”

Cressida chanced looking at her. If only she knew the true extent of what Cressida had been thinking. How even she was included in it. “I was going to choose you before,” she said if only to stop her onslaught of thoughts. “If given the choice, it was always going to be you lot.”

Molly smiled then, almost guiltily. “It was pretty shitty of me to do that to you.”

Cressida shrugged. “Had to be done.”

She considered voicing her insecurities, asking Molly if she ever thought Cressida was lesser because of where she was from or how she was raised. In the end, though, she settled on a forced smile.

“Thanks for checking on me,” she said, heading for the bathroom door. “I feel much better now.”

Molly seemed pleased with her reaction, getting to her feet and following Cressida out of the small bathroom. “Us Slytherins have to stick together.”

Cressida swallowed, pausing in the middle of their dorm.  Slytherin , that’s what she was. That’s all anyone would see her as. It was about time she started looking at herself as one as well.

Better yet, as a Slytherin, she belonged to a group. She was on par with Molly, Jac, and all her friends. She wasn’t  below  them, because they were all the same. They were Slytherins, and that meant they stuck together.

She hadn’t thought of it that way until now.

Chapter 34: Second Year: Thirteen

Summary:

Cressida's thirteenth birthday gets overshadowed

Saturday 3rd December 2016

 

Luckily, the boy's tiny uniform prank hasn’t caused much gossip around Hogwarts considering it only lasted half an hour before lessons even started, but Cressida was glad about that. She didn’t want the school to think the prank war was back on between them, or that she had complained about the Slytherins getting crap from half the school.

Felix, in the meantime, had taken to locking his uniform and all his possessions away in his trunk in fear of how people kept managing to steal things from him without him noticing. Margo told him it probably had something to do with the fact he had a habit of leaving everything out in the open of the common room.

She had spotted James lingering down in the dungeons again since, and promptly sent a curse his way to get her message across. However, failing to check her surroundings, Slughorn spotted it and gave her detention. To make matters worse it was a Saturday detention in McGonagall’s office, and it meant an hour stuck in a room with Potter.

She didn’t know why Potter was there. Just her bad luck, she supposed.

Cressida knew that James would likely use this as an opportunity to corner her into talking to him, with no other distractions or a way out. Her one saving grace was that McGonagall’s detentions were notorious for involving sitting in silence while completing whatever mundane task she set as a punishment.

Potter was rebellious, but even he wouldn’t risk talking out of turn in one of McGonagall’s detentions. Hopefully, the next hour would be spent in silence and then Cressida could run back down to her common room with her friends before Potter got a word in.

She pulled open the heavy classroom door and walked inside.

“You’re late, Miss Knightly,” McGonagall said as she entered. James turned around in his seat to look at her as she made her way towards the front of the room.

“I got caught up on the stairs… Peeves was looming tormenting some First Years,” Cressida replied.

McGonagall gave a cut nod, standing up from her desk. “You and Mr Potter will be cleaning out my inkpots without the help of magic this evening.”

James watched as McGonagall started gathering her parchment paper and turned to leave the room. “Are you not staying, Professor?”

McGonagall paused in the doorway, raising a thin eyebrow at James. “Are you expecting me to believe you and Miss Knightly can cause more trouble here in my classroom than Peeves is currently causing the First Years?”

James caught Cressida’s eye then looked down at his desk again. “Not anymore.”

Cressida glared at him. He was always so melodramatic.

McGonagall looked between the two of them sceptically. “I expect those inkpots pristine by the time I return,” she said before closing the door behind her.

Cressida’s hope quickly dwindled as she resigned herself to her fate. She was sure Potter would start his speech any moment now McGonagall wasn’t here to stop him.

James waited a second before getting up from his seat and opening the cupboard containing all of McGonagall’s inkpots. Cressida remained seated, watching him in stony silence.

He turned, his arms filled with inkpots, and black smears already trailing up his white shirt. “Aren’t you going to help?”

To her surprise, it seemed as though he was going to actually do the task at hand as if the two weren’t in a heated stalemate.

Cressida avoided looking him in the eye. Silently, she produced her wand and aimed it toward the cupboard. “ Accio ink pots.”

All of the inkpots James had left in the cupboard came billowing out towards Cressida, including all of the ones James had collected and dropped onto his desk, leaving James with none, and Cressida having to duck under the flying objects.

She had meant for it to look effortlessly cool, but instead, with her emotions all over the place, she put too much force behind the magic and regretted her decision.

She took cover under her desk, as the inkpots flew onto the heaping pile beside her. She peeked her head up again, to see the last inkpot fly right past her desk and smash against the wall behind her, causing a black mark to trail down the stone onto the shattered glass below.

“Nice going, Knightly,” James said, but when she turned to glare at him, she found him hiding a smile.

“It’s not funny.”

James rolled his eyes, turning away and taking his seat again. “Nothing is with you at the moment.”

“And who’s fault is that?” She asked hotly.

“Not mine,” James said surely, propping his feet up on the desk. “You’re the one that started listening to Molly’s stupid ideology that our house sorting matters in the grand scheme of things.”

Cressida felt a sudden need to defend her friend. Their talk in the bathroom resurfaced in her mind only adding fuel to her fire. “You’re telling me it doesn’t matter?”

“I’m just saying we had a good thing going-”

“And  you  got all the benefits from it!” Cressida snapped.

James sat facing her again. “And you didn’t?”

“I got called names, Potter,” Cressida said, turning her back on him. She’d been trying to remember the spell that cleaned things up but if it didn’t come to her soon, she’d have to accept defeat and clean up her mess the normal way. “And don’t pretend like you don’t see the house divide. I saw the way your face fell when that hat called out Slytherin for Molly the first night we met, and I heard all the things Fred said about her being in Slytherin. Hell, I've heard you  call me a typical Slytherin before now!”

James’ eyes were burning holes into the back of her skull, she could feel them. “Molly cares about that stuff. She’d been dreaming of being a Gryffindor since the moment we turned two. You didn’t care, you just wanted to have fun like the rest of us. You don’t know any better.”

Cressida rounded on him. “ Don’t know any better ?”

“Yeah, you’re from a muggle family. You don’t understand what it means to be placed differently from your family or have a legacy,” James explained.

Cressida stared at him for a moment. They really were more different than Cressida thought. He was a pure-blood wizard with a  legacy , after all, and a famous dad who everyone knows and adores. She was just a muggle-born idiot who didn’t know any better.

Biting her tongue, Cressida turned back towards the glass on the floor. She bent down and started picking up the shards with her fingers tips carefully.

She could hear James shuffling behind her, but she ignored him.

“Ow.”  She   cursed, sucking on her forefinger with a new cut in it. Apparently, she wasn’t being as careful as she thought she was.

“Let me help, Knightly,” James offered, standing closer than she realised.

“Fuck off,” she said, her finger still in her mouth as she continued gathering the shards.

“Reparo.”

The shards all swooped together, reforming the broken inkpot in Cressida’s hand. She stood and faced Potter, who lowered his wand. “I was cleaning it up myself,” she snapped, walking past him back to the table.

“You were being stubborn,” James countered, following behind her.

“Fine, if you really want to help, do what you’re supposed to and clean the stupid inkpots and stay on your side of the room,” she said.

“I would, but your overzealous spell put all the pots on your side of the classroom.”

Cressida glared at the pile of inkpots by her desk as she dropped the repaired one on the very top. 

“You’re still bleeding,” James said.

Cressida lifted her finger back to her mouth, hoping to stop the blood flow soon. It always worked back home if she sucked on it for long enough. Her mum hardly ever had plasters lying about. Maybe once she was done with detention, she could find some tissue paper and wrap that around it.

“It’ll get infected if you get ink in it,” he continued.

Reluctantly, Cressida turned to face him removing her finger from her mouth. “What do you suggest I do, go crying to Madam Pomfrey?”

James took a tentative step forward. “I’m saying, let me help- stupid argument or not, I don’t want you to lose a finger to ink poisoning, Knightly.”

“How kind of you,” she quipped.

“I’m a nice guy like that.”

Cressida scoffed, hiding a laugh, but by the small grin growing on James’ face he'd caught it.

He held out his hand expectantly. Cressida stared at it for a moment before realising he was asking her to give her injured finger to him. Feeling rather stupid, she turned sideways and held out her bleeding finger.

James placed it on his palm gently and got his wand out with his free hand.  

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Potter?” She asked nervously.

James bit his bottom lip as he concentrated. “Sure. I use this spell all the time growing up with my family. We tend to injure ourselves a lot.” Cressida took a deep breath and watched him bring the tip of his wand to her cut. “Ferula.”

A small white bandage appeared, the perfect size for her cut, and wrapped itself around her finger with pressure. Once it was done, Cressida removed her hand from on top of his promptly, rubbing at the new fabric. “Thanks.”

“You should invest in some domestic spells, Knightly,” he said conversationally, moving to sit cross-legged in front of the pile of inkpots they still had to clean.

“Why would I do that? I can’t use magic outside of Hogwarts,” she said, sitting in her seat towering over him.

James shrugged. “That won’t be the case forever. In a few years, you’ll be able to do magic whenever you want, maybe have a job that requires it… if no one teaches you this stuff now you’ll be useless as an adult.”

Cressida picked up an inkpot and a rag to start cleaning. “I doubt I’ll be using magic in whatever minimum wage job I get… or if I’ll even live as a witch once I’m done with Hogwarts.”

James’ eyes grew wide. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“Not many people make it out of Conwell, and I doubt they’d take well to me openly doing my chores with the help of magic. They’d probably burn me at the stake,” Cressida said truthfully. If she was honest, she hadn’t considered what her life would be once she was done with Hogwarts, or whether her magic would even be useful after she had grown up. She hadn’t lived with it every day as James or Molly had, she didn’t know what a life with magic looked like. “Besides, like you said, I’ve got no one to teach me.”

“I’ll teach you,” James said instantly.

Cressida looked at him as she moved on to cleaning her second inkpot, while James hadn’t even started on one. “No, you won’t.”

“Why not?” James asked offended. “I’m an excellent teacher.”

“No you’re not, Potter,” Cressida said, doing a third pot now. “This is just another excuse for you to mess with me somehow.”

James got up onto his knees, nearly knocking over the heap of pots. “No, I’m being serious…” A grin came onto his face. “ James Sirius , in fact. Let me teach you.”

Cressida set her clean inkpot down and turned to look at him fully. “What’s in it for you?”

“Nothing,” James said quickly.

“Then why do it?”

“Because,” James faltered for a moment. “You’re my friend-”

“No, I’m not.” Cressida turned away again.

“You can be,” James tried, moving so he was still in her eye line.

“And if I don’t want to be?” She asked.

James grinned. “I’d call you a liar. Everyone wants to be my friend, it’s basic fact. I’m extremely likeable and fun to be around.”

Cressida shook her head, continuing to clean pots. She’d already spoken to him far more than she wanted to. She was still supposed to be ignoring him. “Let’s just get these done and then we can go back to our respective common rooms and ignore each other, okay?”

James lifted his wand to the pile of ink pots. “ Scourgify. ”

The pots were brought to life, scrubbing themselves clean in mid-air around Cressida’s head. Forcing down her amazement, she looked back at James, who was grinning even wider. “Useful spell,” she commented.

“Could teach you it if you weren’t so stubborn.” 

Cressida sighed, standing up to move away from the various scrubbing pots. “Just leave it alone, Potter.”

James followed after her, batting away an inkpot that was in his path. “I know this isn’t just about the Slytherin thing… why are you being like this?”

Cressida kept her back to him. If she couldn’t explain her feelings to Molly, she sure as hell couldn’t expect James to understand. “Because I don’t want your help.”

“What  do  you want?” James asked desperately.

“For you to leave me alone while I think!” She spun around and saw the hurt look on Potter’s face. “You don’t understand what it’s like and I don’t think you ever will… but you being around every corner, trying to make me believe we can be friends even though we both know it’s just a fun game to you isn’t helping anyone.”

“Are those Molly’s words or your own?” He asked hotly.

Cressida felt a sting in her chest. “Mine.”

James' face was suddenly emotionless. Devoid of the usual tell-tale signs of whatever emotion was spilling out of him at any given moment. “And you think this because I’m a Gryffindor and you’re not?” Cressida nodded, looking down. “If we were in the same house, would you still think like that?” He asked suddenly. 

“I-”

The classroom door opened and McGonagall walked in.

James gulped, aiming his wand and muttering a spell quickly under his breath. All the inkpots froze mid-air and then fell to the ground, shattering everywhere.

McGonagall watched it happen in pensive silence. Once the final pot smashed, she looked to Cressida and James. “I see I was mistaken. You two are more troublesome than Peeves if left unattended.”

James stepped forward, his head hanging low. “It was all my fault, Professor-”

Cressida glared at him. She wasn’t going to let him take the blame for her sake a second time. “No, it was me, Professor.”

James looked up at her. “ You  didn’t do that spell.”

“I’m the  reason  you did the spell,” she told him firmly. “I’m not letting you take all the blame again.”

“Again?” James repeated confused.

McGonagall cleared her throat, rendering the two twelve-year-olds silent. “If you two are quite finished… I do believe my classroom is in need of further cleaning.” McGonagall caught the glare James and Cressida sent each other. “But as it is nearing curfew, I will settle for you both returning tomorrow, at different times, to repair my broken inkpots.”

“Yes, Professor,” they both said.

“Off you go then,” McGonagall said. “And straight to your common rooms, I don’t want to hear of any more trouble from the two of you tonight.”

Cressida and James both left her classroom with their heads ducked. Once the heavy door shut behind them, Cressida tried to make a quick getaway but James followed after her.

“Why did you take the blame, Knightly?”

Cressida shrugged, still hurrying through the halls. “It wasn’t just your fault.”

James was beside her now, having taller strides than she did. “It’s a shame she separated us tomorrow, could have given us a chance to practise some domestic spells-”

“James,” she cut him off. His eyebrows raised so much at her using his real name, that they disappeared under his messy hair. “You’re a Gryffindor, I’m a Slytherin. That’s the way it is. Everyone else was right. Until that doesn’t matter anymore, just leave me alone.”

Cressida turned her back on him and started descending the stairs, and for the first time, James didn’t follow after her.

 

Tuesday 13th December 2016

 

To Cressida’s surprise, she hadn’t been bothered by the trio again since her detention, which Cressida assumed meant James had informed them of how much of a bitch she had been in their shared detention. 

In fact, over the last two weeks, she couldn’t remember seeing them once, which made her think James was finally listening to her and staying away. Although, she didn’t think that she meant for him to stay out of sight completely. She still expected him to be in the corridors with Fred and Thomas, hiding from teachers and pulling nefarious pranks on other people. It was almost too quiet without the trio’s loud presence everywhere. She’d never had the chance to notice that before.

It was very odd, Cressida had come to realise, being in Hogwarts and not being involved with the trio of Gryffindors. She had briefly seen them over the week, shuffling and running to and from places. Fred had been steering Thomas through the corridors one afternoon, as the smaller boy scribbled on some parchment, James nowhere to be seen. 

Arabella Chauncey had, of course, picked up on the fact Cressida and James always seemed to be on opposite ends of the castle to each other.

“I told you it was only a matter of time before he realised he was too good for you, Knightly,” she had said during Defence Against the Dark Arts on the previous Wednesday. The comment had sent her into a foul mood for the rest of the day. She had been sulking in the common room that night, unable to sleep again. Molly had followed her out, conjuring up tea and sitting with her in the dark. Neither girl said anything this time, but Cressida was grateful for it all the same.

Cressida couldn’t let her mind be filled with thoughts about the trio of Gryffindor boys or her ever-growing insecurities today, however. She had bigger things to think about.

Her thirteenth birthday.

Cressida’s bed curtains were pulled open dead on sunrise.

“Happy birthday, Cressie!” Jac shout-whispered, clambering onto her bed with her.

Cressida shot up, startling Rasper. “ Shhh , I don’t want the others to hear- what’s that?”

Jac held out her hands towards her, revealing a tiny cupcake with a candle sticking out of the top of it. “Make a wish,” she smiled. “I snuck down to the kitchens last night especially.”

Cressida beamed at the other girl. She definitely didn’t deserve a friend as good as Jacqueline Redwick. 

“Come on, I don’t want the candle to burn out, I only brought the one from home!” Jac rushed her.

Cressida leaned down and blew out the candle, squinting her eyes to make a wish.

“So, what did you wish for?” Jac asked after a moment.

Cressida grinned, taking the cupcake from Jac and licking the frosting. “I couldn’t possibly tell you. It’ll ruin the magic.”

Jac rolled her eyes but relented. “I got you a card too.” She pulled it out from behind her back. On the front of the card was a ballerina twirling around, while  Happy Birthday  flashed behind her.

“It’s a wizard card,” Cressida realized, mesmerised by the dancing girl.

“I asked Victoire to order it for me-” Cressida’s face flashed with panic. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her who it was for.”

Cressida stared down at the card and cupcake in her lap. Tears started pricking at her eyes. “Thanks, Jac. Honestly, you didn’t have to do this for me-”

Jac pulled her into a hug. “This is just the first half of your birthday celebration! You deserve a nice birthday. Especially after you didn’t get anything special last year.” Jac sat back on her heels. “I still wish you’d let me tell the others about it-”

“No,” Cressida said firmly, hiding the card safely under her pillow. “The fewer people know, the better.”

Her bed curtains were pulled open again to reveal Molly peering in. “What are you two talking about in here?”

“World domination,” Jac answered.

Molly rolled her eyes with a smile and left the two girls be.

The usual routine went ahead. The girls got ready for the day. They met Felix in the common room. They went for breakfast where Molly handed them cups of tea and encouraged Cressida to eat more than just hash browns for breakfast.

“It’s a very nutritious breakfast!” Cressida has conceded, shovelling the hash browns into her mouth. “It used to be a potato, didn’t it?”

The familiar hoot, and cold chill blowing in from the open windows, brought everyone’s attention to the daily arrival of the owls overhead. They were all used to the owls arriving, often bypassing their group unless it was for Molly or Felix, which were few and far between regardless, and so none of them bothered to look up from their breakfasts.

Cressida had tuned out the owl’s arrival since the beginning of Second Year. None of them were ever for her anyway. But she didn’t register that today was her birthday, and a secret birthday at that. So when one of the school’s owls landed in front of Cressida with a package, Felix looked extremely confused.

“Is that for you, Cress?” He asked, swallowing his toast. “Looks like your mum finally sent you something. What’s the occasion-”

Cressida tried to shoo the bird away further down the table, but it hooted angrily, pecking her hand and extending its leg where a note was obviously attached.

“Must have the wrong person,” Jac jumped in, trying to use her body to cover up the owl. 

All eyes turned to Cressida then as she fumbled for an excuse for the owl in front of her- that was until an old, grey looking owl landed on their table in front of Margo. They all froze, turning to look at the smaller girl instead, who looked equally baffled. It was no secret that Margo hadn’t received a single letter from her parents since starting Hogwarts.

Cressida had slipped the package under the table while everyone was distracted and was frantically trying to untie the note from around the owl’s leg while it continued to hop about irritatedly. Apparently, Cressida had offended the bird, and it was now going to make it extremely difficult for Cressida to receive her mail discreetly.

“Well,” Felix said, breaking the silence and moving swiftly on from Cressida’s owl. “Are you going to open it?”

Margo snapped into action then, smiling wildly as she ripped the note from the owl’s leg. The owl flew away without acknowledgement or a thank you from Margo.

“It’s from mum!” Margo said happily as she unravelled the note. The more she read, the more her face fell. Cressida was vaguely reminded of how she must have looked when she got the letter from her mother last year about not going home for Christmas. She hoped the letter that arrived this year would be with better news.

Within seconds, tears had started pooling in Margo’s eyes until eventually, she got up and ran out of the Great Hall sobbing completely.

They all glanced around each other awkwardly. Molly picked up the note Margo had discarded on the table and read it for herself.

“What does it say?” Felix asked instantly.

Molly put the note back down on the table and started pouring herself a second cup of tea. “Her mum found out about her dad’s illegitimate family and kicked him out of the house,” she said matter of factly. “Apparently, he and a muggle from the next village over have a two-year-old son that no one knew about until now.”

Cressida was surprised by how calmly Molly had reacted. If news like that had come from Conwell (which wouldn’t be a massive shock), it would be like the Jeremy Kyle show within seconds, with everyone giving their input and making their own theories.

“Should we go after her?” Jac asked concerned.

Molly finished her cup of tea quickly and then got to her feet, taking the note back in her hand. “I’ll go. I know what her family are like.”

“Merlin,” Felix huffed watching Molly depart. “That’s shitty no matter what way you look at it.”

“Maybe you two should go after her,” Cressida suggested. “Make sure she’s okay.”

Felix narrowed his eyebrow. “But, Molly said-”

Luckily, Jac caught on to Cressida’s hint and stood up. “Molly might need our help.”

“Or backup, knowing Smithers’ lack of emotional regulation,” Felix mumbled as he followed being Jac, leaving Cressida alone with her package.

It was small but still more than she expected, wrapped in brown packing paper. The note was also small, giving away it wasn’t a card.

Ripping open the envelope, Cressida tried to keep her hands steady. If it wasn’t a card, that meant her mother hadn’t written purely for the sake of her birthday. She dreaded to think that her mum was going to tell her not to come home for Christmas again. At least this time no one would see her reaction, and she’d already told herself she wouldn’t cry if this was the case. She was prepared for it this year.

She unrolled the piece of paper and started reading.

‘Cress,

I’m sorry I have not written as much as I promised, I keep losing track of time.

I also apologise I’m writing this note to you on your birthday. Thirteen! I can’t believe how fast it’s all gone.

Anyway, I write bearing good news and bad news.

Money, as always, is tight. So tight, in fact, we can afford even less of a Christmas than last year, but I’m working on it. I’d been saving up all summer in order to make sure you at least got a birthday present this year. It’s nothing special, but I know how much you love this stuff at home.

I can’t wait for you to come home at Christmas, Cress. You and your cat- sorry, I couldn’t remember what you named him. I’ve even bought some tins of tuna ready. Gareth won’t try anything while you’re home, I promise. He’s on his last chance, and he knows it.

Happy Birthday, sweetheart. See you soon, and stay out of trouble if you can help it.

All my love,

Mum x’

She put the note back down on the table and stared at the package in front of her. 

“Miss Knightly.” Cressida’s head spun around to find the Head Mistress standing primly behind her. “It is your birthday, correct?”

“Yes,” Cressida said, slightly baffled. 

“And I’m presuming it’s still a secret, considering you’re currently sat here alone?”

She nodded, placing her hand on her note and package absent-mindedly.

McGonagall smiled. “In that case, I offer my own secretive birthday wishes. I also come to inform you that at dinner there will be a large selection of cakes. Thirteen different kinds, in fact, for no reason in particular.”

Cressida's heart had never felt so light. She was allowed home for Christmas  and  she was getting a special cake. “Thank you, Professor.”

McGonagall turned slightly then, facing the rest of the hall. “And, just in case you happen to be running late to your common room tonight, Filch will be patrolling the West Towers until midnight, per my request,” she said discreetly. “But  only  until midnight, are we clear?” She said more firmly, eyes darting back to her.

Cressida smiled from ear to ear. “Yes, Professor.”

“Good,” McGonagall said as she started moving back down the rows of tables. “Don’t forget your Transfiguration homework is due in third period.”

Cressida placed her package and note safely in her bag before getting up and walking out of the hall, the smile still plastered on her face.

 

*

 

Since the letter arrived at breakfast Margo had holed herself up in the dorm room from morning to afternoon, only letting Molly in to see her.

“When do you suppose she’ll come out of there?” Cressida asked as they lingered outside the archway to the girl’s dorms. “She’s already skipped three lessons.”

“Do you think she’s going to go home for Christmas?” Felix asked next.

“Molly won’t let us read the letter. I’m not sure if she’s being told to stay away,” Jac answered.

“If that was happening in my family, I’d want to be as far away from it as possible,” Cressida said. She thought back to how Gareth had been accused of cheating on her mum one year. The argument had lasted two whole weeks and Cressida had a bottle thrown at her head by accident. “Being caught in the cross-fire sucks ass.”

“How long does it take to get over something like this?” Jac asked sympathetically.

“Well,” Cressida started carefully. “You said you’re family talks about divorce a lot. How long would it take you to get over it?” 

Jac didn’t seem offended or hurt by the question. “I  want  my parents to get divorced. They’d be far happier apart than they are together, but still, my dad wouldn’t go and knock up someone else.”

“That’s the difference then, I suppose,” Felix shrugged.

They heard a door click open down the hallway and all looked up as Molly approached them.

“How is she?” Jac asked.

“Not great, obviously,” Molly said. She already looked tired. “We shouldn’t be late for Charms,” she said then, leading the way out of the common room and leaving the conversation hanging in the air.

Felix dutifully walked alongside her, asking rambling questions about what they were going to do with Margo and what else Molly knew beforehand.

Jac and Cressida held back slightly. “Was that owl this morning from your mum?” Jac whispered. Cressida nodded. “Bit of a bummer your birthday got overshadowed by Margo.”

“Nah, just means none of them will suspect anything about me today.”

 

*

 

She had nearly made it the whole day hidden in the shadows of Margo’s family drama. No one suspected it was her birthday. The trio of Gryffindor boys had been suspiciously absent. Margo hadn’t returned to lessons and between every class Molly would trek back down to the dungeons to check on her, often with Felix trailing behind her. McGonagall and Professor Flitwick hadn’t given them any additional homework to complete by the next lesson. 

By all accounts, it was turning out to be a decent birthday. Not a perfect one, but decent.

Cressida had been daydreaming all day about how she and Jac were going to utilize their rare Filch-free evening around the castle when talking brought her out of the pleasant thought.

“See you next lesson, students!” Professor Sinistra was saying from the front. “I want two pieces of parchment on your star alignment charts completed by Monday!”

The class all got up and started piling out of the Astronomy Tower.

“Do you reckon Smithers will hurl a shoe at me if I come down there with you this time?” Felix asked.

“Well, it would help if you stopped making jokes about it,” Molly said.

“What? I’m making light of a terrible situation,” Felix countered. “Laughter is the best cure.” Cressida rolled her eyes and linked arms with Jac, turning them both around. “Where are you two going?” Felix asked before they could make a quick getaway.

“Greenhouses. Jac and I have detention,” Cressida said over her shoulder as the two girls started leaving. “And I doubt Margo would want all of us bombarding her with questions.”

Molly nodded with a small sigh, reserved to her fate. “See you later.”

Jac and Cressida were out in the hall before Jac twigged on. “Wait, Longbottom never gave us a detention-”

“It’s a rouse,” Cressida said. “I can’t talk about my birthday in front of them and I had something to tell you.”

Jac’s eyes lit up in excitement. “Is it another secret?!”

“No, just a happy coincidence. I know for a fact Filch isn’t going to catch us tonight if we sneak out. We practically have the whole castle to ourselves as long as we avoid the West Wing.”

“How do you know this?” Jac asked. “You’re not going to drug him again are you?”

“No,” Cressida said, remembering the happy memory from last Christmas. “It’s a favour of someone.”

“Who?” 

“That  is  a secret,” Cressida grinned.

“Cressida!” Both girls turned to see Victoire running up to them in the hall. “I’ve been meaning to catch you all day!” She said coming to a stop in front of them.

“What for?” Cressida asked.

“To say happy birthday, of course!” Victoire smiled, nudging the smaller girl.

Cressida paled. “How did you know it was my birthday?” 

“I know everyone else’s birthday, so when Jac asked me to order a wizard card it wasn’t exactly hard to figure out,” the older girl explained.

Jac’s face went slack as Cressida turned towards her. “ Oops .”

“These are from Teddy and me,” Victoire continued, passing Cressida a box of jelly slugs. At that moment, the trio of boys rounded the corner, spotting the three girls talking.

“Perfect,” Cressida muttered under her breath. She focused on Victoire again. “Thanks, but you really didn’t have to.”

“It was my pleasure,” Victoire said. Cressida wasn’t listening to her anymore though. The trio of boys had come to a standstill at the end of the corridor, looking at her. Neither of them moved. Victoire looked back over her shoulder at what Cressida was staring at. “I take it you’re still on the outs with my cousins then?”

“Yeah,” Jac answered in Cressida’s place.

James made to move forward and Cressida snapped back to the conversation. “Thanks for the jelly slugs, but we’ve got a detention with Longbottom,” she said, grabbing Jac and continuing to move them hastily through the hall. 

Looking back over her shoulder, Cressida saw the trio of boys questioning Victoire just before she rounded the corner.

 

*

 

As expected, all focus was on Margo for the entire day. She still refused to come out of the dorm room, but she had now escalated to banning anyone from going in to see her. Even Rasper had been banished.

“She has to come out before bedtime, surely,” Jac huffed.

“Could always sleep in my room,” Felix offered, chewing on a sugar quill.

“I’d rather sleep in Myrtle’s bathroom,” Cressida replied. Felix threw the end of his sugar quill at her in retaliation and Rasper jumped after it.

Molly yawned and ran a hand through her curls. Curfew would be on them any moment. “I’ll go and see if she’s ready to face us all.”

Felix, despite looking like he had made the decision begrudgingly, reached out and stopped Molly. “Come on, Weasley. Let’s do a kitchen raid first. My treat.”

All three girls stared at him. “Why are you being so nice?” Molly asked.

Felix was on his feet, hands in his pockets as he started moving forward. “You’ve had a tough day caring for Smithers, that makes you eligible for some sweets in my opinion.”

Molly failed to hide her smile as she followed behind Felix. “You just want some of the leftover tarts from dinner, don’t you?”

“Am I that transparent?” Felix asked as the two stepped out of the common room together.

Jac and Cressida sat for a moment then looked at one another. “I may be losing my mind… but I don’t think Finnigan had completely selfish intentions for once,” Jac observed.

Cressida smirked, lifting Rasper onto her shoulder. “Maybe, but you know what that means-” Cressida gestured to the abandoned common room. “We don’t need to sneak off for once. The castle is ours for the taking… as long as we avoid the kitchens and West Wing.”

“After you, birthday girl,” Jac grinned, offering her arm. Cressida got to her feet, and the two girls skipped out of the common room.

They had explored all their usual tunnels, opened the package from her mum (it had been a box of all her favourite sweets from home- including HubbaBubba chewing gum and Brain-lickers), conversed with their favourite portraits, Rasper had chased a mouse for nearly an entire floor, and then the two girls started strolling through the dark castle heading towards their secret room.

“So, what Cd shall we dance to for the remainder of the evening?” Jac asked.

“Hmm, how do we feel about Avril Lavigne?”

“I say here’s to never growing up,” Jac laughed.

Rasper gave a chirp and jumped down from Cressida’s shoulder, darting down into the darkness.

“Shit. He must have spotted another rat. You go ahead to the secret room, I’ll get him back and meet you there,” Cressida said.

“But what about-”

“No one’s going to catch us, Jac,” Cressida reminded her. “Filch is glued to the West Wing, remember? It’ll be fine. Load up the Cd ready for me.”

Jac gave a nod and then changed course, doing as instructed. Cressida pulled her wand out from within her hair and lit it up, moving through the halls after her kitten.

“Come on, Rasper,” she cooed quietly, stalking through the hall. “I’ve got one of Felix’s shoelaces hidden in the room for you… that’s better than a grubby old-”

Cressida froze, her wand lighting up a pair of red converse trainers.

“Fancy seeing you here, Knightly.”

Cressida glared up at Fred, who happened to be holding her kitten. “Stalking me again, are you?”

“Do I look like James to you?” 

"You are wearing his shoes," she pointed out.

"We're the same size," he shrugged. “I was just out for a walk. Here’s your cat back. I think I’m growing on him.”

Cressida took her kitten back and perched him on her shoulder. The two continued to linger in front of each other. Just before Cressida was about to turn and leave, Fred opened his mouth. “Filch seems reluctantly stuck in the West Wing, that have anything to do with you?”

“Nope,” she lied.

“How come you’re out here by yourself?”

“I’m often by myself.”

“You lied about having detention with Longbottom earlier. I should know considering  we  had detention with him and you were nowhere to be seen. Were you up to something?”

“What’s with the third degree?” She asked in retaliation.

“Just figured you’d be doing something interesting… you know, considering it’s your birthday and all.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Victoire told you.”

“That… and James noticed you got a package this morning.”

“So, he knows too then?”

“Actually, no. He jumped straight to the conclusion that you were leaving Hogwarts because of us and that package was everything you needed to survive in the mountains. I, however, counted the number of cakes at dinner and came to a more sensible conclusion. Honestly, I’m surprised your little group of friends haven’t figured it out yet.”

“It was supposed to be a secret.” 

Fred shoved his hands into his pockets. “Luckily for you, I thought it’d be more fun to keep this information to myself and let James torture himself with his ridiculous theory, so your secret remains as such for another year. Everyone else has been more preoccupied trying to figure out why Smithers was absent from lessons all day to focus on you getting a package anyway.” Cressida nodded and turned her back on him. “Knightly-”

“Yeah?”

“What you said to James… about being Slytherin. Did you mean it?” 

‘Not entirely’

“Yes,” she said without looking back at him.

Chapter 35: Second Year: I Think We're Alone Now

Summary:

Margo tries to relate to Cressida about her dad running off

Notes:

The Song mentioned is 'I Think We're Alone now' by Tiffany and 'Merry Xmas everybody' by Slade

Wednesday 14th December 2016

 

Despite Molly assuring the other girls she was handling it, when they eventually entered the bedroom to sleep Margo was still crying and Molly closed the curtains around her four-poster bed to give them some privacy again.

Cressida awoke and found Margo and Molly still concealed behind the bed curtains. Jac got out of her own bed and sat opposite Cressida on hers, lifting Rasper into her lap as she did so. “Margo was crying all night,” Jac whispered. “I don’t think either of them has slept.”

“Do we go to lessons without them again?” Cressida whispered back.

The bed curtains were pulled violently open and the girls stopped their conversation imminently as Molly got to her feet. She looked exhausted. Margo was still concealed under the covers.

“She’s finally asleep,” Molly told the two girls. “I need coffee.”

They watched silently as Molly went into the bathroom to get ready without another word. They sent a quick glance to each other before following suit, knowing to stay on Molly’s good side for the day.

 

*

 

“Have her tear ducts dried up yet?” Felix asked as the four of them sat at breakfast.

“Not yet,” Molly yawned pouring herself a cup of tea. “We all knew her dad was a deadbeat of course, but Margo always refused to believe it was true.”

“You mean you knew about her dad’s affair?” Jac asked.

Molly shrugged and sipped her tea indifferently. “Margo has been my next door neighbour for years, of course, we knew her dad was sneaking down into the town to see some muggle lady. We thought the child was just a rumour though… so that  was  surprising to read about.”

“And you didn’t tell her?” Cressida asked surprised, spreading butter on her toast.

“Dad said it was none of our business, and I couldn’t tell her because I didn’t want to upset her. This sort of thing is for adults to figure out.”

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Jac asked.

Molly was thoughtful for a moment. “She has to be at some point. It’s not like her crying is going to change anything.”

Felix looked at the three girls with raised eyebrows. “Remind me never to have a crisis around you,” he muttered finishing off the last of his breakfast.

“Has she decided what she’s going to do about Christmas?” Jac asked then.

“Staying here,” Molly answered. “And I’m going to stay with her. It’ll be better than avoiding curses over Christmas dinner anyway. You three are welcome to stay as well.”

The three of them all looked at one another.

“Well, I could, I suppose,” Jac said first. “I warned mum I might not come home in case-” she glanced at Cressida then looked down guiltily. “Either way, if we’re all staying, I can too.”

“What about you, Cressida?” Molly asked. When Cressida looked up, the ginger witch looked hopeful. How could Cressida say no?

She knew what it felt like to be stuck at Hogwarts over the holidays. If she hadn’t had Felix last year to keep her company she would have likely cried herself to sleep every night. Margo may not have been her best friend, or even a decent friend half the time, but as Molly had said- Slytherins stick together.

She hoped her mum would understand.

“Mum said I couldn’t go home again anyway,” Cressida lied. 

Molly looked visibly relieved at her answer and pushed a fresh cup of tea across the table towards her.

“I can’t,” Felix said then. “We’re visiting the Irish lot this year and I wouldn’t miss their Christmas’ for the world. I may actually get some decent brandy now I’m nearly thirteen… I doubt Smithers would want me around in her time of trouble anyway, so it’s probably for the best.”

The bell rang for class and the four of them stood up, preparing to head to Potions together.

As they walked out of the Great Hall, they all stopped surprised to see Margo standing there waiting for them. Her eyes were big and puffy, and her hair looked a mess, but she had her school robes on indicating she was going to attempt to go to lessons.

“I decided I didn’t want to be alone,” she mumbled as the group walked closer to her.

“Are you sure, Margo?” Jac asked concerned.

Margo sniffed but nodded her head. “Come on then, or we’ll be late,” Molly said wrapping an arm around the smaller girl and leading the group towards the dungeons.

 

*

 

To Cressida’s surprise, Margo had lasted the entire day of lessons and only cried through half of them. Luckily, Molly seemed to be the only one that could console her in any way whenever she started crying, allowing the others to carry on with their work and make extra notes for Molly to look back on.

Last lesson proved difficult as Astronomy dragged on forever for Cressida and Margo weeping beside her did little to help her concentration.

“Molly!” Thomas whispered across the table at her. “What’s wrong with Smithers?”

Cressida was surprised to see the trio of boys looked genuinely concerned.

“Her dad,” Molly whispered back while rubbing Margo comfortingly on the back.

“Found out about the muggle, did she?” James asked innocently.

“You  knew ?!” Margo asked hysterically, lifting her head.

Molly glared at him furiously as he realised his mistake. “Of course, I didn’t. No one knew about it,” he lied quickly.

“Oh,  do  shut up, James,” Molly snapped. 

Professor Sinistra came over to their table at the disturbance and glanced at Margo who was now crying louder than she had all day. “Miss Smithers, do you need a moment?”

“She needs several by the looks of it,” Felix mumbled under his breath beside Jac.

“Miss Weasley, would you like to take your friend to the bathroom to compose herself? I’ll give your assigned homework to Miss Knightly at the end of the lesson,” Professor Sinistra offered.

Molly pulled Margo to her feet. “Thank you, Professor.”

The whole class watched as Molly led Margo out of the classroom. “Right then!” Professor Sinistra said getting the attention of all her students again. “These star charts aren’t going to read themselves. Chop, chop people!”

With that, everyone’s heads ducked back down to study their star charts in hushed silence.

 

 

Sunday 18th December 2016

 

In the final days of Hogwarts before the Christmas break, the whole castle was decked out in red and green decorations. In every corner, there was a Christmas tree that dawned bright colourful baubles. Over the last week, Hagrid could be seen wandering the corridors, lugging trees behind him every few hours, baubles hanging from his thick beard. McGonagall and some other teachers dawned tinsel and merry colours on their robes during lessons. The knights lining the halls weren’t charmed to sing carols this year, after what Teddy and the trio did, instead they all wore a terrible Christmas jumper which was equally entertaining as you passed them by.

Rasper adorned his tinsel collar, as was now tradition to dress the kitten up to fit the occasion. Teachers were giving out less homework, and miraculously, Cressida hadn’t received detention all week. The same couldn’t be said for the trio of Gryffindors, however, as they had commandeered one of Hagrid’s Christmas trees for their own dorm room, baubles and all. Apparently, they were even hiding a family of squirrels in their room as well, as a result of the stolen Christmas tree.

All in all, the spirits were high throughout the castle. 

It had taken four days, but Margo had finally stopped crying about her dad running off with the muggle, which also helped the group of Slytherins feel more positive about the oncoming holiday season.

Of course, Cressida knew she could have been spending it with her mum. She knew she should be packing at this very moment, waiting to board the train back to Conwell, but two weeks spent with her friends was a good use of her time off too.

She had tried to borrow one of the school’s owls to write a letter to send to Alice, explaining that she wouldn’t be going home, and she had to do it in secret considering all her friends thought she wasn’t allowed back anyway. Of course, as was just her luck, Thomas Wood happened to be receiving an owl at the same time as she snuck up there to send hers.

“Is that for your mum, Cressida?” He had asked kindly. “I heard you were staying here again. James was hoping Molly would convince you lot to come to the Christmas party at the Burrow this year, but with everything with Smithers’ dad it’s no surprise she’s avoiding going home too.”

He watched as Cressida struggled to attach the note to a tiny and frustratingly skittish owl. “Here,” he had said, taking the note from her. “Use Barnabas. He’s the best owl I’ve ever seen. Fred and I nick him all the time to send stuff home. He’ll get this letter to your mum in no time, James won’t mind.”

She had tried to refuse, but Thomas had attached the letter to the impressive owl’s leg in record speed and was then awaiting Cressida to give it a delivery address. It would have been pointless to decline the owl at that point.

She hadn’t got a reply from her mum. She’s waited every morning at breakfast in case she needed to intercept the letter again but it never came.

“Are you sure you’ve packed everything, Finnigan?” Molly was fussing as they sat in their alcove.

“Yes, for the hundredth time, I packed everything!” Felix replied from under the sofa cushion on his head.

“Even your Gobstones set?” Jac asked.

Felix sat up then. “Damn it.”

Molly rolled her eyes and looked under the sofa, pulling out his set of Gobstones and putting it into the open trunk in front of them. “Honestly, Finnigan, you’ve got to stop leaving things out here.”

“First Years, time to head down!” Slughorn called from the entrance.

Molly shut the trunk and pushed it towards Felix as he got to his feet. “Well, happy Christmas, Finnigan. Enjoy Ireland.”

Felix reached out and hugged all the girls in turn. “I’ll try.” He paused, looking at Margo blubbering to herself in the corner. She hadn’t even bothered to look up from the box of tissues in her lap since waking up. “Hopefully Margo’s tears won’t drown you lot before I get back.”

“All Slytherins going home, follow me! And a happy holiday to you all!” Slughorn called again. Felix gave a final wave to the girls before lifting his trunk and heading off with the rest of the house.

Once they had all departed the common room, it left very slim pickings. A total of twelve Slytherins remained, including the group of girls.

“Looks like this is it for the next two weeks,” Jac sighed.

Margo started crying even louder. Apparently, everyone else going home for Christmas had been her latest breaking point.

“Give us strength,” Cressida muttered as Molly dutifully rushed forward to comfort the blubbering girl.

 

 

Sunday 25th December 2016

 

Cressida thought it was impossible to have droughts in the world now. All they needed to do was send Margo over there and make her cry and suddenly they’d have more water than they knew what to do with.

Even Moaning Myrtle was outdone by Margo.

By the following Monday, Margo had decided crying in the common room and their dorm room had been overdone by that point and disappeared elsewhere in the castle to inflict her misery.

Cressida had pushed open the door to the disused bathroom and entered. Moaning Myrtle was floating above the destroyed sink fixture muttering nonsense to herself until she noticed Cressida’s presence.

“Have you seen Margo?” She asked straight to the point.

Myrtle rolled her eyes as she came down to Cressida’s level. “That girl cries in here more than me, I swear she's in here every other day crying about some catastrophe.”

“But is she still here?” Cressida continued.

“No, she finally left about half an hour ago. That scary ginger witch came and got her,” Myrtle said.

Cressida didn’t bother to try and find her after that. Molly was a better person than she was, to put up with this much crying.

Ironically, it hadn’t been Molly that had finally cheered Margo up in the week leading up to Christmas. By Thursday the four girls were the only ones occupying the common room, as they had been since everyone went home. Apparently, the other remaining Slytherins now avoided the common room at all costs, not that Cressida blamed them.

Jac had appeared in the alcove holding her Cd player, gaining the attention of Molly who had been trying to complete her homework in between listening to Margo’s sobs.

“I recommend we avoid the song  Daddy Issues  this time if you insist on listening to music,” Molly whispered, sending a cautious glance to Margo.

Cressida tried not to laugh, although if anyone had the right, it should have been her. She didn’t have a dad either. She honestly didn’t know why Margo was making such a big deal out of it. She supposed it was different, once you  knew  who your dad was.

Jac only smiled in response pressing play on the Cd player and setting it down.

‘I Think We’re Alone Now’  suddenly blasted through the dorm room and Jac pulled Molly and Cressida to their feet. 

Jac produced her wand as a microphone and jumped up onto the sofa, singing loudly along to the music.

Cressida and Molly laughed at the sight and joined in, grateful for some fun over their time off. By the chorus the three girls were all dancing and singing with one another, jumping from sofa to sofa, twirling in front of the fireplace. Jac had even tried serenading the portrait of R.A.B, who simply rolled his eyes and disappeared from his portrait entirely.

Jac pulled Margo to her feet, enticing her to join in while Cressida and Molly clumsily ballroom danced around the common room together.

For the first time since receiving the letter, Margo smiled.

 

*

 

This Christmas morning was not like the previous year.

Cressida didn’t stay up late in front of the fireplace. She didn’t get a lie-in. She wasn’t greeted with a mince pie or hot chocolate in the common room.

Instead, Jac jumped on her bed before the sun had even risen over the grounds, a comically large Santa hat draped over her hair.

“IT’S CHRISTMAAAS!” Jac bellowed, doing a very good impression of Slade.

This then woke up the remaining two girls.

Chaos ensued from there.

None of them left their dorm room until late afternoon. All their presents were magically at the bottom of their beds again, and Molly insisted they do some sort of system for who gets to open them first. That hadn’t been what happened.

Jac had already started ripping her presents open even as Molly stood there suggesting it. Cressida quickly followed suit, but her pile was much smaller than everyone else’s in the room.

Surprisingly, Margo’s had been the largest, with almost double what Molly got- which was still triple what Cressida got.

“They’re trying to buy me,” Margo had moaned, opening her sixth present. So far, she’d received a new chess set, new quills, three chocolate frogs with very rare cards concealed inside, a new winter cloak, and a fancy snake embellished scarf.

“I wouldn’t complain,” Cressida said. She was sat on her bed with only more sweets from her home corner shop, a cat toy for Rasper, a chocolate frog from Felix- which they all received, and some new pyjamas depicting sheep. Clearly, her mother had gotten the letter and hadn’t bothered to reply.

“Maybe your parents just feel bad, Margo,” Jac tried to reason. She was currently twirling in front of the mirror wearing a new party dress.

Margo pulled one of the notes from her pile of wrapping paper. “Margo, take this as my condolences on your father leaving us- mum.” She picked out a different note. “Margo, sorry you had to find out this way. Take this as a sign of good faith- dad.”

“Are your parents business people, by any chance?” Jac asked then, changing into a t-shirt with Ariana Grande splashed on the front. Cressida assumed that gift had been from Jac’s brother, based on the fact it was cropped and Shari Redwick did not seem like the type of mother to approve of showing midriff.

Margo discarded the notes back into the pile of paper and boxes, ignoring the fact she still had unopened presents to sort through. “Does anyone have something that’s not a chocolate frog I can eat?”

“I’ll trade you a Gobstopper for one,” Cressida offered, changing the Cd over. Jac only had two Christmas albums, and so every half hour they had to keep swapping them over.

Margo’s face scrunched up in distaste. “I think I’ll just see if Felix left his usual stash in the alcove.”

Once the dorm room clicked shut behind Margo, the two remaining girls turned their eyes on Molly, who had been sitting on the floor beside her bed, unusually quiet for the last ten minutes.

“What’re you hiding down there, Weasley?” Jac had asked, changing into a pair of new jeans. Apparently, all the girls in the dorm would be getting a fashion show of every item of clothing Jac had received that morning.

Molly reluctantly pulled an incredibly long parcel from under her bed. “It’s a broom,” she said staring at it. “My parents sent me a broom.”

“Did you not want a broom?” Cressida asked, climbing over her bed to get a better look.

“What do  I  need with a broom?”

“Well, you could do some very expensive cleaning,” Jac teased.

Molly threw herself back on the rug. “They think I joined the Quidditch team.”

“Why would they think that?” Cressida asked, peeling the paper back ever so slightly to get a glance at the broom in question. The lettering read ‘Buzby200’.

“Because I didn’t actually inform them I  wasn’t  on the team.”

“You could always send it back to them,” Jac suggested.

"Or just join the team like you wanted to," Cressida pointed out.

Molly gripped the package protectively, removing some more of the wrapping. “No… no, I’ll keep it but-”

The door opened again and Margo stood in the doorway, holding a plate of mince pies. “Is that a broom?” She asked, honing in on it instantly.

 

 

Saturday 31st December 2016

 

It was snowing over the grounds. Cressida had always hated the winter, and she especially hated rain. If you were stuck outside in the dreary rain, taking shelter under the bypass, or looking up at the grey skies rolling in it always meant her day was ruined, but snow- snow was the opposite. The snow made everything worth the cold. A beautiful white blanket that covered everything and every sound. It was quiet. Cressida liked when it snowed.

This is why she didn’t mind being currently sat in the Quidditch stands as Molly and Jac flew around an empty pitch.

Turns out, when not furiously racing her cousins, Molly was a very nimble flyer. She had hardly let the broom out of her sight since Christmas morning. “I better get good use out of it now before everyone comes back,” she had said on Boxing Day. “If Fred or James see I got a broom, they’ll never leave me alone. Plus, Wood will try and give me a rundown of the best way to utilize this specific broom’s features.”

And so, at least once a day since then, the four Slytherins had traipsed down to the Quidditch pitch to let Molly fly around for an hour or two. After two days of watching, Jac had asked for a go and now the two girls took turns riding the broom around, leaving Cressida sitting in the stands with Margo.

“She’s rather good, for a beginner,” Margo had said, watching Molly instructing Jac on how to manoeuvre herself on the broom. “Molly’s good at teaching at this sort of thing. She tried teaching me how to ride a broom before we came to Hogwarts but I was hopeless at it.”

Cressida blew a bubble with her chewing gum. “She wanted to try out for the Quidditch team, you know.”

“She told you that?”

“She told me one night in the common room.”

“Hmm,” Margo replied non-committally. “Cressida,” she said then. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” Cressida raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You don’t have a dad-”

“I have noticed, yes.”

“I just mean that… well… your dad ran off on you too, didn’t he?”

Cressida returned to staring out at her two friends on the pitch. “Suppose so.”

“Do you ever think he’ll come back?” She asked. “Or am I supposed to give up hope?”

“Every deadbeat dad is different, Margo,” Cressida replied stiffly. “At least yours still cares enough to send you Christmas presents.”

“But-”

Cressida got to her feet before Margo could ask another question. Dad’s weren’t exactly Cressida’s strongest talking point. “It’s freezing out here, I’m going to head in and sit by the fire for a bit.”

 

*

 

Turns out her friends weren’t as versatile at staying awake until midnight as Felix had been. After practising flying, a hearty dinner that rivalled Christmas day, and an evening sat in their usual alcove talking about their two weeks off and what their exams were going to be like this year, the three remaining girls had dropped where they sat. Molly and Jac were slumped together in a pile, with Rasper nestled between them, and Margo led across a whole sofa mumbling in her sleep.

Cressida was staring out the window panes, just as she had been the year previous. Fifteen minutes to midnight.

She missed terribly Felix at that moment. No doubt he was sipping brandy and pretending he could handle it somewhere in Ireland with his family.

Cressida quietly got to her feet. It was no use sitting there alone staring at nothing.

Perhaps a walk through the grounds to watch the fireworks would cheer her up.

She walked into her dorm room to grab a jacket and her eyes instantly fell on the picture Alice had sent for her birthday last year. She had always loved that photo, but tonight she felt like it was mocking her. The empty space beside her mum where a dad would have fit like a missing puzzle piece stood out like a sore thumb.

Ten minutes to midnight.

“Cressida.”

She whirled around to see Margo standing in the doorway, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Truth was, although difficult, Cressida had been avoiding being caught alone with Margo again since the Quidditch pitch. 

“You ran off earlier, I still have questions.”

“Oh,” Cressida said, leaning against her bedpost, purposefully putting her back to the photo. “I don’t think I’m the right person to ask, Margo.”

“Why not?” She asked. “You’re the only other person I know who doesn’t have a dad.”

“Yeah, but-”

“I thought you would understand.”

“I do, but-”

“We’re the same now.”

Cressida stopped and set her grey eyes on the other girl. “You  really  think that.”

Margo hadn’t picked up on her tone and instead wandered further into the room with a self-pitying pout. “I never understood why you acted the way you did, but now I’m starting to-”

“Margo,” Cressida said firmly. “We aren’t the same.”

Margo’s big eyes turned to stare at Cressida. “Of course we are.”

“No,” Cressida corrected her. “Our situations are very different.”

Five minutes to midnight.

Margo still looked baffled. “I don’t see how. Just because your dad walked out before mine did-”

Cressida let out a humourless laugh. “Margo, look at the pile of presents you got sent this year. Look at who you’re talking to right now. At least you have memories with your dad, at least you know his  name  and what he looks like. You had a life with him before he left and then got compensation for the inconvenience… I had nothing, and will continue to get nothing.”

Margo’s eyes filled with tears. “So you’re saying yours is worse than mine?”

“No,” Cressida said truthfully. “I’m just saying we aren’t the same.”

“Merlin, Cressida, you can’t even  pretend  to feel sorry for anyone but yourself, can you?” Margo snapped.

“Margo-”

It was no use. The bathroom door had been slammed shut in Cressida’s face.

There was a faint bang from somewhere above her. The fireworks had started.

“Happy New Year,” Cressida mumbled as she turned and left the dorm room.

Chapter 36: Second Year: New Year New Robes

Tuesday 3rd January 2017

 

“She’ll talk to you again eventually,” Molly said comfortingly. She and Cressida were having one of their secret tea sessions in the common room after hours. “Margo just needs to realise what you said is true.”

“I don’t think she  will  realise that though,” Cressida sighed. She was led across the opposite sofa with a book. She’d dared going into the library to check out a book on domestic spells just before Christmas and hadn’t had a chance to read through the whole thing yet, but was adamant to finish it before the end of their school year.

Molly sipped her tea. “Just count our blessings she’s moved on from despair to anger… even if that anger is aimed at you. Besides, Victoire is bound to start her newspaper any day now. That’ll take her mind off it.”

“You still going to do that over Quidditch?”

Molly shrugged. “Might as well. It could be fun. I’ve always been more academically inclined anyway.” Cressida turned her eyes towards the ginger witch. As expected, she hadn’t removed the broom from under her bed ever since the rest of Hogwarts returned on Sunday. Cressida had the sneaking suspicion it would now remain there collecting dust until they went home for summer. “Are you still going to join?”

“I’ve got nothing better to do,” Cressida answered, going back to her book.

Molly watched her over her cup of tea. “Are you still upset about-”

“Not upset,” Cressida insisted knowingly. Molly had tried talking to her a few times about her cousins during the holidays, but Cressida had always managed to avoid it, or rope Jac into the conversation which instantly deterred Molly from trying to get a serious answer out of Cressida.

“Have they tried to talk to you at all… you know, since coming back from Christmas?”

She had seen the trio in the hallway a day after everyone returned. Once again, the four of them came to a standstill, waiting for the other to react. This time, Cressida had just debated not turning and walking the other way for once, when Arabella appeared with her brother.

“Have a nice Christmas, James?” She had asked. James hadn’t answered. When Arabella spotted Cressida, she gained her usual false smile. “Don’t tell me Knightly is still ignoring you because of the snake prank?” She laughed. “Well, it’s not like it matters anyway. After all, she’s just a lowly Slytherin. We were saying at Christmas how it was probably for the best that she got put in her place before someone got hurt, weren’t we, Declan-”

Cressida turned and left before she could see how they responded.

“Nope,” Cressida lied, answering Molly’s question and pushing the interaction out of her mind.

“Looks like you finally got them to leave you alone then,” Molly smiled weakly.

“Yeah,” Cressida said, deep in thought. “Great.”

 

Monday 9th January 2017

 

It had taken two hours trapped in a room with Molly before Margo finally spoke to Cressida again. And four days with Felix before Margo stopped making petty jabs at Cressida’s expense. Margo had learned that hard way that keeping a grudge with Cressida, even after she had apologised and explained her reasoning, was like fighting a losing battle. Especially when the rest of their group refused to take a side in the matter. 

That didn’t stop Margo from using her dad running off as an excuse every chance she got, though. Not turning in homework- “My dad just had an affair you see, Professor.”

Being late to class- “Sorry, I was reading the letter my mum sent before Christmas and got upset.”

Having a fourth helping of dessert- “I’m allowed. It’s called stress eating.”

This method secured what little sympathy the group of Slytherins had for Margo was quickly wearing thin.

Luckily, Molly’s theory about the school newspaper had been correct, and that now took precedence over Margo’s thoughts which meant the group of Slytherins had returned to their normal state of neutrality.

Victoire was holding her first meeting for the school newspaper after lessons, and despite the fact she had only agreed to join it as a joke, Cressida was rather excited to have something new to throw her creativity into. 

She was still sneaking around the castle with Jac of course, but she wasn’t scheming anymore. There was no grand plan to keep a secret from everyone around her, or a looming prank she had to concoct with perfect timing. She felt like her mind was itching to be used for something mischievous again instead of thinking all the time.

Cressida had been staring up at the magical ceiling while the others chatted amongst themselves at breakfast. It was dreary and damp today… rain would be coming soon. It hadn’t rained since New Years Day, which meant any remaining snow would be washed away. 

“I hope she lets me cover the relationship and gossip column,” Margo said while she poured her juice to go with her cereal.

“Is there such a thing as a gossip column?” Felix asked, taking the juice from her and pouring himself and Jac a glass.

“There must be,” Margo said surely. “How else would everyone know what’s going on?”

“Through word of mouth, like normal,” Jac said, passing the juice to Cressida.

Cressida instantly passed the juice on to Molly, instead preferring to have some coffee that particular morning. She hadn’t slept at all. She’d been up all night finishing the book on domestic spells. There had been a useful one in there about sewing up fabric and she had promptly tried it out on her uniform. It only looked marginally better, and her stitching was incredibly uneven.

“Don’t you think a gossip and relationship column could lead to more trouble than it’s worth?” She asked, turning into the conversation finally. “People don’t often want their gossip spread around, especially on paper for everyone to read.”

“That’s true, but we’d be able to have it in writing that you never dated Potter,” Felix wagered.

Cressida sipped on her coffee. “Suddenly, I’m on board.”

“I hope they have something about the real world on there that I can write about,” Jac said.

“Who would want to know about what’s happening  outside  of Hogwarts?” Felix asked.

“ Us ,” Jac and Cressida said in unison.

“Believe it or not, Finnegan, some of us aren’t accustomed to your magical world for the whole year. We have what you call muggle lives  to live when we’re not here,” Jac said pointedly.

Felix finished off his breakfast bashfully. “Right, sorry.”

The group of Slytherins all started to get up from their table to head to first lesson. As they departed, they spotted the trio of Gryffindors all weaving in and out of the tables pointing and pulling at people’s robes.

“What do you suppose those three are up to?” Jac asked as they left.

“It  has  been a while since they pulled something,” Felix mused.

“Whatever it is, it’s not our problem,” Molly said as she lead them to History of Magic. Cressida lingered behind for just a moment hoping to catch their eyes, but then she thought better of it and promptly followed after her friends just as James turned around.

 

*

 

By lunch, Cressida knew the Gryffindors were definitely up to something, and she was nearly about to break her rule of ignoring them to ask what it was. They hadn’t attended half of their lessons, and the ones they were in, they sat together whispering the entire time, pulling at their robes and looking annoyed about something.

Jac was clearly interested in what they were up to as well. She spent all of their Herbology lesson watching them, asking Cressida what she thought they were up to. After Cressida had denied any involvement for the third time, Jac settled for watching them silently. Once Herbology had finished, Jac had packed up unusually quickly and darted out of the room. When Cressida finally caught up with her friend, she found her talking to Fred and Thomas. James stood nearby, a frown on his face, not engaging in the conversation. Once the four of them spotted Cressida, Fred and Thomas made a quick getaway, dragging James behind them. 

“Apparently, they had planned something big over the holidays but it didn’t work,” Jac whispered to them as they headed for their next lesson.

“Is that why Potter’s in such a bad mood?” Margo asked.

“I bet it’s because Knightly is still giving him the cold shoulder,” Felix said, nudging Cressida lightly. 

Cressida huffed out a weak excuse of forgetting her Transfiguration essay and stormed off ahead of her group. Molly stopped Jac and Felix from following her.

Cressida wasn’t in the mood to discuss Potter and his failed plans. She was  glad  one of their stupid pranks hadn’t worked for once. But then, she couldn’t help but wonder why it hadn’t worked.

The trio of Gryffindors, as much as she hated to admit it, were some of the most skilled wizards in their year. Almost everything they did worked without a hitch. So what exactly had they been planning that didn’t work?

Normally, she would have cornered one of them to ask what they were doing or outsmarted them. Sometimes, they simply told her what they were planning on pulling in the hopes of getting her approval. 

Occasionally throughout the day, while the three boys had their heads ducked low together whispering, Thomas would glance over to Cressida, or Fred would check she wasn’t listening. James, however, pretended like he didn’t see her, and he was becoming very good at acting like she was invisible all of a sudden. It caused a funny feeling in the pits of her stomach, even though that is what she had asked him to do. She didn’t realise how strange it would be to finally be ignored by James Sirius Potter. Especially, when his two counterparts seemed to be very obviously watching her still and talking to her friends.

Currently, Cressida was sitting in her last lesson of the day, Charms, watching the boys sitting in front curiously. Normally, they would turn around and ask questions or mock how effortlessly Cressida picked up new charms, but today, it was like nothing existed outside of the three of them.

Was this how the rest of the year saw the trio? Quiet whispers, discussing something they didn’t know about, waiting for whatever they were planning to happen?

Is this how it felt to be on the outside looking in at the three of them?

A small part of her had started to panic that Potter hated her now after their argument and her harsh dismissal of his friendship over a month ago.

She still didn’t want to be friends, she knew that for definite, and the house discriminations were still an issue, but the trio had always been around ever since the first day of Hogwarts. They had always been so  there,  and they would continue to be there, but seeing them in the hallway and awkwardly staring at each other until one of them decided to leave each time was getting mildly ridiculous.

She could feel her defences crumbling, her stubbornness melting away giving way to curiosity after weeks of putting up her walls. The anticipation of a looming prank caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up on edge at the mere thought of it. She had  to know what plan hadn’t worked, and Potter was always the easiest to break without arising suspicion. She now wondered whether she could rely on her usual methods of persuasion against him if he was so clearly pretending she didn’t exist. 

Perhaps, just this once, Cressida would make the first move.

Deciding that figuring out what they were doing was more important than practising the skurge charm, Cressida raised her hand and got Flitwick’s attention, discreetly scooping her green ghost goo under her desk out of sight. “Sir, I’m out of goo. Should I go get some more?”

Flitwick spun around and examined her lack of green goo. “Oh, yes, I believe there is more in the cupboard over there… but you really shouldn’t retrieve it yourself, it can be quite hard to handle… Potter!” James’ head shot up. “Help Miss Knightly would you?”

James rounded and looked at her. She gave away nothing on her face that this had been exactly what she wanted to happen. She knew it would take two people to get more goo, and that Flitwick wouldn’t choose Felix due to his ability to set anything aflame, and Margo was simply too clumsy to do most things that required a careful hand, so James was the obvious choice to the smart Professor.

Cressida slid out of her chair and led the way to the cupboard at the back of Flitwick’s classroom, James following dutifully behind her.

After a month of being ignored by Potter, she had begun to miss the useless rambling he used to come up with, not that she'd ever admit that out loud. It wasn’t like James to not be talking about random nonsense, or at least attempting to get her  to talk. If she thought him badgering her constantly was bad, him ignoring her seemed to be definitively worse for some reason. Now it felt like she really was beneath his attention.

Once they had unlocked the cupboard and poked their heads inside, rummaging around the crowded and messy storage room for the required goo, Cressida started speaking. “Failed spell, Potter?”

James turned to face her so quickly that he nearly knocked a jar of crystallised spiders to the ground. “How did you know?”

Cressida shrugged, continuing to look. “Just a guess by the dumbfounded look on your face. What was the spell?”

James replaced the jar of spiders and crouched to search on the lower shelves. “Thought you weren’t talking to us?”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Don’t get pouty on me now I  am  talking to you.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway, the spell didn’t work,” he complained. He pulled the box containing the ghost ectoplasm forward and held it out in his hands for Cressida to take. 

She hated when Potter looked genuinely disappointed by something, it made it harder to mock him. “Tell me what the spell was and maybe I can fix it,” she offered.

“No, it was stupid anyway. You would have only gotten mad at us-”

“I’m not  always  mad at you-”

“Yes, you are. You’re turning into someone who only cares about house placement-”

“I am not!” Cressida lost her grip on the box and it fell to the floor, spilling the goo everywhere.

“Nice one,” James commented as he jumped back to avoid it sticking to his shoes.

“It was your fault,” Cressida complained.

“Everything is my fault according to you-”

“Oh, dear!” Flitwick had come up behind them waving his want to try and clean up the mess. “I’m afraid that was the last of my stock and I need it for my extra studies after lessons. Would you two run down and find the Fat Friar near the greenhouses? He has some more supply I can have.” Cressida and James glared at each other. “And try to not get into any trouble while you’re gone,” Flitwick said knowingly. “I don’t want to have to deduct points from my two top students.”

James and Cressida followed Flitwick’s orders and left the classroom to head down to the greenhouses in stony silence.

Once they had reached the ground floor, Cressida sighed loudly, hating the silence and tension in the air. She was terrible at making the first move, apparently, as now they seemed even madder at each other.

Anything  would be better than silence, she thought, but she couldn’t let James know she felt like that. “You’re even more annoying when you’re  not  talking, how is that possible?”

James put his hands in his pockets and continued walking. “Sorry.”

Cressida glared at him out of the side of her eyes. Both of them were in equally foul moods, it seemed. “That’s all you have to offer?”

“Sorry for talking. Sorry for  not  talking,” he said instead. “Sorry for being a Gryffindor,” he muttered under his breath, barely audible.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” James said. The two came to the archway leading to the paths down to the greenhouses and found it was raining heavily. If they weren’t quick they’d be soaked by the time they returned to Flitwick’s classroom. “Let’s just see the Fat Friar, get his goo, and get back to class,” James said using his robes to cover his head from the rain.

“That sentence sounds incredibly disturbing from a muggle point of view,” Cressida said, doing the same. The joke seemed to break some of the tension as James smiled sideways at her. 

The two of them stepped onto the path leading to the greenhouses. Cressida squinted through the cold rain coming down on them. 

“Knightly?” James said suddenly.

“What?”

“I really am sorry… for what I said… or did.”

That was the James she knew and loathed. 

Cressida rolled her eyes and kicked herself for wanting to give in. She decided to let down her defences again ever so slightly, knowing she had been harsher than she meant to on him. Maybe it was deserved, maybe it wasn't, all she knew for definite was that she didn't want it to be like that forever. They couldn’t magically go back to how they were before, but they could at least not ignore each other anymore.

“You know, if we had been placed in the same house-” Cressida turned to look at James and stopped mid-thought.

He was staring at her with an intense curiosity, despite the rain. “What were you going to say?”

Cressida blinked a few times to determine whether the rain getting in her eyes had affected her vision. “Your robes are… orange.”

“What?” James looked down at his robes and let out the loudest, most joyful laugh she had ever heard. “It worked!”

“What worked?” Cressida asked, growing incredibly confused and damper by the second. 

“The spell!” James said, shaking her by the shoulders, abandoning any attempt to stay dry. “It worked! The robes changed colour! Water must activate it or something. Knightly, you’re an angel!”

Cressida looked down at her own robes to find they were the same hideous shade of orange. “Okay, but  why  are our robes orange?”

“We spelled the laundry… an old trick of Teddy’s… it took us a week to try and figure out the spell for ourselves, and we must have mixed it up a bit, considering they were supposed to change colour first thing this morning. But it  worked !” James rambled excitedly. “If you had never dropped the goo and made us come outside, it would have taken ages to figure out what went wrong!”

Cressida watched as two Fourth Year students passed, pulling at their now orange robes incredibly confused. “Great, now you just have to get everyone outside in the pouring rain.”

James tapped his chin thoughtfully, then clicked his fingers. “An easy fix, Knightly.” He had that manic look on his face that gave away whatever was about to come next was either brilliant or disastrous. “You go to the Fat Friar for Flitwick, I’ll handle the rest!”

"Wait, Potter!" Cressida called just before he could run off. James whipped back around to face her in the pouring rain. "I'm done ignoring you now, just so you know."

"Took you long enough," James grinned. His hair was flattened to his forehead, dripping water straight into his eyes. "Meet us in ten minutes!"

“Where am I supposed to meet you?!” Cressida called after him, but it was no use, he was turned on his heels and sped off without another word.

 

*

 

Cressida had done as she was asked and gotten the goo from the Fat Friar and returned it to Flitwick, but by the time she had returned to his classroom, she found it completely abandoned.

Knowing this had something to do with James, she left the box of fresh goo by Flitwick’s desk and roamed the halls searching for where everyone had gone, trying to ignore the squelching sounds she made whenever she took a step.

On the Second Floor, she spotted Filch cursing as he used an old mop to try and soak up the water students had trailed through the halls. Being careful to avoid his eye line, Cressida descended down the Grand Staircase.

She eventually found them all crowded around by the Black Lake, everyone now standing out like a sore thumb in their bright orange robes in the miserable rain. That was, everyone apart from Felix, who stood with the group of Slytherins with his arms crossed sulking when Cressida found them.

“Stupid Potter,” he was cursing. “If he hadn’t stolen my uniform it wouldn’t have been locked in my trunk where the House Elves couldn’t get it and I would look like everyone else.”

“Are you saying you  want  to look like an oversized tangerine right now?” Molly asked. Clearly, she was unamused about the change in uniform colour. Although Cressida had to admit, between the robes and her hair, Molly’s face did seem to get lost in the obscene amount of orange. 

“Orange  really  isn’t my colour,” Margo was complaining. “And my hair is soaked, Victoire will never take my newspaper pitch seriously now-”

“Victoire has seen what you look like plenty of times before, Margo,” Jac said. “I’m sure she can manage to imagine you with dry hair.”

“I wouldn’t be bothered about the newspaper meeting,” Molly said, pointing at Victoire amongst the crowd. “Looks like it’s been rescheduled.”

Margo looked rather put out, glaring around at the growing crowd with a pout.

“How did Potter get everyone outside in this weather?” Cressida asked, going on her tip-toes to try and see.

Jac grabbed her hand and pulled her through the crowd to the centre. Except, there wasn’t really a centre at all. Instead, she saw the knights that usually lined the halls of Hogwarts were all doing a conga-line through the sea of students cheering them on despite the thunderous rain pouring down on them, causing loud noises as the water bounced off the metal. James, Fred, and Thomas had joined the line behind the knights, and people from every year had joined on behind them in one long line of soaked orange. Amongst the crowd, she saw Flitwick and Slughorn cheering the conga line on. Professor Longbottom was actually involved in the conga-line itself towards the middle.

Cressida couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of it. 

“Did you have something to do with this?” Jac asked, struggling to be heard over all the merry cheering and chanting.

“No.” 

“Is the prank war back on now?”

“No.” 

“But you’re not mad at them anymore… right?” Jac asked hopefully.

She didn't answer. Instead, she linked arms with Jac, turning them both around to get out of the rain.

 

Tuesday 10th January 2016

 

The meeting had indeed been rescheduled for the following day due to James’ impromptu conga-line party.

Everyone had thought it was good fun, running about in the rain with magically changed robes, and the fun continued the next day, as the robes were still orange when everyone woke up.

As well as the orange robes remaining the same, so did the rain, pouring down over Hogwarts threatening to wash away anything that wasn’t bolted down. People were less inclined to be prancing about in the storm today, however, and the conga-line party had remained a one-time event.

All anyone could talk about throughout their lessons were the robes and who had changed them. The trio of Gryffindors never came outright and said they had done it, but everyone suspected them, and the trio were soaking in the attention like sponges. They were neither accepting nor denying that they had caused the spell in the hopes of avoiding detention from the professors, but they weren’t very convincing and made it entirely obvious that it was  them who had done it. Still, unless the professors could actually prove the trio had done it, they avoided punishment for the time being.

However, as the rest of the school was praising the three boys, Felix was going out of his way to do the opposite. He was the only one to not have his robes change colour and, feeling extremely left out, he was cursing and glaring at the trio of boys whenever they passed in the hall or were mentioned by someone nearby.

Molly had tried to comfort him by saying no one would notice, but when the rest of the school was dressed exactly the same, his black and green robes stood out considerably. He had gone to McGonagall by lunchtime, requesting she let him wear something orange to blend in but she wouldn’t relent, saying that he had to still wear the uniform regardless of its colour.

While everyone else was enjoying the change in robes throughout the day, Margo had other priorities, assuring the group of Slytherins that attending the newspaper meeting today was of the utmost importance, and she didn’t stop talking about it until they were actually on their way to the meeting itself.

The group of Slytherins had all trudged back into the castle and made their way up to the designated classroom on the fourth floor, where Victoire was waiting to start her meeting. She was using a drying spell on anyone that stepped foot in the room, knowing it was hard to avoid getting thoroughly soaked as soon as you stepped foot outside of the castle walls that day.

“Thank you all for coming today instead, I didn’t think we should miss out on the fun happening yesterday,” Victoire said as she stood at the front. Margo gave a disagreeable huff.

There were about six other students apart from the five Slytherins, including Penelope McFadden from Hufflepuff. “As you know,” Victoire continued, getting down to business once everyone had arrived. “McGonagall has given me permission to start a school newspaper for the students within Hogwarts. Sure, we have the Quibbler… which is sometimes less than factual… and we of course have the Daily Prophet, but there’s nothing in between for people our age-”

“That’s because nobody reads newspapers anymore,” A boy in the year above called Michael McLaggen said. Cressida had no idea which house he was from due to the uniform change, and it was slightly refreshing. “We just get the news on our phones.”

“But we can’t use our phones in Hogwarts,” Jac spoke up. “A school newspaper would be the closest thing we could get to coming up with our own social media outlet.”

“Exactly!” Victoire exclaimed gladly. “We can mix the old with the new. So… you tell me, how do we do that?”

Everyone seemed stumped for a moment. “Mix enchantments with the columns,” Cressida suggested. “Make it feel more like a phone, constantly updating, rather than a piece of paper… if that’s possible,” she added at the end, not knowing the limits of what they could actually do.

This seemed to excite another girl in the group, who was sitting directly in front of Victoire. They were clearly in the same year and good friends. “We could do articles about sports, comic strips and all the classics, but also incorporate magic onto the pages so you can play games, or write your own comments in the margins!”

“Think you can handle that sort of magic, Veronica?” Victoire asked. The girl nodded eagerly. Victoire beamed, turning to Cressida. “Good idea, Knightly. I knew there was a reason Teddy liked you. That’s a good starting place, now we just need to figure out assignments, who’s doing what, and what’s going where-”

“Could we do a gossip column?” Margo asked impatiently.

“Who would we be able to write about constantly?” Michael asked.

“Hogwarts comes with its own set of drama in itself,” Veronica suggested.

“What about James, Thomas, and Fred?” Penelope said excitedly. “They’re  always  up to something!”

Molly frowned. “You can’t write a column about my cousins once a week.”

Victoire smiled. “People  do  love my cousins… even McGonagall-”

“I just think it could cause some problems,” Molly cut her off. “It’ll go straight to their heads and they’ll start acting up even more for the attention.”

Veronica leaned over towards Molly. “Aren’t they  your  cousins as well?”

“Unfortunately,” Molly grumbled.

“You can give us inside information then,” Michael said. “You’re in their year and their house, after all-”

Molly froze for a moment. “You think I’m in Gryffindor?”

“Aren’t you?” Veronica asked. “I thought all the newest Weasleys got put into Gryffindor together?”

Penelope went to say something but Felix gestured for her to be quiet and she obliged. Molly glanced down at her orange robes and then back up at the room, clearly stumped on what to say. “She can get you inside information!” Margo agreed on her behalf. It appeared as though she would sell anyone out to get her gossip column. “Right, Molly?”

Molly only nodded, glancing down at her orange robes again.

Victoire gave Molly an odd look but decided to move past it. “Okay then, it’s settled. We’ll have a gossip column. Any other ideas?”

“It would be cool to have a muggle world section,” Jac spoke up.

Michael scoffed. “Why would anyone care-”

“Merlin, Michael, there are people here that don’t only care about the wizarding world,” Felix spoke up promptly. “Get your head out of your ass.”

Jac and Cressida leaned over to Felix. “A bit over the top, but we appreciate the effort,” Cressida whispered to him.

“Great, so Finnegan and Jac can write about muggle issues,” Victoire decided.

Felix’s face fell slightly. “But-”

“Shall we discuss any other ideas?” Victoire started, ignoring Felix’s fable attempt to take back what he said.

The room was buzzing with excitement and creativity as Victoire determined who would be doing what.

After half an hour they seemed to have a good idea for their first draft. “Okay, so Molly and Henry will be my editors. Jacob is doing comics. Pier, Veronica and Michael are in charge of figuring out the enchantments. Jac and Felix are doing the muggle column, and Penelope and Margo are in charge of compiling gossip and student news. Everyone else is working on their solo columns. We just need someone for sports-”

“Cressida can do sports,” Molly suggested.

Cressida’s head shot up. She had been so preoccupied offering ideas to other people she had forgotten she hadn’t been assigned a column or job herself. “But I couldn’t care less about Quidditch.”

“I know, but you’re the only one that’s not going to try out for the team in the next few years so you’re the most unbiased one,” Molly explained.

“Plus, you’d get a front seat row to all the games and get to interview the players before the match starts,” Victoire said. “You seem to have a certain way of getting people to talk to you.”

“Oh yeah, she’s a real charmer,” Felix joked, nudging her with his elbow.

Cressida forced a smile as though that would change her dislike of her assigned column. “Great.”

“And you’ll get invited to all the parties,” Veronica said excitedly. “Everyone wants to be on the reporter’s good side… which team is your house? I can’t tell with these messed up robes.”

Cressida glanced sideways at her friends. “My house won’t affect my opinions,” she answered cleverly.

Victoire smiled again. “That’s the spirit. Good first meeting everyone. I’ll see you here tomorrow to go over what we’ve got!”

Chapter 37: Second Year: The Gossip Column

Summary:

Cressida goes to seemingly odd lengths to not be noticed by those around Hogwarts

Friday 13th January 2017

 

It turns out the basic functionality of Hogwarts was somewhat reliant on everyone being distinguishable by their house colour, especially during lesson times.

Ever since Monday, the orange robe prank had caused its own set of interesting problems and reactions. At breakfast Wednesday morning, people from different houses were all seen mingling openly in the Great Hall, saying how good the orange robes were. By Thursday evening, people had started lying about what house they were in to enter each other’s common rooms.

On her nightly adventures through the castle with Jac, Cressida saw three Fourth Years she knew were definitely from Ravenclaw House, talking to the Fat Lady guarding Gryffindor's common room.

“No, I just don’t have a memorable face,” one of them was saying to the portrait.

“I’m rather offended you don’t remember  me !” The other one was saying dramatically. “I’ve been going in and out of this room for four years!”

“We’re awfully sorry we forgot the password, but it changes all the time see-” the third was speaking up.

“Oh, fine!” The Fat Lady relented, opening the portrait hole to let them in.

Cressida and Jac knew that the trio of Gryffindors were utterly adored by the whole school for the orange robes by this point, and it showed on their faces whenever the group of Slytherins ran into them throughout the next day. Cressida had to applaud them, they’d genuinely gotten rid of the house differences for the time being.

Currently, she was on her way to Defence Against the Dark Arts with her friends, feeling in rather high spirits considering this was one of her most dreaded classes to attend.

“I hope Victoire manages to get everything ready to print by Monday,” Margo was panicking as they lined up outside the classroom. 

“I’m sure she has it under control,” Molly comforted her for the hundredth time. “They’re just finishing up the last few enchantments and then they’re going to start printing them out.”

“Let’s just hope everyone likes it,” Felix said, shoving a chocolate frog in his mouth. “If not, it’s going to be a bit of a buzzkill for all of us who worked on it.”

Cressida smiled at Felix discreetly. It wasn’t very often he was invested in something or had the chance to put his good skills to use, and so far the newspaper seemed to have been a good outlet for him.

Jac nudged Cressida, alerting her to Arabella Chauncey approaching, flanked by her usual group of giggling dim-witted friends.

“Did you hear we’re learning about Hags this week in class?” She asked her group loudly, for the sake of the Slytherins standing nearby. “I didn’t know Knightly’s family tree was a part of the curriculum.” As expected, her friends all giggled like obedient little mice at her comment. Arabella glanced back over her shoulder to make sure Cressida was listening. “Then again, with hair like that, it’s no surprise she’s half Hag, really.”

Jac restrained Cressida from grabbing her wand, just as another chorus of laughs sprung out from the girls surrounding Arabella.

“Well, I happen to think Knightly looks lovely!” A voice said loudly. When they all turned towards it confused, they realised it had come from Fred, who had appeared along with James and Thomas in the corridor. “Bordering on scarily endearing,” he continued, coming to stand with them.

Cressida watched them curiously. Since the Monday when she had momentarily reconciled with James, she hadn’t seen the trio again since, although they weren’t ignoring her existence anymore. Now, the reason for their lack of attention was because the rest of Hogwarts took up their time, commemorating them for their fantastic prank, or asking them to try different colours next time. They also now had to factor avoiding McGonagall at all costs into their daily schedule and by the looks of it, their allusiveness of the stern Head Mistress was going well considering they still hadn’t been given detention for it yet.

Arabella spun around to face the trio of boys, her hair flicking behind her as she did so. “You’re joking, right?”

“Why would we joke about that?” Thomas asked innocently. “We don’t think Knightly looks like a Hag in the slightest.”

“But just look at her hair,” Arabella said, trying for a laugh. Her friends didn’t oblige this time. Apparently, the three boys’ approval outranked Arabella’s. 

Cressida instinctively ran her fingers through the ends of her hair. She had asked Jac to braid it for her that morning, but it must still have looked like a mess.

“What about it?” James asked coldly.

Arabella faltered for an answer, and turned back to her group of girls, whispering frantically. Cressida turned her attention to the trio of boys. Fred and Thomas seemed in good spirits, but James remained glaring at Arabella.

“What are you three doing here?” Molly asked, taking over the conversation. “You’re not in this class.”

“Fancied a change,” Fred shrugged.

Professor Mickledge opened the door and students started piling in. The group of Slytherins watched as Fred easily slipped in under the Professors radar. “Good afternoon, Students!” He was calling cheerfully.

“He can’t just do that, can he?” Margo asked.

Molly heaved a sigh and stormed in after Fred, Margo following dutifully behind her.

Thomas walked in next, with a nod of his head. “Good afternoon, Professor.”

“Good afternoon…” Professor Mickledge paused, looking down at the smaller boy.

“Thomas Wood,” he smiled. “Can’t wait to learn about Hags, sir. Your lessons are always so interesting.”

The easy complement removed any doubt that Thomas didn’t belong, and the Professor waved him into the room happily. “I’m so glad to hear that, Mr Wood.”

Cressida turned to Jac and Felix. “You two go in without me,” she whispered, gesturing her head to Potter, who was still glaring at Arabella.

Her two friends complied, disappearing into the classroom with a wave at the Professor as they passed.

Cressida cleared her throat and James’ eyes snapped towards her. “Something you wanted, Potter?”

“Yes, actually,” he said, walking past her and into the classroom coolly, his hands in his robe pockets. Professor Mickledge didn’t even stop to question him.

Arabella, her group of friends, and Cressida were the last to pile in all together. Arabella sent Cressida a scowl as she walked ahead, heading to her usual seat in their class. 

Cressida watched as James appeared at their table, using his wand to move the chair across the floor away from Arabella. Without acknowledging she was about to sit down, James took her seat, facing the front.

Arabella looked stunned for a moment before she went to take Cressida’s seat instead. James plonked his book bag down on it before she got the chance. “This seat’s taken.”

Arabella scoffed, looking between James and the seat frantically. “But you’re in  my  seat.”

James craned his neck to look at Arabella, a forced smile spreading across his face. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise it was  your  seat.”

Arabella loosened up, flicking her hair over her shoulder once more. “That’s okay. Can I sit here now?”

“No,” James deadpanned, his smile disappearing.

Cressida, failing to hide her smirk, walked over and took her seat next to James. James smoothly removed his bag, looking straight ahead as Professor Mickledge stood at the front of the class waiting to start.

“You can’t be serious,” Arabella retorted, glaring at Cressida.

“Actually, I’m  James Sirius , but close enough,” he replied. His smile returned once more as if to mock her. “You better find a seat before the Professor starts.”

“But you’re not even in this class!” She complained, stomping her foot like a toddler.

James sent a careful glance to the front. Fred was watching him, and snapped into action, moving out of the seat he had acquired and going up to Professor Mickledge at the front. Cressida vaguely heard Fred asking the Professor some nonsense question about the homework last week as a distraction.

James signalled for Arabella to move closer. Cressida pretended not to be paying attention. Biting the inside of her cheek, Arabella moved slightly closer to listen to what James had to say. “Think of it as another prank, Chauncey. I’m not supposed to be here, you’re right, and yet, we’ve snuck in. If I sat by you, that would have given me a way to the Professor. He pays too much attention to you and your many… skills. If I sit by Knightly, he won’t suspect a thing.”

Arabella smiled at him, batting her eyelashes and buying his excuse without a second thought. “Oh, I understand now. You do have a point, the Professor hardly ever notices Knightly in his class over me.”

Cressida noticed James forcing himself to keep a neutral expression. For this reason, she decided to keep her mouth shut and see what happened next. “Exactly… so, best be off. As far away as possible if you can help it.”

“Okay, James,” she smiled, turning with another flick of her hair. Once she had found a new seat near the front, James coughed loudly and Fred abruptly stopped asking Professor Mickledge questions and returned to his seat.

As the Professor finally started the introduction to his lesson, Cressida glanced sideways at James. “You’re rather cunning for someone who got put in Gryffindor, Potter.”

James smiled to himself as he copied down notes. “And for a Ravenclaw, she’s not very smart… besides, this week house colours don’t exist.”

“I noticed,” Cressida replied, copying down notes as well. She had been meaning to ask this question for a week, but hadn’t had the chance, and didn’t want to risk sounding big-headed. “Did you do it because of what I said?” James didn’t answer. “And I suppose you chose this class out of the many to sneak in for no particular reason as well?”

“Completely random,” James replied. “Just doing my pranking duties to the school.”

They were silent for a moment as Cressida worked up the courage to talk again. “Why did you do it?” She asked. “I wasn’t exactly fair to you.”

James shrugged. “I didn’t want you to hate me.”

“Hate you?” Cressida repeated.

“Yeah. You sure as hell made it clear we weren’t friends, but I thought maybe… as long as you didn’t hate me that it’d be okay.”

Cressida stared at him for a long time. “I don’t hate you, Potter,” she said finally, looking away again.

The faintest grin appeared on his face. “Is this you admitting you like me then?”

Cressida scoffed. “No.”

His grin was full frontal now. “But not hate?”

Cressida smiled despite herself. “Not hate.”

James nodded conclusively. “I can work with that.”

The two continued writing, not wanting to bring attention to James sitting beside her. “Do you know when the spell wears off?” Cressida asked next, breaking the silence once more.

James stopped writing, thinking for a moment. “I suppose whenever McGonagall finds a solution to it, why?”

Cressida shrugged. “It just seems like a shame that everything will go back to normal the moment the uniforms are fixed. Everyone seems so… together at the moment.”

James considered this. “That was the plan, in a way. I came up with the idea after our detention together… But I didn’t realise how much we actually used our houses to dictate who we spoke to until this prank… Maybe you were right, Molly had a point after all.”

“She did,” Cressida agreed. “And she still does. This won’t magically fix everything, Potter. The robes will wear off and I’ll still be a Slytherin and you’ll still be a Gryffindor.”

‘ I’ll still be small-town scum and you’ll still be Hogwarts royalty.’

James turned his green eyes on her, his brow furrowed. “But we’re not for the time being, right?” He asked simply. “We’re both the same, see-” he gestured at their matching robes. “I may not be able to fix what’s happening around here just yet, but I can make it seem stupid in the meantime.”

Cressida stared back at him, at a loss for words momentarily.

She should have forgiven Potter sooner.

Suddenly, the classroom door opened and Professor McGonagall strode in.

“Uh-oh,” James muttered, sinking low into his seat, all attention on Cressida lost. Looking around, Cressida saw Thomas and Fred do the same thing, attempting to hide their faces.

“Sorry to interrupt, Professor, but I’m here to collect three Gryffindor students who are  not  permitted to be in this class.”

Professor Mickledge looked perplexed. “Sorry, Head Mistress, but I don’t believe I have them in here. I’m sure I would have noticed-”

“Potter, Weasley, Wood. Stand up now,” McGonagall sighed, ignoring Professor Mickledge’s obliviousness. Reluctantly, the three culprits stood. “You three are supposed to be in lessons!”

“We are in lessons!” Fred countered, gesturing at the room. “What’s this, if not in lessons?”

“I even took notes,” Thomas said, lifting up his parchment for proof.

“Out. Now. All three of you!” Professor McGonagall ordered. Cressida noticed the Head Mistress send her an accusing look, but for once, she was completely innocent. This was genuinely her class, she couldn’t go anywhere.

“See you later, Knightly,” James muttered to her as he bent down to collect his things.

“Not if you’re in detention, you won’t,” she replied.

James grinned at her mischievously, an idea clearly forming in his mind as he stood up straight again, his bag now on his shoulder. “Professor, I must admit, we were led astray.”

“We were?” Fred asked, confused as he and Thomas stood by McGonagall in the doorway.

“Yes,” James nodded, faking solemnness. “With these orange uniforms, we got all confused and Knightly led us to believe we now shared Defence Against The Dark Arts with her.”

“What?” Cressida scowled up at him. James winked down at her. Molly had turned, looking at Cressida, an odd expression on her face. 

McGonagall, always assuming Knightly was involved in their plans, turned to Thomas for honest answers. “Is that true, Wood?”

“If James says so,” Thomas agreed, trying to play along, but clearly confused.

“Then detention for you too, Miss Knightly. I’m sure the four of you can discuss your class schedules in detail while you clean out the cauldrons,” Professor McGonagall said, as she steered Thomas and Fred out of the room by their shoulders.

James bent low on the desk again. “Just to prove that we’re  not  friends,” he smirked at her. “See you later, Knightly.”

“POTTER!” McGonagall called from the hall.

Cressida glared at him as he practically ran out of the room to join the Head Mistress.

“Right, well…” Professor Mickledge said, once the chaos of the trio being taken away had dispersed. “I suppose that brings us to the hag’s living conditions.”

 

 

Sunday 15th January 2017

 

Cressida both appreciated and loathed James Sirius Potter. For all of his faults, he always somehow did something that chipped away at her disdain towards him.

He was annoying- but funny.

He was overbearing- but she missed his presence when it wasn’t there.

He was cocky- but it was deserved, ever so slightly.

He was smart- but incredibly dense at the same time.

He had done the snake prank- but he’d also pulled off the orange robes for her sake.

She rolled over in her bed and got up, starting to feel dizzy after running her mind around in circles all night. She knew where she stood with Thomas and Fred. Thomas and Fred were never the problem when it came to the four of them having a disagreement.

Thomas was timid and just followed his two friends' instructions. Fred was blunt and straight to the point, taking joy in anything that caused mischief. They were simple to make sense of. But James wasn’t. Not to Cressida, at least.

She often wondered why James, Fred, and Thomas were so nice to her when she was nothing but rude to them the majority of the time. She knew James was the ring leader, of course, but she was the meanest to him out of all of them, so it still didn’t make sense. She thought she had ruined their dynamic completely with their argument before Christmas, and yet, with James’ ability to forgive and move on easily, it was as if it had never happened.

“Sorry to intrude on your huffing and puffing,” the portrait of R.A.B sighed. “But do you think you could do it elsewhere?”

Cressida turned towards it. The common room was empty. It had been for the last two hours, during which Cressida had spent pacing back and forth in front of the fire.

“You were a good Slytherin, weren’t you?” She asked the portrait. 

 Regulus gave a small scoff. “I don’t think any of us really have the capability to be completely good.”

Cressida slumped down on the sofa facing the black frame. “So you’re under the impression we’re all doomed to be evil as well then?”

“That is a matter of opinion.” He turned his grey eyes towards her. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s Potter-”

“There’s a new Potter?”

“Yeah. James.”

His eyes widened ever so slightly. “James Potter?”

“Technically, it’s James  Sirius  Potter.”

Regulus turned fully towards her then, as a ghostly smile tugged at his lips. “First a new Lupin, now a James Sirius. I suddenly feel as though irony has come to metaphorically hit me over the head.”

“You knew them then? Their namesakes?” Cressida asked curiously. It took a lot to get a reaction from the portrait of R.A.B, and this was the biggest she’d ever seen. He actually looked  alive .

“You could say we were all well acquainted,” he said mystically. “If history has a habit of repeating itself, you’ll want to avoid this Potter kid now before it turns messy.”

“Messy?”

Regulus returned to staring at the corner of his frame, perfectly poised in his position. “Before he tries to fix you… and realises he can’t.”

Cressida stared up at the portrait of the young man. There was something he wasn’t saying. 

“Sounds like you’re talking from experience,” she said slowly. Regulus’ eyes shifted towards her again but he offered no response. “What happened to you… you know, when you were alive?” She asked then. “I’ve only heard parts of it.”

Regulus cleared his throat primly. “When I was alive my family asked me to take the dark mark. I followed He-Who-Shall-Not-be-Named. I watched them murder and curse in cold blood for years before I did anything about it, and even then… it made no difference,” he explained. “It’s a matter of opinion whether you can count what I did as good or bad, but it was definitely in the Slytherin category.”

Cressida stared up at the frame. Every story she had heard about the man inside the portrait depicted him as a hero from a Slytherin’s perspective. One of the good ones. No one had told her the full story until this moment. It wasn’t as completely good as they made it sound.

“So, that’s what we are? Neither good nor bad?” She asked. “That’s what being a Slytherin is?”

“It’s about our choices,” he answered. “About how we present ourselves.”

“And how are we supposed to present ourselves?”

“Better,” Regulus said. “We’re supposed to present ourselves to be better than we actually are. Soon enough, people will start to believe it.”

There was shuffling from behind them and Cressida turned. Jac stood in the archway with a yawn. “Cressida, were you talking to someone?”

She glanced back over her shoulder to find the black frame empty.

“No,” she said, turning to face Jac again. “No one. Go back to sleep. I’ll be there now in a minute.”

 

 

Monday 16th January 2017

 

Regulus never returned to his frame. Cressida waited another hour in the common room just in case.

Her conversation with him had spun around in her head all night and before she knew it she was being forced awake with barely an hour’s sleep.

“It’s here!” Molly had pulled Cressida’s bed curtains open and sat on the end of her bed. Cressida sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and watched as the other two girls followed Molly’s lead and clambered onto Cressida’s bed with her, making it incredibly cramped.

Today was the first day the newspaper was going out. Luckily for Cressida, the first Quidditch match of the term wasn’t for another week or so, meaning she got to sit back and help everyone else instead.

The group had decided on the name  ‘The Chatterbox’  for the newspaper after Veronica had jokingly called Margo one during their final meeting before printing. Everyone else had found it funny. Margo, as expected, did not, but when Molly told her it was like having the newspaper named after her, she chirped up a bit.

Cressida was extremely excited to see everyone’s reaction to the newspaper’s columns. Jac and Felix had agreed, instead of talking about muggle politics in their first issue, to discuss muggle pop culture instead and so decided on music. Their column was all about the top 100 songs over the summer, which Cressida had helped them write in order.

But, despite his newfound excitement over the muggle column, Felix had started spouting some good ideas about the cartoon column which Jacob from Hufflepuff was in charge of, and so now Felix was working on two columns.

The three older students working on the enchantments for the newspaper as a whole seemed to be making good progress casting their spells carefully onto each edition of the newspaper.

Margo and Penelope, had as expected, written about the Gryffindor trio’s latest prank endeavour to do with the orange robes- which were still in effect. Apparently, as long as the uniform was wet, it would change colour, and Molly had explained to Cressida that the House Elves didn’t know how else to mass wash their uniforms, so until McGonagall could come up with a counterspell, everyone remained the same colour- apart from Felix.

Cressida hid under her blankets. “I thought they were going out at breakfast?” She grumbled.

“I ran down to breakfast first thing to get one early,” Molly answered, pulling the newspaper open.

“Go to mine and Felix’s column first!” Jac said. “No, wait, he should be here for this!”

Before any of the girls could argue Jac had run out of the room.

“While she’s gone, look at  my  column,” Margo begged.

Cressida sat up and huffed her hair out of her face. “And this couldn’t wait until breakfast, Molly?”

Molly closed the newspaper and held it out of Margo’s pawing hands. “Why are you so grumpy this morning?”

“Didn’t sleep,” Cressida answered as Rasper climbed his way into her lap.

“You never sleep,” Margo countered.

Cressida didn’t have the energy to get into a petty argument with Margo this morning and instead sank back under her sheets to avoid saying anything further.

Margo tutted at the lump that was Cressida, then turned back to Molly. “If you won’t look at my column either, at least let me look at Veronica’s beauty page-”

Cressida sat back up in an instant. “Beauty page?”

“Yeah, Victoire and Veronica were working on it in secret,” Molly explained. “They only came up with the idea last minute.”

Molly and Margo must have found Cressida’s sudden interest suspicious, for they stared at her in silence for a good few minutes. “Did you want to look first-” Molly started, offering out the newspaper. Then, the door to the girl's dorm burst open and Felix came flying in.

 “I really hate when you let Jac do the levitating spell,” he cursed, rubbing his tailbone as he sat up.

Jac strolled in shortly after. “Be grateful we care enough to include you, Finnegan.”

Felix made a rude gesture at Jac as they both clambered onto Cressida’s bed. It was so crowded now with the five of them on the bed, that Cressida had to hug her knees so there was enough room.

“What column are we looking at first?” Jac asked, spreading the newspaper out in the middle of them all.

“Cressida wanted to look at the beauty page,” Margo said, starting to turn to the relevant section.

“It’s alright,” Cressida said suddenly. “I’m not that interested. You four look, I’m going to get ready.”

With that, Cressida climbed over the mass of bodies on her bed and disappeared into the bathroom.

 

*

 

As expected,  The Chatterbox  had been the most talked about event of the day. Everyone had received their first copy at breakfast, pulled open the paper and started reading immediately. Cressida noticed McGonagall and Longbottom reading over a copy together at the teacher's table.

“Here, Knightly, you’ll want to read this,” Felix said pushing the newspaper in front of her so she had no choice.

It was Margo and Penelope’s gossip column, titled ‘Keeping Up With The Weasley's .'

“Clever,” Jac had praised her.

“Penelope’s idea,” Margo said. “I don’t understand the reference personally but she seemed to think it was funny… must be a muggle thing- her mum’s a muggle.”

Cressida scanned the article silently. It included everything she would expect. Their opinions on the orange robe fiasco, predictions on what they could pull next, and then, at the very bottom, Cressida spotted her name.

‘Despite popular belief, however, James Sirius Potter is not currently dating Cressida Knightly, nor do the two even get on platonically 90% of the time, despite half the pranks he concocts having something to do with the blonde witch.’

Cressida threw down the newspaper and glared at Margo, who looked instantly nervous as she swallowed a large bite of her toast. “What?”

“Did you write that?” She asked, pointing at the section.

“Yeah… you said you wanted me to say you aren’t dating Potter, so I did.”

Jac rolled her eyes. “Margo, now everyone is going to think Potter has a crush on Knightly instead.”

“No they won’t,” Felix laughed.

Just at that moment, a chorus of wolf whistles erupted from the Gryffindor table. When all the Slytherins turned around, they saw James had gone incredibly red. In front of the Gryffindor table, Arabella Chauncey was glaring at Cressida with so much rage that she looked like she was about to start yelling curses in her direction.

“Or maybe they will,” Felix corrected himself.

“Ignore them, Cressida,” Molly huffed. “Margo, you  knew  that would start rumours.”

The dark-haired girl stuck her nose up in the air. She apparently still had one more petty jab up her sleeve leftover from Christmas. “Did not!” She relented. “Besides, it’s a  gossip  column, and it’s not  my  fault Knightly’s still getting into trouble with them-”

“She’s not,” Molly cut her off firmly. Margo shrank slightly, not used to Molly using that tone with her. “Cressida is actively avoiding trouble. It’s not her fault the three idiots won’t leave her alone still.”

“I should go. I’ll meet you guys in Astronomy,” Cressida announced to the group. She didn’t want to cause an argument between Molly and Margo at the breakfast table. She got to her feet and started making a prompt exit out of the hall.

“Knightly, wait!” James had scrambled to his feet too, running to catch up with her just outside of the hall doors.

“Now isn’t a good time, Potter,” Cressida groaned, very aware of everyone looking at them now.

James looked more flustered than Cressida had ever seen him. “But-”

Something had started falling down on their heads. Looking up, they saw Peeves looming over the top of them, throwing tiny rose petals.  “Potter and Knightly, sitting in a tree. P-R-A-N-K-I-N-G!”

“Shove off, Peeves!” James cursed at the poltergeist. If anything that made it worse. Peeves started singing so loudly that people were rushing out of the hall to see what was going on.

Wishing the ground would swallow her whole, Cressida turned and ran up the Grand Staircase.

 

*

 

She was beginning to wonder what she would do if she had never stumbled across the secret room on the sixth floor during First Year. So far it had been proven the most useful thing in Hogwarts.

She had struggled through the first few lessons of the day, but after everyone reading the newspaper, it opened up a can of worms of new torment. She suddenly missed when people were hissing at her.

She’d just made up with the trio of boys and already some new problem had popped up making her fight the urge to disappear again. It was infuriating.

If one thing spread through Hogwarts faster than news about a prank, it was news about a relationship.

Unfortunately, the majority of Cressida’s classes were with the Gryffindors, and so everywhere they turned, they had people making kissing noises at them, or asking if they were together, or asking if the rumours a few weeks ago had been true.

For every person asking if James  did  have a crush on Cressida, there was another person saying it was impossible. Arabella Chauncey took great personal pleasure in being the one to state that James was  ‘far above Knightly in every way imaginable'  and it wasn’t like either of the three boys could fight back against this without making it look like the rumours were true.

Every time she was in the hall Cressida overheard her name being mentioned along with Potter’s. She overheard a group of Third Year Hufflepuffs talking in length about her as she and Jac took refuge in the girl’s bathroom during lunch.

“I heard that Knightly girl is dating Potter now.” 

“Which one’s Knightly?”

“The Slytherin?” 

“I can’t tell with these robes.” 

“She’s the blonde one.” 

Margo, after the effect of what she had done settled in, was now avoiding Cressida like the plague in fear of her. Cressida thought that was a smart idea. 

Before final lesson hit, she’d had enough. Peeves had made a re-appearance, pulling on Cressida’s hair and asking her where her  ‘Jamsie-Waymsie’  was.

After that, she stormed into her secret room, seeking somewhere quiet to sit for a while. Cressida had completely skipped her second to last lesson of the day. It had only been History of Magic. Professor Binns probably wouldn’t even notice her absence in between his boring speeches about the Medieval Assembly of European Wizards. She doubted she would have been able to pay attention to them anyway, and Jac was smart enough to get any important notes on the lesson for her in her absence. 

Unfortunately, after an hour had passed, the hexagonal room had started to prove to be rather boring. She didn’t have Rasper to play with, and Jac and Felix wouldn’t come looking for her until the end of the day, she had eaten all of the leftover sweets and chocolate frogs that Felix had left in the room. None of Jac’s Cds seemed to be lifting her odd mood either.

Her conversation with Regulus once again entered her mind.  ‘Avoid the Potter kid before it gets messy.’

Well, Reggie, this certainly counted as messy in Cressida’s opinion, but she couldn't go back to ignoring him now. She'd only just stopped.

Having nothing better to do, and desperately wanting to get Regulus and James out of her mind, Cressida opened her bag and pulled out the newspaper which had caused her to storm off in the first place.

All of the other columns really were good. Even Margo and Penelope’s column about the robe prank was interesting… if only they hadn’t added that bit at the bottom.

‘ Why would Potter fancy me anyway?’  she thought dejectedly.

She couldn’t imagine anything worse than Potter having a stupid crush on her. That would just balls everything up- and Arabella would likely start a mob for Cressida’s head, complete with half the girls in their year in support of it.

She turned the page and found her reflection staring back at her. It was Veronica’s and Victoire’s beauty page. On the left side, there were paragraphs and pictures of various beauty tricks, spells, and products, and on the right side, the whole page was taken up by a reflection charm so Cressida sat staring pathetically at herself.

Once again, her eyes darted to her scruffy blonde hair.  ‘Blonde witch’  Margo had called her in the newspaper. It had been a blonde wig on the snake. People had started recognising her by her blonde hair and Slytherin robes since that day… and now, with the robe mix up, her only recognisable feature  was  her blonde hair.

‘Present ourselves to be better than we actually are,’  Regulus had said.  ‘Soon enough, people will start to believe it.’

She sat up straighter, her eyes scanning the left page for any spell or product that would fit the plan she was concocting in her mind at rapid speed.

“There!” She said, jabbing the desired spell with her finger. “That’s what I need!”

She crumpled the newspaper back into her bag and ran out of the tiny room, heading back into the halls of Hogwarts just as final lesson finished and people started heading back to their common rooms to enjoy the rest of the day.

She navigated her way through the school at record speed and reached the Defence Against the Dark Arts class just as people started leaving. Cressida waited in the hall impatiently, hoping her friends were among the first out like normal.

“Oh, look who crawled back into civilization,” a cold voice mocked.

‘Perfect ’ Cressida cursed to herself. Arabella was the first to step out of the classroom.

“Your pig-nosed friend did a right number on you and Potter. I bet he’s  so  embarrassed,” Arabella continued, while her friends giggled along behind her.

“Potter doesn’t fancy me, Chauncey,” Cressida snapped.

“Too right he doesn’t,” she laughed. “Potter actually has standards-”

She debated throwing a curse or jinx at the horrid girl, but Cressida had come to realise that only caused more trouble for herself. Instead, she aimed her wand at Arabella’s book bag, sending all her homework and parchment paper flying into the air before storming off down the hall again.

She would find her friends later. She didn’t need them for this anyway.

She had turned the corner, and to her relief, found a familiar face. “Cressida!” Victoire called instantly, abandoning her friends to rush over to the younger girl. “I’m so sorry this has happened. I should have proofread all the columns more carefully, but with it being the first issue I was too excited-”

“Can you help me with something?” Cressida cut her off.

Victoire’s mouth clamped shut in surprise. “Of course, what is it?” Cressida produced the newspaper from her bag and pointed to the spell she required. Victoire looked at the spell then up at Cressida, frowning. “But, why would you-”

“Please,” Cressida begged.

Victoire took a deep breath, then smiled. In moments like that, Cressida remembered that Victoire’s genes contained something beautifully magical. She tried not to be jealous of it. “Of course. We’ll do it in the Prefect’s bathroom… do you want to collect your friends first?”

James, Fred, and Thomas had rounded the corner and froze when they saw Cressida talking to Victoire. James flushed bright red once again, but Fred and Thomas pretended not to notice.

“No, let’s do it now,” Cressida said firmly, gesturing for the older girl to lead the way.

 

*

 

It was dinner time before Cressida found her friends again. She had spent nearly the whole afternoon hidden away in the Prefect’s bathroom with Victoire. Cressida had to admit, it wasn’t an awful way to spend her time. The Prefect’s bathroom was incredibly luxurious and smelled divine with all the different kinds of soaps. There was a large swimming pool style bathtub in the middle of the room that Cressida swore one day she’d get to use. She had never had a proper bath before with bubbles and all the fancy things, she only had a shower in her flat.

Victoire had sat her down in one of the comfortable chairs underneath a mural of a mermaid and double-checked she wanted to go through with the spell. Once Cressida had agreed twice, Victoire finally extended her elegant white wand to do the spell.

It had taken longer than normal, Victoire had explained this was because if she was going to do it, she was going to do it right. Cressida was very grateful for that, even if it meant sitting completely still for hours.

After Victoire had done her part, Cressida returned to the hexagonal room, using her wand to continue stitching up the holes and general tattiness of her uniform for another hour. She had become rather good at getting her stitching in a straight line now if she went incredibly slow and concentrated hard enough. Her tongue had started to bleed where she had been biting into it without realizing, and by the time she was finished, the holes in her uniform were hardly noticeable, although they still didn’t look new.

Still, she had gotten the results she wanted, and now it was time to show her friends.

Cressida walked into the hall alone, knowing by now her friends would have already gone on without her.

Once she reached the Slytherin table, they all fell silent, staring at her. Felix nearly choked on his roast dinner.

“Merlin, Cressida!” Molly gasped. “Your hair…”

Jac jumped out of her chair and instantly started running the ends of Cressida’s now perfectly curled hair through her fingers. “It’s gorgeous!”

“It’s black,” Felix spluttered.

“Don’t you like it?” Cressida asked, taking her seat beside Jac.

Felix blinked a few times before answering. “It’s certainly… black.”

“Yes, we’ve established that, Finnegan,” Margo snapped before rounding on Cressida again. “How did you- I mean, why did you-”

“Victoire did it,” Cressida answered in between sips of her pumpkin juice. 

“She did a cracking job,” Felix rambled. “I mean, I hardly even recognised you… you look…”

“Like a Black,” Molly answered, staring at her strangely. “Don’t you think, Margo?”

Margo tilted her head, examining Cressida more closely. “Show me your wrists,” she said. “You can always tell by their wrists-”

“No,” Cressida refused, hiding her wrists under the table.

Just then, someone had come running up behind Cressida. “Molly, have you seen Knightly. I can’t find her anywhere and-” Cressida had turned around and looked up at James. “Merlin’s balls!”

He had stopped talking altogether, instead, staring at Cressida with wide eyes. His mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. “Well?” Cressida prompted him. “You’ve found me.”

“Oi, Potter, your ickle girlfriend isn’t over there!” Someone from Ravenclaw taunted in a baby voice.

James threw up a rude gesture in response before turning back to Cressida. She was smiling now, very subtly. “See, they don’t even recognise me anymore.”

James’ brow furrowed. “You did this because of  me ?”

“Not  just  because of you, don’t be so big-headed, Potter.”

“But your hair… before it was so… and now it’s not-”

“He’s as useless as you, Finnegan,” Jac teased.

James shot a glare in Jac’s direction. “When will it be back to normal?” He asked, turning back to Cressida.

“Who knows,” Cressida shrugged. “It may be permanent. Victoire spent ages-”

James had left before she could finish her sentence. They all watched his stride over to the Ravenclaw table and crouch down to talk to Victoire in the middle of her meal.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Potter isn’t happy about the change-” Felix started.

“Who cares if  he  likes it,” Cressida said firmly. 

Chapter 38: Second Year: The Black Resemblance

Summary:

Cressida comes to terms with her new hair and talks to a stranger in the late hours of the night

Thursday 19th January 2017

 

Her hair had caused a few odd reactions over the last forty-eight hours. No one seemingly recognised her anymore, unless they were actively searching for her. Fred and Thomas had appeared promptly after James’ discovery Monday evening, checking for themselves what he was saying was true.

Neither of them said anything or offered any sort of comment. Fred had given a curt nod and then turned away again. Thomas had offered a shy smile before following after Fred. She wasn’t sure what either of their reactions meant.

In Defence Against The Dark Arts the next day, Arabella had obviously noticed the hair change as the two girls sat side by side. Cressida waited for the comments to come, mocking her until Cressida felt the urge to curse her, but they never did. Arabella looked at her for a long time, and then simply smiled. It wasn’t a kind smile or a  ‘you look nice for once’  smile. It was a sly smile like she had secretly won something, and Cressida knew that this was worse than if she had insulted her. If her new hair didn’t even warrant mocking, it must have been bad.

Was that why everyone had acted so strange about it?

Cressida had wanted a reaction, of course, but she wanted it to be a good one. Mainly, she did it so everyone would stop noticing her. But she also had a point to prove that she didn’t look  always  rough. That she could look like Molly and Margo and Jac if she just  tried .

That she could present herself  better .

Teachers had missed her during roll call all day in lessons, looking up with mild surprise when they realized Cressida was in fact sitting in their lesson. “Terribly sorry, Miss Knightly, I thought you were Miss Smithers for a moment-” Flitwick had said.

Margo had been furious to be compared to Cressida, it seemed, as ever since that moment Margo wouldn’t shut up about Cressida’s changed appearance.

They had all been playing exploding snap in the alcove, and the mood seemed very joyful for everyone else. Cressida, however, had been deep in her thoughts as she usually was these days. 

Too many things had annoyed her today for her to be in a joyful mood. Margo had been one of those things, and she showed no sign of relenting any time soon. Plus, Regulus hadn’t returned to his frame so Cressida could yell at him for being a part of the reason her mind instantly snapped to this as a solution to everything on that particular day. 

Margo put down a card and then looked towards Cressida, who had ignored her last three turns, saying she didn’t feel like playing anymore. “I still say you have an uncanny resemblance to the Black family with your new hair.” Margo had been pointing it out every since Molly mentioned it at dinner on Monday, and it was beginning to get on Cressida’s nerves. She had always looked like her mum… she hated being compared to someone else, especially a rich, well-known wizard family she had nothing to do with. She just wanted to look more put together and less noticeable in the hall, she didn’t want to be compared to anyone else.

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Just because I have black hair now, doesn’t mean-”

“It’s your eyes too,” Molly pointed out, gesturing to the empty portrait of Regulus Black as though he was there as a reference. “All the Blacks had incredibly regal features, but their grey and blue eyes were always their most striking feature, right after their thick black hair.”

“Must have been all the in-breeding,” Margo mused. “I suppose if you keep adding the same thing enough times, it just enhances it even more.”

“Great, so you’re saying my new hair makes me look like an in-bred now?” Cressida asked, offended. In no world was being compared to a family notorious for inbreeding a good thing.

Felix scowled at the smaller girl, ignoring Cressida’s objection to the comment. “Smithers, you realise how demented that sentence makes you sound, right? Wanting to  enhance certain features  is not a good excuse for a long line of in-bred cousin-brothers.”

“They mainly did it to keep the blood pure, similarly to how the royal family used to dictate their spouses,” Molly chimed in, but when Felix rounded on her too, she looked back down to her book. “Not that I agree with the in-breeding of course, it was just tradition.”

“And they all ended up rather good looking despite it,” Margo added on. 

“Yeah, it’s just a shame all the Blacks turned out to be bat-shit crazy!” Felix argued back. “But, hey, as long as their eyes look pretty, who cares about the overlapping gene pool.”

“I’m just saying, it’s odd to see Cressida looking like that.” She put a card down and the whole deck exploded loudly. “I still don’t know what made you do it-”

Cressida sighed irritably, getting to her feet. “Sorry for trying to blend in with the rest of you!”

With that, Cressida turned and stormed out of the common room, ignoring Jac and Molly’s attempt to call her back. Any other day she may have been more level headed, but after practically being called an in-bred lookalike, and her own undecided emotions about what she had done, she had been quick to an angry outburst.

Once she had used the passageway to get to the third floor, however, she regretted leaving the common room at all.

Arabella Chauncey and Declan happened to be walking down the hall just as Cressida appeared in front of them. They were beginning to become a real thorn in Cressida’s side lately.

“Oh, look, it’s the little black sheep,” Arabella taunted.

“Piss off, Chauncey.”

“Don’t talk to my sister like that,” Declan warned coldly.

“I’ll talk to her however I like!” Cressida snapped back.

Declan went to get his wand but Arabella stopped him. “It’s alright, Declan. There’s no need to maim Little Knightly anymore than she’s already done to herself with that atrocious hair.” There it was, the comments Cressida had been waiting for. Sensing Cressida wasn’t overly hurt by the basic jab, Arabella dug her nails in deeper, looking to hit her where it hurt. “It’s no wonder James won’t talk to you for more than two seconds since Monday. Whatever possessed you to do it?”

Cressida’s fists clenched at her side. Before Cressida had a chance to curse, or straight up punch Arabella square in the nose, McGonagall appeared around the corner.

“What are you three doing up here this time of night?” She asked. As she strode closer, she saw the tears in Cressida’s eyes and turned a harsh look toward the Chauncey siblings. “Off you two go, I do believe your common room is on the other side of the castle.”

Once Arabella and Declan had slinked off out of sight, Cressida looked up to McGonagall, expecting the strict Head Mistress to send her down to her common room as well. 

Instead, Professor McGonagall looked straight ahead, her usual stern expression on her face. “I would avoid running into altercations this close to curfew, Miss Knightly. Especially, on the second floor where Argus Filch is currently cleaning up a student’s mess.”

Cressida could only nod in response, knowing that if she tried to talk it would only come out in blubbers. The Head Mistress nodded back curtly and then continued walking without another word.

Taking a moment to wipe the tears from her eyes, she started walking again. She had stormed through the whole castle, and before she knew it she was standing in front of the Fat Lady.

“ Password? ” She sang cheerfully, which only brought Cressida’s irritable mood back to the forefront of her spiralling emotions.

“Can’t you just let me in if I tell you I’m a Gryffindor?” She asked bluntly, gesturing to the orange robes.

The Fat Lady looked down at her. “I’ll take your word for it,” she said, shrugging her large shoulders. “Not like it makes much difference this week anyway.”

The portrait swung open and Cressida stepped inside. Instantly, she was overcome with incredible warmth. The Gryffindor common room was the stark contrast to the Slytherin common room. It was violently red everywhere you looked. Cushions, blankets, and tapestries were scattered everywhere. The room was a mess of comfort, fun, and homeliness.

Something whizzed past her head and Cressida ducked to avoid it. It splatted into a puff of black smoke on the wall behind her. Looking at the wall now, she saw a lot of scorch marks and a lot of carvings of initials into the stone.

“Knightly?” Thomas had been the first to spot her. He was hanging upside down off a couch near the magnificent fireplace. Fred spun around. He had a red lion embellished blanket draped over his head like a cape. James popped up next. He had been lying on the floor behind the couch, and his tie was wrapped around his head rather than around his neck.

As the three boys scrambled to approach her through the crowded and chaotic common room, Cressida felt tears welling in her eyes again, and she couldn’t stop them.

“Knightly, what’s wrong?” James asked instantly, removing his tie from around his forehead and discarding it to the floor.

“Did Chauncey do something again?” Fred asked.

“My hair,” she started. “You haven’t made fun of it yet, or commented on it at all, so I’ve come to get it out of the way now. So, come on. Give me your worst.”

She felt pathetic. She probably looked pathetic, but at that moment it felt like life or death. She knew they’d be honest with her. If it was worse than before, she’d rather know.

Thomas laughed at her, and it made Cressida feel even worse. Fred and James looked at him like he had killed a puppy. “What’s so funny, Wood?” Fred demanded to know.

“You reminded me of my sister, that’s all,” Thomas said. “Every month she breaks down crying about something superficial. Before coming back to Hogwarts, it was that her  feet  were too big-”

Fred and James were staring at him in utter confusion now. Thomas, oblivious as usual, remained focused on Cressida. “At least your hair can be fixed… my sister’s massive feet, however, not so much.”

“Okay,” Fred said, pulling Thomas backwards so he and James were in the forefront. “We’re tapping you out, Wood.”

Cressida sniffed, turning around. “Forget it. I don’t even know why I came here-”

James ran in front of her to stop her from disappearing back out of the portrait hole. “We don’t hate your hair, right, lads?” He looked to Thomas and Fred for confirmation. Both boys nodded along enthusiastically. “It’s just different, that’s all… makes you look less  Knightly .”

Cressida tugged on the ends of her new hair, ever since Victoire had worked her magic on it, it always seemed to curl perfectly, despite a rough night's sleep and a whole day of lessons. “Molly and Margo keep comparing me to some rich wizard family-”

“The Blacks?” Fred guessed instantly.

Thomas gasped. “You  do  sort of-”

“Shut it, Wood,” Cressida snapped.

“Come here, Knightly,” James said. He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her through the crowd of rowdy Gryffindors occupying the common room. No one seemed to notice she was even in the room, nor the fact James was practically holding her hand in public. On the stone wall, beside a door leading to a stairwell, there was a picture with a pin in it. “This is the Order of the Phoenix,” James started. Cressida looked at the photograph. There was a group of people all huddled together with forced smiles on their faces. One of the people in the picture Cressida realised was James’ father as a teenager, he was standing next to an older, rather handsome but tired-looking man. The resemblance to Regulus was uncanny. “ That  is Sirius Black.”

“Was he crazy?” She asked, thinking back to Felix’s outburst.

“Depends on personal opinion,” Fred answered thoughtfully. “Not evil though, if that helps.”

Thomas grabbed her hand this time, yanking her sideways so the four of them were standing in front of a floor-length mirror attached to the wall with green vines growing around it. 

“See,” Thomas said with a grin beside her in the mirror. “You look just like him.”

“Except the goatee,” Fred added on.

This was the first time Cressida had actually  looked  at her new hair on herself. She may not look like her mother anymore, but she didn’t look like the scum that came from Conwell anymore either. She was sure that had to be a good thing no matter what Arabella said. She almost looked… elegant. If only she didn’t know about the in-breeding, that put a slight damper on the whole affair.

“It’s not a bad thing to be compared to the famous good looks of the Blacks,” James said, looking at her reflection in the mirror. 

“As long as that’s all they’re comparing you to,” Fred continued. “Being compared to the Blacks in anything beyond their looks probably isn’t meant as a compliment, the family reputation gets a little dicey.”

“A  little ?” Thomas snorted.

“So, I don’t look in-bred?” Cressida asked.

“Knightly,” James started, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Unless you are  actually  related to the Blacks, which is impossible considering they pretty much died out during the last war, there’s no chance of you being in-bred.”

“Well, she is from the valleys of Wales,” Fred joked. “Who’s to say-”

Cressida slapped him on the arm, and he laughed in retaliation. 

“Besides, tons of wizard families are in-bred somewhere down the line,” Thomas said.

Cressida sent a curious glance to James and Fred, knowing their extensive wizard lineage, which also included Molly. Suddenly, Margo’s nonchalance about the topic of being in-bred left a bad taste in her mouth.

Deciding she no longer wanted to think about whatever weird occurrences might have taken place on her friend’s family trees, she turned away from looking at her reflection. Now she had calmed down, she felt incredibly silly standing in the middle of the Gryffindor common room, worrying about her hair. “Sorry for barging in.”

Fred bowed dramatically. “Barge in anytime. We’re happy to be of service, Knightly.”

As she turned and climbed out the portrait hole, Jeremiah Vonce seemed to be climbing in. It seemed as though she wasn’t the only Second Year taking advantage of the orange uniform while it lasted. “Are you new?” He asked, nearly tripping over his feet when he saw her.

“Get a grip, Vonce.”

 

 

Wednesday 1st February 2017

 

Cressida still had half a mind to call Regulus out for what he had said. Annoyingly, the portrait seemed to sense that Cressida was going to try and talk to him and so the frame remained empty for weeks.

That didn’t stop her from checking religiously every other night. Plus, she had more questions about his family and what they had done in the wars.

Cressida tip-toed into the common room alone, expecting it to be as empty as it always was in the early hours of the morning, hoping once again to corner the portrait. Instead, to her surprise, there was a body lounging on the couch in their usual alcove.

Peering closer, slightly concealed by the bookshelves, she could see it was a boy from the year above, humming a song to himself. 

“Don’t be shy,” he said suddenly, alerting her to the fact he knew Cressida was lurking. “Sing along if you know it.”

She didn’t know it. She didn’t recognise the tune, so assumed it was a Wizard song of some kind. 

He turned then, once he got no response from Cressida. She recognised him, but not very well. She had only seen the boy two times in the common room before, always on his own or with his nose stuck in a book. He was tall, and incredibly weedy, giving his face a sunken, malnourished look, but he was attractive nonetheless by normal standards.

“Not one for talking then, I take it?” He asked, turning back to staring out the alcove window. “That’s surprising.”

Cressida took a step forward. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I figured, given what I’ve heard, you’d be all for a midnight chat- but then again, I’m not a mighty brave Gryffindor boy-”

“I don’t only talk to Gryffindors!” Cressida snapped. The boy turned, gesturing with his finger for her to be quiet, his eyes darting towards the corridors leading to the dormitories filled with sleeping students.

“Don’t take offence, I was only joking,” the boy said then, focusing his attention back on the window. 

Cressida lingered still, intrigued by the older boy and what he was doing there so early in the morning. “That’s usually our spot… the alcove, I mean. My friends and I always sit there.”

The boy shrugged, putting his hands behind his head and lounging across the sofa. “It’s the best spot for watching the squid.”

“It doesn’t exist,” Cressida said confidently. She had heard many people talk of the squid, however, after a year at Hogwarts and it never making an appearance, she figured it was some sort of elaborate joke on the muggle-borns.

“See for yourself,” the boy offered. “Unless, of course, you have somewhere better to be at three in the morning.”

Cressida lingered, wondering whether sitting in her room alone with incomplete thoughts running around in her head was a better alternative to seeing if the squid was a hoax or not.

“Fine,” she said finally, moving to sit on the sofa opposite from him. “But I’ve been out here plenty of times and I’ve never seen the stupid thing.”

The boy turned his brown eyes on her then. “You’re that Knightly girl everyone talks about, right? You’re not as scary as everyone makes you out to be-”

“No one talks about me,” Cressida scoffed, refusing to meet his eyes.

“They were right about you being argumentative though,” he shot back. “And to think people don’t talk about you is stupid. After all, you’re the girl that nearly ran our good Slytherin name back into the ground.”

Cressida glared at him and found he was smiling, an oddly endearing smile given his otherwise grave appearance. “I’m starting to see why you’re always alone now-”

The boy laughed lightly. “Don’t be too hard on yourself about it. Nobody really likes us anyway. Next year it’ll be somebody new to blame for all the hate and curses in the hall. I went through it the year before you arrived.”

She settled back into the sofa cushions but remained wary of the stranger. “If you know my name, it’s only fair I know your-”

“Thane,” he cut her off knowingly. He returned his attention to staring out the window into the murky water. “My dad’s Theodore Nott.”

When he once again got no response from Cressida, he looked at her again. 

“I’m sorry, am I supposed to know who that is?” She asked. She knew she often had no idea who’s people’s parents were, or whether they were Hogwarts royalty or some great fighter in the war.

“Nah,” Thane smiled, almost relieved. “It’s somewhat refreshing that you don’t know. Makes it easier to talk to you.”

“Let me guess, your dad was friends with Potter's?” She assumed.

“The opposite,” Thane laughed. “He hated Potter and his golden friends. My dad was Slytherin royalty, friends with Draco Malfoy.”

That  name she had heard of. She had read an article about Malfoy Manor, and a lot of articles written about the war named someone with the last name Malfoy- was it Lucius?

Either way, it was odd to hear someone talking badly about James’ dad after only hearing about how great he was all last year. But if Thane was from Slytherin heritage, maybe that meant she wouldn’t have to rely on an anti-social portrait to get more information on Slytherins of the past.

“There it is now!” Thane leapt across the sofa to sit beside Cressida, angling her towards the window and pointing a bony finger into the murky water.

Cressida stared for a moment, not seeing anything extraordinary apart from a bit of seaweed floating past. Then, a barely visible shadow moved through the water. If Thane hadn’t been pointing it out, Cressida never would have spotted it.

Turning her head slightly, she could see the amazed look on Thane’s face, and once again found it slightly endearing. There was something about him that reminded her of Conwell. Not in the scruffy down and out way, but in the casual tongue-in-cheek way. He felt like one of the boys Albie would recruit to be in his gang and then get annoyed at because all the girls fancied him more. 

He didn’t seem to put up an appearance. That was rare in Hogwarts.

“You’re going to miss it,” he said, grabbing her chin between his thumb and forefinger, turning her back towards the window.

“Excuse me for not being amazed by a shadow-” Cressida started but then her mouth fell open.

A tentacle came into view, and soon the squid, in all its glory, was floating past, taking up the whole window.

“Told you it was real.”

Cressida remained focused on the squid as it slowly went past until it was completely lost to the darkness of the Black Lake once more. “And that thing is swimming above us… all the time?”

“That, and the mermaids,” Thane replied. “There are tons of creatures living in the Black Lake. A lot of them would drag you down and drown you without a second thought.”

“Oh great,” Cressida said sarcastically. “That’s so comforting to know.”

“I think so,” he smiled. He looked at her then, as if assessing something. “Weren’t you supposed to be blonde?”

“Yeah,” Cressida sighed. “I had this idea in my head that I needed to look… better.”

Thane nodded thoughtfully. “Who gave you that stupid impression?”

Cressida shrugged in response.

“Well, if it helps you look just like the rest of us,” Thane said putting his hands back behind his head. “ Slytherin royalty  at its finest .  Black hair and blacker hearts are practically our whole aesthetic… unless you’re a Malfoy. They have a whole white-hair thing going on.”

“I don’t count as Slytherin royalty,” Cressida said. “I’m muggle-born.”

Thane quirked an eyebrow. “Now that  is  a shock.” He got to his feet then, bowing comically at her. “Farewell, Miss Knightly. I’m sure we’ll meet again.”

“Whatever,” Cressida said, watching Thane depart towards the boy’s dormitories. In the corner of her eye, she spotted Regulus pop into his frame. “Hey, you!”

Regulus quickly disappeared again.

Chapter 39: Second Year: Quidditch Extraordinaires

Summary:

Cressida does her first article on the Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor game

Saturday 18th February 2017

 

Cressida had since decided to accept her new hair proudly and was slightly relishing in the fact hardly anyone recognised her without her signature blonde hair and green robes. 

However, after two weeks of Hogwarts having orange robes, McGonagall had finally found a counterspell, although, Molly thought she had taken her sweet time doing so. Margo claimed that McGonagall didn't change them back for this long on purpose just because she was a fan of the three boy's antics. Jac had chimed in saying that perhaps McGonagall held off because everyone was getting along so well with the orange robes.

Regardless of the theories though, all the robes were returned to their usual house colours. James, Fred and Thomas had received a Howler in the post from Teddy Lupin, yelling about how proud he was of their mischief-making. Apparently, McGonagall had contacted him for advice on the counterspell before she cast it.

The robes reverting back to normal caused some problems first thing in the morning when people wearing yellow robes were sneaking out of Ravenclaw, and people wearing red robes were sneaking out of Hufflepuff. Filch was having a field day handing out detentions, considering sleepovers in any room apart from your own were banned.

It felt strange to be back in her normal green embellished robes after the orange ones. She was amazed, but not surprised, how quickly everyone reverted back to being distinguishable by their house. If anything, having the robes back to normal for this weekend was the worst and best time for it to happen. 

It was the long-overdue first Quidditch match of the year, and everyone was showing their support for either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. Gryffindor seemed to be in the lead for everyone’s favourite team, based on all the chatter during breakfast Saturday morning.

Thomas and James were already dressed in their scarlet Quidditch uniforms and sat with the rest of their team. Fred was mixed in with them but looked slightly out of place without a matching uniform. To make up for his lack of uniform, however, the boy was sporting a large lion’s mane on his head, to show extra support for his house.

Thomas still looked sick, (Cressida wondered whether he’d ever not have pre-game nerves), and Fred was making loud lion noises and shaking his fluffy mane in the smaller boy’s face to distract him as he tried to eat his toast in small bites. James was talking to their team Captain, and based on the concentrated look on his face, they were talking about the strategy for the game ahead.

“What time do you have to go down there?” Jac asked in between spoonful's of her cereal.

Cressida sighed, glancing at the time. She had to attend the game and do interviews with the players beforehand ready for next week's edition of  The   Chatterbox.

“Whenever they get up to leave, I suppose,” Cressida answered, finishing the last of her scrambled eggs.

“Do you want some company?” Molly offered. “We can linger outside the tents and wait for you to finish the interviews.”

Margo had her eyes on Cressida now. “You could do with having someone who actually  knows  about Quidditch there with you. You might get lost and confused otherwise.”

Cressida glared at her, stubbornness bubbling up in her chest. She would have liked to have her friends there to fill her in on the rules and terms she didn’t know, but now she didn’t want to look like she was stupid. Everyone else had done such a good job with their columns on the first issue of the newspaper without any help, Cressida wanted to be able to say the same. “I think I can manage to ask them questions and write it down by myself, thank you, Margo.”

“Yeah,” Felix said, coming to her defence with a mouthful of food. “She’s not a complete dunce. She’ll probably know more about Quidditch than you by the end of the day.”

Margo huffed but said nothing further.

Jac nudged her, alerting Cressida to the Gryffindor team getting up to head down to the pitch. “Time to go, Gary Lineker.”

“Who?” Margo asked.

“Match Of The Day presenter,” Cressida answered, getting up herself.

“Now who’s the dunce,” Felix laughed, bristling Margo’s mood even more.

Cressida left the table to the familiar sound of Molly putting a stop to one of Margo and Felix’s arguments. She attempted to catch up with the Gryffindor team before going to the pitch, hoping to do the interviews on the way down and get it over with quickly.

“Knightly!” James called excitedly. He had his arm draped around Thomas’ shoulders, steering the green looking boy through the crowd. “Coming to watch the game this time?”

“She has to,” Fred answered for her. “Miraculously, Knightly is in charge of the Quidditch column.”

“Do you even know anything about Quidditch?” Thomas asked bemused.

Cressida set her eyes on Fred, ignoring Thomas’ question. “How did you know that?”

“Jac,” he shrugged by way of answer.

“Well, your little reporter friend can wait,” their Captain, Lucas Aslow, said. “She can do it in the tents like every other Nosey Nellie we’ve had.”

James turned toward the older boy. “But-”

“No, Potter,” Lucas said authoritatively. “When  you’re  Captain she can do what she likes, but I say she has to wait and do it in the tents after the game is finished. We can’t have her putting us off before we go on.”

Cressida rolled her eyes, knowing thanks to Lucas Aslow’s pig-headedness, she’d have to sit through the whole game and actually pay attention to it, then do the interviews during her precious afternoon. Hopefully, the Hufflepuff Captain would be more willing to let her talk to them beforehand.

“Fine,” she said, looking to Aslow. They were on the paths leading down to the pitch now, Hufflepuff team was coming up beside them in their yellow coloured robes. “Can I at least get a pre-game statement from you?”

“Here’s your pre-game statement,” Fred said enthusiastically, getting the attention of the competing team. “We’re going to thrash them!” 

His lion head give off another mighty roar, and the Hufflepuffs all stared at it before rushing ahead.

“What he said,” Lucas nodded concisely. “Now off you go before you derail their concentration even more. And will  someone  cheer Wood up before we go on! The kid looks like a goblin ate his left foot.”

Lucas gestured for their own team to speed up down the paths to catch up to Hufflepuff. Cressida turned to Thomas before he could speed off as well. 

“Good luck, Wood,” she said.

He looked surprised by the comment. “Thanks, Cressida.”

“What about me?” James said, leaning forward cockily.

Cressida shoved him backwards. “You don’t need luck. Unlike Wood, you look like you can keep your breakfast down.”

“Potter!” Lucas was bellowing.

James promptly rushed ahead, Thomas still under his arm. Fred remained by Cressida’s side as they continued the rest of the way on their own. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Fred asked suddenly.

Cressida was writing down the pre-game statement as he asked that. “Not a clue, but it can’t be that hard to understand, right?”

Fred laughed loudly. “I like your confidence, Knightly. If you want any help, I can save you a seat in the stands-”

“That won’t be necessary,” she said quickly. “I’ll be sitting by Jac and Felix.”

“Redwick's coming?” Fred asked, slightly too eagerly.

“Yes,” Cressida said, narrowing her eyes on him. “Why?”

“No reason,” Fred back-peddled quickly, breaking away from her on the path. “I should go sneak into the tents before the game starts. I’ll see you lot there!”

Cressida came to a stop outside the Hufflepuff’s tent and sighed. The next few hours of her day were going to be painful to get through, she could already tell. Forcing a smile on her face to seem approachable, she opened the tent and stepped inside.

 

*

 

The Hufflepuff team had been more than willing to talk to Cressida for ten minutes before the game started, however, she found Abigail Stokes, their team Captain, spoke so fast it was hard for Cressida to write it down in any coherent sentences. By the time the game was starting and the Hufflepuff team left, she looked down at her parchment to find phrases like ‘uppity down and round manoeuvre,’  and  ‘hoping to avoid accidental haversacking.’

Once Abigail had said in full seriousness  ‘holding the broom tightly between your legs is key to a steady ride’  she knew this was not going to be as easy to complete as she originally thought. Quidditch was entirely ridiculous. She wasn’t entirely sure if anything she had collected already would make it into her column.

She trudged her way up the stands to find an empty seat in between Felix and Jac.

“No Molly and Margo?” She asked, taking it gratefully. Abigail hadn’t stopped pacing the entire time she was talking to Cressida, making her follow behind as she zipped around the tent.

“Margo’s in a strop again, as usual,” Felix replied. “Molly is trying to convince her to come for the second half of the game later.”

“How’d the interviews go?” Jac asked.

Cressida looked pessimistically at her notes. “It’ll take some tweaking-” 

A body had forced itself into a small gap beside Jac, and Cressida looked up to see Fred grinning at her. “Knightly,” he nodded.

“What are you doing here?” Felix asked before Cressida could.

“Watching the game,” he answered simply, pulling something from his back pocket. “Bertie Bott?” Felix conceded and took a Bertie Bott’s bean, thinking no more about it. Cressida looked to Jac, to find she was equally bemused by the boy’s sudden willingness to sit with them. “Look, both my mates are on the pitch. I had no one else to sit with,” he explained, once he saw their expressions.

“You don’t have other friends?” Jac asked curiously. “I thought all of Hogwarts got on with you?”

Fred shrugged, happily sharing his box of Bertie Bott’s with Felix. “Yeah, but they’d try and talk to me. You three will shut up and let me watch in peace.”

Cressida settled back into her seat, knowing he had a point. Although, she panicked if Molly did convince Margo to join the game later, she would storm off again once she saw Fred sitting with them.

She got her parchment and quill ready to take notes as the two teams entered the pitch to start.

It had started rather slow, she thought. Once Madam Hooch had thrown the ball up in the air, Hufflepuff had it immediately. Then it was a thirty-minute game of chase as Gryffindor attempted to get it back from them.

Various  ‘oos’  and ‘ ahhs’ came from the stands as the crowd watched when something other than a bunch of students flying about in mid-air happened. Cressida felt incredibly bored. It was like watching a more complicated version of piggy in the middle.

Hufflepuff had scored.

Then Gryffindor.

Then Hufflepuff.

Hufflepuff again.

Then Gryffindor.

Cressida watched Thomas Wood for a while amongst all the back and forth. He seemed to be getting incredibly frustrated that he couldn’t find the Golden Snitch and had taken to flying incredibly high to look down on the game in the hopes of seeing something no one else could. Hufflepuff’s Seeker, however, remained in the action, zipping back and forth, avoiding Bludgers and other players, flying with reckless abandon in the hopes the Snitch would just appear in his view.

“They’re biding time,” Fred said as they watched.

Felix nodded along. He had forced Jac and Cressida to move so he was sitting beside Fred for the game, a pile of sweets between them. “Your lot need to get their asses moving if they want to win this. Wood’s not going to see the Snitch from all the way up there!”

“Don’t doubt Wood,” Fred said defensively. “That boy has eyes like a hawk and the intelligence to match.”

Cressida and Jac remained silent, listening to the two boys talking to one another about strategies and comparing notes. Every now and then Cressida would sneakily write down something one of them suggested to make herself sound smarter in her column.

One of the players in yellow flew upward and then threw the Quaffle down to another Chaser directly below before Gryffindor could intercept it. “Hufflepuff’s Chasers using Porskoff Ploy, very clever indeed!” The commentator called. Cressida lazily copied it down onto her parchment of notes.

Hufflepuff had scored.

“Gryffindor has the Quaffle now thanks to using the Body Blow move!”

Cressida’s eyes looked up to watch. Lucas and the third Chaser Cressida didn’t know had the Quaffle now.

“Wood’s on the move! Has he finally spotted the Snitch or was he just missing being in on the action?!”

Thomas was darting back down into the chaos of the game. Hufflepuff’s Seeker turned, frantically searching for what Thomas was heading towards.

“Stokes aiming the Bludger towards Wood!”

Thomas was suddenly hanging upside down on his broomstick to avoid said Bludger colliding with him. “An excellent Sloth Grip Roll from Wood there!”

Thomas was considerably less green now, darting around the pitch like a natural. He had flown over to James, who so far had not had very much attention on him during the game. The two flew side by side, clearly deep in conversation. Another Bludger was sent their way by Abigail Stokes and they broke apart. For a girl so nice and bubbly, Cressida thought her Quidditch tactics were the exact opposite of her personality.

James flew over to Aslow then, shouting something that no one would hear over the crowd cheering

Aslow nodded, clearly giving in to whatever Potter had asked.

“A good reverse pass from Aslow there!” 

James had the Quaffle now.

All three Hufflepuff Chasers were on James now, smiling as they formed a triangle around him. “Hufflepuff going in for the Hawkshead Attacking Formation assuming Potter is the weakest link on the team this year! It  is  his first proper game after all, but with his impressive Quidditch lineage, and that terrible accident last year, he has a lot to live up to!”

Gryffindor’s Beaters had done their job, aiming the deadly balls towards the formation with acute accuracy causing the Hufflepuffs to break away from James as he zoomed towards the goalposts on the other end of the pitch.

Aslow and the other Chaser suddenly held back, purposefully blocking Hufflepuff’s path to James as he darted ahead, a clear plan in mind.

“He’s not!” The commentator called in utter disbelief. “Potter is attempting a Chelmondiston Charge! That’s ballsy-” McGonagall had cleared her throat primly beside the commentator. “Sorry, Head Mistress.”

Fred was practically leaping out of his seat in support of his best friends at this point. Even Felix was on his feet watching in complete enthralment.

Cressida sought out the dark-haired boy on the pitch. James was shakily attempting to stand up on his broom. The opposing team’s Beaters spotted him and tried aiming a Bludger in his direction. She held her breath as she watched the ball go flying through the air towards James. Luckily, Gryffindor’s Beater had also gotten involved, intercepting the Bludger right before it would have knocked James off his broom, aiming it right back towards Abigail and her teammate.

The crowd cheered. James, now fuelled by the cheering, had both feet on his broom, the Quaffle under one arm.

“Will he pull it off?!” The commentator called. “If he doesn’t someone should get Madam Pomfrey on stand by for the downfall-”

“GRYFFIN-DOR! GRYFFIN-DOR!” The crowd cheered. Fred’s lion head had never roared so loud.

James spread out his free arm to get his balance. Every Hufflepuff Beater and Chaser was on James now, trying to distract him or knock him off balance.

“Come on, Potter,” Cressida heard herself saying as she watched in anticipation.

“Gryffindor’s Seeker has eyes on the Snitch-”

No one was paying attention. James had leapt off his broom, using all his strength the throw the Quaffle towards the goal post. Hufflepuff’s Keeper dived towards it but he was too slow. The Quaffle shot through the goal post, James’ body flying through after it. He only barely caught the goal post in his hand before he would have plummeted through the goal post himself and tumbled to the floor.

“Wood has the snitch. I repeat! GRYFFINDOR SEEKER HAS THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!”

There was uproar. McGonagall and Longbottom were among the first to cheer, clapping frantically at their victory. James was celebrating, barely hanging on to the goal post with one hand. Thomas flew over and saved him from falling to the ground in excitement, holding the tiny golden Snitch above his head as he did a victory lap with James on the back of his broom. Everyone was shouting and cheering. Fred had abandoned the Slytherins within moments and was running down onto the pitch to meet his best friends.

The Gryffindor team all crowded together in the centre of the pitch, lifting James and Thomas onto their shoulders and chanting their names. Even Hufflepuff congratulated them on pulling off that move, although their Seeker looked less than pleased he had been too distracted watching Potter to realize the Snitch was nearby.

“You’ve got to admit,” Felix was saying. “They are good.”

“Knightly!” Lucas Aslow shouted over the crowd as they started leaving the pitch, now in a much better mood. “Come and do your interviews, and bring lots of parchment!”

Jac clapped Cressida on the back with a laugh. “Looks like you get to join in on the celebrating first hand.”

“Lucky me,” she said, faking annoyance, but even she had to agree. They were  good .

She clambered her way through the rowdy crowds leaving the pitch to get to the tents, and pulling open Gryffindor’s tent, she found that the team itself was rivalling the crowd in rowdiness. Scarlett uniforms were half discarded at this point, brooms lay scattered on the floor, and older boys were roughhousing and laughing jovially.

She had barely been in the tent for more than ten seconds before the trio came running up to her. James’ black hair was dripping with sweat, and Thomas was flushed, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Both boys had a wild look in their eyes. 

“Did you see?! Did you  see ?!” James was rambling.

“We were amazing!” Fred joined in. “Well, you two were- the whole team in fact, but I’m taking credit through association!”

“It was just an idea in the spur of the moment,” Thomas said bashfully. “I knew James would be the only one stupid enough to try that move on a whim.”

James clapped Thomas on the back. “It was bloody inspired, Woody!”

“That it was,” Lucas said coming up behind the three boys, towering over them. “I had my doubts, but I must admit, we might not have won if it hadn’t been for that absolutely idiotic idea. To have everyone jump Potter while you got the Snitch- genius!”

“He’s not Oliver Wood’s son for nothing,” Fred said, shouldering the smaller boy. Thomas blushed and attempted to hide in his two friend’s shadows.

“Come on then, Knightly. Let’s do your interview,” Lucas grinned, turning his attention to her. “Hope you’ve got enough parchment to copy this down. We’re going over the game second by second, right up until our victory. The rest of you,” he called out to his team. “Shower and get changed. You all reek!”

“What about us?” James asked. “Can we stay-”

“No, you reek worst of all, Potter,” Lucas said. “Get changed. You can catch up with your girlfriend later.”

“Gross,” Cressida and James said in unison.

Lucas smiled, ushering the trio of boys away promptly. “Whatever, just get out of here. Knightly, follow me.”

“Great,” Cressida forced another smile, preparing her quill as she followed Lucas somewhere quieter.

 

 

Thursday 23rd February 2017

 

By now, the next issue of  The Chatterbox  newspaper was eagerly awaited, and first thing Monday morning students had opened their newspapers to see the new features and updates. Victoire made sure to proofread each article three times now before sending the issue out for printing after the Potter issue.

Everyone loved the cartoon characters, who often jumped out of their comic strip boxes and roamed the newspaper at their own will. It had been Felix’s brilliant idea, and with the help of Jacob, they brought it to fruition within the week. Sometimes you could ask the cartoon characters to keep your spot on an article while you went to get a coffee but other times they would start erasing articles entirely while you weren’t looking. Victoire suggested they fix this issue, but Felix thought it was hilarious and demanded it stay put. 

Michael had also come up with a card swapping page, where students could bargain and swap chocolate frog cards with other people at Hogwarts more easily if they were advertised, which Felix thought was an inspired idea.

On page 10, Jac had worked with Veronica to enchant the page to play a snippet of the top 100 songs from the previous year outside of Hogwarts whenever you tapped your wand tip to the title. The current favourite around the breakfast table was  ‘Black Magic’  by  ‘Little Mix’  which all the muggle-borns found slightly ironic. 

Margo and Penelope had written about the after-party Gryffindor had thrown in celebration, despite neither of them having attended. Victoire and Veronica had attended, however, and they were more than willing to fill the two girls in on what had happened.

Apparently, there was a lot of chanting for Wood and Potter, despite neither boy actually being at the party either. They learned shortly after that the trio of boys had decided against going to the party- Felix had called them incredibly stupid and lacking in priorities- in favour of flying their brooms around the Quidditch pitch late into the night, re-enacting the whole game with just the three of them.

Veronica and Victoire’s beauty page was a massive hit amongst the girls of Hogwarts by now as well.

At lunch, a group of Third Year girls came shuffling up to Cressida as she sat at the Slytherin table, gripping their newspapers in their hands. “Is it true this spell did that to your hair?” One of them asked excitedly.

Cressida swallowed her sandwich, turning in her chair to face them. “I suppose so.”

“Do you think it would work for us?” The second one asked. She pulled at her thin, mousey brown hair with distaste. “It’s just I’m hoping to get asked on a date to Hogsmead tomorrow night and I want my hair to look like yours-”

Cressida choked on her food, while Felix held back a laugh. “You want to look like  me ?”

The three girls nodded eagerly. “What make-up products do you use?” The third, shortest girl asked.

“Are those freckles real, or is that a spell too?” The first girl asked.

“And your eyes-”

“Her eyes are real,” Margo said, bordering on annoyance.

 Jac and Felix were grinning at Cressida while she fumbled for what to say next. Finally, Molly chimed into the conversation. “Just do whatever it says in the paper and I’m sure you’ll all look lovely.”

“Not as lovely as Knightly, of course,” Jac teased with a nudge. “She was just born like this.”

“Apart from the hair, obviously,” Margo butted in. “That  was  a spell.”

Molly glanced sideways at Margo then turned back to the three girls. “Why don’t you ask Victoire. She knows more about all of this than us.”

The three girls nodded gratefully then shuffled away again in search of Victoire. Once they were gone, Felix could hardly contain his laughter. “Merlin, Knightly. If you were worried your hair looked crap before, you have no need to worry now.”

“Thanks, Felix, that makes me feel much better,” Cressida said dryly as the group got up to leave for afternoon lessons.

“Just out of curiosity though,” Margo started. “When do you think it will go back to how it was before?”

“Why does it matter to you?” Jac asked.

Margo shrugged, facing forward pointedly. “Just wondering… it’s just, isn’t it sort of like false advertising, whereas  my  hair-”

“Shut up, Margo,” Felix huffed, rolling his eyes.

“I’m just saying, Cressida is naturally blonde!”

“And you’re naturally annoying, but you don’t see us asking when that’s going to change,” Felix quipped, which was met with a light slap on the arm from Molly.

Margo’s bottom lip jutted out. “If anybody needs me, I’ll be in the bathroom.”

With that, the dark-haired girl stomped off in the direction of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. “You always have to go too far, Finnegan,” Molly chided him before following dutifully after Margo. “If she doesn’t come to lessons in ten minutes, I’m blaming you!”

“She started it,” Felix grumbled once Molly was out of earshot. 

The three remaining Slytherins had made their way up to Charms and entered the classroom, greeted by the small Professor.

“Yes, yes. Come in, settle down. Per Professor McGonagall’s request, she has asked me to bump up the teaching of the general counterspell before we start our exam prep!” Flitwick was saying from his stack of books so he was the same height as the tallest Second Year. “Take your seats and we will start shortly.”

They obeyed, Jac splitting away from Cressida and Felix to take her seat on the other side of the room. Molly and Margo had been next to walk in, although Margo looked furious to be next to Felix and Cressida again so soon. She purposefully shuffled her chair away from the two and sat down with her nose sticking in the air. Felix pulled a funny face behind her back until Cressida had to stifle a laugh.

“Make way! Make way!”

Cressida rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming before it even happened.

“Quidditch heroes coming through!” Fred’s voice boomed as he entered the classroom accompanied by Thomas and James. 

James was soaking in the attention, bowing dramatically as he stepped in the door. “It’s a pleasure to grace you with our presence.”

Thomas stuck beside Fred, looking guiltily towards Flitwick. “They’ll stop once they’ve sat down. They just have to get it out of their system.”

“Hark!” Fred turned on Thomas. “A man who does not revel in his own deserved greatness!”

James clutched a hand to his chest. “A nobleman, indeed, is our Wood. Too bashful for his own good.”

“Aha!” Fred called, barely keeping the act going in between laughs now. “It appears poetry should be added to your long list of talents, master Potter!”

“I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it!” James dissolved into his own laughing fit.

Flitwick was ushering the boys to their seats as they laughed, Thomas looking more than embarrassed to be involved in their dramatics. “Do sit down, boys. We have much to get through, and I have no doubt your antics are what brought this one in the first place-”

“What are we learning today, sir?” Thomas asked.

“Counterspells-”

“Wicked!” Fred said, overcoming his laughter now. “Those could come in handy for when we’re testing spells out on each other-”

“Don’t even think about it, boys!” Flitwick lectured, returning to the front of his classroom. “In fact, today we will be working in pairs to ensure everyone gets a fair turn. Miss Smithers and Mr Finnigan, would you please pair up.”

“Bloody typical,” Felix cursed, sinking low in his chair.

“Mr Weasley and Miss Redwick,” Flitwick continued. “Miss Weasley and Mr Wood. If you’d like to swap seats accordingly.”

Fred’s eyes darted across to Jac, but he didn’t look too disappointed. “See you on the other side, lads,” he whispered, getting out of his seat to swap with Molly coming towards them.

“I believe Miss Knightly is capable of keeping Mr Potter under control-”

Fred let out a laugh as he plonked himself down next to Jac. James sent him a rude gesture in retaliation.

Flitwick went about pairing up the rest of the class as Cressida walked around the desks to sit beside James.

She held up her hand to stop whatever drivel was about to come out of his mouth. “Before you start, I actually want to do well in this lesson, so for once, can you keep your head out of the clouds and do as we’re told?”

James grinned as he settled into his chair, twirling his wand in his fingers. “Sure thing, Knightly. After what you wrote in your Quidditch column, we owe you our glory.”

Cressida groaned internally. She was hoping they wouldn’t bring up her Quidditch column, but of course, they  had  to.

If she was honest, she had been impressed after the game, especially once Lucas Aslow had explained how hard what Potter had pulled off actually was in his hour-long run-through of the game. Once she had more parchment than she could count full of notes, she cornered Molly and Felix into helping her sort through and make sense of it all. Felix had been more than happy to compliment Gryffindor on their game and Hufflepuffs good sportsmanship after losing. Molly was much more practical, talking about the technicalities of the game and how Gryffindor wasted a lot of time, giving Hufflepuff an easy head start. It was clear they both knew far more than Cressida did.

By the end of the night, she had her column written and felt fairly proud of what they had come up with.

“Do you really think I’m one of the most daring people you’ve ever met?” James asked, batting his eyelashes mockingly.

Cressida shoved him further away. “I said that  move  was one of the most daring I’d seen as of yet. If anything, I complimented Wood more than you. He’s the one that came up with it.”

“Yeah, but  I’m  the one that pulled it off for the most part,” James said smugly. “Aslow said I could have broken all my bones if I’d cocked it up.”

“It’s a shame you didn’t then,” Cressida replied coolly. “Might have deflated your ego a bit if you’d made a tit of yourself.”

“Okay!” Flitwick said, getting everyone’s attention. “Now, one of you will be cursed and the other will try and reverse it as so-  Finite ! ”

Flitwick had barely finished his demonstration before wands were out and curses were flying at partners. Felix had gotten Margo with the  Avifors , turning her into a bird squawking angrily at him. Jac had gotten Fred with the Bat-Bogey Hex. Molly had gotten Thomas with the  Furnunculus  spell, causing boils to spring up all over the poor boy’s face.

Cressida and James drew their wands at exactly the same time, eyeing each other up.

“Sternius!”

“Slugulus Eructo!”

Cressida dropped her wand to the floor as she sneezed abruptly. James was laughing at her until he doubled over, vomiting up a slug.

Flitwick was holding his nose in disdain watching the chaos unfold. With a flick of his wand, he summoned a bucket in front of James to catch the slugs while he dealt with the rest of the class.

“That’s disgusting!” Cressida said in between frantic sneezes.

“You caused it!” James rebuked, coughing another slug up into the metal bucket with a thud. “Merlin, Knightly, could you have picked a worse one?!”

“A-choo!  Yes, Margo’s a bird.”

His head was fully in the bucket as he heaved. “Just do the counterspell!”

“Not until you do!”

He lifted his head, already looking like another slug was about to erupt out of him. “Well,  I’m  not doing it until  you  do! Knowing your evil mind, you’ll leave me like this all day!”

This was met with a series of sneezes. “If I undo this, you’ll curse me with something worse-  A-choo !”

“Okay, okay,” James relented. “We’ll do it at the same time. Ready?”

Cressida lifted her wand, nodding. James did the same, holding the bucket with his other hand.

“Finite!”  Cressida had sneezed mid-cast and her spell shot right past James and hit Margo, turning her back into herself. James had puked up another slug before he even had a chance to start casting the spell.

“I’m going to kill you, Finnigan!” Margo squealed as soon as she was able to talk again. “You turned me into a sodding parakeet!”

She pounced on the boy, who could do nothing but quickly fling himself backwards to try and avoid her wrath. 

It didn’t work.

Margo was on top of him, pounding him with her fists as he tried to fight her off. Molly sat nearby watching it unfold silently. She made no attempt to stop them this time.

Eventually, Margo got her wand out and pointed it at Felix’s face.

“ Immobulus !” Flitwick had aimed his wand and stopped Margo mid-curse. With another flick, she had shot back into her seat, her wand flying to Flitwick’s waiting hand.

Felix carefully looked up over the tables, wondering if he too was about to be magically moved.

Flitwick calmly placed his wand back into his robe pocket, addressing the class that was now watching him intently. “I do believe-

“A-choo!”

“I do believe that perhaps I put too much faith in you to not immediately try and out curse each other. If you would  all  like to calmly cast the counter spell on your victims, we shall write about the repercussions and consequences of casting spells without thinking of their effect,” Flitwick instructed.

Everyone did as instructed in fear of annoying Flitwick further. No one had ever seen the small teacher actually mad, and they knew better than to bring it about on purpose.

Cressida undid the slug vomiting charm on James and watched as he discarded the bucket as far away from him as possible.

“Okay-  a-choo - my turn,” Cressida said expectantly.

James grinned, preparing his parchment to start writing. “I already cast it, Knightly… you just must have some  really  bad hayfever or something. I’m sure it’ll wear off by morning.”

Her right eye twitched as she glared at him. The class was silent now, apart from her occasional sneeze, doing as they were told. She couldn’t curse him now, and he knew it.

“I’m going to get you back for this,” she swore under her breath, only to be undermined by yet another sneeze.

“Can’t wait,” James smiled.

Chapter 40: Second Year: Breaking The Cycle

Friday 3rd March 2017

 

“He’s baiting you,” Molly said, turning the page of her book.

“I know,” Cressida replied.

“You’re letting him get inside your head,” Molly continued.

“I know that too.”

“So why  exactly  do you want my input on it?”

Cressida huffed, throwing her head back on the sofa. She and Molly were sat in the alcove just after curfew having some tea while Molly finished off the last of her Astronomy homework- Margo refused to help either girl with it anymore.

“I’ve told you this already, he’s going to keep baiting you until you explicitly tell him no,” Molly sighed, turning another page. “You have to draw the line in the sand, otherwise he’ll keep doing it. I thought you’d moved past the pranks with my cousins after the fiasco before Christmas.”

“There is a line,” Cressida rebuked. There was  definitely  a line, she told herself. “But I can’t just let him get away with it.” 

Molly rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything further.

Ever since their Charms lesson about counter curses, Cressida had developed back into some of her old habits. She watched the trio of boys, she stayed up late scheming on ways to prank them, she wondered how to be one step ahead of them. 

It was only when Jac had pointed out in the secret room that the trio assumed the prank war was back on, that Cressida realised she had started it up again without even meaning to. Fred had commented on it in passing one day after lessons and Jac instantly relayed it to Cressida.

She could see the effect of it in the days after. James had been antagonising her more, expecting her to retaliate, pushing her buttons to see just how far he could push her before she snapped back at him. The game was back on in full force.

It appeared that while James was targeting Cressida, Thomas and Fred had been instructed to try and break down Jac, getting her to give out what Cressida was planning on doing to them as payback.

She hadn’t retaliated yet. She wouldn’t let herself. Especially once she realised what was going on, but she still  had  to get back at them somehow. She couldn’t let them think they’d  won . James deserved payback for what he pulled in Charms. She’d been sneezing until lunch the next day. Every time any of the Slytherins tried to un-curse her, James would magically appear and re-do the spell, until they’d given up and left Cressida to her sneeze induced nightmare.

“Just one last prank,” Cressida suggested.

“And then they’ll retaliate and you’ll be back here in a week’s time, trying to convince me and you that this is ever going to end,” Molly said knowingly. 

“But-”

“Do you want it to go back to how it was before?” Molly asked, closing her textbook finally. “Do you want to be getting detentions and causing trouble again?”

Cressida shrank back into the sofa cushions. “No.”

She hadn’t gotten a detention all week, but she’d come close. Fred had set off a stink bomb in the girl’s bathroom just after Jac and Cressida had gone in there. Felix had to restrain both girls from cursing him as he ran away under the watchful eye of Professor Longbottom, who sighed and pursued the boy himself.

“They’ll give up eventually,” Molly said packing her things away. “You just have to let them believe they have no effect on you anymore. You have to be aloof.”

Cressida sat up, thinking over Molly’s words. “That’s not a bad idea, Weasley.”

Molly narrowed her eyes as both girls got to their feet. “I know that tone, but given it's nearly midnight, I’m choosing to ignore it for now. Come on, let’s go to bed.”

Both girls snuck back into their dorm room to hear the loud snoring of Margo behind her bed curtains. Molly discarded her books on her trunk and clambered into bed without another word. Cressida lingered in the room, waiting until she was sure Molly was asleep to tip-toe to the bed opposite hers.

“Knock, knock,” Cressida whispered, barely audible.

Jac pulled open her bed curtains with a grin. “What’s the password?”

“Finnigan’s funky feet.”

“You may enter,” Jac said with a nod.

The two girls sat opposite each other on the bed. Cressida wasn’t surprised to find Rasper already sprawled out on Jac’s cushion fast asleep. 

“How’d your chat with Molly go?”

“She gave me an idea.”

Jac raised an eyebrow. “On purpose?”

“Of course not,” Cressida smiled. Jac matched it, waiting intently for Cressida to explain. “We’re going to do nothing.”

Jac’s brow narrowed, causing a crinkle in her forehead. “What-”

“They’ll  think  we’re planning something. We act like it could happen to them at any moment but we do nothing. We don’t even react to their torment, just give vague replies and warnings. They’ll be torturing themselves trying to figure out what we’ve done to get back at them.”

“And we just… do nothing?” Jac asked confused. Cressida nodded. “You think they’ll fall for it?”

“I reckon we can go at least two weeks with this,” Cressida said confidently.

Jac was smiling again now. “You’re an evil genius, Cressie.”

“We’re not Slytherins for nothing.”

 

 

Thursday 16th March 2017

 

So far Cressida’s plan of doing nothing in response to the trio’s antics was going wonderfully. Every time they purposefully went out of their way to antagonise her, she would simply smile and let them continue as if it didn’t bother her in the slightest.

“Alright, something’s going on with you!” James had whispered fiercely during Transfiguration one day. He had just turned Cressida’s quills into worms and caused them to squirm away. “Why aren’t you cursing us?”

Cressida shrugged, stealing James’ quill and writing down the notes on the board. “No reason.”

Thomas and Fred had turned their attention on her now, narrowing their eyes. “I  know  you’re up to something. Jac’s been acting skittish all week,” Fred said.

“Has she?” Cressida asked coolly. Jac had been the key to pulling this off. If she didn’t act like Cressida was secretly up to something, then the three boys never would have bought it. “She must know something I don’t then.”

Thomas was chewing on his quill nervously again. “Can you at least give us a warning of when you’re going to retaliate?” 

“Who says I’m going to retaliate?”

James scoffed. “We’ve been messing with you for a whole week now and you’ve barely reacted, and you’re still talking to us, so I know you’re not mad this time. If I know you, which I do, I know you’ve probably compiled a list of the worst ways to get back at us.”

Cressida smiled at him- the picture of innocence. “Would I do something like that?”

“ YES !” All three boys chorused.

 

*

 

“So, when are you going to curse us?” Fred had asked in Herbology. Professor Longbottom had paired them together for a change. They had barely been working for ten minutes before Fred asked the question, preferring the direct approach more than his two friends.

“When I feel like it,” Cressida had replied, labelling the diagram of the Mandrake in front of her. She was no longer playing innocent. She had upped her game to making the boys try and guess what she was going to do to them. It was highly entertaining to hear what ludicrous plans they could come up with, and what they thought Cressida actually had the magical capacity to do to them.

“Is it going to be bad?”

“Terrible.”

“When’s it going to happen?”

“When you least expect it.”

Fred nodded concisely. “I shall inform James. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Any time.”

 

*

 

The trio had been waiting outside of the Great Hall for Jac and Cressida one evening.

“Oh for Merlin’s sake!” Margo snapped at the sight of them. “Knightly, get rid of them!”

Fred smiled down at the smaller girl. “Always a pleasure, Smithers.”

Margo cursed at them loudly as she stormed ahead. “Molly! Aren’t you coming?”

Molly looked towards Cressida, rolling her eyes, before following after Margo. “You too, Finnigan!”

Felix groaned as he was dragged away by Molly.

Once it was only them and the two remaining girls, James spoke up. “What’s your definition of terrible?” 

“Think of the worst thing imaginable, then multiply it by six,” Cressida answered them. Jac was choking back a laugh.

“The Leg-Locker Curse?” Thomas asked.

“Worse.”

“ Ascendio ?” Fred tried.

“Worse,” Jac smiled, playing along.

“ Diminuendo ?” James asked.

Cressida wasn’t even sure what that spell did. “Worse,” she answered regardless.

The three boys looked stumped, and incredibly anxious. 

“Let’s just say, you three should definitely avoid the girl’s bathroom for the time being-” Jac started, then clasped her hand over her mouth. “Oops.”

James’ eyes widened slightly. “Yes. We will  definitely  stay away from there. Come along, men. We have places to be.”

The trio of boys swept away with their heads ducked low together. “What’s in the girl’s bathroom?” Cressida asked once they were gone.

“Nothing,” Jac grinned. “I just thought it’d be funny watching them tackle Moaning Myrtle.”

Cressida slung an arm around her shoulders proudly. “Who’s the evil genius now?”

“I learned from the best,” Jac laughed.

 

*

 

Jac’s plan had been ingenious. They had practically torn the girl’s bathroom apart brick by brick searching for any clues on what Cressida was going to do to them. Apparently, they had gotten it into their heads she was brewing some sort of potion in one of the stalls. Moaning Myrtle had actually left the bathroom for the first time in history, just to get someone to come and get rid of the three boys.

In the following days, whenever the trio saw Cressida and Jac in the halls or in lessons, they would try and corner them. Molly had grown incredibly annoyed with being followed and mentioned it frequently in her and Cressida’s late-night chats. Margo had taken to avoiding them all completely, fed up with Molly no longer sticking up for her no matter what. 

“I just think this is worse than if you had just cursed them back,” Molly huffed.

Jac looked up at her from where she was sitting on the floor. Lately, Jac had been invited out into the common room with them to take part in the chats. All of the products Jac and Cressida had bought from Weasley&Weasley at the beginning of the year spread out in front of her. Their collection was growing thin and they had been taking inventory of what was left. “It was your idea,” Jac said, examining a small object. “What do you reckon a Peace Disturber does?” She asked, chucking the object to Cressida.

“This is not what I meant and you know it,” Molly said, refusing to acknowledge the number of products on the floor.

Cressida pocketed the small object, not taking any notice of it. “Are you saying I should curse them and be done with it then, Mol?”

Molly huffed again. “I’m just saying, if you don’t stop them from following us around soon,  I’m  going to end up cursing them.”

“Now  that  I’d pay to see,” Jac grinned.

Molly threw a cushion at her. “Shut up, you only encourage her in this mess.”

Jac shrugged, getting out her wand to levitate a crumbled piece of parchment above her head. “Cressie’s got to let her talents out somehow.”

“Well, you could always use your magical skills to do well in class like everyone else,” Molly lectured.

Rasper had jumped out of Cressida’s lap and pounced on the piece of paper floating in mid-air. “I’m doing alright,” Cressida said, watching the kitten in amusement. If Cressida was honest, she hadn’t put any extra effort into her work at all yet this year. She did her homework, usually last minute and with the combined efforts of her friends, and she practised her required spells, but she saw no reason to do anything more. Exams were still a few months off, and she’d miraculously done alright in her First Year with the same level of commitment she was currently giving to her studies.

“Besides, you’re the smartest out of all of us,” Jac added on. “I bet you’re the smartest in our whole year.”

Molly looked down at her book in front of her bashfully. “Not the smartest-”

“Are too,” Cressida countered. “I bet if you were as interested in causing trouble as me and Jac, we’d be ruling the school by now with your evil mind.”

Molly’s eyes narrowed. “My mind is not  evil, ” she said sharply. “And neither is yours. The only reason you two get into trouble in the first place is because my idiotic cousins dragged you into it during First Year.”

Somebody cleared their throat loudly and the three girls looked towards it. Margo was standing in the common room, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. “Having a party, are we?”

Molly instantly looked guilty. “It’s not like that, Margo-”

“It was bad enough you and Knightly were out here having tea like you’re best friends-”

“Hey-” Cressida cut in, affronted.

“But now  Redwick  is invited over me!?” Margo continued loudly. “You’re  my  best friend, Molly!”

Molly was on her feet, moving towards the other girl. “I’m still your best friend, Margo-”

“No, you’re not! Not anymore! You started taking  their  side as if they are anything but trouble!” Margo rampaged. Cressida was growing weary of waking up the whole of Slytherin if Margo didn’t calm down soon. “My dad left and now you’re leaving me too!”

“What’s your problem, Margo? It’s just some tea-” Jac tried calmly, standing beside Molly.

“My problem is you!”   She snarled. “You and Knightly and your pathetic ability to get everyone to love you despite the fact you never think about anyone but yourselves. Our lives were hell in First Year because of you. It nearly happened again this year and everyone just seemed to ignore it!” Jac withdrew, looking rather offended. Margo didn’t ease up as she turned back to Molly. “And  you!  You were on my side. You said they were ruining everything-”

Cressida turned to Molly. “You said that?”

Molly looked baffled at how this had gotten so out of control. “It wasn’t their fault, not all of it. It was my cousins-”

“Get a grip, Molly. It’s not always your cousins!” Margo argued back. “Knightly is just as bad as them, you just got blinded by her like they did!”

Cressida had set a glare on her now, anger in her chest flaring. “Don’t say something you’ll regret, Smithers.”

“Or what, you’ll  curse  me?” She mocked. “Honestly, Cressida, it’s amazing you have any friends at all-”

“Mimble Wimble!”

Cressida hadn’t been the one to lift her wand. She and Jac stared at Molly as she held her wand out at arm's length towards Margo. Margo had a look of utter betrayal on her face as she opened her mouth to speak and nothing but nonsense came out.

Gabriel had stormed into the common room, his wand lit up in the dark. Felix was rushing out after him, hopping on one foot as he tried to pull on his slippers. “You lot again! Get to your dorm rooms now before I get Slughorn! And I’ll be confiscating all of that!” He said, noticing the pile of pranking products on the floor.

Nobody moved. Felix looked incredibly confused.

“ Hello !” Gabriel said, storming in front of the girls. Cressida thought that would have been a lot more authorising if Gabriel wasn’t wearing green satin pyjamas and bunny slippers. “Are any of you listening to me, or do I have to start throwing out detentions?!”

Margo stormed out and slammed the door to the girl’s room so loudly that they could hear it from the common room. 

Molly was staring at the ground as though she had done something terrible.

Felix was looking between Jac and Cressida, searching for any clues as to what had happened.

Even Gabriel looked concerned about what he’d walked into now. “Is there something I should know about, girls?”

“Nothing to know,” Cressida answered, taking charge. 

“Should someone go after Smithers?” Felix asked, looking to the girl’s dorms.

Molly sniffed, giving away she had started crying. She turned and ran back out of the common room completely.

“That’s it, I’m getting Slughorn!” Gabriel announced.

“No, don’t!” Cressida said quickly. “We’ll go to bed, we won’t cause any more noise. Just don’t send Slughorn after us.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Fine. Straight to bed then. I don’t want to hear another peep out of you lot for the rest of the month!” He said, extinguishing his wand and storming back to the boy's dormitories.

Cressida scooped up Rasper in her arms. “What the bloody hell happened out here?” Felix whispered, moving closer to the two remaining girls.

“Jac can fill you in,” Cressida said moving towards the exit.

“Where are you going?” Jac called.

“To find Molly.”

Cressida wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do when she found Molly. She was even less sure of what she was going to do when she faced Margo again, but she doubted it would end with them hugging. Luckily, her half-hour walk through the castle gave her plenty of time to run the scenarios through her head. Molly wouldn’t know about the secret passageways, and so Cressida had to use the actual corridors and staircase to try and figure out where the other girl had run off to. Inconveniently, this also gave her a higher chance of running into Filch.

If she and Molly got detention because of Margo, Cressida was sure she’d curse her into next week. She’d been getting away with too much lately.

How could Margo act like the victim in this? She had shown up in the common room and started the whole argument without giving them a chance to explain. It’s no wonder she was never invited to hang out with them, all she did was cause arguments or make petty comments.

Cressida thought Margo deserved to see that Molly had other friends than her for once. Molly didn’t only belong to Margo. And then, when she had started on Jac, Cressida felt such a hatred for Margo she was sure she would have snapped if Molly hadn’t beaten her to it, but she definitely would have done something worse than a tongue-tying spell. Jac never did anything wrong. Jac never joined in when Felix was making fun of Margo. In fact, aside from Molly, Jac was the nicest to Margo.

Rasper gave a chirp from where he was perched on Cressida's shoulder. “Who is it?” She whispered to the kitten.

Rasper jumped from the shoulder onto the floor and trotted off ahead. Cressida held back, sticking close to the wall in case she needed to hide. She mentally made note of where all the secret passageways were in case she needed a quick escape. She was near the girl’s lavatory on the second floor, which led to the secret passageway all the way up to the sixth floor.

Cressida watched as Rasper ran straight past the door to the bathroom and rounded the corner. Cressida lingered behind one of the knight statues waiting.

“Isn’t that Knightly’s cat?” Thomas’ voice asked faintly in the distance.

“Yeah, she must be about,” Fred’s voice replied.

“Told you she would be,” James said surely. “Knightly loves to sneak around in the dark. I bet we’ll finally catch her in the act this time.”

They had rounded the corner now. James was carrying Rasper in his arms, and for once, the kitten didn’t seem to mind. Cressida flattened herself against the wall, hoping they wouldn’t see her. She didn’t have time to deal with them tonight, she had to find Molly before Filch found her.

“Where do you reckon she is?” Thomas was asking in a hushed voice.

If Cressida could just dart across the hall into the bathroom, she could sneak away. She had to distract them somehow.

She dug around in her jeans pocket, thinking quickly. Her hand fell on something small and round. Pulling it out she realised it was the Peace Disturber   Jac had thrown her way back in the common room. 

Cressida wasn’t exactly sure what it did, but she figured it would do in a pinch.

Shrugging, she threw the small round ball out into the corridor, watching it come to a stop at the feet of the three Gryffindor boys.

They all paused, looking down at it.

“What do you suppose that is?” Thomas asked.

James bent down, examining it closer. “Looks like-”

“ PEACE DISTURBER! ” Fred bellowed, yanking James back by the scruff of his neck.

A loud bang erupted from the tiny pellet causing the ground to shake.

Cressida had to plug her ears as a flurry of bright red and gold fireworks were set off in the middle of the corridor.

The whole castle would have likely heard the explosion. They definitely did what they said on the box. It was like bonfire night, confined into a two-meter space.

She stepped out from behind the knights, knowing the boys wouldn’t notice her now anyway. Rasper, her poor kitten, had been so surprised by the fireworks going off unexpectedly that he was now latched onto James’ head by the claws, effectively being worn as a hat by the Potter boy.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to pry Rasper off his face, so sending a quick and useless  ‘sorry’  towards her kitten, she ran across the corridor and into the girl’s lavatory.

Molly was poking her head out of one of the stalls, tears staining her cheeks, to find Cressida entering. Two birds with one stone. Perfect.

“No time to explain, come with me-” Cressida said, grabbing Molly’s hand and pulling her towards the secret passageway behind one of the mirrors.

“Was that you?!” Molly asked as she was dragged behind Cressida. “Where are we going?!”

Cressida didn’t stop to answer her questions until they were safely halfway up the passageway. She had to listen out in case anyone had followed her.

“Cressida!” Molly shouted, forcing Cressida to stop and face her. “Where the bloody hell are we?”

“Somewhere near the fourth floor by now, probably,” Cressida answered.

Molly produced light from the tip of her wand so the two girls could see each other in the dark stairwell. “And the explosion?”

“I didn’t  mean  to set off fireworks,” Cressida winced, urging Molly to follow after her as she kept walking.

“Why?” Molly asked, following after her. “What was the need for fireworks in the first place?”

“So your cousins didn’t spot me.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “Why were you even out there?”

“Looking for you.”

“Why?”

“To check you were okay.” Cressida looked over her shoulder to check Molly had stopped crying. She averted her eyes guilty. “Don’t feel bad about Margo, she deserved it.”

“I’m her best friend-”

“That doesn’t change the fact she was being a prat-”

“I shouldn’t have cursed her though,” Molly said solemnly. “I’ve never cursed Margo like that before.”

Cressida shrugged, feeling no sympathy on Margo’s account. “It was bound to happen at some point. We all lose our temper sometimes.”

They walked in silence for a bit after that.

“Is this one of those secret passageways?” Molly asked after a while.

“What gave it away?” Cressida asked over her shoulder.

“I always wondered what one of these looked like,” Molly mused out loud. “I had a sneaking suspicion you had found one of them by now, with all that sneaking around you do.”

“Are you going to tell anyone about it?” Cressida asked.

“No,” Molly answered. “I’m not stupid enough to give that kind of information out to all of Hogwarts.”

They came to the end of the staircase, and Cressida gestured for Molly to stay quiet as she ducked her ear to the exit.

The whole castle was awake by now by the sounds of it. They were near Gryffindor Tower, she could hear Longbottom telling everyone to remain calm.

Cressida snuck out from behind the knight, pulling Molly discreetly out behind her. The two girls remained flattened against the wall, watching and listening to the chaos happening around them.

McGonagall was there dressed in a tartan nightgown.

“ Honestly !” She was saying. “At two in the morning, boys!? Some of us like to sleep! How could you be so foolish and reckless?!”

Cressida peered her head around the corner to see the trio of Gryffindor boys standing at the front of the gathered crowd in the hallway. Filch stood nearby, soothing his horrid Mrs Norris in his arms, sneering at the Second Year boys in front of him. She should have known Filch would come running once the fireworks went off, but at that moment she was more focused on getting her and Molly away.

“We didn’t set off the fireworks!” Thomas was saying.

“Then who did?!” McGonagall screeched.

Cressida panicked for a brief moment that they would give her up. After all, they knew she had been about even if they didn’t see her. Rasper had given her away.

“Well, we don’t know, exactly-” James said next. Cressida noticed he was hiding something behind his back indiscreetly.

“But you three, as usual, were caught at the scene of the crime!” McGonagall continued. “So would you like to explain why you were even in the hallways at this hour in the morning?!”

“Not really,” Fred answered honestly.

“We doubt it’ll help our case,” Thomas added on.

McGonagall sighed, rubbing her temples. “Just go to bed. I’ll deal with your punishment in the morning.”

Once McGonagall had stepped away, storming over to Professor Longbottom waiting amongst the crowd closer to the portrait hole, it revealed Cressida’s head poking out around the knight.

The three boys spotted her immediately. Then Molly, wanting to see what was going on, poked her head out alongside Cressida’s. James’ mouth fell open. Fred and Thomas audibly gasped at the sight of the ginger-haired witch.

“Bollocks,” Molly cursed, retreating her head back. “Don’t suppose you have a way out of this?” She whispered frantically to Cressida.

“Working on it.”

Cressida pulled one of Felix’s shoelaces out of her pocket and dangled it out in front of the knight.

Molly narrowed her eyebrows. “What’s  that  supposed to achieve-”

There was a yelp of pain and then Rasper appeared, pouncing on the shoelace with vengeance. Cressida scooped the tiny kitten into her arms and then shoved Molly back down into the passageway.

 

Friday 17th March 2017

 

The two girls had gotten away by the skin of their teeth, the trio of boys already in too much trouble to instantly follow after them and discover another secret passageway.

They had returned, breathless and panting, to their dorm room to find Jac sitting on her bed waiting for their return and the bathroom door locked shut.

“Margo’s refusing to come out of the bathroom,” Jac said as the two girls entered. “What the hell was that explosion?”

“We now know what a Peace Disturber does,” Cressida answered, flopping onto her bed.

Molly was staring silently at the locked bathroom door, her guilt about what she’d done flooding back to her in waves.

If Cressida wasn’t too exhausted from running nearly six flights of stairs, she would have tried to comfort Molly again, but luckily Jac was present now. Jac was always better at this sort of thing.

Cressida listened to Jac’s soothing voice, telling Molly it would be okay, as her eyes drifted shut and she fell asleep.

 

*

 

Even when Cressida pried her eyes open in the morning, Molly was still stood in front of the bathroom door, and the bathroom door remained locked.

Once she sat up, Jac appeared, crawling onto Cressida’s bed beside her. 

“Still not come out then?” Cressida yawned.

“No,” Jac sighed. “I hope she does soon though. We have to get ready for breakfast in a minute.”

Cressida looked at Molly, dark circles encased her eyes. “Have you slept at all, Molly?”

“No,” she croaked, not removing her gaze from the closed door. “Won’t until she comes out and lets me apologise.”

Cressida sighed deeply, forcing herself to get up. She strode across the room and banged on the door. “Smithers, come out here and get this over with so we can move on with our day!” There was no reply. “Fine, but we’re not waiting out here forever!”

“We’re not going to blow the door down, are we?” Jac asked cautiously. “I think there are rules against that-”

“No,” Cressida said gathering her things to get ready. “We’re going to go to lessons, and when Margo’s ready to admit she overreacted and lets Molly apologise for cursing her- which was deserved by the way-!” she directed at the door. The faintest huff of irritation came from within the bathroom. “We will have a discussion about it like the grown-ups everyone pretends to be. Okay?”

Molly turned her sad and tired eyes on Cressida. “But what if-”

“No what if’s,” Cressida said. She grabbed Molly’s uniform and forced it into her hands. “I feel like we’ll have bigger problems to resolve today.”

Realization descended over Molly’s features. “My cousins.”

“Your cousins,” Cressida nodded.

They had managed to make it to their first lesson before the trio ambushed them. They had been preoccupied at breakfast, getting their punishment handout from McGonagall in her office.

“Cleaning the Flubberworm cages,” Thomas had said with some disgust once Jac had asked what their detention involved.

“That’s one of the worst ones,” Felix commented repulsively as they waited outside of Transfiguration.

“Yes, Finnegan, we are aware of that,” Fred said dryly.

“That’s hardly important,” James waved the conversation away. He set his eyes firmly on Molly, who had been trying to become a part of the wall this entire interaction. “ You  were involved in a prank against us.”

Felix choked on the jelly bean he had been eating. “ Molly ?! Are you sure it was her?”

Cressida winced at his reaction. She hadn’t had a chance to fill him in on all of last night's events at breakfast. They’d been too busy talking about Margo.

“I knew you’d come back around eventually, Mol,” James said, nudging her with his elbow.

“I haven’t,” she said, glaring at him. 

“Explain why you were there then?” Fred challenged.

Molly withdrew again, unwilling to admit why she had been out in the castle in the first place.

“Well, either Molly is finally living up to her Weasley name or Knightly has finally retaliated to the prank war. Which is it?” Fred asked.

“Why does it matter who did it?” Jac asked.

“So we know the score,” Thomas answered.

Molly and Cressida looked at each other. Finally, Cressida sighed. “It was me, I-

“No, it was me!” Molly said abruptly. All eyes turned to her. “I was fed up of you following us around so I got you in trouble so you’d be too busy with detention to annoy me. Cressida was there trying to stop me.”

The three boys looked slightly flabbergasted. “Knightly had nothing to do with it?” Thomas asked after a moment.

“Not a thing,” Molly confirmed. 

“But what about her cat?” Fred pointed out.

“He followed us out there,” Molly countered quickly. She was even better at this than Cressida. She had an answer for everything. “Now you lot better stop this prank war nonsense or I’ll do much worse next time.”

“Like what?” James asked.

Molly didn’t back down. “Like putting those tiny pellets in your bed.”

“That it?” Fred challenged.

“Do not test me, Weasley,” Molly warned. “You know what I’m capable of. Do I have to remind you of summer 2009?”

They all took a tentative step backwards. “Noted,” James nodded.

Molly straightened out the pleats on her skirt gracefully. “Now. Are you going to go tattle on me to McGonagall? I’m sure she’d love to make me help you with the Flubberworms.”

James swayed on his feet, a smug smile taking over his features. “Nah. It was a good prank, Mol, and good work should never be punished.”

“It was a smart one too,” Fred nodded appreciatively. “Setting us up like that, waiting until we were out past curfew, making sure we were in the right hall for you to make your escape, using Knightly’s cat as a distraction. It must have taken some careful planning.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jac laughed. “You fell right into her trap. Couldn’t have been mere coincidence.”

Even Molly smiled at that just as McGonagall opened the door to her classroom. The Professor looked worse than Molly.

“Good to see you again so soon, professor,” James greeted her cheerfully. 

McGonagall sighed deeply. “I wish I could say the same, Mr Potter.”

“You love us really, Minnie,” Fred grinned, sauntering past her into the classroom.

McGonagall’s nostrils flared as she went after Fred. “Don’t make me double your detention, Weasley!”

“I think he came on too strong with the Minnie,” Thomas said to James as the two boys followed after McGonagall.

“We’ll ware her down, Tommo,” James said, lacing an arm around his smaller friend’s shoulders. “We might even get her using our real names before the year’s out.”

Once they were gone, all eyes turned back to Molly. 

“Does anyone want to tell me what the fuck I’ve missed out on?!” Felix asked instantly. “Last I knew you were all mad at each other, and now this morning you’ve all pranked the Gryffindors with some elaborate plan-”

“Why did you lie?” Cressida asked, ignoring Felix. They’d fill him in later.

“I wanted the prank war to be done,” Molly answered primly. “If you’d admitted to doing it, we’d still be going around in that stupid cycle.”

“What happened in 2009?” Jac asked next.

Molly started walking into the classroom. “You don’t want to know.”

 

Chapter 41: Second Year: Winky

Sunday 19th March 2017

 

Margo and Molly still hadn’t made up. Molly had spent all of Saturday trying to convince the other girl to come out of the bathroom. She eventually did, only to come to dinner, sit in silence the whole time, and then storm back into the bathroom. Cressida was sure she was sleeping in the bathtub by this point.

She was determined to use today to get the two girls talking to each other again if only to let Molly get some sleep. Cressida didn’t think she’d ever seen someone so guilt-ridden over something so small. She’d cursed people tons of times. Felix had cursed Margo specifically more times than Cressida could count. None of them felt guilty to this extent.

But then again, Margo and Molly were  best friends . Better than Jac and Cressida even.

Apparently, in all their years of friendship they’d never argued, and never lifted their wands to each other even jokingly. Cressida found that hard to believe when Molly had told her. If she  had been best friends with Margo for as long as Molly, she likely wouldn’t have made it past the first week before sending a silencing spell in her direction.

“What’s the game plan for today then?” Jac asked, sitting on the end of Cressida’s bed first thing in the morning.

Cressida slumped back into her pillow. “Mainly, get Margo out of the bathroom. I don’t want to have to use Finnigan’s shower again if I can help it.”

The bed curtains were pulled open slowly once more, revealing Molly’s tired face. “What are you two talking about behind here?”

“Getting Margo out of the bathroom,” Jac answered.

“Oh,” Molly nodded. Cressida hated seeing Molly so miserable for the sake of Margo. If she couldn’t admit she’d been in the wrong as well, then she wasn’t being a very good friend to Molly.

“For fuck’s sake.” Cressida got to her feet, grabbing her wand from her nightstand. 

“Wait, we’re doing it now?” Jac asked, clambering after her off the bed. “Before breakfast?”

“Alohomora!”

The bathroom door swung open to reveal Margo sat cross-legged on the bathmat, the latest edition of  The Chatterbox  in her hands. “Cressida!” She screamed at the sudden sight of her. “You can’t just barge in here!”

“And you can’t commandeer the bathroom for your stupid sulking-fest,” Cressida said harshly. “Out. Now. We have things to talk about.” Margo folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. Cressida got her wand out and aimed it at her, a clear warning.

Margo jumped to her feet, practically running out of the bathroom as Cressida pursued her. “Molly, are you going to let her do this to me?!” She asked affronted once she was in the middle of the dorm room.

Molly shrugged, averting her eyes. “At least it got you out of the bathroom.”

“Colloportus!”  She aimed her wand at the bathroom door, locking it magically.

“Okay,” Cressida said, standing between the two girls. “Wands please.”

Molly and Margo both looked confused and resistant. “Why?”

“Wands!” Cressida said louder, holding her hands out expectantly. Both girls placed their wands in Cressida’s hands. “Now, Jac, Felix and I are going to have some breakfast. You two are going to stay here and talk. We’ll come back and get you before first lesson.”

Margo looked furious. “You can’t do that to us!”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Jac chimed in.

Margo flailed slightly. “What if we’re hungry?! I could starve!” 

“I’ll bring you both a muffin,” Cressida smiled. 

Margo’s glare hardened on Cressida as she stepped away, putting her clothes on and getting ready for the day. Jac quickly followed suit, sending glances between all the girls.

Molly lent back against the post of her bed, watching as Cressida pulled her hair back into a bun and stuck her wand through it. “You think this will work?” She asked quietly.

Cressida shrugged, pulling on her shoes. She’d seen Mrs Powell do this with her two boys back home, locking them outside the flat together until they made up enough to come inside for tea. “If it doesn’t, I’m out of ideas.”

Molly sighed, looking back to where Margo was huffing and cursing, trying to pry the bathroom door open. “Bring me back some toast. I don’t like the muffins.”

“Will do,” Cressida said, grabbing her bag and heading to the door with Jac in toe.

She set one more locking charm on the girl’s dorm door once they were outside it.

“Where’s Molly?” Felix asked once the two girls met him in the common room. He’d stopped asking about Margo’s presence in the last few days, assuming she now lived in the bathroom permanently.

“They’re talking,” Cressida had told him as they made their way up to the Great Hall.

“How’d you manage that?”

“Locked them in the room together,” Jac answered.

Felix laughed loudly as they took their seats. “You’re not going to have a room to go back to in that case.”

Cressida revealed the two extra wands concealed in her bag. “Unless they suddenly start fist fighting each other, we should be fine.”

Felix took over Molly’s job of pouring everyone some tea. “Well, if they do start fighting, my bet’s on Smithers. She’s weirdly scrappy.”

“You’ve had first-hand experience with how scrappy Margo can be, haven’t you, Finnigan?” Jac laughed, buttering her toast.

Felix snatched her toast out of her hands and shoved the whole slice into his mouth to prove a point.

 

*

 

It turned out that getting two teenage girls to overcome their grievances with each other was more difficult than forcing two teenage boys to make up purely because of their proximity to each other.

Cressida had returned after breakfast as promised to find the two girls sitting on opposite sides of the room to each other in stony silence. Molly got her breakfast. Margo did not.

The three remaining Slytherins had gone and sat on the green to enjoy the sunshine before lunch. Felix had been showing the two girls how to twirl a wand between their fingers like a baton. Then, Felix volunteered to go see if they’d made up.

He ended up stuck to the dorm room door like a fridge magnet.

“How’d they manage that?” Cressida asked once Jac went down to discover what was taking Felix so long.

“Finnigan was using Molly’s wand to do his trick. Forgot he put it in his pocket when we sent him down there.”

Neither girl went back down to retrieve him. If anything having Felix stuck down there with them would force Margo and Molly back together quicker for the sake of having a common enemy.

This meant Jac and Cressida were left with a whole afternoon to themselves, and the frost from winter was thawing out nicely as spring crept its way in.

“Have you given any thought to what you’ll pick at the end of the year?” Jac asked as the two girls strolled through the grounds, tucking into the leftover sweets from Christmas.

“What do you mean?” Cressida asked, chewing on a strawberry lace.

“Molly says we have to pick three more subjects to study in Third Year.”

“Oh,” Cressida said. “Dunno. What are the options?”

“Well,” Jac winced, picking a strawberry lace out of the packet for herself. “That’s the thing, I don’t really know either, but apparently it’s a big deal-”

“Knightly!”

Cressida rolled her eyes, inevitably turning to see the trio of boys running up to them through the grounds.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” James was panting. “You’ve got to come quick!”

“We didn’t know what else to do,” Fred was saying hurriedly. “She told us to go away but-”

Cressida narrowed her eyebrows. “What the fuck are you three rambling about?”

Thomas looked panicked. “It’s Molly-”

“Chauncey got to her!” Fred said.

“Where?” Cressida asked instantly.

The trio took off again, this time with Cressida and Jac following quickly behind.

On the second floor, they found Arabella lounging on a window ledge. Declan stood nearby, leaning back against the stone wall with his usual  would-rather-be-anywhere-but-here  expression.

“Where’s my cousin?” James demanded to know once the group spotted the girl.

Arabella had the audacity to look confused. “Why would I know-”

“Tell us now before we set Knightly on you,” Fred snapped.

Declan raised an eyebrow in interest.

Arabella jumped down from the window ledge. “She’s like a guard dog now then, is she? Can’t say I’m surprised with how brutish she is.”

Jac went to raise her wand until Cressida moved forward. “What the fuck did you do to Molly?” 

Arabella sighed. “Your pig-nosed friend was wandering the halls all on her lonesome. I simply asked what was wrong. Next thing I know, Girl-Weasley is coming up to me telling me to leave Smithers alone. I was simply defending myself.”

“What did you do?” Jac asked forcefully.

“Smithers had already told me what Weasley did to her before she came rushing to the undeserved rescue. I simply told her the truth.”

“Which is?” Cressida prompted.

“That Molly was finally giving in to her Slytherin tendencies. After all, the hat never lies. Or maybe it was just Knightly rubbing off on her,” Arabella smiled. “Either way, Molly threatened to curse me, which I kindly pointed out is what got her into this mess, and she ran off crying.”

“What happened to Margo?” Jac asked.

Arabella gave an indifferent shrug. “Like it matters where Smithers went. We all know you’re only here to defend Weasley’s honour.”

“What did Molly ever do to you, Chauncey?” Thomas demanded to know.

“It’s not my fault she can’t handle the truth,” Arabella answered. “And now you’ve brought Knightly here to- what? Punch me? Curse me?” Arabella could see the anger growing on Cressida’s face. The thin restraint stopping her from grabbing her wand was about to snap. “But she’s just a typical Slytherin, am I right? Don’t like something, beat it into submission. That’s how you lot have always handled things.”

“At least Cressida doesn’t think she’s better than everyone else!” Jac jumped in before Cressida could react.

Arabella laughed, locking eyes with Cressida. “Yes, she does. Everyone sees how she acts around Hogwarts, always getting out of detentions and messing with the Gryffindors. I thought she might have learnt her lesson after the snake prank, but apparently, she just likes the attention.”

James was by Cressida’s side in an instant, wand outstretched. Declan shoved forward, matching James’ stance as a warning. Cressida sent James a stern look that made him refrain from doing anything further.

People were gathering in the hall now, curious to see what the two groups were arguing about.

“You’re just jealous!” Thomas said then. Cressida’s head snapped back around. She didn’t think she deserved this many people willing to stand up for her. She could handle this without their help.

“Jealous?” Arabella repeated with a scoff. “Of a pathetic Slytherin?”

Cressida turned to Jac. “Go find Molly and Margo.”

“No way-”

“You don’t need to be here for this,” Cressida said.

Reluctantly, Jac sulked off in search of their two friends. 

Cressida’s face remained as hard as stone as she focused her attention on Arabella. She had to defuse the situation without spells being hurled at the trio of Gryffindors or any of the innocent bystanders watching. “You’re the pathetic one, Arabella. To be so concerned with what  I’m  doing or who I’m spending my time with… it must be hard to see me getting the attention you so desperately need.”

Fred’s laugh was the next noise to be heard. Everyone else around them had gone suddenly silent, waiting to see whether this would continue to escalate.

“Look at you pretending to be a hero-” 

Arabella’s oncoming insult was quickly cut short by Cressida grabbing the girl by the shirt and yanking her forward. Declan went to jump in when all three Gryffindor boys aimed their wands at him in perfect sync.

“And if you  ever  come after any of my friends again, you’ll see just how evil us Slytherins can be,” Cressida threatened lowly.

Arabella glared between Cressida and the people defending her, her face contorting in bitterness. “Cressida Knightly-” she said loudly so that people passing in the hall would hear, “-the damn Princess of Slytherin in all her undeserved glory.”

“Suck. My. Dick.” Cressida released the girl, shoving her back slightly.

Once she was free, Arabella turned, dragging her brother away with her as she left. Everyone who had been watching the interaction, turned to stare at Cressida, muttering about what had been said.

Fred and Thomas snapped into action, dispersing the crowd around them. 

Cressida had yet to move. James was still by her side, wand limp in his hand, glaring in the direction Arabella and Declan had gone. 

“There,” Cressida muttered. “The situation’s been handled.”

James’ nostrils flared. “We shouldn’t have come and got you for this. This could make everything bad again.” Cressida looked at him. “I  tried  to make it better , ” he said almost desperately. “I really tried but it didn’t make a difference. They still see you as-”

"A Slytherin?" Cressida cut him off. James gave a guilty nod. “Don’t get your panties in a twist about it, Potter. I’m glad you came and got me. I wouldn’t have known what she said to Molly otherwise.”

Fred approached the group, his hands in his pockets as he watched the last of the crowd disperse. “Princess of Slytherin…” Fred mused out loud, trying to lighten the mood. “I rather like it.”

“It suits you,” Thomas agreed, appearing beside James.

Cressida scoffed. She thought a princess was the least suitable thing to call her. “I must get myself a crown for the new title,” she replied dryly.

“You alright, Jamsie?” Thomas asked, clapping James on the shoulder.

“Yeah,” James replied distantly. “Grand.”

 

*

 

It didn’t take long for Cressida to find her friends huddled together in the alcove. Felix and Jac were comforting the two girls on the sofas when Cressida approached them. They were all crying apart from Felix, but even he had a grave expression on his face.

Molly looked up through tearful eyes as Cressida joined them. “Jac told me what happened,” she said through strangled breaths. “Did you do something to her?”

“No,” Cressida said simply.

“So there wasn’t a fight?” Felix asked.

“No,” Cressida said again.

“I don’t know what we did wrong. Why does she hate us so much?” Margo sobbed.

Cressida didn’t have a good answer. She slinked an arm around Margo’s shoulder, giving the girl a small hug of comfort. “Hopefully, she won’t bother us again. But from now on, refrain from telling Chauncey any of our business.”

Margo’s eyes welled up even more. “I didn’t mean to! She asked and before I knew it it was coming out-”

“It’s okay, Margo,” Molly said then. Felix was offering her a tissue to dry her tears. “It’s my fault all this happened anyway.”

“No, it’s not,” Cressida said. Her eyes glanced over to the portrait of Regulus and she remembered her conversation with Thane Nott in this very spot.  ‘Next year it’ll be someone new making everyone hate us.’  “Have you two at least made up?” She asked, pushing the thought out of her head.

Margo and Molly looked at each other, then nodded.

“Slytherins stick together, right?” Molly sniffed.

“Right.” They all chorused back.

 

 

Wednesday 12th April 2017

 

Arabella Chauncey deserved to be put in her place. It was plain and simple.

Cressida could think of a thousand ways to get revenge for all Slytherin kind. The issue was not getting caught, not having immediate accountability, and not going too over the top.

But she would take Chauncey down a peg. She’d promised herself that. Even if nobody else knew it was Cressida who had done it.

She hadn’t heard from or seen Arabella again since the incident with Molly and Margo, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t festering in the background of their lives. A total of four times over the past month people had referred to her as the  ‘Princess of Slytherin’  and she could safely say she wasn’t a fan. She dreaded to think what else Chauncey had been saying without them knowing and what trouble she had been stirring up for them. 

Cressida had been in the hexagonal room thinking up plans on how to not get caught long past curfew on her own. She’d had to start filling one of the empty crates with notes and pieces of parchment of all her ideas just to keep track of them or to use in the future.

By the time she’d thought up transfiguring Rasper into a rabid dog and setting him loose in Ravenclaw Tower, she knew it was time to return to her dorm room and pretend to get some sleep.

She’d started the trek down the flights of stairs and was about to sneak into the secret passageway on the third floor to avoid Filch when she heard a familiar mumbling.

Just as she lifted the tapestry to enter, the trio of boys stumbled out with Thomas’ wand lighting the way.

“Howdy, Knightly,” Thomas greeted her.

“Sneaking around as well, I see,” Fred grinned, crushing up a biscuit in his hands and sprinkling it on the floor.

Cressida noticed James had a teapot in his hands, leaving a trail of cold tea behind them. “What are you lot doing?”

“Searching,” James elaborated unhelpfully. “Want to come?”

“Searching for what?” She asked.

Fred passed her a biscuit. “Follow us and see for yourself,” he said, shoving a second biscuit in his mouth.

She held the biscuit in her hands, looking between the three boys, then shrugged. “It’s not like I was going to sleep anyway.”

“Good,” Thomas smiled, gesturing for her to get in line with them as they continued creeping through the halls.

“Care to explain why you’re sneaking around in the dark?” Fred asked.

“Plotting,” Cressida shrugged.

James looked up alarmed. “Should we be worried?”

“No,” Cressida said. “You’re not my current target.”

“Oh,” James said, relieved. Then he frowned. “Why not?”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Because I have other priorities.”

“Priorities bigger than outsmarting James Sirius Potter?” Fred teased. “How very dare you suggest such a notion, Knightly.”

“What can I say, the Princess of Slytherin has other royal duties to attend to,” Cressida joked.

“You’re sticking with the nickname then?” Thomas asked curiously.

Cressida shrugged. “It’s not like I had a choice in the matter.”

“Could be worse,” James offered. “She could have nicknamed you the Princess of Filch’s toe fungus.”

“Or the Princess of Flubberworm gunk,” Thomas chimed in.

“Not quite got the same snappy ring to it as Princess of Slytherin, you have to admit,” Fred conceded, crumbling up another biscuit.

“Thanks for putting it into perspective,” Cressida said as they continued moving. “Anything is better than being referred to as the ruler of Filch’s toe fungus.”

“Glad we could be of service, your majesty,” James grinned over his shoulder.

Every few feet as they moved through the castle, James would pour out some tea, or Fred would crumble a biscuit and they would all pause, staring at the mess for a few minutes. Then, if nothing happened, Thomas would clear up the mess and they would move on.

This had happened, without fail, over seven times before Cressida decided they had lost their minds.

“Are you doing a really bad imitation game of Hansel and Gretel?” She’s whispered once they’d reached the sixth floor.

James continued to pour out more tea as he answered. “Patience is key, Knightly.”

She folded her arms, leaning back against the wall as the inevitable waiting started. “You know, sometimes I wonder what you lot get up to when I’m not around…. never, in a million years, would I think it was this.  This  is boarding on insanity.”

“Insanity often leads to great things,” Fred smirked.

“I was led to believe it often leads to hospitalization,” Cressida countered. “But I think you three are too far gone for help at this point.”

Thomas perked up, listening intently to something. James and Fred watched him as though he was about to spontaneously combust.

“I can hear them,” Thomas gasped.

Based on their expressions, Cressida would think they’d just won the lottery. “Hear what?” She asked, growing more and more concerned about them.

James gestured for her to be quiet and grabbed her wrist. “Follow our lead,” he whispered pulling her along.

Thomas led the way, leading them around a corner. He nodded his head to Fred who crumbled up a biscuit and dropped it on the carpet, and then they all scurried back around the corner.

Cressida heard it that time, a distinctive pop, and when she peered around the corner to look at whatever was causing such a fuss the crumbs had vanished.

“Okay,” Fred breathed. “One is definitely about. Jamsie, initiate trap two.”

James crept forward and emptied the remainder of the teapot onto the carpet and gently placed the pot on top before running back to the group watching from around the corner.

They waited again.

Another pop, and this time she managed to get a peek at the reason for all the sneaking around. James and Fred tumbled forward, knocking into her slightly to get a better look.

“No!” Thomas gasped.

“It can’t be!” Fred shook his head.

James grinned, gripping his two best friends on the shoulders on either side of him. “It is!”

Cressida looked from the three boys to the tiny crouched over creature they were staring at confused. “What is it?” She whispered impatiently.

James reached back and pulled Cressida to his side with his arm around her. “That, my dear Knightly, is Winky the house elf,” he told her excitedly. Cressida shoved James' arm off from around her shoulders. 

“We’ve been searching for her since First Year,” Fred explained.

Cressida stared at the tiny creature again. It was an odd shade of pink and mainly hairless similar to a sphinx cat, but the main part of its body was covered by a tea towel resembling a dress. It had long, droopy and pointed ears on either side of a few messy strands of hair. When the creature turned, Cressida saw its big red nose in the middle of her face.

One of the few biscuits left fell out of Fred’s pocket and bounced to the floor as he was leaning around the corner. At the noise, the house elf rounded towards them. “ Oh , Winky has been seen!” She exclaimed at once, dropping a teapot and sending shards skidding across the floor. “Winky is in trouble! Winky must go!”

The tiny creature didn’t in fact go anywhere and just ran around the mess she had made.

James and Fred laughed slightly at the creature, then strode forward on their hands and knees so they were down to Winky’s level, meanwhile, Thomas remained standing beside Cressida.

He could see the confused look still spread across her face. “Whatever you do… don’t offer her a sock,” he warned her before following their lead and going onto his hands and knees.

“Winky,” James said reaching out and holding her in place by her bony shoulders. “I’m James Sirius Potter. I’m Harry’s son.”

Winky stared up at James as tears started pooling in her eyes and she wrung the tea towel dress between her tiny hands. “Harry Potter,” she said distantly. “Yes, Harry Potter! Dobby’s Harry Potter.”

“That’s the one,” James nodded.

“And Mister Wheezy’s nephew too,” Fred greeted her.

Winky’s brief look of happiness had dwindled as soon as it had appeared, and her eyes fell to the floor. “Winky was Dobby’s friend… Winky does miss Dobby and Kreature so much.”

“We never got to meet Dobby, but we heard lovely things about him,” Fred said moving forward again to wipe a single, large tear from her pink cheek.

Cressida could do nothing but watch in awe and utter confusion at the exchange happening in front of her. How did the trio of Gryffindor boys have connections to a random creature unseen around Hogwarts? Was there no one or no thing that James couldn’t relate back to his family somehow?

“We’ve been looking for you, Winky!” James said changing the tone back to a happy one.

Winky looked up at him confused. “You have been searching for… for Winky?”

“For a whole year nearly,” Thomas nodded.

“We wondered if you’d like to be our special elf around Hogwarts,” Fred told her.

“Like Dobby was for my dad,” James grinned.

Winky started wringing her tea towel again. “Dobby was free. Winky will not be free. Winky doesn’t do well when she is not working.”

“You’ll still be working,” Fred comforted her quickly.

“We don’t want to be your official masters or anything you’re uncomfortable with,” Thomas added on.

“We just want you to show up sometimes and tell us how you are and bring us tea after hours,” James told her.

“They can bring you tea?” Cressida asked in surprise. Winky’s large eyes fell on her for the first time, not having heard her speak from within the dark hall yet.

“Miss, you are most beautiful indeed!” Winky exclaimed moving slowly towards Cressida. “Such lovely hair, Winky wishes she could have hair like that.”

Cressida glanced at the three boys watching the interaction with grins on their faces and she gained a slight blush at the attention. She reached out her hand towards the small elf and Winky wrapped her whole hand around Cressida’s index finger. “Thank you… Winky,” she said unsurely. “You can braid it one day if you like.”

Winky jumped back, hands over her mouth. “Oh, miss, Winky would love to! Winky is very skilled at braiding. Make you look like a lovely princess, Winky will!” She said excitedly.

“How convenient,” Fred smirked. “Knightly, here, has just recently been upgraded to a princess.” 

Cressida glared over the top of Winky’s head at the smirking boy.

“Oh yes, Winky will do her very best braiding,” Winky continued not realising Fred’s joke. “And bring the lovely sirs their tea when they want it,” she decided turning back to face the boys. “Biscuits too, Winky does lovely biscuits. Winky will even fluff your pillows and do your washing and-”

James patted Winky gently on the head to stop her from getting ahead of herself. “The tea and random appearances will be enough for us, thanks, Winky.”

“Besides, you have the whole of Hogwarts to care for as well,” Thomas reminded her.

Winky shook her head again, smiling slightly. “Not all of Hogwarts knows about Winky. Not all of Hogwarts knew Dobby, not for a long time. Winky is very grateful to have met the kind sirs and the lovely miss. Winky will repay you with gifts, and biscuits, and tea, and braiding of hair.”

The three boys all shook Winky’s small hand as they said their goodbyes, and then the house elf popped away, the mess disappearing along with her.

“Well,” James said standing up and putting his hands on his hips. “I’d say that mission was a success. Who’s up for ice cream?”

Thomas and Fred instantly agreed. They turned their eyes on Cressida, awaiting her answer.

“I’m going to bed,” she said. “I’ve had enough weirdness for one night.”

“Your loss,” Fred shrugged as the three boys broke away from her.

Chapter 42: Second Year: Slight Of Hand

Notes:

Pavlov's dog theory is a popular psychology study done with making dogs salivate whenever he rang a bell for feeding time

Saturday 20th May 2017

 

Exam season had reared its ugly head with a vengeance this year, and Cressida was dealing with it by chewing gum to soothe her nerves at any given moment. 

Jac has said something about chewing gum helping with memory and ever since it was all Cressida could do to convince herself she was going to pass her exams. Luckily, Alice had sent packets upon packets of gum in her Christmas and birthday packages and so Cressida was sure she had enough to last her till the end of the year.

However, she seemed to have developed a bad habit of whenever someone even mentioned homework or exams to her in the last month her mouth would go dry and she craved a minty flavour, meaning she was making a bigger dent in her gum stock than she had anticipated. She’d Pavlov Dog’d herself without meaning to.

Jac had found this extremely funny when they realised.

The majority of students squirrelled away in their common rooms or library to start their seemingly endless revision. Even the trio of Gryffindors had momentarily put a stop to their antics in order to prepare for the upcoming exams.

Cressida had seen the trio walking through the grounds, each with a book open in front of them, muttering questions and answers to one another as they walked. James had answered a question about History of Magic incorrectly and Fred sent a curse his way. By the end of the day, when she and Jac ran into the trio again, all three of them were covered in an amalgamation of different curses, but still, they had their books out in front of them firing off questions and answers, and the occasional curse.

Cressida suddenly thought her revision tactics weren’t so bad. If she ran out of chewing gum before her final exam, however, she might have a problem.

Molly had taken it upon herself, once again, to do a study plan with each member of the group having a specific subject to teach the others.

This led to Felix teaching the group the Avifors spell over and over again, turning a lamp into a bird and back again as their revision for Transfiguration, as well as the Imp factoids for Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Molly took over teaching them the method of brewing the Wiggenweld Potion in the safety of their dorm room, as well as any other gaps none of them were particularly skilled in.

Margo rambled on aimlessly about the consolations for Astronomy revision, but Cressida knew she’d likely do poorly in that subject again. No matter how hard she tried she could never remember all the different names.

Jac had perhaps been given the biggest load to teach, as Herbology revision consisted of knowing all there was to know about Puffapods, Spiky Bushes, Venomous Tentacula, and the Severing Charm. Apparently, Longbottom was adamant about killing his Second Year students with knowledge in preparation for his exam in a few weeks' time.

Cressida had been given the task of teaching the group the Levitation spell and the Fire-Making spell to perfection, which led to more than a few disasters whenever they attempted the second one inside. As well as the two charms, Flitwick had instructed them to study the theory of the memory charm.

“I just don’t understand why we need to understand the memory charm when we can brew forgetfulness potions,” Cressida complained in the alcove, unwrapping another stick of juicy fruit gum and throwing it in her mouth.

The group had reluctantly spent their entire Saturday inside, with heaps of books on every subject spread out in front of them, accompanied by mounds and mounds of parchment containing notes.

Jac, who once again was trying to absorb all her knowledge through osmosis, sighed from under a pile of books. “I wish there was an  anti- memory charm to help us remember everything.”

“Wouldn’t an anti-memory charm just make you forget even more?” Felix asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t know how  anything  works anymore. It’s all nonsense,” Jac huffed. “I miss being a muggle.”

“Molly, my quill isn’t working again!” Margo said, holding up a regular pen.

Molly rolled her eyes and produced her wand, sending a quick spell to turn it back into a quill. The group had agreed to use the quill-pens once again for their exams, but this time not tell anyone about it or use them in lessons.

“I still don’t understand why we  all  have to partake in the teaching part of this,” Felix said then, sending a paper aeroplane which had once been his Herbology notes flying across the common room. “Molly’s already getting top marks in all our classes, and she’s a much better teacher than us… no offence, Smithers.”

Molly threw a paper ball at his head. “I can’t be the only one who does all the work!” She said. “Besides, I’m actually not top of the classes anymore.”

Jac sat up, setting off an avalanche of books around her. “You’re not?”

“No,” Molly sighed. “I asked McGonagall the other day. It’s Chauncey.”

“Are you taking the piss?” Cressida said then, blowing another bubble until it popped pleasantly. “How did she creep up there?”

Molly shrugged. “She’s always been smart, Cress. It’s why she’s a Ravenclaw.”

“And remember, she spent all summer reading the material for this year,” Margo chimed in. “She probably knew all this stuff back in October and now it’s just refreshing it before doing the actual exam.”

“I reckon it’s her brother,” Felix mused. “He’s telling her the answers ‘cause he’s done this all before.”

“Why didn’t  we  start revising in October?” Jac asked.

“Because we actually have lives,” Felix answered.

Jac went back to lying on the floor. “If she gets top marks on the exams this year, that will just give her more reason to think she’s better than everyone.”

“I dread to think how she’ll act if she has the fact she’s smarter than us on paper,” Margo sighed dismally. 

“I don’t know,” Molly said thoughtfully. “If she’s too focused on being the smartest in our year, she might forget to torment us until after exams are finished.”

“That’s it!” Cressida said suddenly. The group of Slytherins all looked at her confused. She’d been racking her brain all month for ways to hit Arabella where it hurt and all along it had been staring her in the face. If Arabella was so concerned with being the best, they had to do something to make sure she wouldn’t be. That was her weakness. “We make her forget!”

“Okay, Knightly has finally cracked,” Felix said. “Who had bets on Second Year?”

“I bet on First Year,” Margo muttered into her book.

“I’ve not lost my mind,” Cressida snapped, glaring at Margo. “I’m just proposing we get one over on Chauncey. It’s not like she doesn’t deserve it after all the shit she’s pulled on us this year.”

Jac propped herself up on her elbows. “You want to wipe her memory? Isn’t that sort of unethical, making her forget everything just before exams?”

Molly nodded. “She’s right, Cressida. That’s too far, even for you.”

“Not everything,” Cressida shook her head. “Just all of this month’s lessons so she can’t do the homework. We’ll do her brother too so he can’t help her either. At best, it’ll even the playing field for the rest of us. She’ll just be slightly confused for a week or two.”

“That’ll put Molly right back on top of all the classes,” Felix pointed out enthusiastically.

“The memory charm won’t be that specific,” Molly said. “It’s pretty much all or nothing where that’s concerned unless you’re a charms master.”

“We’ll use forgetfulness potion then,” Jac suggested.

Margo turned a page of her textbook idly. “You’re forgetting one important factor… none of us can actually brew a successful forgetfulness potion. We all tried last year and failed, remember?”

“That’s not exactly true,” Cressida said. “James knows-”

“Absolutely not!” Margo interjected. “Leave me out of this if you’re going into cahoots with those stupid Gryffindors again to get on Arabella’s bad side!”

“We’re already on her bad side, this way we’re just fighting back,” Jac explained.

“If we want to beat Arabella we should do it fairly. Leave my cousins and any memory potions out of it,” Molly said sternly, getting to her feet and packing away her books. 

Cressida watched as Molly left and Margo followed dutifully after her, leaving only her, Felix and Jac left in the alcove.

“So,” Felix said once they were out of earshot. “When should we expect this to go down?”

“Give me a week,” Cressida grinned, blowing a bubble.

 

 

Tuesday 23rd May 2017

 

“Now, as I’m sure you’re all aware end of year exams are right around the corner,” Slughorn said as the class all entered. Cressida added a piece of gum to her mouth. “And in preparation for the exam, I would like you to work in pairs to prepare a Wiggenweld Potion. As you already know from your extensive revision beforehand, this potion has healing aspects as well as being the antidote for several other concoctions-”

“You think our exam will be to brew this then?” Jac whispered while Slughorn went on with his explanation.

“Could be,” Molly answered. “Might be a rouse though. Slughorn could set us anything on the day.”

“Nah,” Felix said then. “Sluggie wouldn’t put this much emphasis on a particular potion and then not use it in the exam.”

“Now,” Professor Slughorn continued with a clap of his hands. “If you’d all like to pair up and find a cauldron, we shall start from scratch.”

Cressida’s friends dispersed instantly, knowing better than to hang around for too long. She turned towards the trio of Gryffindors, groaning internally.

“You know Slughorn’s rules, Knightly,” James grinned. “Inter-house pairing.”

“It has to be one of us,” Fred joined in the torment.

She should have expected this. Honestly, they were getting predictable now.

“I choose Thomas,” she decided, pulling the smaller boy towards her. They all looked mildly shocked.

“Why Wood-?” James started.

“Because Wood is the least annoying out of your three,” Cressida answered. “Did you really expect me to choose you, Potter?”

James turned away, slightly affronted, giving away the answer. “Fine, suit yourself. I’ll occupy some other Slytherin with my presence,” he huffed walking away. Fred sent a small smirk to Cressida before turning after his cousin.

Rolling her eyes, Cressida led Thomas over to their cauldron. “Am I really the least annoying?” Thomas asked after a moment.

Cressida blew a bubble as she started pulling all the ingredients together. “Of course… plus, you’ll actually help me do the work.”

Thomas rested his chin on his fist. “I don’t know how much use I’ll be. James is the best at Potions, he has the book and everything-”

“You mean this book?” Cressida cut in, waving the annotated book in her hand.

She knew she needed that book to get the correct method for brewing a forgetfulness potion, and had been planning on a way to get her hands on it ever since the conversation in the alcove. It had worked without a hitch when the time came.

Thomas’ eyes grew wide darting from the book in Cressida’s hand to James a few tables over. “How in Merlin’s Beard did you get that from him?”

“It was simple really,” she boasted, hiding it in her robes again. “All my books are second hand so look just as tatty as this one does, I swapped them out when we collided in the hall earlier.”

Thomas was leaning towards her, speaking in a lowered voice. “You ran into him on purpose?”

“Of course I did,” Cressida grinned back at him. “And as usual, James had to make it a big scene of chivalry by helping me pick up my books. The dollop-head didn’t even see me do it right under his nose.”

Thomas shook his head in awe. “You really are scary sometimes.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you using it to get a good mark in the potions exam?” Thomas asked then, glancing at the ingredients. 

“Yeah,” Cressida lied. “I promise I’ll slip it back into his possession before exams though.”

Thomas shrugged, dropping in the salamander blood into the cauldron. “No rush. James made me write up a second copy in case he ever lost the real book… or accidentally transfigured it into something that could run away.”

 

 

Tuesday 30th May 2017

 

Getting the book had been easy.

Getting the ingredients had proved more difficult and involved Jac and Cressida trying to convince Slughorn they needed the produce for revision purposes.

Brewing the potion correctly felt like the most hazardous part. Cressida had nestled herself in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom to do so, after Felix suggested it, and started brewing the concoction in one of the abandoned stalls. Due to the location, Jac avoided going to help at all costs to put as much space between her and Moaning Myrtle as possible.

This left Jac to deal with Molly and Margo to avoid raising any suspicion about what Cressida was doing. What she hadn’t factored in though, was that Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom also happened to be Margo’s favourite place to come to to get all the gossip, and the whiny ghost had given Cressida up while she had left the potion to brew for an hour.

Cressida returned at the right time to start the second part of the brewing process to find Margo and Molly waiting for her.

“I  told  you not to do this,” Molly had lectured her.

“Bit late now,” Cressida said. “I’ve already started brewing it and there’s no sense in wasting it.”

Molly sighed, glancing down at the cauldron bubbling at their feet. “Have you at least diluted it down?”

“What- you’re going to let her continue!?” Margo asked affronted.

“Highly irresponsible, if you ask me,” Myrtle had chimed in, floating above them with a similar haughty stance to Margo.

“The book says a few grains of bezoar will do it,” Cressida said, double-checking the passage.

Molly had nodded, rolling up her shirt sleeves and sinking to her knees over the cauldron. “Do you have the bezoar?”

Margo looked infuriated. “You’re going to  help ?!”

“I’m the best in our group at potions,” Molly said simply. “This is better than Cressida accidentally wiping Chauncey’s memory completely.”

Margo stomped her foot and then stormed out of the bathroom.

Molly held out her hand expectantly and Cressida silently handed her the required stone with a grin.

Once the potion had been successfully brewed, Molly and Cressida stored it safely in a trunk in their dorm room until the next phase of the plan was ready.

“How exactly are we going to get them to drink it?” Felix had asked at breakfast.

“Cressie could sneak under the tables again,” Jac suggested.

“They’d know it was me instantly if I pulled that trick again,” Cressida said.

“They’re going to know it’s us regardless of how you do it,” Margo pointed out furiously.

“I can do it,” Molly said unexpectedly. 

All the Slytherins turned to her. 

“ You ?” Felix repeated in disbelief.

“Yes, is there a problem with that idea, Finnigan?” Molly asked pointedly.

“No, no,” he rebuked. “Best of luck to you.”

 

 

Thursday 1st June 2017

 

“So,” Felix said agitatedly when the group all came together in the alcove that night. “Did you do it? Is she…  confused ?” He asked, glancing around their surroundings.

“God, way to make it obvious,” Jac jabbed.

Molly sat down on the sofa beside Cressida. “It’s done.”

The group all stared at her.

“That it?” Felix asked once it became clear Molly wasn’t going to offer up any more information. “No grand re-telling of how you pulled it off?”

Molly gave an elegant shrug, picking up one of the textbooks from the coffee table. “Do I look like my cousins to you?”

“More and more each day, funnily enough,” Margo huffed. When everyone turned to her, she promptly got to her feet. “I’m going to bed. See you all tomorrow.”

Cressida watched the ever-present guilt flicker across Molly’s face as Margo departed. “Ignore her,” she said comfortingly. “She’s just worried we’ll get caught.”

Molly gave no comment. “Shall we do some Herbology revision?” She asked instead, moving the conversation along quickly.

Jac gave a small groan as she face-planted an open book.

 

 

Wednesday 14th June 2017

 

“Okay, we have four more issues to write before the end of the year,” Victoire was saying during their weekly meeting for  The Chatterbox.  “Is everyone keeping up okay with their schedules?”

All the Second Years gave a small nod of recognition. Anyone above the age of fifteen looked practically dead on their feet, groaning by way of answer to her question. It appeared as though exams got worse and worse every year, and that was something Cressida was not looking forward to.

“The response to the music section is still good,” Victoire continued, pacing at the front of the classroom they were using. “People seem to like the variety.”

Jac and Felix shared a glance. They hadn’t been doing the top songs of the year lately, and instead whatever Cd Felix randomly picked out of the Cd box in the secret room to make the process quicker. It lead to some very interesting weeks, where  Rizzle Kicks  would blast over breakfast followed by the soundtrack to  Grease  the next week.

“Quidditch went down well,” Jacob offered up. “Not as thrilling as the previous game, but got people talking regardless.”

Cressida sank down in her chair slightly. The final match of the year had been between Ravenclaw and Slytherin and had lasted a total of forty minutes before Ravenclaw won. Even Molly had found it hard to make Cressida’s retelling of the game interesting.

“Our beauty page is still popular,” Veronica chimed in. “Although, I’m not sure how many more tips and tricks we can keep putting in. I’ll have to read up on some more over summer.”

“How was the response to the gossip column?” Victoire asked.

“Well,” Penelope started. “It’s just that the Gryffindors haven’t been up to anything lately with exams and all… so we’ve had nothing to write about.”

Victoire winced. “Cressida,” she said suddenly. “Surely  you’ve  been up to something. Can you give us an inside scoop?”

All eyes turned towards her. “No,” she said. “I’ve not done anything noteworthy.”

Margo gave a huff but said nothing outright. Cressida was very aware Margo had written the article last week in a fit of petty rage. The main story had been about Cressida’s new nickname. The title read ‘ Princess of Slytherin. Praise or a joke?’  and was accompanied by a photo of Cressida which Margo had taken at random first thing in the morning. A silver crown illustration had been magically added to the picture. It had been a slow week for school drama which left Victoire with no other option but to print it. 

“It’s the exams, Victoire,” Molly said then. “Everyone’s drained.”

“Yeah,” Jac nodded. “For instance, I still don’t know what to pick for my studies next year and McGonagall wants our choices in by the end of the month!”

“God, don’t get me started!” Penelope chimed in. “I’m dreading being separated from my friends next year, but I just don’t know what to choose-”

“Jacob,” Victoire said, clearly deep in thought. “Can we get a poll ready for next week?” 

Jacob, who had previously been dozing in his chair, looked up. “Huh?”

“Third Year studies. It’ll help the Second Years figure out which lessons are most popular amongst themselves, input from older years on how the lessons work- it’ll help the picking process,” Victoire said enthusiastically.

“In fairness, it is a nightmare trying to choose,” Veronica agreed. “I do not miss being a Second Year.”

“That’s that then,” Victoire smiled. “Our main story for next week’s issue. Good job, everyone. See you all on Friday to go over our final notes!”

With that, everyone packed up their things and dispersed.

“Where to now, ladies?” Felix asked as the group of Slytherins descended the staircase. “However, if any of you utter the words library or revision, I am going to jam a wand through my eye socket.”

“No,” Molly sighed. “I think we deserve an afternoon off.”

“Longbottom has tea and biscuits if we go down to the greenhouses,” Jac suggested.

Margo tugged on Molly’s sleeve. “Molly, you said you’d come with me to hand in my choices for next year, remember?”

“Right, sorry,” Molly said. “We best go now then.”

“You two have already chosen?” Felix asked worriedly, tailing Margo and Molly as they broke away. “Were you planning on telling me at any point?”

“It’s a personal choice. Why would we need to tell you?” Margo asked.

“I made the mistake of choosing you lot in First Year and I plan on sticking with that choice for the next seven years,” Felix rebuked. “If you go and choose different lessons to me now, that goes out the window. I’ll have to make new friends to sit by and that simply won’t do!”

The three rounded a corner and Felix’s complaints drowned out.

“Have you changed your mind on what you’ll choose?” Jac asked as the remaining two girls walked through the halls. “I have a good idea of what I want to pick, it’s just I don’t want to hand mine in until you do-”

Cressida shushed Jac and both girls looked ahead to see Arabella Chauncey talking to her friend Dahlia in the hall, with Declan standing beside them.

“I swear I didn’t know I was supposed to meet you there, Dahlia!” Arabella was saying. “It slipped my mind.”

“A lot of things have slipped your mind recently,” Dahlia replied haughtily. “And those notes you sold me for Charms were useless. All of the methods were from First Year! I want my sugar quills back,” she said before storming away. “I need to give them to someone who can actually help me  pass  my exams.”

Arabella turned on her brother. “Why didn’t you remind me?!”

“I can’t remember everything for you,” Declan replied. “It’s why we’re in this mess in the first place. Your stupid note buying scheme fried my brain and now I’m all mixed up.”

As Jac and Cressida strolled closer, Arabella’s head snapped up. “What are you two looking at?”

Neither girl answered, and instead hurried on their way towards the Grand Staircase.

“Looks like the memory potion is still working,” Jac said once they were safely out of earshot.

“It’ll wear off in a day or two,” Cressida said surely. After all, she had been tracking Arabella’s memory more than anyone. The day after Molly had successfully planted it, Arabella turned up to lessons still in her pyjamas. The next day, she handed in the completely wrong homework- which also had her name spelt incorrectly on it. She had turned up at the wrong classroom several times. A day ago, Arabella seemed to completely forget what James’ name was, and instead stood there waffling on about exam stress while he stared at her in utter confusion.

She felt like the prank hadn’t caused too much damage, but just enough to brighten Cressida’s mood whenever she heard of Arabella doing something mildly embarrassing.

“Are you coming to greenhouses with me?” Jac asked, bringing Cressida out of her thoughts. “I figured some extra revision on the real plant instead of a diagram would be more beneficial… plus, the tea and biscuits are always better off Longbottom. You don’t even really have to really study.”

“Nah, that’s okay,” Cressida said as they stepped off the Grand Staircase. “I’m going to sit in the sun before it disappears again.”

Both girls bid their goodbyes to one another and went their separate ways.

Cressida broke out onto the castle grounds and felt the sun shining down on her face. She was glad it was finally warm, it felt like spring took forever to come and go, but now that meant summer was here, and with summer came the end of another year at Hogwarts. She’d be going home soon.

Rasper gave a meow, poking his head out of her tote back and her attention snapped towards him. “Sorry, buddy. You can come out now.”

Cressida settled on a patch of grass under a tree and Rasper jumped out of the bag, chasing a butterfly nearby. She discarded her robes and jumper, sitting in just her shirt and skirt. If she was lucky, next year the skirt might finally fit her. There was still little hope for her shirt though.

She popped a piece of gum in her mouth and riffled through her bag for the piece of parchment that still needed to be checked off with what she was going to study next year.

She, much like everyone else, did want to still be with her friends, but she also didn’t want to pick something she knew she’d be terrible at. For instance, she knew Molly was thinking of taking Arithmancy, and Margo showed interest in taking Ancient Runes. Cressida knew neither of those were for her, but if her friends were taking them that made her reconsider. What if Jac and Felix took them as well, and then Cressida would be all alone?

Much like Felix, she didn’t fancy having to make new friends in her third year.

“Alright, Knightly?” Cressida looked up to see the trio of Gryffindors standing in front of her. “You’re looking awfully thoughtful,” James said. 

“I’m busy,” she replied bluntly.

“Doing what?” Thomas asked.

“Nothing that concerns you three-” Fred had grabbed the parchment before she could stop him. “Give that back!”

All three boys huddled together to read the list.

“Redwick wants to take Care of Magical Creatures and Divination, she told me so,” Fred said, holding the parchment out for Cressida to take back.

She didn’t get a chance, however, as Rasper had reappeared with a pounce and snatched the paper from thin air, trotting around with it happily in his mouth.

“Did she also tell you to get a life?” Cressida asked dryly, prying the parchment from her kitten.

James suddenly shrank down, lounging in the grass in front of her, also discarding his robes in the warm sun. “Well, that narrows your choices down, Knightly.”

“Oh, yeah? How’d you figure that out, Potter?” She asked, shoving her parchment back into the safety of her bag. Rasper took to climbing over Thomas’ trouser leg instead for entertainment.

“You’re going to pick the same as Redwick, aren’t you?” He asked. She offered no comment. “Well, anyway, if you do,” James continued regardless. “We’ll be able to work out your whole schedule for next year.”

“And why would you need to do that?” Cressida asked.

James gained a cocky grin. “It’s harder for you to surprise us if we know your every move. I bet by the end of next year there will be nothing you can do that we didn’t see coming.”

Cressida rolled her eyes and got to her feet. “Keep telling yourself that, Potter. Here’s your book back by the way,” she said, throwing it towards him.

James caught it indelicately in his hands, staring at it with a narrowed brow. Thomas looked down guiltily. “When the bloody hell did you-”

“Good luck in the exams, boys.” She blew a bubble with her gum as she started backing away with Rasper at her ankles. “Hopefully, there’s nothing that surprises you too much on them. I know how much you hate when that happens.”

James still had that bemused look on his face. 

“You’re such a dickhead,” she vaguely heard Fred laughing as she departed.

Chapter 43: Second Year: Dearly Departed

Summary:

The End of Second Year

Notes:

There may be a small delay before I start uploading Third Year as I haven't had enough time to keep up with my writing schedule and I'm slightly behind. Hope you all enjoyed Second Year and thanks for making it this far and all your lovely comments and questions :)

Tuesday 11th July 2017

 

Herbology- good.

Defence Against the Dark arts- mediocre. (The theory aspect had really let her down)

Potions- good

Transfiguration- decent.

Charms- very good.

Astronomy- very bad.

History of Magic- boring.

Cressida had been repeating how she performed on her exams over and over again in her mind. The general consensus was all the Slytherins felt the same way. Neither confident nor abysmal about their performance on this year's exams.

She wasn’t sure her gum theory had worked, and she was now left with a slight addiction to chewing whenever she needed to concatenate. However, her calculations had worked out rather well and she had eaten the last piece of her gum stash just before going into her History of Magic exam.

“It’s not like we can do anything now,” Molly said as they made their way to breakfast. “They’re all done. Can’t go back and change them.”

“Unless-” Felix started.

“No time-turners!” Molly and Margo cut him off at once. They’d all heard about Felix’s time-turner theory over the last few days. In his opinion, owning one of them would fix all his problems in life.

“Although,” Jac said thoughtfully as they entered the hall. “If I did have one of these weird time-turner things, I think I’d go back to me before I got my acceptance letter. Warn myself what’s about to come and who to talk to and stuff.”

“Regret talking to us on the first day, do you, Redwick?” Felix teased. “I’m highly offended.”

“Not you guys, obviously,” Jac laughed as they all took their seats. 

Cressida had to smile. She’d miss these kinds of pointless conversations when she went back to Conwell on the upcoming Saturday.

“When could you go back to, Cress?” Molly asked, pouring them all a cup of tea. “If you had the chance?”

Cressida shrugged, taking her cup of tea gratefully. “Dunno, really. I’m quite happy with how everything worked out now.”

“Well, I’d go back to when I was four and I saw this really cool rock-” Felix started, but Cressida tuned him out. She knew that whatever long and elaborate story was coming would be mostly nonsense anyway.

There was a strange calm throughout Hogwarts now that exams had finished. Students had taken to lounging in the sunshine and running through the halls without a care in the world. Some were even making plans for the summer months up ahead, promising to write to one another or meet up here and there.

Cressida felt slightly bad to admit she wasn’t ready to go home. She’d spent the whole year at Hogwarts this time and still, she wasn’t sick of it. She’d be without her friends, stuck in her tiny flat again. She’d be a muggle.

“Earth to Knightly!” Cressida snapped out of her thoughts to see Felix waving his hand in front of her face. “I do believe that’s for you.”

Her eyes followed where he was pointing and found a small brown owl there with an envelope in its mouth.

She took it from the owl and watched it fly back out the open window. 

“Who’s it from? Margo asked.

“The Prime Minister,” Felix replied dryly. “Catch yourself on, Margo.”

“My mum,” Cressida answered her, reading the familiar lettering on the front.

“Are you going to open it?” Molly asked. “We can leave you in peace if you want?”

“Um, no it’s okay,” Cressida said, shoving the letter into her bag. “I need to go and drop something off to McGonagall anyway. I’ll read it later.”

“Do you want company?” Jac asked as Cressida got to her feet.

“You’ve still got breakfast to eat,” Cressida pointed out. “I’ll be fine. I’ll meet you by the lake in half an hour, promise.”

She turned and left without hearing their replies. She darted down to the dungeons and slipped behind the tapestry. She felt like this was the best place to read a letter in private, especially one she wasn’t sure the meaning of.

It wasn’t her birthday, and Alice clearly didn’t write for no reason whatsoever, so that could only mean one thing. Something terrible had happened back in Conwell that couldn’t wait until Saturday when she was due home.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the letter.

‘ Cress, 

You have no idea how excited I am to see you on Saturday.

I write this letter to you as I feel like you deserved to know before you came home.’

Cressida braced herself. This was it. Whatever terrible news came next, she could handle.

‘Gareth is gone. 

It took a while but he finally did something I couldn’t look past. Chucked him out last night, and he’s staying out. It’ll be like how it used to be years ago. Just me and you. It was always better when it was just us, looking back.

See you soon, and stay out of trouble if you can help it.

All my love,

Mum x’

Cressida felt frozen. Her eyes didn’t leave that one line.  Gareth is gone.

The notion seemed impossible. Cressida had dreamed about hearing those words. She had wished she’d be so lucky to return home one day to find that horrid man gone as though he never existed. And even better- her mother had mustered up the courage to finally chuck him out all by herself!

She could have cried. She could have laughed and danced and sang at that moment. Summer with just her mum and Rasper. She couldn’t ask for anything better. She just needed her mum. She needed them to go back to how they were before Hogwarts and Gareth happened.

She jumped to her feet, shoving the latter into her bag, and run up the length of the stairwell. She eventually burst out the other end and collided straight into James.

“Merlin, Knightly,” James huffed as she landed on top of him, sending them both crashing to the floor. “Don’t let my walking get in your way.”

Cressida was still grinning widely even as James stared up at her, seemingly unable to move. “He’s gone,” she laughed. She didn’t care that it was James in front of her, she just had to tell someone. She had to say it out loud. “He’s actually gone!”

James blinked a few times, propping himself up on his elbows. “I’m going to need some more information than that.”

“Gareth,” she said. She was so ecstatic that she had forgotten she was still basically sitting on top of James. “Mum got rid of him! He’s gone!”

“Right,” James nodded, still staring at her. “And that’s cause for celebration is it?”

Cressida nodded, shaking James by the shoulders enthusiastically. “No more beer runs, no more cigarette smoke. God, no more  arguing !” 

Someone cleared their throat and the two of them craned their necks to see Fred and Thomas holding back laughter.

At that moment, Cressida suddenly realised the position she was in and abruptly got to her feet, turning red.

“Shall we leave you two alone?” Fred teased.

James turned an even deeper shade of red as he too clambered to his feet, adjusting his robes around him. “Knightly was just telling me-” he turned to Cressida faltering. “Well, go on, tell them.”

Cressida looked at the enthralled expression on their faces and bit her tongue. She suddenly felt rather silly about being so excited over something they likely wouldn't understand. Her brief moment of unabashed glee was slowly fleeting now there were more people watching her. “It’s not important,” she started, trying to walk around them both.

“Oh no you don’t,” Thomas said following behind her. “It was clearly important enough to warrant straddling Potter.”

“Yeah, share the good news, won’t you, Knightly?” Fred pressed.

Cressida continued trying to walk away from the two pestering boys. “You’ll just make fun of me.”

“Us?” Fred asked, offended. 

“Make fun of you?” Thomas repeated.

“Never,” Fred finished with a wink. “So come on, fess up.”

Cressida sighed, turning to face the three boys. Fred and Thomas still looked on the verge of falling into a laughing fit, but James hung back slightly, ruffling his hair.

“My mum’s boyfriend is gone,” she gave in, averting her eyes. There was a cat sitting on a window ledge nearby, watching them intently. A cat she had come to recognise well throughout the halls of Hogwarts. “He never liked me, and now I get the whole summer without him drinking all day and making my mum miserable.” She looked back at them. “Are you satisfied now?”

Fred gave a curt nod. “Congratulations on your loss,” he said, without a hint of mockery. “Come on, Wood. Let’s leave Knightly to her celebrating.” He laced an arm around the smaller boy’s shoulders and the two strode off.

James remained stood, still a funny shade of pink. “Sorry,” he said. “If you didn’t want to tell us that stuff… we won’t tell anyone if it’s a secret-”

Cressida watched the cat suddenly disappear from the ledge and round the corner. 

“Not a secret,” she cut him off, turning to look at him again. “Just not well known… sorry for running into you.”

“Oh, feel free to do that anytime-” his pink shade turned back to red. “Not like that. I just meant-”

“Potter,” McGonagall’s voice called. The Head Mistress was suddenly approaching them in the corner. “I believe your two counterparts or causing trouble elsewhere. Shouldn’t you be joining them?”

“Yes,” James said flustered. “I mean no! I don’t know-”

“Go, Potter,” McGonagall said.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

James disappeared at record speed.

“Do I need to ask?” McGonagall asked once James had gone.

Cressida turned her eyes on the Head Mistress, something clicking into place in her brain. “So that’s how you do it. I’ve finally figured it out.”

McGonagall raised a thin eyebrow. “Do fill me in, Miss Knightly,” she said as she started walking through the halls with Cressida at her side.

“You’re the cat, aren’t you?” She asked. “That’s how you’ve been watching us for the last two years.”

McGonagall gave a small smile but remained facing forwards. “I’m what’s known as an animagus. Forgive me for not being upfront about my abilities, Miss Knightly. In the past, it has given some overachieving students the idea that they could become one to get away with things.”

“James’ family?”

“Isn’t it always,” McGonagall sighed. “I heard you were looking for me?”

“Oh yeah,” Cressida said, snapping back to the original reason for her detour. “I finally picked what I want to study next year.” She handed McGonagall the piece of parchment from her bag. 

“Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and… Muggle Studies?” McGonagall read.

Cressida shrugged. The poll in  The Chatterbox  had alluded to the fact that although Care of Magical Creatures was the most popular, that Muggle Studies would be the easiest subject to lighten the workload when exams rolled around next year. Divination had been picked purely because the idea of looking into a crystal ball seemed fun. “I wanted to see us from a wizard perspective.”

“Very well,” McGonagall nodded, placing the parchment carefully in her robes. Cressida went to walk ahead of the Head Mistress when she called her back. “Miss Knightly!” Cressida looked back over her shoulder to find McGonagall smiling at her. “Enjoy your summer with your mother.”

“I plan to,” Cressida smiled.

 

 

Saturday 15th July 2017

 

Cressida couldn’t wait to tell her mum everything she did around Hogwarts now she didn’t have to worry about Gareth overhearing them. She thought there was nothing that could spoil her good mood.

The train was due to take them back to King’s Cross Station at midday, and as usual, Cressida had been woken up before ten by Molly throwing random items of clothing and books at her until she woke up.

“You’ve not even packed, Cressida!” Molly’s voice was lecturing just as she gained consciousness. “You can’t make us late. If we’re late we’ll end up sharing a compartment with my cousins the entire way back and I’m not in the mood to be stuck with them any more than I have to be before summer.”

“I second that decision,” Margo chimed in.

Cressida sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. The thought of not being woken up by someone throwing objects or berating her for sleeping in past nine for six whole weeks made her borderline euphoric.

“Uh oh,” Felix’s voice came then. He was sitting in the corner by the door, throwing a ball of light up in the air from his wand. “Looks like Knightly’s woken up in a good mood… that means we’re doing something fun before we leave.”

“We are  not !” Margo complained.

“What are you doing in here this early, Finnegan?” Cressida asked, getting out of bed and heading for the bathroom.

“Molly barged in at six this morning to make sure I had packed,” he grumbled. “Jeremiah Vonce wasn’t very pleased about it either.”

“Well,” Molly’s voice came as Cressida brushed her teeth. “Vonce was already packed, unlike you, so he was allowed to go back to sleep.”

“Lucky him.”

Cressida finished brushing her teeth and then looked in the mirror over the sink, her friend's conversation still going on in the background. Her hair was still magically dyed black and styled. She had gotten so used to it now that she sometimes forgot she had originally been blonde. She hoped her mother liked it. She had begun to think her hair made her look more grown-up over the last few weeks. She was certainly starting to feel more grown-up.

When she walked back out into the dorm room, Molly had already started packing Cressida’s case for her. Smiling to herself, Cressida crawled onto Jac’s bed, where Jac was sat stroking Rasper’s fur as the kitten slept a little longer.

“She’s already packed up all your books,” Jac whispered. “I don’t know why she insisted on waking up you so you could watch her finish the job.”

“I’m not complaining,” Cressida replied.

“James is throwing another birthday party this year,” Molly was saying as she folded up Cressida’s clothes. “Are you invited again, Finnegan?”

“Hopefully not,” Felix said, opening his trunk and rummaging around inside it. “But Dean’s been writing to Ginny and Harry a lot since last year. Knowing my luck, he’ll try and drag me there.”

Molly moved on to Cressida’s pyjamas. “What about you, Jac, are you up for a party?”

“I’ll try and convince my mum but you know what she’s like,” Jac shrugged helplessly. “If she doesn’t know the family, she doesn’t trust me to go without her supervision.”

“At least I’ll have Margo,” Molly said then, looking at her handy work. She knew better than to ask Cressida about going. Everyone had been made blatantly aware that Cressida planned on spending every minute of her summer with her mum.

“I’m still debating whether dealing with your cousins is preferable over listening to my mum complain about dad running off all summer,” Margo said, brushing her short black hair in the mirror.

“Grandma Molly’s making a cake,” Molly said.

“In that case, I’ll be there,” Margo agreed instantly.

“Good,” she smiled. “Did you want this left out, Cressida?” Molly asked lifting the leather jacket up.

“Don’t suppose you left me a pair of jeans and a top out as well did you?” Cressida asked, getting to her feet again.

“Blue jeans and a Nirvana top,” Molly nodded pointing to a pile she had left on Cressida’s bed. “Who are Nirvana, anyway?”

“A band,” Felix answered, his head still in his trunk. He had started emptying its occupants back out onto the floor in his search for something. “Muggle band. Jac’s got their Cd in the room. Quite good.”

“I’ll never understand why you listen to that rubbish. Wizard music is so much better…. and far less vulgar,” Margo chimed in, adding clips to her hair.

“No one says you have to listen to it with us- aha!” Felix re-emerged from his trunk, holding a  Quidditch Through The Ages  book. 

Molly turned and saw the mess Felix had made and her nostrils flared instantly. “Finnigan! I just packed all that away!”

“Sorry, I wanted something to read on the train-” Felix started, but was abruptly cut off by Molly thundering towards him, hurling every object he had put on the floor at him as he darted around the room.

Cressida grabbed her allocated outfit for the day and disappeared back into the bathroom to get changed.

 

*

 

By the time the group of Slytherins had re-packed Felix’s bag, forced Margo’s trunk shut with all the copies of  The Chatterbox  to show off to her mum, and eaten breakfast, they only had thirty minutes before they had to head down to the carriages to head home.

Cressida remembered how odd she had felt about going home less than a week ago, how she had thought six weeks without her friends would be awful, but this time she felt the opposite. She would finally get some quality time with her mother. Her friends would still be here in six weeks when she returned. She couldn’t wait to board the train and watch Hogwarts fade into the background that particular morning.

The group was currently wandering the halls, as they often did when they had time to kill. Cressida thought it had become one of Molly’s favourite pass-times besides reading, homework and wizard chess. Secretly, she thought Molly liked to wander around the castle so they could run into their cousins to see what they were up to.

However, the group of Slytherins weren’t the only ones wandering the halls to kill time this morning. Every one seemed in high spirits to be returning home for the summer.

As expected, the trio of boys couldn’t pass up putting on a show for the aimless crowd gathered in the corridor near Gryffindor Tower. 

“Your cousins are up to something, as usual, I see,” Felix noted as the group came to a halt.

“It’s practicality tradition by this point,” Molly sighed. She leant back against the stone wall, giving away they would be watching whatever idiotic idea the trio had come up with this time. Cressida and Jac happily followed suit, securing a good potion to watch through the crowd.

The crowd had formed a circle around the boys, but only Fred and James were in the centre. Thomas seemed to be lingering within the crowd holding a bucket of ice.

“What do you suppose that’s for?” Jac asked, pointing the bucket out to the others.

Cressida gained a small grin. “I’m sure we’re about to find out.”

“Right, Tommo,” Fred called. “Hit us.”

Thomas nodded, then fumbled to grab his wand with his spare hand. He gave a wave of it towards the two boys and muttered the spell, but it couldn’t be heard over the crowd talking and waiting in anticipation.

Suddenly, a large set of antlers sprouted out of James’ head, closely followed by Fred doing the same thing. Both boys tentatively prodded their newfound antlers and grinned at each other.

“Ready, Fred?” James asked head bowed low.

“Ready, James,” Fred replied, scuffing his foot backwards like an agitated pony.

At the moment both boys ducked their heads and started running towards each other, McGonagall rounded the corner. Her expression gave no indication that she was concerned or phased by what was about to happen.

With a simple flick of her wand as she passed the two boys, their antlers shrank back into their heads and the two collided with a loud bang, falling to the floor and rubbing the tops of their heads sorely. Thomas rushed forward using the ice from the bucket to reduce the swelling on the two boys’ heads dutifully.

McGonagall continued walking with a small smile on her wrinkled face. “Pleasant morning, don’t you think, ladies?” She addressed the group of Slytherin girls as she passed by.

“Indeed it is, Professor,” Molly smiled back at her. Felix gave a huff at once again being roped in with being addressed as one of the girls.

“If you would like to start heading down to the Entrance Hall, we will be leaving shortly,” McGonagall said as she carried on down the hall. 

“You know, one of these days, I’m actually going to be recognised as a boy. A  real live boy !” Felix complained once McGonagall was gone again.

“Alright, Pinocchio, calm down,” Jac teased. “We’re all aware of your manhood.”

“Yeah, if anything you reek of manhood,” Cressida added on. “Especially if you forget your morning shower.”

“Oh, shove off, the both of you,” Felix rebuked, folding his arms. 

Molly failed to hide her amusement. “Come on, let’s head down and get a good spot on the train while my cousins are still recovering from their concussions.”

 

*

 

Cressida was positively sick from all the sweets they bought off the trolley witch on the train ride home. The trolley witch had a new selection of sweets and it didn’t take long for it to convince the compartment full of Slytherins that buying five of everything and eating it all in one sitting was a fabulous idea.

It was no surprise, by the time they had pulled into King’s Cross Station, that Cressida had already had to take a detour to the bathroom to throw up. She doubted she’d ever look at a packet of jelly slugs the same way again. It was all just as colourful coming up as it was going down.

Rasper was stretched out across Cressida’s lap, proving to be a useful heat pack for her now uneasy stomach.

“I bet you're glad you don’t have to hide him under your bed this time,” Jac said, scratching the kitten under the chin as the group prepared to get off the train.

“Knowing Rasper he’ll probably still hide under there. I think he finds it comforting to crawl into small spaces,” Cressida replied, opening her hobo bag for him to climb into.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come to the party, Cressida?” Molly was asking for the third time since the train had left the station.

“Sorry, Mol. I plan on spending every minute I can with my mum.”

“There she is now!” Jac said, pointing out the compartment window. “She’s talking to my mum.”

Cressida felt her face threaten to break into two from how wide she was smiling. 

“Well, this is it for six weeks, ladies,” Felix said, clapping his hands together. “Try not to get into too much trouble without me.”

The group of five all exchanged hugs and well wishes for their summer holidays before stepping off the train and running to their respective parents, Jac and Cressida running up to theirs in toe with each other.

“Hi, mum!” Jac greeted, hugging her mother instantly. Shari responded with a delicate pat on Jac’s head as she stepped out of the hug.

Cressida faced her mum and expected to be greeted with the biggest hug and smile she had ever seen on her mother’s tired face. However, Alice’s eyebrows furrowed slightly as she looked at Cressida.

“Alright, mum?” Cressida tried easily, hoping her mother would react excitedly at any moment.

“Your hair…” Alice muttered, reaching out and running a finger through it. Her eyes snapped to meet Cressida’s. “Cress, what did you do to your hair?”

Jac and Cressida shared an awkward glance while Shari pointedly looked down at the floor.

“Um, sorry- it was just a shock,” Alice said then, snapping out of it. “Come ‘ere.”

Alice pulled her into a tight hug and Cressida let out a breath of relief.

“Have a pleasant summer, Cressida,” Shari said, preparing to take Jac’s hand and leave.

“You too,” Cressida smiled back, stepping out of her mother’s hug.

“Wait, I almost forgot…” Jac bit her lip searching for something in her bag quickly. After a few seconds, she pulled out a quill-pen and grabbed Cressida’s wrist. “It’s my phone number so you don’t have to owl me.”

Cressida looked down at the number digits now scribbled on her arm then smiled up at her friend. “See you in six weeks, Jac,” Cressida said hugging her.

“Try not to miss me too much,” Jac smiled. “Make sure you give Rasper extra chin scratches from me.”

With that, Jac and Shari left the station. Cressida and her mother were alone for the first time in what felt like forever. She was still smiling.

“Come on,” Alice said, leading her through the crowd by the shoulder. It didn’t escape Cressida’s notice that her mother seemed to have a strained smile on her face as they departed for their summer together.

 

Chapter 44: Summer 2017 Part 1

Notes:

There are some mentions of money struggles and a small argument but nothing too serious, just warning in case anyone is sensitive about the topic :)

Tuesday 25th July 2017

 

If Cressida thought her summer would be filled with fond memories of her mother, them doing fun activities together, and watching terrible shows late into the night while they ate ice cream, she was terribly mistaken.

If anything, she felt more alone and estranged from her mother now than when Gareth was around. In fact, she rather missed Gareth, only for the sole purpose of being able to steal his cigarettes and make some money. Without her suppler, she had nothing to offer Albie and his gang, and therefore no pocket money coming in.

Alice was still working long hours. Cressida knew that would happen. They didn’t have money to go on day trips. She had expected that too. But her mother’s odd attitude was something she had not accounted for. Also, the summer sun had been rather dismal so far, which didn’t help her mood.

Alice’s strange reaction to Cressida at the train station only escalated once they were back in Conwell and it was just the two of them. Cressida tried to pretend she didn’t notice for the first few days. She tried to continue on with the façade she had created in her head.

“Do you want to share the last of my sweets, mum?” She broached one day after dinner. Her mother had worked a day shift and brought chips home from the chippy. It was the first time they had seen each other all day. “I wouldn’t let Felix eat your favourites, just in case.”

“You actually left some then?” Alice asked, sleepily dunking a chip into her ketchup.

“Here,” Cressida said pulling the sweets out of her pocket. She had planned this interaction out in her head for the last two hours before her mum got home. “You can choose from a fruit pastel or a wine gum-”

She stopped talking once she realised her mother wasn’t looking at the sweets and was instead staring at her hair again. She did that a lot whenever they were together now, but Cressida couldn’t come up with a good reason as to why.

Every time Alice was in a room with her for more than ten seconds she cast sideways glances at her daughter, an uneasy rise and fall in her chest. She always looked at Cressida indirectly now or stared dazedly past her shoulder. Cressida has begun to think that perhaps now she was done with her second year of Hogwarts she was more magical than the last time, and that was what was causing such a visceral reaction from her mother. Anytime Cressida tried to point it out, however, Alice always dismissed it or changed the subject.

It was an upsetting thought, and it ate away at Cressida for the whole first week she was home. If her mother could barely look at her now as a Second Year, what would her mother do once she was finally finished with her wizard schooling? When she was a fully-fledged witch?

Would her mother run away entirely? Would she never look at her again?

Cressida just couldn’t understand what had caused such a great shift. Maybe their relationship had been dwindling away to this since she found out she was a wizard. Maybe being away for the majority of the year had made Alice realise how little she actually wanted Cressida around.

“Everything alright, mum?” She asked pointedly.

Alice snapped out of her staring and took a sharp breath in. “Yeah, sorry, hun. Long day. Where’s that cat of yours? I bet he’s hungry.”

With that, Alice got up from the table and occupied herself with emptying a can of tuna onto a plate for Rasper.

Cressida shoved the sweets back into her pockets and bit the inside of her cheek. “Do you want to visit the farmer’s market tomorrow, mum?”

“I’m working tomorrow, Cress. Julia backed out of the day shift and I was forced to pick it up, otherwise, I would have said yes,” her mother replied. She leaned back against the kitchen counter and pulled a pack of cigarettes from her cardigan pocket. There was a hole in the pocket and the lighter fell right through, causing her mum to curse as she bent down to pick it up.

Cressida’s eyes honed in on them instantly. “Since when do you smoke?”

Alice lifted the cigarette to her mouth, looking to the floor guiltily. “Nasty habit, I know. I wish someone would take them off me so I’d stop.”

“Then why do it?” Cressida asked. “You always said you hated how much Gareth smoked-”

“Cress,” her mother warned.

“Well, you did!”

Alice stubbed out the cigarette in the sink and ran a hand through her hair, her eyes falling on Cressida again. “Cress,” she said slowly. “Why did you do that to your hair?”

Finally , Cressida thought.  Acknowledgement . 

“I think it makes me look more grown-up, don’t you think?”

Alice looked tired again. “I think it makes you look… different.”

Cressida shrank down in her chair. “In a bad way?”

Alice cleared the table, now purposefully doing everything to look away from Cressida. “Just different.”

Cressida got to her feet and grabbed the plate of tuna from the counter, storming out of the kitchen slightly more childishly than she meant to.

Let her mother know she had upset her. Cressida was sick of pretending she didn’t realise her mother was avoiding her.

More than anything Cressida was furious at herself for getting her hopes up about these six weeks. She had gotten her hopes up for a decent summer spent with her mother laughing and enjoying each other's company like they used to.

She should have known better. Adults never live up to their promises. 

She entered her bedroom and placed the plate on the floor. Instantly, Rasper crawled out from under the bed and began eating. Cressida slumped on her bed and grabbed her phone from the side table. She had been texting Jac non-stop since coming home and she desperately wanted to update her on the latest interaction with her mother.

‘Text failed to send’

She tried again.

‘To send a text, add credit to phone or be charged-”

Cressida threw the phone across the room. Luckily it landed in a pile of laundry on the floor. She should have been monitoring her credit more closely. Normally, she would have used her money from the cigarette deals to keep it topped up, but that wasn’t an option this time.

In her fit of despair, she grabbed a pen and some paper and started writing.

 

 

Thursday 27th July 2017

 

Cressida had woken up to an empty flat. Her mother had already left for work, leaving two sausages and some bacon to warm up in the microwave for Cressida’s breakfast. 

Rasper followed behind happily as Cressida carried out her normal routine. She brushed her teeth, got dressed, ate her sad breakfast- she really did miss Hogwarts breakfast and Molly’s tea at that precise moment, and then sat down in front of the TV.

‘ Friends’  was playing, as always.

Cressida was sure she could recite every episode word for word by this point.

“This is pathetic,” she said to herself as she watched Ross rant about how he and Rachel were ‘ on a break’.

Rasper jumped up onto the sofa beside her and started digging at the cushions. Cressida didn’t take much notice. The sofa was beaten up as it was, a few extra scaggs and scratches would hardly make a difference.

Cressida grabbed the remote and changed to the music channel. A Katy Perry video filled the screen. She’d been listening to the music channel a lot when she was in the flat on her own this summer, hoping to introduce Jac to some new music once they returned. She was especially fond of Harry Style’s new solo album.

Only once Rasper re-emerged from the gap in the cushions with a piece of cardboard in his mouth did Cressida look down at him, knowing her kitten had a habit of eating things he shouldn’t.

“Give it!” She said to the kitten, playing tug of war with the object. Once Rasper released his hold on it did Cressida realise it was part of a cigarette packet.

She jumped off the couch and pulled off the sofa cushions to discover three full packets concealed under there, as well as a lighter, and a pile of envelopes wadded together with an elastic band.

She picked up the envelopes and read the red lettering. They looked highly important, and most of them had already been opened. Upon further inspection, the majority of them seemed to be from the council and benefits people and so Cressida quickly placed them back under the cushion.

Her mum had always told her not to mess with the mail. Gareth used to swat her with it if he caught her taking it out of the mailbox at the front door without their permission.

She turned her focus to the cigarettes. She wasn’t sure if they were left over from Gareth or her mum’s secret stash. Either way, they weren’t going to remain under the cushions for much longer.

She swiped the objects and shoved them into her pockets.

She wouldn’t sell them, though. Not yet. Just simply remove them from Alice’s possession. After all, she’d said she wanted someone to take them away from her. Cressida was doing her a favour.

But still, Cressida in her thirteen years of life had never taken something from her  mother.

She pulled a packet and the lighter out of her pocket again and stared at them in her hands. Thirty quid, she could get. £6.50 for each packet and £5 for the lighter on top.

At the very least it would put an end the Albie’s pestering on why she didn’t have anything for him whenever they crossed paths.

There was a bang and Cressida jumped, quickly shoving the objects back under the cushion. When she turned towards the cause of the noise, she saw an impressive looking owl outside her living room window, hooting angrily at the fact it was closed.

“Barnabas?”

She undid the latch and the owl squeezed his way in, taking a perch on top of the TV and extending his leg out towards her, showing off two letters attached to him.

Rasper perched on the arm of the sofa, eyeing up Barnabas hungrily.

Cressida crossed the room and untied the letters. The owl took off just as Rasper pounced off the sofa, landing with a crash in front of the TV.

 

‘Alright, Knightly?

Hope your summer with your mum is going like you hoped.

I’m aware your answer is most likely no but I figured I’d ask anyway. The grand occasion of my birthday is on August 3rd, and henceforth a party is required.

There will be cake.

 

Yours chaotically,

James Sirius Potter’

 

She opened the second letter.

 

‘Dear Cressida,

Jac has agreed to come to James’ birthday party after several letters and a phone call between our parents, but she said if she comes you have to too.

Dad says you can both sleep at mine for the visit. Margo’s here already anyway. She refuses to go to her own house currently.

Felix is coming too, but he’s not staying over.

Hopefully, your mum won’t mind you disappearing for two days and you can make it.

 

Yours sincerely,

Molly Weasley II’

 

 

*

 

Alice had come home around nine o’clock. The two shared a late dinner of warmed up pizza and barely spoke a word to each other over the table. 

At one point, Cressida was sure her mother was about to say something, or at the very least apologise, but then she just sighed and continued eating her pizza.

Her mind kept trailing back to the letters during the silence. All her friends were meeting up in a few weeks' time and the thought made her miss them terribly. She had been bragging about everything she and her mum would do over the summer and yet she doubted Alice would even notice if Cressida disappeared for two days currently.

Once they had finished eating and Alice was doing the dishes, Cressida found the courage to talk again. “Mum… did you go to parties at my age?”

“You what?”

Cressida shrugged. “Parties. Birthday ones. Did you go to many at my age?”

“I suppose so,” she said, slightly confused.

“What were they like?” Cressida asked then. 

Her mother laughed. The first laugh since Cressida had been home. “Messy, mainly. Usually involved a lot of dancing and-” she looked at her daughter and stopped whatever she was about to say. “Either way, they were usually fun as long as you were safe.”

Cressida picked at a piece of pepperoni from her pizza. “Do you think they’re much different to wizard parties?”

Alice’s smile went away again. “Dunno. Maybe. I wouldn’t exactly know… why are you asking about birthday parties?”

Cressida looked down at the table. “My friend invited me to his party, but he’s a proper wizard. I’m not sure if I’d fit in there.”

Alice was quiet for a moment, taking to drying the dishes instead of answering right away. “Do wizard birthdays involve bringing presents?” Alice asked finally.

“Not sure,” Cressida admitted. “But knowing the wizarding world, the gift would need to be something completely unhelpful or nonsensical.”

Alice’s eyebrows rose, causing wrinkles on her forehead. “Nonsensical. That’s a big word.”

“I know lots of swotty words now. I’m friends with the smartest girl in my year…” Cressida looked at her hands in her lap. “You’d know that if you bothered to ask about my school.”

Alice put the bowl she had been drying down on the counter. “Cress, not tonight, please.”

“I’ve been home two weeks! If not now, when?” Cressida snapped unintentionally. “When are you going to live up to your promise?”

“What promise?”

“The promise that it would be like old times. Like before Gareth!”

Alice sighed, running a hand over her face. “I’ve just been distracted, that’s all-”

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“I have not,” her mother said firmly. 

Cressida folded her arms over her chest. “You can barely look at me. Any time I try to talk to you for more than two seconds you practically run away. If you didn’t want to spend time with me this summer, just say so, but don’t treat me like I’m contagious.”

Alice turned to face her daughter. “I sent you that letter the night I chucked Gareth out. Things have changed since then.”

“Like what?” 

“I’m working two jobs now to pay the bills, Cressida. Gareth left me with a bunch of debt as punishment! Have you noticed I’ve not even had time to clean before you came home?! Have you noticed the fridge is practically empty?!”

Cressida sank down in her chair. “I just thought-”

“Thought what?” She cut her off. “That I was being a bad mother? Truth is I’m drowning, Cress. You left, and Gareth left, and I’m drowning on my own. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“You could have told me-”

“No, I couldn’t! Because you are a  child , Cressida,” Alice snapped. “ My  child. Who disappears for half the year and comes back looking like- like-” Alice faltered, waving her hands in the air. She turned her back on Cressida, bracing her hands against the counter. “I don’t want to fight with you, Cress. I’m sick of fighting. I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

As Alice left, she grabbed the bottle of gin from the top counter and didn’t say another word.

Tears pricked at Cressida’s eyes as she sat in the kitchen alone.

Something small and fuzzy nudged her bare ankles and Rasper was pawing to be picked up.

Cressida ignored him.

 

 

Friday 28th July 2017

 

It took three hours for Cressida to finally get up from the kitchen table. 

Rasper had long since fallen asleep, curled up on the sofa in the dark. Cressida had been pacing in front of him for the last thirty minutes, grabbing onto her hair and wanting to rip it out.

This was her fault. She wasn’t sure how, but her mother's drowning was her fault.

She  had left.  She  had wanted Gareth gone.

She hadn’t considered how her mum would survive on her own. She had never been good on her own, but before Cressida had always been there to pick up the pieces. That was hard to do all the way in Scotland, running around Hogwarts and pretending like she wasn’t a Conwell kid. A kid without a dad, without any money, with a parent struggling to try and keep their heads above water.

She was pathetic, but at least she had stopped crying now. She had stopped fifteen minutes ago when she returned to her bedroom, letting the tears that had been there previously stain her cheeks and run down her neck as she led there.

The sun was rising now. She’d have to face her mum soon. She’d have to apologise before she went to work and disappeared for the day.

The faint tapping outside her window caught her attention. There was a different owl hopping about on the window ledge. 

She opened the window and the owl flew inside, perching on the end of her bed, extending its tiny leg out towards her. Rasper stirred, lifting his head to the intrusion.

Cressida had barely untied the letter from the owl’s leg before Rasper was pouncing towards the bird, chasing it back out the window.

 

“Hiya Cressie,

I guess owl mail is useful for something after all, lol.

Sorry to hear your summer plans aren’t going as you’d hoped.

I think it’s a mum thing, not liking when their daughters change their appearance without cluing them in. My mum has banned me from even cutting my hair without her say so until I’m twenty.

I’m sure Molly’s already told you but somehow she managed to convince my mum to let me go to Potter’s birthday, but I said I’ll only go if you do. I actually think it might be fun. Plus, we’d get to meet the rest of their family and see whether Molly is the odd one out or if the trio of boys are just like… that.

Let me know if you can make it! Molly says if we can, her family will come and pick us both up from our houses.

 

Lots of love,

Jac xx’

 

Cressida pulled Rasper back in from the window ledge before he fell three stories and shut the window.

“You shouldn’t chase the owls,” she told her kitten while rereading the letter again. “They’re just doing their job.”

Rasper gave a grumbling meow as he slinked back under the bed where he had made a pleasant nest for himself.

Cressida led back down on her bed, clutching the letter to her chest. She desperately wanted to see Jac. 

A door clicked open in the hallway. Her mum was awake.

Cressida ventured out into the hallway without even putting the letter down.

She found Alice in the kitchen, hunched over the sink in her ratty old cardigan again. The gin bottle from the night before was now joined by a second empty bottle.

“Mum.”

Alice spun around at the intrusion, looking worse than when she had gone to sleep. “Christ, Cress, it’s barely six in the morning.”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at her mum. “Mum, I-”

Alice strode forward, grasping Cressida into a hug. “I know, sweetie. I shouldn’t have said that stuff to you. I’m sorry.”

Cressida gripped onto her mum as though letting go would send them back into their argument.

“What you got there?” Alice sniffed, stepping out of the hug.

Cressida’s eyes shot down to the letter from Jac crumpled in her hands. “Oh, um… the birthday party. Jac’s asking if I’m going or not.”

Alice wiped the tears from her eyes, forcing a strained smile. “Do you want to go?”

Cressida looked up guiltily. “I don’t want to leave you-”

Alice reached out to soothe her hair but stopped herself, instead just placing it on her shoulder. “Don’t be silly. You should go to the party, especially if all your other friends are going. Where’s it to?”

“Molly’s,” Cressida answered. “It’s a sleepover too. Her dad can pick me and Jac up.”

“Alright then,” Alice nodded moving away fully. “Send them a text, or a bird, or whatever it is you do. Tell them you’re going. I have to get ready for work.”

“But what about you?”

“I’m a grown woman, Cress. I can manage for two days,” she replied. Alice hastily emptied her cardigan pockets of balled up tissues and nearly tripped over Rasper as she left the kitchen.

Rasper skidded across the linoleum floor towards the rubbish bin, pouncing into the pile of tissues with ease.

“Gross,” Cressida muttered as she lifted her kitten out of the rubbish bin to find he had something in his mouth. “I feed you! Stop eating random crap-”

She pulled the object out of Rasper’s mouth. It was a picture.

A picture of a man no older than eighteen. A man with piercing grey eyes and pitch-black hair stared back up at her. 

“Cress!” Alice poked her head back into the kitchen just as Cressida hid the photo behind her back. “Did I drop something in here?” She asked, scanning the floor. She looked confused again. “I swear I had-” she stopped, her brow furrowed. 

“Looking for something, mum?” Cressida asked, struggling to keep her voice level.

Alice’s eyes snapped to her, the bemused look unrelenting. “No, just ignore me. I must be more tired than I thought,” she mumbled, disappearing again.

Cressida held the picture out in front of her again, her hands trembling. She was looking at her father for the first time in her life.

“Shit,” she breathed.

Chapter 45: Summer 2017 Part 2

Summary:

James' Birthday Extravaganza

Thursday 3rd August 2017

 

Cressida eagerly awaited the arrival of Molly and her parents. She’d been sitting on the curb for half an hour now with her backpack ready to go. Alice had gone to work at 6.30 promptly as she had every morning. 

Nothing in her routine had changed.

If anything, Alice was under the impression she and Cressida were on good terms now. That they had gotten everything out in the open. But Cressida knew that wasn’t exactly true.

Cressida still had the photo. It was safely placed in the inside pocket of her leather jacket as she sat there. She couldn’t risk leaving it in the flat. She couldn’t risk her mum taking away the one piece of her father she had found.

But then again, Cressida wasn’t sure if Alice was even looking for the photo. She hadn’t mentioned it since the morning in the kitchen, and even then she looked like she wasn’t sure what she had dropped in the first place. A part of Cressida wondered whether her mother had dropped it for Cressida to find on purpose, or maybe she had really meant to throw it out.

Either way, it was now in Cressida’s possession, burning a hole through her mind and her pocket.

She desperately needed to talk about the picture with someone that wasn’t her mum. She needed to be angry about it and confused and glad.

It was hard, trying to untangle the string of emotions that came with finding the picture. It was exhausting trying to figure out what the appropriate emotion to feel was. Sometimes she felt everything while staring at the picture, and other times she felt nothing. She didn’t know the man in the photo. But the man in the photo had known her. He had known her and left her.

She thought back to her conversations with Margo. How she had been so dismissive of her dad’s affair. The truth was, she’d spent so long without a dad she didn’t know what the possibility of having one felt like.

He’d always just been this grey blob in her mind, but now he had flesh. Now she could see just how much of him was in her own appearance. Now she could put a face to the man who had disappeared on them. It was worse when there was a face. Much worse.

She’d have to apologise to Margo and fully mean it this time.

“Mornin’ Little Knightly.” Cressida looked up to see Johnny Davis delivering the post out of his red wagon. “Not seen you about lately.”

“Been busy,” Cressida shrugged. She’d always liked Johnny. He’d been their postman for as long as she could remember, and he never ratted her out when she was sneaking in the flat just as he started his rounds. 

Johnny rummaged around in his wagon. “Say, your mum ain’t in, is she?”

“She’s at work, why?”

Johnny pulled out a stack of letters. Cressida noticed the red writing on the envelopes straight away. “She’s not a fan of me right now, but I can’t help what I deliver, you know,” he said conversationally. “It’s not like I  want  to deliver these-” he glanced down at Cressida then promptly cleared his throat. “Well, anyways, give these to your mum for me. I doubt she’ll shout at you as much as she does to me.”

Cressida took the letters from him. “Thanks.”

She waited for Johnny to move onto the next block of flats and then got to her feet, shoving the letters through their designated letterbox. It was better Alice thought Cressida hadn’t seen the letters.

She’d barely retaken her seat on the curb when she was interrupted again.

“Finally running away for good, are you?”

Cressida’s head snapped sideways to see Callie Powell coming out of the flats wearing shorts and a crop top that was two sizes too small, and a pair of red sunglasses stuck in her slicked-back hair. She’d done Cressida the honour of removing one of her earbuds.

“No,” Cressida answered. “I’m going to a sleepover.”

“Are there going to be boys there?” She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Dunno,” Cressida answered bluntly. “Why would that matter?”

Callie looked down at Cressida’s outfit- shorts and a baggy t-shirt. “Give it another year and you’ll understand.” She glanced at Rasper’s head poking out of her hobo bag. “You’re taking your weird cat?” 

“Do I suggest I leave him here to fend for himself?” Cressida countered. “Your brothers would probably skin him alive if they got their hands on him.”

Callie gave a small nod of agreement. Cressida went back to staring out at the road. Molly’s dad should be arriving any minute now. Callie continued to linger beside her though, obviously building up the courage to say something else. “Heard some doors slamming the other night… you alright?”

“Yeah,” Cressida nodded. “You know how it is.”

“Mums suck sometimes,” she offered in the way of comfort. It did little to help. The older girl continued to linger. “I heard Albie and his boys talking the other day… they all like your new hair. Thinks it made you look posh or somethin’.”

“That was kind of my intention.”

Callie smiled then, the same ugly smile as her mother. “Didn’t fit in with the posho kids did you, Knightly?” 

“Nah,” Cressida replied. “Not really.”

“Conwell kids are still Conwell kids, even in a posh boarding school,” she said, but she didn’t make it sound like an insult. More like a statement to be proud of. Callie didn’t know any different. 

She left after that, placing her earbud back in and crossing the street. Cressida was slightly glad to be alone again. She doubted Molly’s parents would think highly of the locals around Conwell, and she wanted to limit the embarrassment of her home town as much as possible.

She was currently staring at the lamppost across the street. The light was smashed on it and the  ‘no balls’  sign zip-tied to it was crocked from having balls purposefully thrown at it.

She had been reading the graffiti surrounding the edges of the sign when a familiar face appeared in front of it out of thin air. Victoire Weasley was now looking rather peeved off at the mud now speckled on her suede boots, and extremely out of place wearing an elegant summer dress in Conwell’s less than desirable surroundings. Molly was standing beside her, having to duck under the sign they hadn’t expected to be in the way of their landing place.

“Cressida!” Victoire exclaimed waving her over. “Sorry, we’re a bit late. We had to split up to get Jac as well.”

“How did you just… pop here?” Cressida asked.

“Apparition,” Molly said. “Victoire passed her exam a month ago.”

“We couldn’t expect one of Molly’s friends to get the Knight Bus, now could we?” Victoire grinned. 

Cressida blinked in confusion. “Um-”

“Are you ready?” Molly asked, moving the conversation along quickly.

“Sure,” Cressida nodded. “But what’s-”

“Hold on tight,” Victoire instructed. She grabbed Molly with one hand and placed her other on Cressida’s shoulder.

The next thing she knew, she felt like she was having her insides sucked out through her belly button.

Moments later, her feet were suddenly hitting the solid ground again and she fell flat on her back, staring up at a spinning ceiling.

“Damn,” Victoire’s voice said. “I still need to work on my landing.”

“At least you’re stood,” Molly complained. When Cressida propped herself up on her elbows, she found Molly was coming out of the food pantry.

She felt like she would heave any minute now. This method of travel was worse than any vehicle she had yet experienced, but at least it was over quick.

Even once the spinning had stopped the room still overloaded the senses. There were four kettles boiling on the stove, seven different timers ticking on the countertops- the majority of them seemed to be shaped like ducks. In the centre of the room, three dining tables were pushed together to make one long one that nearly extended out into the garden, with mismatched chairs in every available space. On top of the dining table were piles and platters of homemade food, some covered with tea towels, some already half-eaten, and some stored in Tupperware.

There was a clock hanging on the wall with so many hands that it was impossible to see any numbers or make any sense of what time it would be. One panel of the wall to the side seemed to be dedicated to measuring the heights of every member of the family from the time they were born until now. Cressida thought it resembled a novel with how full it was.

“Where are we?” She asked, using a dining chair to get her footing back after the apparition. 

“The Burrow!” Cressida’s head spun around to see Teddy sauntering into the room.

So  this  is where they spent their summers, Cressida realised. 

Behind Teddy came Jac holding her stomach, looking just as travel sick as Cressida. “I wish I’d taken the train,” Jac grumbled.

“Don’t be such a wimp,” Teddy laughed, steering Jac to sit in one of the rickety dining room chairs beside Cressida. “I took a detour to get you ice cream, didn’t I?”

Jac heaved. “I think that’s what made it worse.”

Teddy gave an indifferent shrug and went to peck Victoire on the cheek. “Grandma Molly’s nearly done setting up the tent out back. She said to let her know when the kiddies are ready to meet everyone.”

“Dad wants their stuff taken to mine first,” Molly said. “He’s still at the house with Margo until the party starts.”

Victoire wrapped her arms around Teddy as she spoke. It was slightly nauseating, Cressida thought, to be that in love. “I’ll help Grand-mere Molly. Teddy can pop your bags over to Uncle Percy’s residence.”

“Done,” Teddy grinned. He broke away from Victoire with another kiss and grabbed both Cressida and Jac’s bag in his arms then disappeared with a wink.

“Rasper was in there…” Cressida said once he was gone.

“Your cat is in good hands, Knightly,” Victoire smiled as she too left the room.

“So,” Molly sighed. “Tea?”

Cressida fidgeted slightly in her seat, her hand reaching into the inside pocket of her jacket. “First, there’s something I need to show you-”

She was interrupted by a big black dog coming bounding into the kitchen, knocking everything in its path over and spreading droll across the tiles.

“That’s Snuffles,” Molly said unphased as the shabby dog caused destruction around them.

Shortly after the dog, Fred and James came running in waving a piece of ham each in their hands. “Here boy!” James was beckoning the dog.

“Over here, Snuffles! Come and get the nice bacon!” Fred encouraged.

“It’s ham, not bacon!” James corrected him.

“I doubt Snuffles will know the difference,” Fred replied.

Both boys paused, finally noticing Jac and Cressida sitting at the kitchen table.

“Knightly?” James said confused. “You actually came?”

Fred’s shoulders sagged. “Great, now I owe Wood five sickles.”

“You bet on us coming?” Jac asked affronted.

“Of course we did,” Fred and James said in unison.

Snuffles, having finally noticed the ham in their hands, came bounding over towards them. Both boys were on the floor in an instant, the black dog led across them eating the ham out of their hands.

“A graceful entrance as always,” Cressida mocked leaning over the two boys trapped on the floor.

“You know us, Knightly-” James grinned up at her. “Always like to make ourselves known.”

Snuffles, having devoured the ham, had now taken to licking James’ face instead, causing one side of his hair to stick up straight.

Fred managed to roll his way out of the dog pile. He grabbed one of the scones from the table and threw it out the room, Snuffles went bounding after it. A crashing sound quickly followed.

“Cute dog,” Jac said. “Who came up with the name Snuffles?” 

Molly rolled her eyes as she prepared for the answer. “The dog is named after James’ dad’s godfather,” Fred explained.

“Why?” Jac questioned.

“Because Sirius was also a dog,” James said as though it was obvious. “Snuffles was his codename.”

“Like a nickname?” Cressida asked.

“No, his nickname was Padfoot,” James told them. “Snuffles was the name he used to write to my dad while he was on the run from Azkaban.”

“The wizard prison?” Jac asked horrified.

“But Sirius was innocent,” Fred cut in quickly. “Peter Pettigrew framed Sirius for the death of the Potters but got away. He spent twelve years as my family’s pet rat Scabbers until Lupin-”

“Every time we ask a simple question your answer gives me a headache,” Cressida interrupted them rubbing her temples and trying to keep up with the bizarre information they were telling her.

“BOYS!” Fred, Molly and James’ heads all snapped around in sync. 

“Grandma Molly is calling us,” Fred said.

“The rest of us must be arriving,” Molly assumed.

James turned to Jac and Cressida with a manic grin. “Prepare yourself,” he said. “This is usually when it gets crazy.”

That did not fill Cressida with much hope for the remainder of the day.

James and Fred tumbled over each other racing to the back door and flinging it open. Molly and the two girls followed behind with slightly more decorum. “My family are harmless really, but if Granddad Arthur finds out you’re both muggle-born, prepare to be talking to him for at least an hour.”

Jac and Cressida sent a glance to one another before stepping into the garden.

Wellie boots of every size and colour lined the path coming out of the door. Names were carved into the stone path leading towards the massive tent at the end of the garden-  George, Fred, Fred II, Molly, Bill, Percy, Ginny, Lily-Luna, Charlie . There was a name to match the number of boots available.

In the grass, several brooms lay strewn about with plump brown chickens pecking at them. Snuffles reappeared, chasing the chickens away with loud clucks.

As they walked, the platters of food suddenly came whizzing past them in mid-air, all flying towards the big white tent set up at the end of the garden where a large crowd of wizards were gathered.

Once they reached the edge of the tent, Cressida realised there was nothing holding up the canopy. Jac was looking for hidden wires in the ground. “It’s magic,” Molly said by way of explanation when she noticed. “It’s the same kind that keeps the house upright.”

Cressida glanced back over her shoulder to look at the Burrow in its entirety, and it did indeed look ready to topple over at a moment's notice. In her mind, the Potter’s and Weasley’s spend their summers in some grand mansion, not a topsy-turvy house in the middle of Devon. It was a nice surprise.

“Molly, finally!” Margo’s voice came from up ahead. “Victoire wants help greeting the one’s still left to appear. They’re due to pop in any minute now.”

Molly wandered off with Margo deeper into the tent.

Cressida and Jac remained lingering on the edge looking in. She recognised most of them from King Cross Station but even so, Cressida didn’t know any of their names. There were at least thirty people all stood around talking to one another, with more still due to come by the sound of it. Cressida could hardly imagine having this much family.

 Jac’s eyes widened at the sight and the full extent of Potter’s family. “Dear God, there’s loads of them.”

A boy that looked remarkably like James, but more sullen, appeared at their side, drinking a caprisun. “Not all of them are relatives. Neville and Luna are here too. Wood’s coming with his dad and sister as usual.”

“Who are you?” Cressida asked, narrowing her eyes on the young boy.

“Albus,” he shrugged and then disappeared into the crowd without further explanation.

“Another cousin?” Jac questioned as they watched him go.

Cressida shook her head, noticing he had the same green eyes as James. “Brother… I think.”

A body popped in right behind them, startling the two girls. “Well, don’t just stand about,” Teddy’s voice laughed as he pushed the girls further into the party. “Meet, mix and mingle. I promise they don’t bite.”

“But we’ll never remember everyone’s names!” Jac panicked, looking at the daunting crowd ahead of them. “Mum said I had to remember their names and thank them all-”

“Jamsie!” Teddy bellowed. James appeared at a moment’s notice, now sporting a flashing birthday boy badge. “Do the rounds, will you?”

James looked thrilled to do the honours. “Allow me,” he grinned, bowing slightly and extending his arm to the party.

Teddy ruffled James’ hair as he passed and joined the rest of the family. “Do Arthur last,” he warned as he departed. “He’s got a new obsession with figuring out how the internet works.”

James stood upright again, his eyes scanning the scene in front of them. “Okay,” he started, moving forward with the two girls following behind him. “That’s Grandmother Molly shouting at Uncle Bill.”

He pointed to a short and tubby woman who had an apron over a long tartan dress. She was shouting at a tall ginger man who had sampled one of the cakes on the ever-growing buffet table. While Bill was being scolded, Fred Weasley II, accompanied by his father, snuck up and discreetly slid an entire cake from the table. However, when they turned around, a woman stood there, tapping her foot at them. Beside her was a girl who resembled her mother greatly, although she had a slight ginger twinge to her hair, unlike Fred II. George Weasley put the cake back on the table in defeat.

“That’s Aunt Angelina,” James continued. “She’s Freddie’s mum, and that’s his sister Roxanne.”

After being caught, Fred looked in search of James and found them easily. He swaggered over with a grin on his face. “Jam tart?” He offered, bringing out one from his back pocket.

“We’re doing the family run down,” James explained as they continued moving through the party.

“Ah, well then let me assist,” Fred grinned, taking a large bite out of the tart in his hand. He pointed to an incredibly beautiful woman who was now talking to Bill near the buffet table. “That’s Bill’s wife, Fleur-”

“Victoire’s mum?” Cressida guessed. She’d recognise that slightly magical glint to their appearance anywhere.

“And Dominique and Louis’,” James nodded.

Jac frowned. “They don’t go to Hogwarts?”

“Louis and Dom attend the French wizarding school like Aunt Fleur did,” Fred explained.

James raised his voice purposefully. “Yeah, not all of us have what it takes to live up to the Hogwarts legacy!”

Two people Cressida took to be Dominique and Louis spun around, and she couldn’t believe that they were perhaps even more beautiful than Victoire. Especially when they sent a hex toward James Sirius Potter with easy smiles on their faces.

James turned the two girls towards a third ginger man covered head to toe in freckles, sitting at a table with a woman who had extremely bushy hair. She seemed to be healing a cut on the man’s hand. “That’s Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione.”

“Rose and Hugo are theirs,” Fred pointed out two children not much younger than themselves running across the dance floor in the centre chasing Snuffles who had someone’s wand in his mouth.

“Obviously, Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey had Molly II,” Fred continued.

There was a pop as yet another wizard arrived. “There’s Uncle Charlie now!” James exclaimed, pointing towards him.

“Who are Charlie’s kids?” Jac asked curiously.

“Uncle Charlie doesn’t have any kids,” James answered.

“He has dragons-” Fred elaborated.

They were cut off by something coming zooming past them. James and Fred dived to protect the girl’s heads as they all fell to the floor. Looking up, Cressida saw a small ginger witch flying around the tent on a broomstick.

“Lily-Luna, we told you no flying indoors!” A women’s voice came. Cressida recognised it to be James’ mum.

“I’m not indoors!” Lily-Luna replied.

“Let me guess,” Cressida started, turning her head slightly to face James. “She’s your sister?”

James only grinned in reply, watching as his mum and dad appeared, hoisting the girl off the broom and confiscating it. 

“Will you race me, dad?” Lily-Luna asked. “You promised. Please, please,  please -”

“Race Roxanne,” Ginny said, giving the broom back to her. “And no chasing the chickens, either! Today is about James.”

“It’s  always  about James!” Lily-Luna complained as she ran off in search of Fred’s little sister. 

“Is not!” James shouted over.

“Is too,” Albus said, coming up beside the group eating a cupcake. None of them had even heard him approaching. 

James sent his brother a rude gesture and Albus wandered off rolling his eyes.

Cressida’s eyes scanned the crowd. There were still people she didn’t know mingling about but at least now she had a good sense of who was who. 

There was pop. “WOOD!” Both boys bellowed.

Thomas Wood appeared alongside his father. Surprisingly, it was Thomas’ dad that approached James before anyone else. “Potter. Heard you gave a good game at the start of the year,” he was saying in a thicker Scottish accent than Thomas had. “If you ever wanted some tips on-”

Another pop. They turned to see Percy Weasley standing there. “Already started on the Quidditch talk, I see, Oliver,” he said to Thomas’ dad. “Do you ever think about anything else?”

“The boy has the potential to go pro, I’m telling you!” Oliver Wood exclaimed. “If we nurture their talent we could start a new team of just this family. There’s enough for a team now-  imagine !”

“I’d rather not,” Percy said, but it was no use. He and Wood walked off together with Oliver going into an in-depth analysis of why the future of the whole family revolved around Quidditch.

“I see where you get it from now, Wood,” Cressida teased.

“Look,” Jac said then. “Felix is here.”

Cressida turned to see Felix standing with Seamus and Dean, who were talking to Harry and Ginny Potter by the record player. It looked as though they were discussing what music to put on next. To her surprise, Professor Longbottom appeared through the crowd then, offering out a drink to all the adults talking. Behind him came a woman with nearly white hair that went down to her waist, who was wearing an impressively looking homemade knitted dress.

It appeared as though Ginny and Luna had made the final decision on the music, and they loaded up a Spice Girls album, to be closely followed by a B*Witched album.

Felix looked relieved when he spotted the two girls looking in his direction. He said a quick goodbye to the adults and made his way over.

“Happy birthday, Potter,” Felix said.

“Cheers,” James grinned.

“Right then!” Everyone turned to see Teddy standing on a chair to tower over everyone. “I hereby announce that it is time to GET THIS PARTY STARTED!”

The music blasted louder. Party poppers went off. People cheered.

It was going to be the party to end all parties, it seemed.

 

*

 

Three hours had passed by in what felt like ten minutes. They’d danced to both wizard and muggle music. Watching a bunch of wizards in robes perform the Cha Cha Slide  was highly amusing. They played pass the parcel and pin the horn on the unicorn. Hagrid had turned up late, landing on one of the garden chairs and offering James a badly wrapped book, which came to life and chased them all around for a bit. Eventually, Harry Potter stepped in and put the book safely inside. Cressida half expected McGonagall to appear any minute now.

As the party drew on, she was introduced to more and more of the family in person.

George had approached Cressida not long after the party started while she and the group of Slytherins all sat around a table. George shook her hand enthusiastically. “Heard a lot about you, you know,” he said with the same cheeky grin as Fred. “You should come by the shop before heading back to school, I’ll give you the family discount.”

“There’s no such thing as a family discount,” Molly pointed out.

“There is if you’re using the products  against  my family,” George laughed before disappearing again, being dragged off by his wife saying they needed to get more ice from the kitchen.

Molly Weasley had been next, offering out finger sandwiches on a platter as she made the rounds through the party. Arthur followed behind her, absent-mindedly snacking on the sandwiches she was trying to give out. Jac and Molly II had disappeared to join Roxanne and Lily-Luna riding brooms in the garden by this point. “You must be Cressida,” Molly smiled. “Our boys are very fond of you, I must say.”

Felix couldn’t contain his grin. “Are they now?”

“Oh yes. Especially James,” Arthur nodded, shoving another sandwich in his mouth. “Reckons our lot would love you. He’d been pestering everyone about letting you and your friend come to visit since your First Year. Wanted to show you off, I think.”

Cressida felt redness creeping up her neck at the attention. “I’m really not that great.”

“Nonsense!” Molly scoffed, waving a hand through the air. “Just look at you. A fine young witch if I ever did see one,” she said, tapping Cressida on the cheek. “Tell me, sweetheart, who are your parents? If I know them I’ll make sure to add them to the Christmas list.”

“I’m a muggle-born,” Cressida answered.

Arthur Weasley’s eyes brightened immediately. “Muggle-born, you say. Tell me, do you know about such a thing as an internet car? I’ve heard fabulous things about them, but I can’t for the life of me understand how they work-”

“No more cars!” Molly interrupted firmly. She turned to Cressida with a smile as she shuffled her husband along. “Lovely to meet you, dear. Enjoy the party.”

Arthur continued trying to face Cressida even as he was being dragged away by Molly. “We’ll continue this conversation later!”

After the interaction with Molly and Arthur, Cressida took to lingering on the outskirts of the tent, hoping to have no more conversations that involved James’ opinion of her.

Felix had disappeared now, too, finding it very entertaining to join in a betting game of who could knock a stack of empty wine bottles down with one of Snuffles’ tennis balls. So far, it appeared as though Ron was winning, followed closely by Dean.

“Cressida Knightly, right?” 

Cressida turned to see Harry Potter standing beside her, holding out his hand.

“Yes, sir,” Cressida replied shaking the hand politely. She had been watching Harry Potter a few times throughout the party, expecting him to act like the wizarding hero everyone told her he was. She expected him to tell stories and present himself in some grand way, but he didn’t. If anything he was one of the more mellow members of the family, talking to everyone throughout the party and poking fun at Ron Weasley when the chance arose. 

She definitely didn’t expect him to talk to her though. Surely, he had more important people to engage in casual conversation with.

“Are you enjoying the party?” He asked kindly.

“Yes,” Cressida said again. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“It was all James, really,” Harry said. Cressida felt the redness coming back. “Out of curiosity….” Harry said then, glancing around the party briefly before turning back to Cressida. “What’s James like at school, are he and Fred keeping out of trouble?”

“Not exactly,” Cressida answered truthfully. Harry didn’t look mad, instead, he seemed to be holding back a grin. “He talks about your family a lot.”

“Does he?” Harry asked, genuinely surprised.

“Never shuts up. You’re all rather strange from a muggle perspective, did you know that?” Cressida asked him.

Harry laughed. “Yeah, you realise that about wizards as you grow up. Nothing ever really makes sense.”

Cressida smiled then, finding herself liking James’ dad more than she thought she would.

“P-man!” Teddy yelled, coming over and wrapping an arm around Harry’s shoulder. “I see you’ve met Little Knightly.”

Cressida glared at him for using her least favourite nickname in front of the adults. “I see you’ve been on the fire whiskey,” Harry laughed, helping hold the blue-haired boy upright.

“That I have, Potter,” Teddy grinned. “Join me, won’t you?”

“What would your father say?” Harry asked teasingly.

“He’d be very proud I’ve not yacked up yet,” Teddy replied.

Harry clapped Teddy on the back. “Give it a few minutes. Nice to finally meet you, Cressida,” he nodded as he departed back into the party, leaving Teddy to stand with her.

Teddy fell into a chair beside Cressida. On the other side of the tent, James, Fred and Thomas were sneaking behind the tables, trying to reach up and take an abandoned bottle of fire whiskey. Harry Potter passed and easily lifted it out of their reach, drinking it for himself as he continued on his way.

Cressida laughed at their annoyed expressions when they realised. Teddy caught it and glanced sideways at her. “Why are you hiding here by yourself, Knightly?” 

Cressida shrugged, composing herself. “I’m not good with large crowds.” 

Teddy looked unconvinced. “You should be trying to steal booze with my cousins. Or at the very least, trying to steal some cake. Not standing here all on your lonesome.”

“And why should I be doing that?” Cressida asked.

“You know what they say about like-minded people.” 

Cressida turned her glare to the older boy. “Are you insinuating I am anything like your idiotic fan base?”

Teddy ruffled her hair in the same way he did to James’. “The three of them are so in sync people are starting to believe they’re funny-looking triplets… but you are far more similar to them than you care to admit. That’s why you’re standing here watching them instead of being off with Margo and Molly.”

Cressida folded her arms defiantly. “I’m not similar to any of them.”

Teddy quirked an eyebrow. “So, I imagined you running around after curfew and getting detentions in First Year, did I?” 

Cressida didn’t have a smart reply and instead turned away to glance around the room, unfortunately, the first thing she saw was James and George Weasley seeing who could eat the most cake in sixty seconds. Teddy smirked up at her again, after following her eye line. “Despite what Molly says, you can all co-exist.”

Cressida scoffed, turning back to Teddy after George had won the contest. “Molly would sooner transfer to Drunstag-”

“Durmstrang,” Teddy corrected her easily.

“Whatever. The point is I made my choice. I chose Molly.” 

Teddy extended a finger to James, Fred and Thomas who were now trying to coax Jac into joining them on the dance floor. “But I think  they  chose you.”

“Their mistake,” Cressida replied.

Teddy heaved a sigh and got to his feet with a small sway. “Keep telling yourself that, Knightly.”

Cressida was left alone again, watching. Jac had relented and given into dancing around wildly with James and Fred. Molly and Margo were at a table deep in conversation, Felix sat beside them, his face covered in chocolate as he made a significant dent on what was left of the buffet. Thomas was being pestered by Lily-Luna and Roxanne about riding brooms with them. Everyone seemed to be talking and laughing together.

Suddenly it all made sense to Cressida while looking at the family all interacting together. James got his confidence from his mother but his humour from his dad. Fred was practically the spitting image of his father, personality-wise, if not a little more sarcastic and watchful. Molly got her seriousness from her father, who had spent the whole night acting as though this was a business meeting instead of a thirteen-year-old’s birthday party. The only time he seemed to loosen up was when he had been talking to Thomas’ dad, Oliver Wood. It seemed as though everyone was treated like family in this household, even Professor Longbottom had spent the majority of the party dancing badly with James’ mother and the blonde-haired witch, who was now wearing strange glasses that contrasted her odd dress.

They didn’t make sense, they conflicted with one another, their personalities clashed and they were excessively loud and overbearing, but they were a family. That much was clear. A chaotic, large and loving family; something Cressida had never had the experience of witnessing at such a magnitude.

So much so that it suddenly felt overwhelming and she could feel tears pricking at her eyes. She reached into her inside pocket, feeling the edges of the picture of her dad.

“Are you alright, Cressida?” Professor Longbottom- Neville, Cressida reminded herself- asked.

Cressida turned towards her Herbology Professor, except he wasn’t in this situation. He was also among his own friends and family.

“It’s just strange,” she answered forcing the tears away, her fingers letting the photo slip out of her grasp again. “To see how some people live.”

Neville followed her eye line to see James being lifted up onto Teddy’s shoulders as everyone engaged in a third chorus of  ‘for he’s a jolly good fellow’  as per tradition. “Your family is small then, I take it?”

“Just me and mum,” Cressida replied. Feeling rather silly she glanced down at the floor. “I wasn’t even supposed to be here. Fred and James bet Wood five sickles I wouldn’t come… they’re not even really my friends.” 

Neville glanced between the group celebrating and the young witch. “So why did you come?”

Cressida shrugged. She didn’t have a good answer. Perhaps it was that her small village felt even smaller after Hogwarts, or that she missed the intellectual back and forth between her and the trio of boys, or she missed being surrounded by friends and the magical world she had come to love. Perhaps, she realised that she needed more than just her mum now, and she felt terrible about it.

“They have a tendency to take in people like us,” Neville said, bringing her out of her thoughts. “You should try and enjoy the party, Cressida. I imagine there will be a lot more to come.”

 

 

Friday 4th August 2017

 

They never ended up going back to Molly’s house. Grandmother Molly had insisted all the grandchildren and their friends spend the night at the Burrow. 

They were all sitting around the large table in the kitchen now, as the party died down and the sun began to set. Anyone who wasn’t specifically family had popped away after helping tidy up and saying their goodbyes, but even so, there were still a large number of people remaining at the topsy-turvy house.

Molly II had tried to object, but she was quickly overtaken by Fred jumping in and grabbing Jac’s hand, pulling her through the house. “Come see my dad’s old room!” He’d said excitedly.

“Wait for us!” James and Thomas called, running after them.

“This is just brilliant,” Molly complained as she and Margo reluctantly followed after them. “I cleaned my room for nothing.”

“The girls can sleep in Percy’s old room,” Ginny suggested. “Oh, and Felix too. Sorry, sweetie,” she said as an afterthought.

Felix looked too tired to protest to once again being roped in with the girls. 

“Teddy, dear, can you pop and bring their bags back here?” Molly had asked. She was using her wand to send a cup of tea out to everyone at the table.

Teddy looked up from the armchair where he had been snuggled up with Victoire. It had taken till the end of the night but the fire whiskey had finally caught up with him. “Can’t someone else do it? I’m worried if I apparite in this condition I’ll end up in Bolivia.”

“I’ll go,” Bill said then. “Anyone need anything from the shops while I’m out?”

“Aspirin!” Teddy called.

Bill popped away with a grin.

Four hours later and Cressida was tucked into a sleeping bag in Percy Weasley’s old room along with her friends. It hadn’t taken long for them all to drop off one by one as the night drew on. Some of the adults had left by now, returning home to sleep, but some of them slept in a spare bedroom or in the living room. She was sure Dean, Seamus, Harry and Ron had taken up the sofas. Ginny had taken to sharing a room with the remaining Potter and Weasley children alongside Hermione. The trio of boys were tucked away in George and Fred’s old room across the hall, with promises they wouldn’t explode anything until tomorrow morning.

Cressida hadn’t gotten a chance to tell her friends about the picture of her dad. The opportunity never came up and she didn’t want to dampen the joyful mood after the day’s events. Jac had since expressed an interest in joining the Quidditch team when they returned for their Third Year. Molly and Felix had found this amazing and enthusiastically encouraged it. Margo thought it was a waste of time.

But still, despite the party and how tired she felt, sleep wouldn't come. She’d been tossing and turning in the dark for nearly an hour, listening to Margo snoring and the various creaks coming from the Burrow. 

Climbing out of her sleeping bag and grabbing her leather jacket, Cressida snuck out of the room.

She’d managed to make it out into the garden without waking anyone, although that had proved difficult as she had to climb down three flights of stairs and sneak past the group of adults asleep in the living room. 

Just in front of the backdoor, she found Rasper curled up on top of Snuffles, both of them sleeping peacefully. Carefully, she stepped over the two pets and walked out into the cool night air.

She sat on a wall and pulled the picture out from inside her jacket. She didn’t need to see it clearly. The image was practically ingrained into her mind now. She looked extremely like him with her black hair. It was slightly unsettling. So much so that it made her wish she had her blonde hair back.

She began to wonder whether her dad had a family. Whether it was large like the Potter’s or small like her mum’s. She wondered if she had cousins out there somewhere who threw birthday parties and had impromptu sleepovers.

“Alright, Knightly.”

Cressida’s eyes snapped up to see James Sirius Potter approaching her through the garden with a plate in his hands. His birthday badge was still flashing proudly, pinned to the red dressing gown over his pyjamas. “What’re you doing out here?” 

Cressida shoved the photo back into her pocket. “Couldn’t sleep. If I’m not allowed to be out here I’ll go back inside.” 

“Nah, as long as Grandmother Molly doesn’t catch us, we’re fine,” he said, sitting on the wall beside her. He extended the plate to her and she realised there was an extra fork especially for her.

She picked it up and ate a chunk, struggling to not get frosting on her nose.

“Did you have a nice birthday?” Cressida asked then, to avoid silence descending over them. It was too quiet in the garden in the middle of the night. Too still.

James grinned, taking another bite of cake. “Yeah, it was wicked. Thanks for coming.” He looked down at the plate. “To be honest I didn’t think you would… thought you’d be too busy doing stuff with your mum.”

Cressida stiffened at the mention of her mum. “Yeah, well, turns out my mum didn’t have that much time to do stuff with me after all.”

James’ green eyes were set on her. “But your step-dad's still gone though, right?”

She nodded, not being able to look at him properly. “Yeah, he’s gone.”

“Oh,” James said. “Good.”

They sat in silence then. Both of them stared out at the stars and the grass swaying in the wind and ate their shared piece of birthday cake.

She’d never had a birthday cake that tasted as good as this one. She thought maybe there might have been a hint of magic in the mixture, or maybe just overwhelming love for the person it was made for.

“I like your family,” Cressida said then, surprising even herself.

James turned to her with a smile, frosting plastered across his cheeks. “I like them too.”

Chapter 46: Third Year: Albus Severus Potter

Summary:

Albus Severus joins Hogwarts

Notes:

Hi all! As you know I've been struggling to keep up with the schedule I had previously for uploading due to unforeseen circumstances, however, I don't want people to think I've abandoned the story and wait around for a random update, so instead I'm going to upload once a week, most likely on a Sunday, so I have time to write in the background as well.
If things change and I can upload more frequently again I will let you know ASAP.
Thank you all for understanding and sorry for making you wait :)

Friday 1st September 2017

 

Cressida and Jac had returned to their homes the day after James’ birthday, as promised. Victoire had apparated her back and gave her a small hug as they said goodbye. Cressida realised she was going to miss Victoire in Hogwarts now, too.

Alice had been home, surprisingly, as Cressida walked back into the flat. It seemed even quieter now after being at the Burrow.

“These came for you while you were gone,” she said, showing Cressida a box on the kitchen table. It had been her books for the oncoming year, as well as her new class schedule and her exam results. She had passed everything, miraculously, but no O’s this year, and only the odd E.

“Did you have a nice time at the sleepover?” Alice asked then, her expression almost desperate as she looked at her daughter.

“Yeah,” Cressida smiled. “It was great.”

There was a beat.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too, mum.”

 

*

 

No more had been said about the disastrous summer. Alice hadn’t been working as much as she was in the beginning, allowing time to watch movies and the odd stroll around the park with Cressida, but they still hadn’t done half as much as Cressida wanted.

Cressida let it slide. She still felt incredibly guilty about the whole thing, and even more guilty about keeping the photo of her father. 

“Cress, are you sure you’ve got everything?” Alice asked for the third time as they stood on Platform 93/4 watching a sea of families and students preparing to board the train.

Cressida was leaning against one of the many brick pillars lining the platform, twirling her wand aimlessly in her hand. “I packed everything. I even triple-checked,” she answered her mother. Alice seemed to be overcompensating for lost time over the summer with extra fussing, but Cressida just wanted to put the summer behind her.

While her mother was overreacting to her preparing to leave for a third year, Cressida glanced around the platform and saw a familiar face appear after just running through the barrier opposite her with the usual line of family members behind him. Grinning to herself, she stuck her wand between her tied-up hair and casually wandered in that direction.

James Sirius Potter had entered the platform flanked by his younger brother, Albus Severus, as well as the first Granger-Weasley joining the crew attending the magical school. The nerves were practically radiating off the younger Potter as he prepared to start his first year at Hogwarts.

Rose Granger-Weasley, however, looked in her element as Hermione and Ron fussed over her beside her array of cousins preparing to depart. Fred II stood beside his dad who was telling him jokes and new pranks he could pull around the school. Molly stood beside her dad slightly to the side, as he went in the opposite direction of reminding Molly to be on her best behaviour.

James, as usual, was doing nothing to help his brother’s nervous mood. Cressida glanced around carefully to make sure her mother and everyone else were still distracted as she positioned herself close enough to listen. “Don’t worry, Dad,” James was grinning at Harry. “Even if Albus  is  in Slytherin I’ll still beat them into the ground in Quidditch.”

Cressida rolled her eyes, straightening out her own green branded robes.

“I  won't!  I won't be in Slytherin!” Albus was arguing back.

“Merlin, you’re just as bad as James!” Molly snapped from nearby.

“Don’t overreact, Mol,” George Weasley said, straightening up with a troublemaking grin. “James is just teasing Albus.”

Molly huffed and returned to talking quietly with her father. James’ eyes trailed along the crowded platform and finally spotted Cressida leaning nearby. She gave an easy wave with one hand and James grinned at her. 

“James, give it a rest!” Ginny lectured her eldest son, bringing James’ attention back to them.

“I only said he might be. There's nothing wrong with that,” James replied cleverly, pushing his trolley forward through the crowd. As always, his brown owl, Barnabas, was in a cage resting on top of his school bag and trunk hooting happily at the commotion.

Cressida pushed herself off the wall and strolled back over to her mother who was still checking over everything for the third time. She peered into the hobo bag on her shoulder and saw Rasper staring out at her with wide green eyes. When the kitten saw Cressida’s familiar face he let out an acknowledgeable raspy meow. 

“Don’t get him out now, Cressida. You don’t want to lose him,” Alice told her as she started pushing the trolley closer to the train. Cressida moved her mother forward and sought out Jac through the crowd with some difficulty. 

“Look, there they are,” Cressida said, pointing out who they were looking for.

“Oh, Shari. How are you?” Alice beamed as they approached Jac and Shari. 

Jac’s head whirred around at their voices and she grinned, eager to step away from her mother’s side to join Cressida in sneaking away subtly while their mums spoke to each other.

“Thank Merlin you showed up!” Jac whispered relievedly to Cressida as they weaved their way through the crowd. “Mum was driving me insane, all she and dad have done is argue about me not joining the Quidditch team. Mum’s worried I’ll get hurt but dad’s all for it,” Jac explained. “I suppose it’s better than them arguing about what to have for tea, or about Nish or blah blah blah. I’ll be glad once we’re at Hogwarts and don’t have to put up with our parents for a few months.”

“You and me both,” Cressida agreed a little tightly.

“Morning, ladies!” A voice called from behind them.

They both whipped around to see James standing there grinning at them. “Ready for another year blessed with my presence and overwhelming knowledge?”

“Don’t you have a brother to be intimidating?” Cressida shot back matching his grin. Jac rolled her eyes and settled in for the conversational banter between the two. 

“Please, if my brother makes it into Slytherin as I suspect, I know you’ll intimidate him enough for the both of us.”

“You wound me, Potter,” Cressida replied dryly. “I have no interest in you or your little brother.”

Beside her, Jac scoffed. James turned his attention to the taller best friend. “I heard you were trying out for the team this year, Redwick?”

“Beater,” Jac replied happily. “So I can send a Bludger right to your head and knock some sense into you.”

“Good luck with that,” he laughed. “Teddy’s been knocking me about for years and it hasn’t worked yet.”

Cressida blew her hair out of her face. “Where is Lupin anyway?”

James looked about curiously searching for the blue-haired boy. When he finally spotted him, his eyes and grin grew the widest they had ever been. He took off without warning the two girls. Jac and Cressida followed his eye line and saw the blue-haired boy concealed behind a pillar with Victoire Weasley attached to him by the mouth. Jac started giggling at the sight while Cressida pretended to heave.

“Oi, Lupin!” James shouted. Most people on the platform, including Teddy and Victoire, spun around to look at him. “Get your filthy mitts off my cousin!”

Teddy gestured rudely at James but started laughing, while Victoire turned red and tried to hide her face. As James moved back to avoid Teddy threatening him with curses, he winked at the two girls as he headed back to his own parents.

“I swear James should have been in Slytherin with his sense of humour,” Jac commented as they also made their way back to their parents.

“Be thankful he’s not,” Cressida replied. “Can you imagine if we had to share a common room with him?”

Jac and Cressida re-joined their parents who were still deep in conversation. A few meters down they could still hear James talking to his family. “You interrupted them? You are so like your uncles!” Ginny chided her eldest son who was still grinning.

Teddy Lupin came up behind James and swatted him over the back of the head playfully. “One day, I’m going to get you back, Potter.”

“Good luck with that, you’re not even in Hogwarts anymore! Besides, you’ll never catch me making out with a girl in public like that,” James replied rubbing the spot Teddy had hit. “I prefer to keep my relationships private-”

Harry and Ginny had cleared their throats warningly and James knew better than to allude to anything promiscuous with them present. Beside him, George high-fived the younger boy while Lily-Luna Potter giggled watching her oldest brother turn red. Albus Severus, however, still seemed to be panicking about the Hogwarts experience he was about to endure as the whistle blew and students started piling on the train.

“Cressida!” Alice yelled. Cressida shot her attention back to her mother to see Jac and Shari had already started to depart. “I’m going to miss you so much,” she said, pulling her into a tight hug. As her mother squeezed her far too tight, Cressida noticed James smiling at her as he boarded the train followed by his brother and his usual entourage of family members and friends.

“I’m going to miss you too,” Cressida replied ignoring James. “I promise I’ll write to you more this year and tell you everything.”

Alice stepped back wiping her tearful eyes. She held Cressida’s face in her hands. “I would like that. I know I don’t understand half of what you do at this school but I get so lonely when you’re gone.”

Cressida reached up and kissed her mum on the cheek before grabbing her bag and boarding the train herself.

Once on board, she found James leaning against one of the compartments as if waiting for her while his brother glanced around nervously. “Watch out, Albus,” he started saying to his brother as Cressida passed by. “The Slytherin Princess has been let loose.”

Cressida turned on him with her wand to his neck in one swift swoop. Albus started to panic and drew his own wand as well. When James saw this he turned on his brother instantly. “Put that away, you idiot. She’s only joking!” He scolded him.

Albus lowered his wand sheepishly. “How was I supposed to know!?”

“Fighting the First Years already are we, Knightly?” Felix had poked his head out of a compartment at the commotion. Molly, Jac and Margo’s heads poked out behind his to see what was happening as well.

Cressida put her wand back into her hair, unphased. “You’re lucky I don’t want to embarrass you in front of your brother, Potter. Otherwise, I might have actually cursed you for calling me that,” she said as she joined her friends in the compartment.

 

*

 

The train ride to Hogwarts was always pleasant for Cressida, relishing in the fact it never made her feel travel sick.

Over the several-hour journey, she and Jac caught up with the others about the rest of their summers since Potter’s birthday, knowing at least one eventful thing must have happened between the lot of them. 

“They ended up spending the whole summer at the Burrow in the end,” Molly had complained. “Which meant I had to stay as well. Grandmother Molly wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’m surprised she let you lot get away after the party.”

The whole group took enjoyment in the fact it was a Friday and they had a whole weekend to get settled at Hogwarts together before lessons started this year.

Rasper was spread lazily across Jac’s lap while Cressida sat with her feet up on the train compartment’s old and lumpy sofa opposite, binging on sweets from the Trolley Lady. Molly and Margo sat close together complaining about something or other and Felix looked out the window at the fields and scenery passing by happily. 

“My brother brought his boyfriend home for the first time this summer,” Jac was telling Cressida as she scratched Rasper between the ears. “Dad liked him but mum wasn’t too impressed.”

“As expected then,” Felix joked lightly and Jac rolled her eyes. 

“One day I swear the two will start arguing about divorce so much that they’ll never actually get around to it,” Jac said then.

Cressida leant her head back against the sofa. “At least your mum has someone to argue with,” she started. “My mum only gets to argue with me, and now that I’m at Hogwarts for most of the year I think she’s started taking it out on our postman.”

“Poor Johnny Post Man,” Felix chimed in.

“Poor Johnny Post Man,” Cressida nodded. Rasper’s head shot up abruptly altering the two girls that something was coming. An enchanted flying paper aeroplane flew into their compartment and exploded in a puff of green smoke giving off an ugly stench. All five of them girls shot up and covered their noses with their robes as they spilt out into the narrow hallway to get away from the foul-smelling prank.

In the hallway, they were greeted by James doubling over in laughter along with Thomas and Fred. Cressida and Molly instructively grabbed their wands and sent a jelly legs jinx in their directions. James was quick to avoid the curse but it hit Thomas Wood and he collapsed to the floor unable to stand. “You’ll have to try harder than that-” James started cockily.

“ Silencio !” Cressida cursed him easily and James was rendered silent even though his mouth continued to move. He looked taken aback when he realised what Cressida had done and she could tell he was swearing at her despite nothing coming out. 

“Not bad, Knightly,” Molly complimented her. “I’ve been dying to do that one all summer.”

Jac started laughing as James stormed towards Cressida wagging his finger at her. Thomas propped himself up on his elbows watching his best friend. 

“She’s got you now, Potter,” Fred laughed.

James turned around, gesturing a curse this time, to make sure his message was clear. “I’m sorry, Potter, what was that?” Cressida started mocking him holding a hand to her ear to hear him better. “I’m the best spell caster in Third Year? You’re too kind,” she laughed pretending to be flattered.

James was turning red now as everyone laughed at him. Jac had graciously said the counter curse to allow Thomas to stand back up. “Aren’t you going to uncurse him?” Margo whispered to Cressida, who was still enjoying teasing a silent James.

James’ mouth shut into a tight line as he awaited her answer. Cressida smiled to herself as she turned and headed back into their compartment followed by Molly and Margo. “No, I think I’ll wait until after the meal.”

James watched her go, mouth agape. Thomas and Fred stood at James’ side looking between Jac, Felix and the compartment door as it slammed shut. “She won’t really do this to him for another two hours, will she?” Thomas asked.

“She would,” Felix answered amused before disappearing back into the compartment with them. 

The three boys looked at each other then at Jac. “You better not undo it or she’ll curse you both for twice as long,” she warned as she followed suit and went back into the compartment.

Once Jac had entered and slid the door shut behind her she found Cressida and Molly stood in the middle of the compartment using her robes to cover their noses while Felix and Margo attempted to push their noses out of the small gap in the train window for fresh air. 

“It still stinks,” Margo complained.

Jac walked over and joined her friends in the window. “Somehow I think they’re worse off.”

“Unlikely,” Molly commented into her robes. 

 

*

 

The Hogwarts Express pulled into the station within the hour and all the students, apart from the First Years, loaded onto the carriages to begin the journey up to the castle. It was dark by now but Hogwarts looked as beautiful and magnificent as ever as it came into sight. 

The group of Slytherins had piled into a carriage together and they started making their final trip up to the castle. “Merlin, I do not envy those First Years,” Felix started, looking out the window as the First Years were being ferried across the Great Lake on boats. “Remember when you threw up, Knightly?”

“How could I forget?” Cressida rolled her eyes. “Nobody will let me forget. No wonder I got sorted into Slytherin after being made fun of for my first half hour at Hogwarts.” 

“I’m starving, how much longer until we get there?” Margo asked looking out the window trying to change the subject.

“Not long now,” Jac replied. 

“So when are you going to release Potter’s curse?” Felix asked with a grin.

Cressida started twirling her wand in her fingertips and tried to hide her smug smile. “It was only a silencing curse. I’ll let him talk again when I’m bored and need some entertainment.”

“He’s going to get you back, and that usually involves us getting involved somehow,” Margo said with her usual bitterness. Starting her lecture before they’d even arrived at Hogwarts had to be some kind of record.

Cressida shrugged her shoulders unbothered. “There’s no prank war this time, Margo. Everything will be fine.”

“I’ve heard you say that before,” Margo grumbled, turning her eyes out the window again.

The carriages pulled up outside Hogwarts and all the students piled out and started making their way to the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony and the meal afterwards. Cressida held her aching stomach knowing it would be another hour until the food was served, and what glorious food it would be.

The five Slytherins took their seats at their table chatting happily awaiting the First Years to be paraded in by Professor McGonagall. From across the hall at the Gryffindor table, Felix pointed out James and Thomas looking their way and trying to get their attention amongst the commotion of the hall while Fred was laughing in hysterics at James’ new hindrance.

Cressida rose in her chair slightly to be able to see above the sea of heads. James was pointing frantically at his mouth, asking her to undo it from across the hall. Evidently, he was becoming very frustrated with not being able to talk to his fellow Gryffindors surrounding him. They were all watching her as well, to see what she would do. They knew better than to get involved in one of Cressida and James’ weird competitions, being reminded of the affairs last year.

The doors burst open signifying the ceremony was starting and Jac pulled Cressida back down into her seat. James held his face in his hands and started banging his head dramatically against the table. “Drama queen,” Felix laughed watching him along with the girls.

“He’s not named after Sirius Black for nothing,” Molly commented.

The ceremony started and was tremendously long and boring unless someone you knew was involved. Felix, Jac and Cressida quietly spoke among themselves as the First Years were sorted into one of the four houses. Slytherin already had two, a girl and a boy. Gryffindor had five, which were greeted with loud and obnoxious cheers. Hufflepuff was greeted with four and Ravenclaw were greeted with a respectable seven.

“Rose Granger-Weasley!”

The ginger girl walked happily up to the Sorting Hat and was instantly placed in Gryffindor. She practically skipped down to the table and sat among the other First Years, searching out James, who gave her a big silent cheer and thumbs up.

A few more students went up and were sorted, but Cressida had become distracted by a loose thread on her robes and missed them.

“Lana Longbottom!”

Everyone waited with anticipation as Professor Longbottom’s daughter approached the front. She was a sweet and friendly-looking young witch, with strawberry blonde hair and her father’s incredibly round and kind face.

Professor Longbottom sat at the teacher's table, biting his nails nervously as the sorting hat was dropped onto her small head.

“Hufflepuff!”

Professor Longbottom jumped up, arms in the air, cheering louder than anyone in the hall. The trio of Third Year Gryffindors, Rose Granger-Weasley included, also jumped up in celebration. The young witch joined the yellow branded table, turning incredibly red in the face at all the fuss.

Once the commotion of Lana being sorted subsided, McGonagall cleared her throat and continued down the list.

“Scorpius Malfoy!” McGonagall called. 

“Well, we all know where  he’s  going,” Felix muttered.

Cressida had heard the name thrown around by the adults in hushed whispers at James’ birthday. The general consensus was that he was a Malfoy, and Malfoy’s belonged in Slytherin even without the evil connotations. There were even rumours spreading around that he wasn’t even a Malfoy, but the illegitimate child of Voldemort. Rumour or not, Cressida knew that was already a heavy burden to have placed on you.

Scorpius sat on the benches of the Slytherin table to a small ripple of applause. Evidently, everyone else had heard the rumours as well. So much so, that there was a small mumbling of gossiping as the next few First Years got sorted.

Cressida glanced down the benches at the white-haired boy. He looked so scared and alone.

The hall seemed to grow quiet in anticipation as Albus Severus Potter was called forward, stealing Cressida’s attention back to the ceremony. She sat up in her chair and glanced over at James to watch his reaction. Everyone would expect the second eldest Potter to be in Gryffindor just like his brother, his father, and his father before him. Potter’s and Gryffindors were made for each other, it seemed.

So it came as a huge surprise when the Sorting Hat called out,  “Slytherin!”

It took a moment for everyone to react. Molly sat back on the bench with her arms crossed. It was hard to tell whether she was pleased or annoyed about having her younger cousin in Slytherin with her. 

Cressida and the others watched James. He seemed rendered speechless even without the curse being put on him as he watched his brother walk away from the red brandished table and sit among the already sorted First Years now belonging to Slytherin. McGonagall and Professor Longbottom were the first to start clapping through the silence and soon the rest of the school snapped back into action, clapping politely for the Potter boy.

“Who saw that one coming?” Felix whispered to the group as he clapped along politely.

“James did,” Jac answered looking down the long table towards Albus Severus as he buried his face in his arms. Cressida caught James’ eye again. He stared back at her, a look of shock on his face, his mouth falling open. He looked from Cressida to his brother and back again, asking a silent question.

Cressida nodded back. 'He'll be okay.'

 

*

 

The sorting ceremony was followed by a lovely meal and time seemed to pass in record time. Everyone seemed to be talking about the Scorpius rumours and the fact a Potter had been sorted into Slytherin, bringing up Molly’s surprising sorting from three years ago amongst their conversations. Professor McGonagall had dismissed all the years and the Heads of Houses were leading the First Years to their assigned dormitories.

Luckily for Cressida, they were less concerned with older years as they knew their way without needing guidance. Molly had stormed out of the Great Hall first, clearly deciding she was not happy about having Albus in Slytherin with her, and Margo followed suit.

Cressida rushed out of the Great Hall and lingered in front of the steps knowingly. “Aren’t you coming?” Felix asked when Cressida was no longer following them.

“She needs to uncurse James,” Jac reminded him.

“Do you have to? I prefer him unable to-”

Jac had grabbed Felix’s arm and dragged him away along with the others. Cressida smiled gratefully at her as they disappeared around the corner. 

She hid slightly behind the stairs as the Gryffindor First Years passed by. Once they were gone, she saw James, Fred and Thomas among the crowd in no rush to make the climb to Gryffindor tower.

Cressida revealed herself and Fred pointed her out straight away, turning James around to face her. Cressida muttered the counter curse before the three boys even reached her. “I can’t believe it,” James mumbled once he was in front of her. “I was only joking on the platform. I didn’t think he’d actually be- I mean not that there’s anything wrong with-” he corrected himself glancing sheepishly at Cressida.

“It’s fine, Potter. I know what it looks like,” she comforted him.

Fred slapped James comfortingly on the shoulder. “He’ll be alright though, mate. As long as he stays away from Voldy’s kid we shouldn’t have a problem. Like you say, not all Slytherins are bad now.”

“Yeah,” James agreed distantly. “Yeah, you’re right.” He glanced up at Cressida. “And you’ll…” he faltered trying to find the right words. “I know we’re not exactly friends but I don’t want him to think-”

“He’ll be alright. He’s a Potter after all,” Cressida told him surely. “Somehow you lot always manage to turn out okay.”

James laughed distantly. “Tell that to my traumatized dad and half my dead family.”

Thomas and Fred shared a concerned look. It wasn’t like James to make a dark joke about his family. 

There were heels tapping against the floor and McGonagall was swooping towards them. “What are you lot doing-?” She stopped when she saw it was James. “Oh, Potter,” her tone softened significantly. She glanced between her three Gryffindors and Cressida knowingly. “I take it you are concerned about your brother’s sorting?” She asked. James gave a curt nod. “It is not the first time brothers have been sorted differently from each other. You have nothing to worry about. It does not change who he is or what he stands for.”

Thomas slapped James encouragingly on the shoulder again in an effort to get him moving up the stairs. “See, nothing to worry about,” he comforted him.

James complied, letting Fred and Thomas lead him away with McGonagall close behind them. As he disappeared up the stairs, James sent one last concerned look down to Cressida.

She didn't leave for her own dorm room until she could no longer see James on the stairs above her. 

Chapter 47: Third Year: A Change In Lesson Plans

Monday 4th September 2017

 

The first weekend at Hogwarts had not been as enjoyable and carefree as everyone had expected. It appeared as though the news about Albus Severus Potter being placed in Slytherin was blasphemy. What seemed to fuel the already blazing fire was the fact the young boy seemed to have befriended Scorpius Malfoy almost instantly.

“Molly, surely we should step in and do something?” Felix whispered to her as they made their way to breakfast Monday morning.

Albus was currently sitting beside Scorpius at the long table, reading over their class schedule, their heads ducked low.

Molly barely glanced up from pouring everyone a cup of tea. “We can’t dictate who he’s friends with.”

“No, the fact that Scorpius is a  Malfoy  should be a big enough red flag without our intervention,” Margo chimed in, buttering her toast.

“So you’d judge a kid based on their parents?” Jac asked. “What did he do that was so terrible?”

“His father is Draco Malfoy for Merlin’s sake!” Margo hissed. “His family manor was where You-Know-Who held all of those meetings and whatnot. Hermione Granger was tortured in their dining room while Scorpius’ dad watched. There is some reasoning behind the rumours.”

Molly scoffed then, stirring her porridge. “Scorpius is not Voldemort’s son. He looks just like this dad… although, Malfoy isn’t much better by all accounts.”

“What does James think about the Malfoy kid?” Cressida asked then. She had been rather quiet so far about the whole affair. It was best to stay out of this mess until it required her intervention, she told herself.

“I haven’t spoken to him about this,” Molly answered dismissively. “You may have noticed this is a touche' subject for us.”

“And why do we care what Potter thinks about it?” Margo asked next.

“Because it involves his sodding brother,” Felix snapped. “It’s hard enough being a Slytherin without your own house turning against you. Cut the kid some slack.”

“And what about the Malfoy kid?” Jac asked pointedly.

“Well,” Felix huffed. “He’s different, ain’t he?”

Jac folded her arms across her chest in a shockingly good imitation of her mother. “And why’s that?”

Cressida rolled her eyes and got to her feet. “If you’re going to gossip about an eleven-year-old and his choice of friends over breakfast I’ll meet you in lessons.”

“What is the first lesson?” Felix asked with a mouthful of scrambled eggs, trying to avoid Jac’s cold glare.

“Oh, um,” Molly looked up awkwardly. “We don’t all share first lesson together anymore. Margo, Felix and I have Ancient Runes.”

“Which means Cressie and I have Care of Magical Creatures,” Jac assumed, tearing her eyes away from Felix to look at Cressida. “You go ahead, I want to finish my discussion with Finnigan first.”

“It’s not my fault the Malfoy kid’s already got a reputation!” Felix rebuked.

Cressida left the hall to the sounds of a heated debate on what made Malfoy’s kid so different from Potter’s younger brother.

Just as she exited the hall, she felt two bodies run up either side of her. 

“Knightly,” Fred nodded to her.

“How’s my brother doing?” James asked instantly, seeing no need to waste time on greetings. “I’ve tried talking to Molly but she said to just leave him alone for now. And Teddy said to watch out for him but I’m not sure how to do that. Then Victoire said to hold off on pranks for a while to not draw attention to us. But I  know  what you lot went through and I-”

Cressida turned her eyes on James. “Are you planning on worrying yourself to death before I can give you a solution?” James’ mouth clamped shut and he stared at her expectantly. “Give it a few days, let him settle in, and then bombard him with your useless rambling… and Victoire may have a point about the pranks.”

“Come on, Knightly, you don’t really think that’ll work do you?” Fred asked. “Albus isn’t like us. He’s quiet. Keeps to himself-”

“Are you saying he’s incapable of standing up for himself?” She asked.

“No, he can,” James said. “But-”

“Then are you saying he can’t make friends by himself?”

“Not at all,” Fred answered. “It’s just-”

“Then trust me,” Cressida cut him off. “We know from Molly how hard it is for your lot to be placed differently than you expected. Just let him figure out his own feeling on it before you shove yours down his throat.”

James moved to stand in front of her, holding her in place by her shoulders. “He’s my baby brother, Knightly. I don’t want him to get hurt.”

Cressida forced herself to look James in the eye. He was taller than her by nearly a whole head now. It was very annoying. “He won’t. If you’re that worried, I’ll keep an eye out for him.” 

“You will?” James asked, still staring at her intensely. “Promise?”

Cressida was suddenly very aware of James’ hands on her shoulders. “If it shuts you up, sure,” she said dismissively. She stepped around Potter, breaking the eye contact. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have Care of Magical Creatures to get to.”

“How convenient,” Fred said then, lightening the mood. “So do we.”

“No Thomas?” She asked, noticing their third counterpart was suspiciously absent.

“Nah, he chose Ancient Runes,” James explained, evidently a lot calmer now he had verbal confirmation someone would watch out for Albus. “He claims to be scared of a large majority of creatures, and Hagrid never seems to have much regard for animal safety as it is.”

“So that means you and Redwick get us all to yourselves,” Fred teased.

“Lucky us,” Cressida said dryly.

 

*

 

“IT’S GOING TO KILL ME!” Beatrix Swinley screamed.

“It doesn’t even have teeth,” Jac pointed out, double-checking the diagram from the textbook. Cressida thought that the book itself was more dangerous than the Flobberworm they were currently studying. It had taken ten minutes of running around and yelling before every member of the class had seemingly ‘tamed’ their book. James and Fred seemed to be racing their books for the majority of those ten minutes.

“Come ‘ere now, you’ll scare the poor thing,” Hagrid said, stomping towards the Gryffindor girl.

“I’ll scare  it ?!” Beatrix shrieked. “It’s horrid. Get it off me!”

Cressida rolled her eyes and lifted the nine-inch Flobberworm off Beatrix’s arm, leaving a gross trail of mucus in its wake.

“Good job, Cressida. Got a good hand for this sort of thing by the looks,” Hagrid praised her, taking the Flubberworm off her and placing it back in the grass.

“There you go, Knightly. Not only are you good at Charms, but you’re also good at handling slimy nine-inch blobs,” Fred teased.

Cressida flicked the mucus into his face in response.

“Now, don’t make light of this, lads,” Hagrid said, plonking a second Flobberworm in Fred’s lap with a disgusting squelch. “Flobberworms are very handy creatures. You can use ‘em in potions and turn ‘em into fritters. ‘Course, they’re not very interestin’. The only way to kill the buggers is to overfeed ‘em.”

“So what exactly do you want us to do with them, Hagrid?” Cressida asked, trying to wipe the remaining slime off her hands on the grass.

“I want you to collect the mucus ready for Professor Slughorn,” Hagrid said. “He needs it for his potions, yer see.”

Beatrix looked devastated. “I thought Care of Magical Creatures would involve cute magical animals. Not extracting mucus.”

Hagrid scratched the back of his large head. “Well, not all magical creatures are cute and fluffy, is the thing. And I can’t show you the big interesting creatures straight off the bat, now can I… not after all the incidents anyway.”

“Incidents?” Jac questioned.

“Ay,” Hagrid nodded. “Just the odd few. A nibble here, a broken arm there. Nothin’ to worry about. Not with the likes of Flobberworms at least.”

James and Fred were grinning widely as one of their Flobberworms started making its way up James’ arm. Beatrix and one of her Gryffindor friends, April Cattermole, shuffled themselves closer to the two boys, batting their eyelashes.

“Fred, can you  please  help me? I don’t want to get mucus on my robes,” Beatrix asked.

“And me!” April called. “Help me, James!”

“Good grief, they’ve already started,” Jac murmured, looking over at the group. Cressida glanced up curiously, unsure what all the fuss was about.

James turned towards them briefly, before returning to poking the side of the Flobberworm to make it wriggle faster. “Ask Knightly, she doesn’t mind getting covered in mucus.”

Both girls looked stumped. “Yeah, but we thought  you  would want to help us,” Beatrix pressed.

“Oh,” James said. “No thanks. Hey, Knightly, watch this!” James called, making his Flobberworm chase after a piece of lettuce.

The two girls glared in Cressida’s direction.

Fred had started to turn red from holding in his laughter. “Allow me to help, ladies,” he said swooping past James towards them. He sent a wink to Cressida and Jac as he passed.

“The fuck was that about?” Cressida asked, feeling like she’d missed something important.

Jac didn’t answer and instead shoved more lettuce into the Flobberworm’s mouth.

 

*

 

The group of Slytherins had seen each other in their shared lessons throughout their schedules but dinner time was when they all reconvened to talk about the events of the day.

“Wood’s in Ancient Runes with us,” Molly had said over their roast dinners. “He’s not bad at it actually.”

“It was odd seeing him without the other two though,” Felix then conceded. “He hardly spoke, come to think of it.”

“Wood’s always been the quietest one of them,” Jac chimed in, eating her roast potatoes. “You should have seen Potter and Weasley in Care of Magical Creatures. Beatrix and that April girl were practically fawning over them for no reason. Weren’t they, Cressie?”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Cressida said truthfully. “I was too busy trying to keep slime out of my hair.”

After that, they had returned to their alcove in the common room and wasted the afternoon chatting away as though nothing had changed. Cressida kept an eye out for Albus, but the younger boy either blended in extremely well or hadn’t entered the common room once all afternoon.

Once Molly had done her usual rounding up of the group and sent them all off to bed, Cressida could already tell she would have a sleepless night. Not only was she still painfully awake, but it was incredibly difficult to sleep with a photo of her estranged father under her pillow every night. It was even harder to prevent Rasper from trying to eat it at every chance he got.

The others still didn’t know about the photo. She hadn’t had the chance to tell them. The topic never presented itself in a natural enough way. She was hoping Margo might complain about her father running off a bit more since coming back over the summer and Cressida could segway in the photo subtly. She had no such luck. 

She debated just putting it down on the table in front of them and waiting for them to twig on. She thought that was slightly too dramatic for her taste.

Plus, she didn’t even want  all  of them to know. She just thought they  should  know. Especially Jac. Jac always knew all of Cressida’s secrets. It had been Jac who Cressida first wanted to tell when she found the photo in the first place.

Sighing to herself, Cressida pulled the photo out from under her pillow, grabbed Rasper which invoked a startled meow, and walked across the bedroom. 

She stopped outside Jac’s bed and indelicately pushed Rasper in through the curtains.

A second later, Jac was poking her head out between the green fabric. “Password?”

“Potter’s pestering presence.”

Jac opened the curtains for Cressida to climb inside. They cast their silencing spells and lit one of the wands between them as they sat opposite each other. Rasper took to lying in Jac’s lap.

“Are we wandering or causing trouble?” Jac yawned. It was barely eleven o’clock. She was slipping.

“Neither,” Cressida answered. Jac’s brow furrowed in confusion. Cressida silently placed the photo between them, waiting for Jac’s reaction before she said anything further.

Jac stared at it a long time, then looked up to Cressida with a deeply thoughtful expression. “Do you have a long-lost brother I didn’t know about?”

“It’s my dad,” Cressida said. “I think. I’m pretty certain, actually, but no one’s confirmed it yet.”

“Shit,” Jac breathed. “Does your mum know you have this?”

“No.”

“Double shit.” 

There was an awkward silence as both girls stared down at the picture between them. Jac turned her brown eyes back to Cressida. “You look a lot like him, you know. Especially with your black hair.” Cressida absent-mindedly tugged on it. The curls didn’t seem to bounce back into place as easily anymore. “Are you going to try and find him?”

“Dunno.” Cressida hadn’t even considered that as an option until now. The thought of actually looking for him seemed ludicrous when she couldn’t even decide how she felt about looking at a picture. “I don’t even know if he’s alive.”

“We could though,” Jac said. “Look for him, I mean. I’d help you if that’s what you wanted. I know this must be hard for you-”

“It’s not hard,” Cressida said. “Just confusing.”

“Of course,” Jac nodded.

Cressida pulled the photo back into her possession, preparing to leave. “Just thought I’d let you know.”

“Cressida,” Jac said just before Cressida could disappear through the curtains. “Am I the only person you’ve told?” 

“Yeah,” Cressida nodded. “I knew I could trust you not to blab.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” Jac smiled.

Cressida let the bed curtain fall shut behind her.

 

 

Tuesday 5th September 2017

 

Cressida was awoken by a persistent pawing at her head. She forced one eye open and was met with Rasper crouched down in front of her face, a large clump of her hair between his paws.

She sat upright gripping her hair and the kitten darted away. 

When she pulled her curtains open, Jac was already standing outside them with Rasper cradled in her arms.

“Morning, Cressie-” she stopped, her eyes growing wide. “Shitting hell.”

Cressida patted her head again nervously. “I’ve not got a bald spot, have I?”

“No…” Jac said. “But I doubt you’ll be pleased.”

The bathroom door clicked open and Margo stepped out, her eyes falling on Cressida immediately. “Your blonde’s back!”

“What?” Cressida darted to the vanity mirror and stared at her reflection. Random strands of her head were blonde while others remained black. She looked like a terrible imitation of an early 2000s Christina Aguilera.

“Well, this is perfect,” Cressida groaned. “Absolutely fucking  perfect .”

Jac ran her fingers through the end of the miss-matched hair. “Maybe the magic needs refreshing.”

Molly walked into the dorm room, holding a piece of parchment. “Found it! I left it in the alcove last night-” she paused when she saw Cressida. “Did I miss something in the five seconds I was gone?”

“How fast can we get Victoire here?” Cressida asked desperately.

“We can’t,” Molly said. “Whatever magic she did, you’ll have to do yourself this time.”

“But it took her  hours !” Cressida said. “There’s no way I’ll be able to do it myself.”

“Well,” Margo said, getting changed into her uniform. “You could always write to her and ask for advice, but until then you’re stuck looking like a skunk I’m afraid.”

Jac and Cressida both threw pillows at Margo, knocking her backwards into the armchair.

“Here,” Molly said promptly, pulling a pointed hat on over her head. “Wear this until we have a solution.”

Cressida was not amused. “I look ridiculous.”

“You look ridiculous with or without the hat in your current state,” Margo said, and then immediately used her arms to protect her from another onslaught of pillows.

Molly started carefully tucking the ends of Cressida’s hair up into the hat. “The hat is a part of the uniform-”

“Which no one wears,” Cressida pointed out.

“But teachers can’t force you to take it off in class,” Molly said cleverly, passing Cressida the rest of her uniform. “It’ll have to do.”

 

*

 

As expected, Felix wouldn’t let the hat go during breakfast and the group of girls had taken a detour to Myrtle’s bathroom to show him, which then resulted in a string of zebra jokes all the way to History of Magic.

The trio of boys had also noticed, but with one glare from Cressida and the simple lie from Jac of  “they’re trendy for muggles right now,”  they left it alone for the remainder of the next two lessons.

Defence Against the Dart Arts, however, threatened to derail Cressida’s good luck so far.

The hat stood out like a sore thumb, and it took seconds before Arabella’s eyes honed in on it.

“Nice hat, Knightly-” the Ravenclaw girl started and was then cut off abruptly by the classroom door being pulled open.

To their surprise, it was not Professor Mickledge standing there. Instead, it was a man who vaguely resembled a disgruntled Mr Bean.

“Who’re you?” Arabella asked, her attention immediately pulled away from Cressida.

“Professor Vallious Whimbrel. Your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher,” he answered gruffly. He had a thick Scottish accent that wasn’t nearly as comforting as McGonagall’s.

“Where’s Professor Mickledge?” Jac asked.

“Gone,” Professor Whimbrel said. “Got a better job working with the Aurors by all accounts. Well, good riddance, I say. Bunch of show-offs are the Aurors-”

“My uncles are Aurors,” Molly said stiffly. “Harry Potter and-”

“That fancy bloke that only knows one spell?” Whimbrel cut her off, hobbling forward and rolling his dark eyes. “I know the one. Mad-Eye used to rave about him.”

“You worked with Mad-Eye?” Margo asked.

“Ay. Poor sod. Struck down in his prime.”

“He was a raging alcoholic with a wooden leg and a missing eye,” Felix pointed out.

“And a bloody good Auror,” Whimbrel contradicted.

Molly narrowed her eyes. “But you just said-”

“Doesn’t matter what I said. Now come in and sit down,” he said, ushering the class inside. He held out a hand and prevented Cressida from following them in. “What’s with the hat, lassie?”

“It’s a fashion statement,” Cressida lied.

Whimbrel studied her for a moment then allowed her to pass. “Each to their own, I suppose.”

Once the class were all seated- Whimbrel saw no need for a seating plan and allowed them to all sit how they liked as long as they did it quickly- he paced at the front of the classroom. “Now. Who is the top of this class?”

It was a split down the middle, with half of the class looking at Arabella and the other half looking at Cressida. Apparently, they had mistaken throwing curses at one another as knowledge on the subject. “Ah,” Whimbrel smiled, sensing the tension. “I suspect a duel is in order then. See who comes out on top once and for all.”

Molly’s head snapped to the front. “A duel? Surely, you can’t be serious. This is a classroom.”

“How else are you going to learn to defend yourselves, lass?” He countered. “We learn by doing, not by reading. Too much reading bogs down the mind.”

“It’s official, the curse is back,” Felix whispered to the group as Whimbrel continued ranting. “I bet ten sickles he turns out to be a nut job by the end of the year.”

“Wasn’t the curse Potter centric though?” Jac whispered back. 

“Well, we’re not short of Potters,” Felix continued. “There’s two of the buggers wandering around now, just in time for the lovely Whimbrel to strike them down and send them to the newest big baddie in some weird ritual of life and death.”

“Sounds about right,” Cressida nodded along.

“You!” Whimbrel snapped, bringing their attention back to him. He extended a meter-long ruler towards Cressida. “Come up the front and show us what you’ve got, apart from terrible fashion sense.”

Cressida bit back a sarcastic remark as she did what was instructed. Arabella did the same, standing opposite her. Meanwhile, Whimbrel instructed the rest of the class to move the desks to the back of the room and stand behind them.

“Now,” he said, pacing in between the two girls. “I want both of you to fire a spell at the other and see which one is more effective.”

Arabella looked from Cressida to the professor nervously. “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t think-”

“Scared, Chauncey?” Felix called from the sidelines, which was met by a violent shushing from Margo and Molly.

“No,” Arabella said primly. “I’m just scared Knightly here will finally kill me.”

“Eh,” Whimbrel shrugged. “That’s the risk you have to take. Do you think those kids fighting the war had time to worry about being killed? No. They just fought- apart from Potter, who sort of just… stalled and stole everyone’s wands for the most part.”

“Hey!” Molly chimed in offended. 

“Yeah, he  is  the Saviour of the Wizarding world for a reason!” Felix backed her up.

“No time to discuss,” Whimbrel continued waving a hand through the air. “On your marks…” The two girls rose their wands to one another. “Get set…” Cressida took a deep breath. “GO!”

“Rictusempra!”  Arabella said.

“Petrificus Totalu s !”  Cressida shot out.

Instantaneously, Arabella’s body seized up and she fell backwards as stiff as a plank while Cressida doubled over from laughter.

“So,” Margo said, watching the two girls reacting to their curses. “Who won?”

Professor Whimbrel scratched his prominent chin as she stood over Arabella, frozen on the cold classroom floor, and then looked over at Cressida writhing on the floor with laughter from the tickling spell.

“Well,” he said finally. “We’ll strike this one up to a draw. Now. Who can tell me the counter curses?”

“For Godric’s sake,” Molly huffed. “I do, sir!” She said, stepping over the barricade and approaching the front.

Cressida had begun to laugh so hard that her hat had started slipping, and her mismatched hair slipped out the bottom. She was sure, through her laughter-induced tears, she saw Arabella notice. Luckily, Molly removed the curse on Cressida first, so she had just enough time to readjust the hat on her head.

 

*

 

Cressida had to make a quick getaway out of Defence Against the Dark Arts at the end of the rather unusual lesson. She knew Arabella had seen Cressida’s hair was changing. The Ravenclaw girl and her friends had been staring and whispering about Cressida for the whole lesson after the duel affair was done. Professor Whimbrel then moved on to rambling about the war for a bit, and then brought up two more students to try out spells on each other. It resulted in a poor Ravenclaw boy being sent to the infirmary as his spell backfired on himself.

“Where to now, Mol?” Felix asked as the group rushed through the hall. Glancing back over her shoulder, Cressida could see Arabella coming out of the DADA classrooms searching for her.

“I have Muggle Studies,” Molly answered, checking her schedule.

“So do I,” Cressida said. 

Molly nodded, linking arms with Cressida. “We’ll meet you once lessons are finished,” she said to the rest of the group, then hurried herself and Cressida along.

When they’d reached their designated classroom on the first floor, they found everyone else had already gone in.

“Stupid Whimbrel kept us fifteen minutes more than he should have,” Molly muttered.

“I just assumed it was Whimbrel’s rambling dragging out the time,” Cressida said as the two girls pulled open the classroom door.

“Ah, hello!” The Professor greeted them.

“Sorry we’re late,” Molly said. “Our new-”

“No need to explain,” the teacher said, moving towards them through the tables. “Here,” he said, placing something in Molly’s hand. “My treat, and a good introduction to our topic of study.” Molly opened her hand to find a digital alarm clock there. The time on it was wrong. “Please, take a seat, ladies. There’s one at the back and one down here by the front.”

Cressida and Molly looked at the seat near the front. James and Thomas’ heads turned around to face the girls.

“Not it,” Molly said quickly, nudging Cressida forward.

Cressida heaved a sigh and moved to take her designated seat beside Potter.

He grinned as she got out her supplies. “Fancy seeing you here, Knightly.”

“I wanted an easy lesson,” she replied in a whisper. “Why are you two here?”

“We were intrigued by your muggle ways,” James said.

“Plus, Redwick told Freddie that you had picked this class before summer and I got the short straw,” Thomas said leaning over James.

James shoved Thomas back into his seat. “Would you  shut up ?!”

Cressida ignored them and turned to face the front, feeling the redness creeping up her neck once again. She wished that would stop happening.

“Right then. Time to get introductions out of the way,” the professor started, clearing his throat. He leant back against his desk, playing with a slinky as he spoke. Cressida thought it was very distracting. “I’m Professor Arif Sikander, and I have the pleasure of teaching you Muggle Studies.” He replaced the slinky with an old dial-up telephone. “To start off, can anybody tell me how this works?”

Cressida lent her head against the desk. Perhaps Muggle Studies would be  too  easy.

“Don’t you talk through it?” April Cattermole called out unsurely.

“You do!” Professor Sikander said ecstatically. “Fabulous things. Shame they don’t work in Hogwarts, really. I imagine they’d be very useful if you could figure out how to find the matching one.”

Cressida lifted her head slowly. “Matching one?”

“Oh, yes,” the professor nodded. “You see, you press a few buttons on this one,” he said waving the phone in his hand. “And then a matching phone will make a sound in response. They come in pairs. You have to have two, or they won’t work.”

Cressida’s eyes twitched ever so slightly. “Right. And you have the matching phone here, do you?”

“Oh no,” Sikander shook his head. “No, we have one from a different pair,” he said picking up an old Nokia mobile phone. “We think this one is far more advanced than the last. But we can’t seem to get them to communicate with each other.”

“Maybe they don’t like each other?” Fred suggested. Cressida couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“Well, that’s our working theory,” Sikander replied. She knew he wasn’t joking.

“Have you considered,” Molly called from the back. “That you’re using them wrong?”

“ Or ,” Cressida chimed in. “That they won’t work because technology goes on the fritz in Hogwarts?”

Professor Sikander examined the two phones in his hands. “Oh, now you mention it, perhaps that  is  something we should look into…”

“Nice one, Knightly,” James nudged her. “You solved the problem.”

Cressida replaced her head on the desk, and she planned to keep it there for the remainder of the lesson.

Chapter 48: Third Year: Keeping Up Appearances

Thursday 7th September 2017

 

They had not found a solution to Cressida’s hair malfunction despite their best efforts. They’d tried everything they could think of- which resulted in Cressida having her hair changed temporarily purple which they didn’t think was much better. 

Luckily, by Wednesday afternoon, they had noticed the hair was slowly changing back strand by stand on its own. 

“At this rate, it's going to take me until Christmas before I’m back to normal,” Cressida groaned as she pulled her hat firmly onto her head at breakfast.

“Why don’t we box dye it?” Jac suggested.

“Yes, I’m sure Hogsmeade is overrun with muggle hair dye options,” Margo said sarcastically.

“Plus, it might react badly with the magic-infused dye,” Felix pointed out.

“I’m working on some more solutions,” Molly said finishing off her porridge. “And the hat’s working alright so far.”

“It would help if Felix stopped calling her a gnome when she wore it though,” Jac said.

All the girls turned to Felix as he shoved toast in his mouth. “It would be unfair if I didn’t make fun of you all equally,” he reasoned.

Cressida was inclined to agree, but that didn’t make her feel much better. “I don’t see why we can’t get in contact with Victoire to come and fix it,” she sighed.

“Unless you plan on sneaking her in- which is impossible- Victoire isn’t a viable solution here,” Margo said.

“Well,” Molly said unexpectedly. “Not  impossible , but not exactly easy. I did the calculations last night.”

“Absolutely not!” Margo snapped. “We are not risking getting expelled all for the sake of Cressida’s stupid hair within the first week back.”

“Oh, shove off, Margo,” Felix said. “If this was your problem, you’d demand we fix it by any means necessary.”

“Yes. But it’s not my problem, so, therefore, I want no part in it.”

Felix rolled his eyes. “Sometimes I wonder why we even bother considering you our friend, you know. All you do is complain and think of yourself.”

“I do  not !” Margo squeaked. “If you all weren’t so adamant on going against everything I say, we’d get along swell.”

Molly massaged her temples. “Can we not get into another argument? Felix, shut up. Margo, get a grip.”

“But-”

“But nothing,” Molly cut her off. “You both make very valid points, but we’re all friends, so let’s drop it.”

Margo gathered her things and got to her feet haughtily. “I’ll see you in lessons in that case.”

“Don’t let Peeves trip you up on your way out,” Felix grumbled.

Jac glanced up over her tea. “We should probably get going as well. What’s first lesson?”

“You two have Care of Magical Creatures again,” Molly answered as they prepared to leave. “Unluckily for myself, I have Runes with Margo and Finnigan.”

“Hey,  she  started the argument!” Felix rebutted.

“Not another word,” Molly said as the two walked off ahead together. 

Jac and Cressida had barely been outside of the dining hall for more than two seconds before two more bodies had joined them on their walk down to Hagrid’s hut. 

“Chauncey is telling everyone you’re bald,” Fred said to Cressida.

“ Are  you bald?” James asked, appearing on her other side.

Cressida kept her attention forward, not stopping on her path. “So what if I was?”

“Yeah, but you’re not,  right ?” James flushed.

“Is there a problem with me being bald, Potter?” She asked dryly. “Does my lack of hair affect you in some way?”

James looked like a deer caught in headlights. “No, no! I just mean-”

“Just show us what’s under the hat so we can counteract whatever crap Arabella is spreading,” Fred cut in, saving James’ poor attempt at backtracking.

“I’d rather not,” Cressida shrugged.

“Come on, Knightly,” James said, leaning down to her height. “Your secret is safe with us, you know that.”

“You really want to know?” She asked. Both boys nodded eagerly. “Five sickles and I’ll tell you.”

“That’s extortion!” Fred replied.

“I don’t care, Weasley! Pay the girl!” James ordered.

“Knightly can wear a hat if she wants to wear a hat,” Jac chimed in then. “And if she says there’s no reason for it, you should believe her.”

“Alright then,” James said, running to stand in front of them, blocking their way forward. “If there’s really no reason for the hat then prove it.”

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “You what?”

“Take it off,” James grinned. “Prove us wrong.”

Cressida and Jac glanced at each other then back to James. Cressida opened her mouth to speak when she was suddenly yanked backwards.

As she spun around, Cressida saw her hat held aloft in Arabella’s hands, and her mismatched hair falling down over her shoulders.

“Told you she was hiding something!” Arabella laughed triumphantly to her Ravenclaw friends. “Knightly’s cosplaying a skunk this year by the looks of it… I mean, she’s already got the smell down anyway.”

Cressida was being moved again before she could react. She was pulled by her hand into Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom nearby, and when she could finally spin around to see what had happened, she saw James blocking the exit.

“What the fuck did you do that for?!” She snapped at him.

He was panting, his eyes focused on her hair. “Didn’t want people to see,” he said after a moment, finally looking at her face. “I didn’t see her coming, Knightly, I swear. I was looking at you and then all of a sudden she had your hat. I was only messing with you about showing us-” He stopped abruptly when he saw a small smile flicker onto Cressida’s face. “Why are you smiling like that?” He asked nervously.

Cressida shrugged, looking down at the dirty tiles. He’d protected her from Arabella without a second thought, like he had done it on instinct. Cressida hadn’t had someone do that for her before so quickly.

“Just didn’t realise you could move that fast, Potter,” she said instead, acting aloof.

“Yeah, well… she was making fun of you,” James said. “I don’t think you smell by the way… well, you do have a smell but it’s not a bad one,” he rambled. “Kind of sweet, or minty, I suppose.”

“Thanks?” Cressida said when it seemed like James was done talking. 

“Anytime,” he said awkwardly, glancing down.

There was a small silence then as they looked at each other.

“You can make fun of me if you want. For my hair. I’m giving you a free pass for saving me from Chauncey.”

James took a step away from the exit towards her. “Oh, um… it’s different,” he said, glancing at her hair again. “Not exactly… conventional, but it could be worse.”

“Could be worse is like my life motto at this point,” Cressida laughed.

James grinned and went to say something when they were interrupted by annoying whaling. “Oh  great , more people in my bathroom,” Moaning Myrtle complained, floating down in front of them. “It’s bad enough you were in here the other day, but now you’re bringing  more  people to disturb me?!” Her ghostly eyes widened when she saw James Sirius Potter, and she lifted her glasses for a better look. “Well,” she said, her tone changing dramatically. “I see wee Potter’s offspring has returned to see me. We didn’t get a chance to talk properly last time, with those other horrid boys tearing apart my bathroom. Say,” she said, shimmying up against his shoulder. “Did daddy tell you about me?”

James looked wildly uncomfortable.

Cressida grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the bathroom, saving him this time.

Back in the crowded hallways, people turned and looked at her hair as she stood there.

“Here,” James said, pulling out a red beanie from his robes. “It’s Fred’s from over summer. You can wear it to cover your hair.”

Cressida noticed Jac and Fred searching for them in the corridor up ahead. “Nah,” Cressida said. “Everyone’s seen it now, and if they haven’t Arabella will spread the word soon enough. Might as well carry on with it. Like you said, it could be worse.”

James smiled at her. “A very noble decision, Knightly.”

The two started walking toward their counterparts. “Out of curiosity though, you wouldn’t know how to sneak Victoire into the castle, would you?”

 

*

 

As expected, the Arabella-induced chaos lasted for the remainder of the day, but it wasn’t as bad as Cressida thought it would be. She’d already heard the majority of the jokes from Felix anyway. 

By the time the Slytherins had met up for lunch, Margo and Felix had been forced to make up by Molly and neither party looked happy about it, but it was better than listening to them arguing over a second meal that day. They had nearly started up again in the alcove while they were doing homework, and Molly had decided to leave entirely to let them figure it out themselves. Jac and Cressida were keeping score of how many times Margo could get Felix to swear in one sentence. It was extra points if Felix went so Irish in his rage-induced ranting that they couldn’t understand him.

Molly never returned to usher them off to bed before curfew, so the group all dribbled off to bed by ten o’clock after deciding neither Felix nor Margo had won the argument, and they would likely start round two again first thing tomorrow morning. 

Cressida had just settled down in her bed, preparing to stare up at her ceiling for the next seven hours when she heard a faint knocking on her bedpost. Rasper lifted his head with an inquisitive purr.

“Cressida,” a voice whispered. “It’s me.”

Cressida poked her head out to find Molly standing there. She gestured for Cressida to be quiet and follow her.

Pulling on her shoes, and feeling like this situation was slightly backwards, Cressida followed Molly out of the dorm room.

“Where are we going?” Cressida asked as they crept through the common room.

“Just trust me,” Molly whispered back.

The two crept out of the exit and were surprised when they bumped into a third person.

Molly lit up her wand and both girls were startled to see Albus Severus Potter standing opposite them.

“Albus,” Molly said promptly. “What are you doing? It’s past your bedtime!”

“I’m not a kid,” Albus replied grumpily. “My bedtime is whenever I feel like it.”

“No,” Molly contradicted. “Your bedtime is when curfew is. Which was over an hour ago.”

“ You’re  out here,” he pointed out.

“I’m older than you,” Molly replied. “And I have stuff to do.”

Albus glanced at Cressida then back to Molly. “What stuff?”

“None of your concern,” Molly said, ushering him into the common room. “Now go to bed. You’ll be tired in the morning otherwise.”

“You’re not my mum, Molly,” Albus said over his shoulder.

“I  should  tell your mother, is what I should do-” Molly said, going to storm after him until Cressida held her back.

“Let him go, Mol.”

“He's only a First Year. He shouldn't be-”

“I was sneaking around in First Year,” Cressida reminded her. “He’ll be fine.”

Molly straightened up. “And if you recall, I didn’t agree with you doing it either. This castle can be dangerous at night.”

“Okay,” Cressida said smartly. “So if it’s that dangerous I guess we should just go back inside as well then.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “Just follow me, smart-ass.”

They’d snuck through the entire castle and climbed up to the Astronomy Tower, and still, Cressida had no idea why she and Molly were wandering around in the dark.

“Okay,” Molly said, checking the room was empty. “Now we wait.”

“For?” Cressida asked.

A hand suddenly wrapped around Cressida’s mouth and yanked her backwards. When she spun around fighting off the body she saw it was James who had snuck up on her “Jesus Christ!” She cursed, catching her breath from the scare.

“Nope, just call me James,” he laughed in reply, folding a piece of ugly fabric under his arm. She whacked him on the forearm as punishment for scaring her.

“I told you to be discreet,” Molly told him.

“I was the discreet-est,” James grinned. “Not a soul saw me.”

Cressida looked from James to Molly. “Hang on. Why the fuck are we all here, and why are you two on the same page?”

“We worked together,” Molly said, rolling her eyes again. “Forgot what hard work he is. How you put up with him so much, Knightly, is beyond me.”

“I happen to think I was very helpful in this endeavour,” James replied. “I did all the heavy lifting-”

“It was my idea in the first place,” Molly argued.

“But you needed me to pull it off,” James said triumphantly. “What does that tell you?”

Cressida was beginning to get a headache. “That doesn’t answer either of my questions.”

“Just stay quiet,” Molly instructed. “It’ll all make sense in a minute if James did his part properly.”

“How dare you assume I  didn’t  do it properly,” James frowned. “I pull this type of thing all the time.”

“And how often do you get caught doing it?” Molly asked pointedly.

James lacked a good answer and instead started steering Cressida by the shoulders to hide in the shadows with him while Molly kept a lookout.

“Again, I ask. What the fuck is going on?” Cressida whispered as she and James crouched down side by side.

James grinned widely. “Turns out Molly and I finally have some common ground. It also turns out, when we put our skills together, we can pull off anything.”

Cressida looked back at him. “I know that should fill me with confidence but it doesn’t.”

“ Shh ,” Molly said then, crouching down herself. “This is where it could all go wrong.”

Cressida and James shrank back further into the shadows, awaiting whatever the two cousins had concocted.

An odd screeching neigh rang out over the grounds and James’ grin grew.

The next thing Cressida saw was a large horse-like beast bursting in through the open gap in the Astronomy Tower, flapping its large wings.

She instantly shot backwards into the wall, using James as her human shield. “What  is  that thing?”

“A hippogriff,” James answered, manoeuvring so they were side by side again so Cressida could see it properly. “One of Buckbeak’s offspring.”

Cressida noticed then that Victoire was sitting on the back of the creature. “Hiya, Cressida. Meet Beebe.”

James helped Cressida to her feet and the three Third Years approached the grey dappled hippogriff as Victoire slid off the back of it. Molly and James bowed at the creature, and Cressida had the good sense to copy them. Beebe’s head feathers prickled upwards, and then it bowed back at the three of them.

“You actually did it,” Cressida said in disbelief. “You snuck someone into Hogwarts.”

“It’s a lot easier than you’d think,” Victoire smiled. “Especially if your family is good friends with the Head Mistress and the invisible forcefield doesn’t see you as a threat.”

“We wrote to Victoire earlier and told her about your hair,” Molly said to Cressida.

“We used Barnabas to make sure the message got there as soon as possible,” James added on. “And Victoire replied within the hour saying if we could get Beebe on the outskirts of Hogsmeade ready for her to apparite and meet her, she could fly over and help.”

“But how did you get Beebe to Hogsmeade?” Cressida asked. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to just apparite straight here?”

“No apparition inside Hogwarts,” all three of them answered instantly.

“And Beebe is a part of the Hippogriff herd Hagrid cares for. All we had to do was tell him that Victoire needed her for the night and he was more than willing to help,” James explained.

“Buckbeak was like a part of the family, you see,” Molly said next. “And so when he had offspring, technically they belonged to Hagrid but he lets us use them whenever we need them, no questions asked.”

“I ran down there and gave him the instructions on where to take Beebe myself and convinced him to leave as soon as she was tied up at the agreed spot,” James said. 

“Right,” Cressida nodded along, slightly confused still. She turned to look at Victoire. “So you can fix my hair?”

Victoire ran her fingers through the ends of Cressida’s hair, mumbling incoherently to herself for a moment, assessing the damage. Finally, she pulled something out of her jacket. “It’s the best I could do on short notice. It might not get every single strand, but it’ll do in a pinch.”

Cressida looked at the object to find it was a travel-sized bottle of shampoo. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Out of curiosity,” Molly said then. “Why did her hair start changing back?”

Victoire went back to studying Cressida’s hair thoughtfully. “Hmm. Could be a number of things. The spell would have worn off eventually, but not this soon. Maybe going home for the summer affected the magic, or maybe Cressida simply willed it to change back.”

“Willed it?” James asked.

“Yeah,” Victoire nodded. “Our minds are heavily linked with any magic affecting our appearances. If Cressida suddenly started having negative thoughts about her hair colour, the spell would have responded by weakening itself.”

James and Molly turned their eyes on Cressida. 

“What made you hate your black hair all of a sudden?” James asked.

Cressida withdrew suddenly. “Don’t know. Maybe I just didn’t want it anymore.”

“Fair enough,” Molly shrugged then turned her attention to Victoire. “Hagrid will be waiting at the drop-off point for you any minute now.”

Victoire hugged her two cousins. “Glad I could help. I’m always up for a midnight randevu.” She turned to Cressida and pulled her in for a hug as well. “Just for the record, I like the hair. Makes you look unique.”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll still take the potion,” Cressida said, stepping out of the hug.

Victoire winked at them as she climbed back onto Beebe. “If anyone asks, I was never here.”

“Mum’s the word,” James and Molly both replied.

They all watched as Beebe spread her wings out again and took off back into the dark night sky.

“So,” James said once they were alone again. “Who’s up for some mischief? I got Freddie and Thomas waiting on standby.”

“I don’t think so,” Molly said, linking arms with Cressida. “We’ve caused enough mischief for tonight.”

“Fine, if you want to be boring, do it your way,” James pouted as the two girls turned to leave.

“Aren’t you following us down?” Cressida asked when she realised James wasn’t moving.

“No,” James grinned. “I have discovered a new mode of transportation recently.”

Cressida narrowed her eyebrows. “What-”

“Don’t ask,” Molly cut her off as she pulled her forward. “It’s better if we don’t know.”

 

 

Friday 8th September 2017

 

Cressida had a shower and washed her hair with the shampoo from Victoire first thing in the morning, but to her dismay when she stepped out of the shower her hair remained exactly the same.

She wiped the condensation away from the mirror and stared at her reflection silently.

She knew exactly why her mind had wanted the black hair to go away. She’d been staring at the reason all night since returning from the Astronomy Tower.

It was too similar to her father’s in the photo. Made her look too much like him. Her overcomplicated feelings had transferred onto her appearance without her even meaning it to. She had to get them under control soon, or just decide how she felt once and for all and move on. Somehow, she doubted that would happen any time soon. She just wished someone would tell her what to think or tell her whether her father was someone worth looking like or not.

Cressida had worried that Molly would press the reasoning behind Cressida wanting her hair changed back, revealing her secret in the process, but she never did. The ginger witch went straight to bed and that was it for the night. Even when they woke up in the morning, Molly acted as though the events of the night prior hadn’t happened.

Cressida sighed, using a drying spell and walking out of the bathroom to get ready for lessons, pushing her thoughts out of her mind.

She planned on carrying on with her day as normal. However, when the girls went out into the common room to meet Felix, Cressida spotted Albus and Scorpius sitting in front of the fireplace, their heads ducked together whispering to one another. They looked worried about something.

“Go on without me,” she told the group.

Molly followed her eye line to the two First Years, then nodded at Cressida, leading the others away.

Cressida approached the two boys slowly, hoping to overhear what they were talking about. As she got closer, she realised Scorpius was crying. She’d just gotten close enough to hear their hushed whispers when Albus rounded on her.

“Did Molly send you over here?” He asked.

“No.”

“James then?”

“No,” Cressida said again. She jutted out her chin to Scorpius, who was hastily trying to dry his tears. “What happened?”

“Nothing, it’s fine,” Scorpius sniffed.

Cressida took a step closer. “You can trust me, you know. I won’t rat you out if you got in trouble.”

“Your friends with my brother, right?” Albus asked, looking up at her. Cressida gave a shrugging motion in response. “Then don’t worry about it. We’ve got it under control.”

Cressida sighed. “I can help-”

“We don’t need your help,” Albus said firmly.

“Fine,” Cressida replied, turning away. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

“Wait-” She turned back around to see Scorpius on his feet. “Can you find our friend, Rose? She might be worried.”

Cressida glanced down at Albus. He didn’t look happy about his friend’s request. “Sure,” Cressida agreed, turning back to Scorpius. “You going to tell me why you’re crying before I go?”

“No,” Albus answered, getting to his feet and standing beside Scorpius protectively.

Cressida turned and left the common room deciding against pressing the issue. Apparently, stubbornness and pride ran in the family.

She climbed the stairs and entered the Great Hall. However, instead of going to the Slytherin table, she sought out the Gryffindor table.

The trio of boys hadn’t arrived for breakfast yet. That was probably best.

“You’re Rose, right?” Cressida asked, stopping behind the only red-cladded First Year she recognised.

The bushy-haired girl spun around, surprised by the interruption. “Yeah, why?” She asked, and then her eyes grew wide. “Aren’t you the girl from Jamsie’s birthday?”

“Unfortunately,” Cressida replied. “Look, Scorpius sent me to let you know they’re okay.”

“Oh,” she said, looking down at her hands. “I was worried about them but I wasn’t sure what to do. It was really unfair.”

Cressida glanced at the door to check the trio of boys still hadn’t arrived. “What happened?”

“Someone used a spell to vanish off Scorpius’ hair and, well, they did it so he’d resemble Voldemort,” Rose explained quietly. “It was horrible. Albus was furious.”

Cressida thought back to seeing Albus sneaking into the common room late last night, a funny sinking feeling in her chest. “Do you know who did it?”

“No, everyone had changed out of their robes by that point and it was a group of them,” Rose said. “Luckily, the spell was easily reversible, but it really upset Scorpius. I tried to find them all night to see if they were okay but Filch caught me wandering after curfew and I got detention.” Rose looked up at Cressida again then, an inquisitive expression on her face. “James never mentioned you were a Metamorphmagus.”

The statement threw Cressida completely. “What?”

“Your hair has been changing colour ever since you started talking to me,” she said. “I thought maybe you were changing it because you were angry about what happened. Teddy’s hair does that sometimes.”

Cressida reached up and pulled her hair into her view. “No, it’s a potion,” she said to the smaller girl as she prepared to leave. “Thanks for telling me what happened.”

“Are you going to fix it?” She asked earnestly. Cressida looked back over her shoulder. “You can make people stop being mean to them, can’t you? They didn’t do anything wrong.”

Cressida’s heart sank. She wished she had a response for her, but she didn’t. All she could offer was a small nod as she exited the hall completely.

She ducked into Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom and ignored the whiny ghost’s ramblings about her being there for a third time that week.

Looking in the mirror, she was greeted by a reflection she had missed. Scruffy blonde hair and grey eyes. Once again Cressida resembled her mother rather than her father. 

She didn’t look perfect. Her hair didn’t bounce back into easy curls or have a nice shine to it anymore. She looked like herself, and she was glad.

The potion had worked.

“I don’t like it,” Moaning Myrtle said, floating behind Cressida in the mirror. “Your other hairstyle was much better… don’t know why you complained about it so much if this was the alternative.”

Cressida put her middle finger up to the ghost as she stepped back out into the hall.

As she stepped out, she bumped into the trio of boys on their way to their Herbology lesson.

James forced them all to stop in their tracks once he spotted her. “You’re blonde again!” James exclaimed. “It worked!” 

“Here we go,” Thomas muttered under his breath, nudging Fred.

“Yeah,” Cressida replied. She silently debated telling James about what had happened with the Malfoy kid but decided against it. His brother hadn’t been the one targeted, and she knew James would only overreact. There was no sense stressing him out until she had to. “Turns out I missed being blonde more than I thought,” she continued.

“Good,” James blurted out. “Well, not good, you looked good either way-” Cressida quirked an eyebrow at him. “What I’m trying to say is-”

Fred covered James’ mouth with his arm, smiling at Cressida. “What James is trying to say is you look like yourself again.”

“Small town scum?” Cressida asked.

“The very same,” Thomas agreed before thinking about it. “But in a good way,” he added on quickly.

“Thanks,” Cressida said, and she genuinely meant it.

The group of Slytherins came up behind them then. “So this is where you disappeared to,” Felix said as the two groups merged together.

“You fixed your hair!” Jac said, running her fingers through the tangled ends. “How’d you manage it in the half-hour you were gone?”

“Knightly’s just clever, I suppose,” Molly answered instead. Cressida noticed her and James send each other a knowing grin. “Are we going to Herbology or are we planning on standing here talking about Knightly’s hair for the next hour?”

“To Herbology,” James declared, squirming out from under Fred’s hold.

“To Herbology,” the group chorused back, all apart from Margo who remained firmly in place as the others walked ahead together. 

“What the hell just happened?” She asked no one in particular as she reluctantly followed behind them.

Chapter 49: Third Year: Tryouts

Monday 18th September 2017

 

“Remind me again why you all chose Divination?” Molly asked over breakfast.

“It’s fun,” Jac answered. “We get to look into crystal balls and pretend we’re witches-”

“We  are  witches,” Margo pointed out.

“Yeah,” Jac said. “But it feels cooler if we have a crystal ball. Like the Sanderson Sisters.”

“That would be a cool Hallowe’en costume for us,” Cressida chimed in.

“Who’re the Sanderson Sisters?” Felix asked.

“You’ve never watched Hocus Pocus?” Cressida asked. 

Felix shook his head.

“Then you’ve not lived,” Jac said dramatically. “My first crush was Thackery Binx.”

“I preferred Max Denninson,” Cressida admitted.

The three remaining Slytherins looked incredibly confused. “Is this what it feels like when we talk about our childhoods in the wizarding world?” Molly asked.

“Listening to yours is worse,” Cressida teased.

They all departed after that, with Molly going one way and the rest of them climbing all the way up to their Divination classroom on the seventh floor of the North Tower.

The first time they’d had Divination, Cressida had left with an incense-induced headache that hadn’t worn off until dinner time, but now she was rather used to the cloudy and odd-smelling classroom.

As usual, Professor Trelawney flitted about at the front while the students took their seats on large cushions. She pushed her thick glasses up her nose and adjusted her numerous shawls over her shoulders as she welcomed the class. “Welcome, welcome. I predicted this would be a very stimulating lesson. Yes, yes indeed. If you would all take a seat we shall get started very soon.”

“What do you reckon it’ll be today?” Felix asked as they settled down. “Palm reading?”

“Oh, I hope so,” Margo said. “My mum swears we have the gift of Sight in our family. I would probably be rather good at it.”

Cressida and Jac shared a doubtful glance. So far, in only three lessons, Margo had gotten every single reading and question wrong, often saying the opposite of what was supposed to happen, and refused to admit she was actually terrible at Divination. 

“I hope your third eyes are open and perceptive for our lesson today,” Trelawney said, wringing her hands. “I require you to pair up, yes, and we shall read each other’s tea leaves. Now, this can be quite tricky so I will be moving around and assisting those struggling to see into their divine powers.” At that, Trelawney sent a glance toward Margo. “Come, come,” she said swiftly looking away again. “Collect your tea cups and let the Sight flow through you.”

Once they all had gotten their cups filled by Trelawney they agreed it would be best for Felix to pair up with Cressida while Jac went with Margo.

“Tell you what,” Felix said as he drank from his cup. “Molly makes a far better cup of tea.”

Cressida strongly agreed, fighting the urge to air our her tongue after every sip.

Regardless of the foul-tasting tea, both of them emptied their cups and then put them upside down as instructed. Once Trelawney was happy their cups were sufficiently drained, they swapped cups, peering down at what form the tea leaves had taken.

“I have good news and bad news,” Cressida said after deducing what Felix’s tea leaves were showing her.

“Hit me.”

“You have a heart, which signifies love in your future, but it’s next to a spiral which…” she checked the book quickly. “Which resembles confusion.”

“Confusion about what?” Felix pressed.

Cressida shrugged. “The leaves don’t say.”

Felix moved on from his lack-lustre reading relatively quickly and started returning the favour. “Well,” Felix started, looking at Cressida’s. “It looks like a bunch of tea leaves… maybe you’ll be drinking a decent cup of tea in the near future.”

Trelawney appeared behind Felix, startling them both. “No, no, my boy. You’re not looking hard enough.” She took the cup from him and turned in her hands several times, her owl-like eyes widening slightly as she muttered to herself. 

“That can’t be good,” Felix whispered, watching their teacher perform.

“My dear,” Trelawney said, placing the cup back down between them and staring at Cressida intensely. “You have a skull in your cup-”

Felix checked the book. “Danger in your path.”

Cressida looked back to Trelawney. “Could you be more specific?”

Trelawney nervously chewed on her nails as she stared down at her. “A great heartbreak is in your cards. Many, many forces are pulling you to a fro in every direction. You are splintered.”

The class had gone silent now, looking towards Cressida and Trelawney. “Great,” Cressida said dryly. “Anything else?” 

Trelawney reached out and touched the ends of Cressida’s hair. “Death.”

“Okay,  now  you need to be specific,” Felix insisted nervously.

Trelawney shook her head slightly. “You have already witnessed it, and you will witness more.”

Cressida looked away, glaring at the cup in front of her. “Can’t wait,” she said sarcastically.

By the end of the lesson and for the remainder of the day Cressida was in a bad mood. Everyone else in the class seemed pleased, or at least not depressed, about what their tea leaves had said about their future. Cressida’s was by far the worst, and everyone knew it.

“Don’t listen to her,” Molly said after Cressida had complained about it in the alcove. The lesson had been playing on her mind all day and was now affecting her ability to complete her Herbology homework with any sort of logic. “Trelawney predicts the death of at least one student every year. She predicted Uncle Harry’s death before.”

“Didn’t he actually die, though?” Jac asked.

“Yeah, but it didn’t stick,” Felix answered. He was entertaining Rasper with a feather from the cushions while Molly completed his homework for him.

“The issue is it’s not  my  death she’s predicting,” Cressida continued. “It could be anyone. It could be Rasper, or Johnny Postman, or my mum. Oh fuck, what if it’s my mum?!”

“It won’t be your mum,” Margo said. “She’s perfectly healthy.”

Cressida sank back into the sofa. “Why couldn’t the crazy old bat have given me a nonsense reading like everyone else? Why couldn’t I have had Margo’s reading? Hers would have been perfect!”

“What was yours?” Molly asked Margo.

“An acorn and shaking hands,” she answered. “Unexpected wealth and new friendships.”

“Margo’s was better than mine too,” Jac said solemnly. “All my cup told me was to avoid meat. It’d be good advice if I wasn’t already a vegetarian.”

“I wouldn’t fret too much about it, Cress,” Felix said nonchalantly. “Everyone dies eventually. Trelawney could be talking about someone seventy years from now for all we know.”

“She does have some issue with consistency and specifics,” Molly nodded.

“Hey, this will cheer you up,” Jac said, rounding to face Cressida. “I was talking to Fred earlier and he let slip what they’re planning on pulling next.”

“Hanging out with Weasley a lot lately, aren’t you, Redwick?” Felix teased.

“Am not,” Jac retorted throwing a cushion at him. “He’s just about a lot.”

“I thought they were holding off on pranks for a while because of Albus,” Molly said.

“We should have known it wouldn’t last,” Margo moaned. “They can’t help themselves.”

“What were they doing?” Cressida asked.

Jac sat up on her knees eagerly. “Fred gave me a demonstration-”

“I bet he did-” Felix cut in.

Cressida threw the cushion at him this time, then gestured for Jac to continue.

“Well, he took me to the hall of portraits and aimed his wand at one of a group of safari explorers. Next thing, they started singing  ‘what’s new pussy-cat’  to the lions trying to eat them in their frame. It was hilarious.”

“Singing portraits?” Cressida mused. “Could cause some chaos, I suppose.”

“Not exactly their best work,” Molly said. “Teddy pulled that a bunch of times while he was here.”

Jac sank back into the sofa. “I thought it was good.”

Felix grinned, nudging her with his foot. “Did you think the  prank  was good or did you think it was good because it was Weasley-”

Jac leapt across the alcove, battering Felix with a cushion. “I. Do. Not. Fancy. Weasley !” She said as Felix laughed under her. Rasper had taken to aiding in Jac’s attack by pouncing on Felix while he couldn’t escape.

Cressida rolled her eyes and got to her feet, shoving her school supplies into her bag. “I’m clearly not finishing my homework tonight so I’m going for a wander.”

“Want me to start it for you?” Molly offered.

“Nah, Longbottom won’t mind if I hand in one bad essay,” Cressida said over her shoulder. “I’ll make it up by staying too tidy after lessons or something.”

In the halls of the dungeons, Cressida had been so deep in her thoughts that she wasn’t looking where she was going and when she rounded the corner to climb the stairs, she bumped into someone.

“Shit. Sorry,” she said. When she looked up she realised she had walked straight into Thane Nott, who seemingly also hadn’t been looking where he was going as he had an open book in his hand.

“Ah, Cressida Knightly,” Thane grinned, closing his book and leaning against the stone wall of the stairwell. “I notice the hair has changed back. Now I can understand why those Gryffindor boys are apparently so smitten with you, but I must admit, I liked the black.”

Cressida blushed, much to her own annoyance. “Yeah, well, everyone has an opinion.” She looked up at him then. “Speaking of opinions, I've been meaning to ask what yours is on the Malfoy kid. You said your dad was friends with his, right?”

“Exactly,” Thane smirked. “So I’m hardly in a position to judge the kid, now am I?”

“Everyone else seems to be.” 

“Everyone else is on the outside looking in,” Thane replied, dropping his grin. “Poor git didn’t stand a chance.” She nodded distantly, then made to walk around him. To her surprise, he straightened up. “You off somewhere?” He asked, following alongside her.

“Not really, just wandering around.”

He grinned down at her. “Do you want to go somewhere?”

She looked up at him. “Where?”

Thane shoved his hands in his pockets as they climbed the stairwell together. “Some of my friends behind the greenhouses hang out and smoke. Thought you might be up for it.”

“I don’t smoke.”

Thane narrowed his eyebrows. “Really?” He asked surprised. “After all, I’ve heard about you I thought that’d be right up your alley.”

“Well then maybe you shouldn’t believe everything you hear about me.”

Thane poked his tongue into his cheek. “Toushay. If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.”

With that, he slinked away in the direction of the greenhouses. Cressida paused, leaning back against the wall watching him go for a moment. 

Perhaps going to the greenhouses would be a decent use of her time, she debated. She hung out with people who smoked back home. Heck, she was a cigarette dealer back home. She doubted accompanying Thane to watch  him  have a smoke would end disastrously, and really, the boy disappeared and reappeared once every four months from what she could tell. Plus, smoking and a change of scenery might fix her bad mood and take her mind off her dismal future.

Just as she pushed herself off the wall to follow after him, her attention was stolen by a familiar set of voices.

“Just leave it, James!” Albus said storming around a corner.

“No, Albus. Just talk to me about it,” James said, following behind him. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Cressida hid around the corner in the stairwell as the two brothers got closer.

“You don’t understand,” Albus said, rounding on James. It was like he was talking to a taller reflection of himself.

“I do. I  do  understand. I went through this with Molly-”

“You haven’t even made up with Molly!” Albus argued back. “You two hardly get on anymore, but you’re both trying to smother me as if I’m a baby.”

“You are a baby. It’s called being a baby brother for a reason,” James said folding his arms.

“Well, maybe I don’t want to be,” Albus said turning his back on James.

“Don’t want to be what?” James pressed. “My baby brother or a Slytherin?”

Albus stormed away without answering. He barged into the stairwell before Cressida could react and the two came face to face. His glare was perhaps even more piercing than Cressida’s and if this is what James would look like mad, she was grateful she had yet to experience it to this extremity.

“You spying on me too, I take it?” He asked coldly.

“No,” Cressida said. “It’s none of my business what you get up to.”

His face softened ever so slightly. “Well. Good,” he said, pushing past her and disappearing into the dungeons.

When Cressida turned around again, James stood in front of her. It was unsettling, having the two brothers around her like this. 

James didn’t say anything as he stood there. His eyes moved from Cressida to the direction his brother had gone in and then back to her.

“I wouldn’t follow him,” she advised. “If you pester him he might say something he’ll regret.”

James’ green eyes were fixed on her then, his chest rising and falling rapidly. “You’d tell me if he wasn’t okay, right? You said you’d look out for him.”

“You can’t protect him from everything, James,” Cressida said.

“James?” He repeated. “You only call me James when you’re angry at me.”

“I’m not angry.”

“So, serious then?” He asked.

Cressida hardened her eyes on him. “Is now really the best time to make a Sirius joke?” She asked, poking fun. 

“I thought it would make me feel better.” James gave a small grin, moving to lean back against the wall beside her. His mood deflated back down. “It’s the Malfoy kid, I swear,” James said then. “I heard something went down the other day but no one will tell me what. Apparently, Rose has already bribed all the First Years into not telling me stuff to do with my brother… should have expected it, honestly. She’s scarier than the lot of us.”

“Scarier than Molly?” Cressida asked curiously.

“Merlin no,” James laughed. “Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Molly Weasley II, but Rose Granger-Weasley is a close second. She’s got both her parent’s tempers.” He rolled his head against the stone to face her, his face solemn once more. “Tell me my brother is going to be okay, Knightly.”

“He’s going to be fine,” Cressida comforted him. “We all learned to deal with it in the end. Give your brother a chance to as well.”

“So carry on as normal then?”

Cressida shrugged. “Acting differently around him isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Thanks,” James said, looking away from her again. “Fancy a kitchen raid? Thomas and Freddie are off looking up some spells in the library.”

“Will anyone see us?”

James grinned enticingly. “No.”

Cressida started moving forward. “Are you going to let me have the first pick of the desserts?”

James pushed himself up off the wall. “Only if you beat me there,” he said overtaking her at a running pace.

Cressida raced after him.

 

Saturday 23rd September 2017

 

“You’ve got this, Redwick.”

“I don’t. I don’t got this.”

“Just keep your eyes open and don’t throw up and you’ll be fine.” 

“What if I’m not good at it?”

“You played hockey, cricket  and  badminton back home, you said.”

“Yeah, but this is different. I’ve never played Quidditch properly before.”

“You played a game at the Burrow with the family, and Molly’s taught you how to basically do everything.”

“No, I can’t. I can’t do it. I’m not going to go,” Jac said trying to turn around frantically.

Cressida turned her back around and continued pushing her through the grounds. “Oh, yes you are! If I have to write an article on the Quidditch tryouts, I’m writing about my best friend making the team!”

Veronica had taken over the position of  The Chatterbox  chairman from Victoire and demanded they get the first issue out as soon as possible. This meant Cressida was forced to watch every single house’s tryouts when she only cared about whether or not Jac made the team.

“What if I make a fool of myself?” Jac panicked as Cressida continued to push her towards the pitch.

“It’ll be a very funny anecdote for the newspaper.”

“ Cressida !”

“Joking!”

Fred appeared beside the two girls then, walking in time with them. “You’re looking a bit peaky, Redwick.”

“Shove off, Weasley,” Jac replied.

James joined the group then. “Just breathe through it. Do what Tommo does.”

“Where did you come from?” Cressida asked, leaning forward to face him.

“What does Wood do?” Jac asked over her, taking deep breaths.

“Pretend everyone around you is naked,” Fred answered.

“I do not do that,” Thomas said, appearing out of nowhere in line with James. Cressida gave up trying to make sense of where the boys were popping out from.

“What  do  you do then?” Jac asked desperately.

“Suffer, mostly,” Thomas shrugged.

“Redwick!”

The group all halted just before they had reached the Quidditch Pitch. Molly and Felix were running up to them through the grounds, something long and bulky in their hands.

“Here,” Molly panted, coming to stop in front of them. “I wanted you to have this for good luck.”

Fred took the object before Jac could. “You’re giving her your broom?!”

James took it next. “Where the fuck have you been keeping this gem?”

Molly snatched it back and passed it to Jac. “I hid it in McGonagall’s office over summer so you lot couldn’t nick it or ruin it.”

“Don’t you want to keep it though?” Jac asked. “You loved flying on it-”

“When did you start flying around Hogwarts?” Thomas asked curiously. “I’ll give you five sickles if you race me and let me time it-”

“Jac deserves it more than me,” Molly said, ignoring Thomas’ request. “She’ll get better use out of it now she’s going to be playing Quidditch.”

“If she gets on the team, that is,” Felix chimed in. When Jac threatened to try and run away again, the group formed a blockade in front of her. “I was joking! You’ll be grand, Redwick. Honest. You could outfly all of ‘em.”

“Or at the very least, you could outfly Potter,” Fred teased.

“Hey!” James objected.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle. “Anyone here for Slytherin tryouts, come on to the pitch now or lose your chance!” She called.

Jac gulped, using the support of her friends to stay upright. “Tell me again how I can do this.”

Cressida tightened Jac’s ponytail. “You’ve got this,” she said, shoving the girl forward.

Jac stumbled onto the pitch and approached Madam Hooch, the broom clasped tightly in her hands.

“Does she have this?” James asked concerned. “She vaguely resembles Wood before a game and that’s not exactly a good sign in most instances.”

“She has this,” Molly said confidently. “I taught her to fly myself.”

“She’s doomed then,” Fred teased, moving toward the stands.

Molly stormed after him with a glare, with Thomas and James following behind her. 

“Where’s Margo?” Cressida asked Felix.

“Who knows,” he shrugged, following after the group.

Cressida took a deep breath and looked at Jac in the middle of the pitch. She was straddling the broom waiting for further instruction from Hooch. Jeremiah Vonce was trying out too, as well as some older students she didn’t know. 

There was a small and dignified meow and Cressida glanced down to see a cat with spectacle markings sitting in the grass up ahead. It had come to watch the match.

Cressida bowed her head and the cat bowed back. Smiling to herself, Cressida joined her friends in the stands just before the tryouts started.

It had been a tough try-out. Luke Faro had made it nearly impossible for anyone who was slightly unsteady on a broom to make the team. The three Second Years that had turned up to try out were immediately eliminated as Luke made them hover mid-air while he aimed Bludgers at them. If any of them complained or wobbled, they were disqualified.

Madam Hooch looked like she strongly disagreed with his methods, but as long as no one got hurt he was allowed to continue.

The rest of the contenders were all grouped together and told to race around the pitch. The last four to finish wouldn’t make the team. That left Jac, Jeremiah and three other students in the running with sweat dripping from their noses. 

Their final task was to score a goal while the existing Slytherin team tried to intercept them.

Jeremiah had been knocked off his broom within an inch of scoring a goal. Two more flew right into each other while trying to catch the Quaffle. The final contender ducked under a Bludger and dropped the Quaffle, which Jac managed to catch on a fluke.

The trio of boys had remained for the entire thing, sitting on the edge of their seats and shouting encouragement at Jac.

“She’s going to do it,” James said, grasping the railings.

“Come on, Redwick!” Thomas encouraged her.

“Shoot the damn ball!” Felix and Molly called together.

Jac glanced back at them, and then in a fit of panic, she closed her eyes and threw the ball away from her.

“Tell me she did not just close her eyes,” Cressida begged as they watched the Quaffle fly through the air. Fred coughed loudly into his arm a second before the ball went straight through the hoop.

Jac cracked her eyes open and looked toward her friends cheering for her in the stands. When she realised she had done it, she threw her hands up in the air in celebration, wobbling slightly on her broom.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle. “Score! There’s your newest team member, Faro. And you’ll do well to congratulate her for putting up with your ridiculous tests!”

The Slytherin team all looked stumped, floating in mid-air around her.

Luke Faro took action, flying towards her on his broom. “You’re up for Beater, yeah?” Jac nodded. Luke flew away again, a smirk coming onto his lopsided face. A second later, he returned throwing a bat into her hands. “Hit this and you’ve got the position.”

Jac fumbled with the bat. “But Hooch just said-”

A Bludger was sent flying in her direction before she would object. The group all jumped out of their seats and hung over the railing. 

“That smarmy little dick,” Fred complained. “She’s already jumped through all his hoops!”

“Faro’s known for being unfair but this is ruthless,” Felix frowned.

“Should we stop it?” James panicked. “It’s going straight for her face.”

Thomas went to lift his wand when Molly forced it back down. “Let her try.”

Cressida rounded on her. “Mol, she could get hurt-”

Molly’s eyes were fixed on Jac. “Let her try.”

The group all turned their eyes on Jac again as she floated mid-air. Both her hands were on the bat now as it flew towards her at a record speed.

Cressida’s knuckles had turned white from how tightly she was gripping the railing. Down below, she saw McGonagall turn back into herself and start making her way onto the pitch.

Just when it looked like Jac was about to have her head caved in, there was a loud whacking sound and the Bludger was sent flying in the opposite direction, causing Faro to have to duck under it instead.

Once Faro was looking at her again, Jac offered an innocent smile. “Did I do it right?”

“Redwick, you  beauty !” Fred exclaimed, cupping his hands to shout over to her. 

Molly had never looked prouder. “Told you she could do it.”

“Are you lot going to stand here or go and congratulate her?” James said, ushering the group out of the stands hastily. 

They all rushed down onto the pitch and met Jac, all pulling her in for hugs and slaps on the back. 

“Welcome to the team, Redwick,” Faro said grumpily, landing his broom. “Work on your aiming and you might make a decent Beater.”

Cressida sent him a middle finger as soon as Faro’s back was turned.

Someone cleared their throat and the group all fumbled over one another to face McGonagall. “Excellent performance out there today, Miss Redwick. Five points to Slytherin.”

“Thank you, Professor,” Jac panted, wiping sweat from her forehead.

McGonagall gave a coy smile. “It is safe to say your competitors should keep their eyes out for you,” she said sending a pointed look to Thomas and James before she turned to leave. “Who knows what Miss Redwick will be capable of with the right training.”

“I think McGonagall just hinted you two should be worried,” Felix laughed turning to the boys.

James and Thomas stepped in front of Jac straight-backed and bowed their heads. “We look forward to playing against you, Lady Redwick,” Thomas said with a forced posh accent.

“I look forward to winning,” Jac replied, curtsying.

“Not likely, but we admire your confidence,” James teased as they stood upright again. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a reservation to attend.”

“What’s that?” Cressida asked as the group started making their way off the pitch together.

“Lunch at Hagrid’s,” Fred replied. “He’s made his rock cakes.”

Molly started steering the group of Slytherins in a different direction. “Try not to break a tooth.”

“And say hi from us!” Jac called.

“We’ll try our best!” Thomas said as he waved goodbye.

“What’s on the agenda for us then?” Felix asked, rubbing his hands together.

“A celebration, naturally,” Molly smiled. 

Jac raised her hand. “Can I have a shower before it starts?”

“I highly recommend you do,” Cressida teased. Jac grinned and shoved her armpit near her face as they entered the castle.

Chapter 50: Third Year: Better Than All The Rest

Tuesday 26th September 2017

 

It was of her fourth week of lessons and already Cressida was on the verge of falling asleep while sitting in History of Magic. Professor Binns rattled on at the front of the class in his usual uninteresting, monotone voice. They were studying the medieval witch trials in Third Year, and in any other circumstances, Cressida would find this mildly interesting, but something about Professor Binns always made everyone immediately switch off.

She glanced to her left where Felix was already asleep and drooling at the mouth. Margo was the only one attentively taking notes about whatever Binns was talking about. She wished Molly and Jac weren’t on the opposite side of the room. Those two seemed to be playing with a paper fortune teller to pass the time.

Laughter rippled from behind her and she turned her head to see James, Fred and Thomas sitting with their heads low deep in discussion. When they noticed her looking, Fred moved forward. “Do you know what he’s prattling on about?” He whispered to her.

“No idea,” Cressida admitted truthfully. “Something about Salem I assume. What are you three talking about?” She asked, desperate for some entertainment.

“Top notch Gryffindor information,” James wiggled his eyebrows comically at her.

“You’re back on your bullshit then?” She asked knowingly.

James held a piece of paper to his chest proudly. “No, no.  We’re  back on our bullshit.”

Cressida turned back around rolling her eyes. “I want no part in this.”

“You sure?” Thomas asked. “It’s a good one.”

“No thanks,” Cressida said cheerily.

James jabbed her in the back with the tip of his wand to get her to face him again, not willing for the conversation to be over so quickly. “If you  must  know, this is going to be the first of many extravagant pranks that dear Fred, Thomas and I have planned this year.”

Cressida gave in and turned properly, knowing they weren’t going to leave her alone until they had bragged enough. “It’s going to involve the portraits,” Thomas told her excitedly.

She’d begun to wonder when Jac’s tip would pay off. 

“Let me guess, they’re going to sing?” She asked. James and Thomas glared at her, meanwhile, Fred laughed quietly to himself sneaking a glance across the classroom to Jac. “Honestly, you're letting your Gryffindor namesakes down, lads. Have some pride in your pranks,” Cressida continued.

“They’re not going to  sing ,” James professed. 

“They’re not?” Thomas whispered beside him.

“No, of course not that’s a stupid and obvious idea,” James replied leaning back in his chair. “They’re going to do something way better than that.”

“Like what?” Cressida asked smartly. Thomas also seemed to be wondering this question while Fred was just enjoying watching the back and forth.

James leaned forward smugly. “I’m not telling you now. You’re going to have to wait like everyone else!”

“However shall I survive in the meantime?” Cressida replied dryly, turning back around. Behind her, she could hear Thomas, Fred and James whispering frantically and she smiled to herself. Beside her, Felix snored himself awake and caused all eyes to dart towards them as he wiped the drool from his chin.

 

*

 

It was finally last lesson, and Cressida and Jac were walking out of the Transfiguration classroom together. “I can’t believe I couldn’t turn my teapot into a tortoise,” Jac complained as they walked through the crowded hallways.

“You weren’t the only one. Margo couldn’t either,” Cressida comforted her. Margo had already run out of the classroom to go and complain in the bathroom. Moaning Myrtle could keep her company for a while until the two girls would go and retrieve her and listen to her complain all night. Molly and Felix had departed slightly after her, saying they were going to drop by to see Longbottom for help Felix with a particularly tricky essay.

Coincidently, Margo had not been the only student to rush out of class at the end. Thomas and James had practically darted out of the classroom, which left Fred trailing behind with the Slytherin girls, not that he seemed to mind.

“ You  did it fine,” Jac said sulkily to Fred as he walked beside them.

“Yeah, but I’m amazing so obviously  I  could do it,” he replied. He put a hand on Jac’s shoulder in mock sympathy. “Really, Redwick, you shouldn't compare yourself to me. It’ll only make you depressed.”

Jac shrugged his hand off her shoulder rolling her eyes. “Okay, fine, but Cressie still managed to do it.”

“It took me three tries and my tortoise still had a spout for a neck,” Cressida reminded her.

Jac smiled slightly. “That makes me feel a little bit better.”

There was a commotion up ahead and the crowds passing in the hallways came to a stop, staring at one of the portraits. Cressida’s eyes snapped to Fred who was smirking. “Already?” She asked knowingly.

“My lips are sealed,” Fred answered with a grin.

A knight ran through all the portraits lining the old stone walls holding a flag and proclaiming loudly:  “Who’s the best? Who’s better than all the rest? Gryffindor! Gryffindor!”

Bursts of laughter sprung up from the crowd watching as the knight did a little comical dance before he moved on to the next painting still proclaiming the tune.

Professor Flitwick appeared in the hall at the commotion and glanced at the painting. “Oh, yes, very good use of charms indeed.” He complimented the prank quietly to himself before turning back to the crowd of laughing students. “Off you go then, no time for dawdling!”

The crowd dispersed revealing Thomas and James cackling to themselves at the end of the hallway. Jac and Cressida glanced at each other before walking forward. Fred followed closely behind gesturing a thumbs up to the two boys over their heads. 

“Looks like they found a way to show off their Gryffindor pride after all,” Fred smiled.

“You mean you didn’t help?” Jac asked, looking up at him.

“How could I?” Fred asked, grinning widely. “I was with you two the entire time.”

Neither girl looked convinced by his declaration of innocence.

“So,” James started as they came to a stop in front of him. “What do you think, Knightly?”

“It’s still technically singing,” she replied as she and Jac walked past them pretending not to find it amusing.

James and Thomas stopped laughing imminently and their faces dropped, Fred however, burst into laughter at them instead. 

“She is technically right,” Thomas muttered to James.

“Yes, thank you, Wood,” James said tightly. James licked his bottom lip thoughtfully and got his wand out of his belt and pointed it at the knight roaming around chanting. “Oi,” he called. The tiny man stopped his singing to look at James. “Follow her, will you? If you can make your way into the Slytherin portraits that would be great.”

“Yeah,” Thomas grinned catching on and looking down at the tiny knight. “They’d love to hear your singing down in the dungeons.”

Without needing further prompting, the knight took off in the direction Cressida and Jac went proclaiming the song even louder than before. Fred shook his head at his two best friends before lacing his arms around their shoulders. “You boys are truly the best entertainment this school has to offer,” Fred complimented his group.

“Why thank you,” James bowed dramatically and the three boys took off laughing.

 

*

 

It had been three hours and no one had figured out how to get the knight to stop singing other than to take all the portraits down and turn them to face the wall, but even facing the wall you could still annoyingly hear the muffled rhyme.

The only portrait that remained hung up was that of Regulus Black, who whenever the knight even attempted to enter his frame, gave such a deathly glare that he reconsidered and moved along.

The group of Third Year Slytherins sat in their usual spot, which was normally quiet and left them undisturbed. However, they hadn’t realised that they were directly next to the wall with the most portraits hanging off it, and therefore, next to the wall with the most portraits turned around.

“You realise you’re to blame for this, right?” Margo chided her as she removed her earplugs. “You’re the reason we have to endure this torture for Merlin knows how long.”

“Why couldn’t you just let him think he was clever?” Molly complained beside them.

“I only told them the truth. It was…  is … technically singing!” Cressida defended herself. 

Felix removed his own earplugs to join in the conversation now. “Well, whatever it’s doing, someone needs to find a way to make it stop before I get expelled for exploding every single portrait in Hogwarts.”

There was a tiny clearing of a throat behind them and the five teenagers spun around to see Albus Severus Potter standing there. “Mini Potter,” Felix greeted.

Jac swatted Felix’s arm and then turned to the younger boy offering a kind smile. “What can we do for you, Albus?” 

He glanced at all of them cautiously then decided to address Cressida directly. “Did my brother do this?” He asked quietly.

“Of course he did!” Margo answered, less than delicately. “He loves to remind everyone that Gryffindor is better than everyone else, except this time he made his message follow us into our common room!”

Albus looked down at his hands. “Is this because of me?”

Molly glanced up slightly, the twist in her mouth gave away that she was keeping back a comment.

“Of course not,” Jac answered him instantly. “Your brother is many things but he wouldn’t do this to torment you because you got put into Slytherin.”

Cressida remained quiet and watched the younger Potter curiously. He didn’t have the same cocky demeanour as his older brother. He seemed like he could be reasoned with. “I need a book, want to come with me, Albus?” 

The younger boy seemed surprised by the invitation but followed behind her. Her friends watched the two leave in confusion before putting their earplugs back in to drown out the singing.

“Your brother did this to get back at me. He wouldn’t do something like this to show you up,” Cressida whispered to him as they lingered by the bookshelves in the common room.

Albus took her lead and pretended to look for a book while they spoke. “He’s upset about it, though. I can tell whenever he tries to talk to me,” Albus admitted. “James says it doesn’t mean anything and that mum and dad will still be proud of me no matter what house I’m in…. but he’s just retelling me what other people have told him to say. Molly’s just as bad. It’s like those two had suddenly made up just to compare notes on me.”

Cressida sighed deeply. She didn’t have any experience in dealing with younger siblings or family drama, but when it came to the Potter-Weasley clan she was beginning to feel like an expert. “They care about you. James even asked me to keep an eye out for you and everything.”

“That’s the last thing I want!” Albus snapped. Cressida’s eyes hardened on the First Year, making it clear that she was not someone he wanted to get on the bad side of. Albus took a deep breath and continued pretending to skim the books. “I don’t want a babysitter, I just want to be treated like everyone else. Just because I’m a Potter and I got put into Slytherin it’s some big deal… if I had any other surname no one would care. If I didn’t have such an idiotic brother, or a famous dad, no one would even pay attention to me,” Albus explained glumly.

Cressida thought for a moment. “Then show them you’re your own person. Step out of your family’s shadow and make a name for yourself. Show them  who  Albus Severus is without the pressure of the family history.”

Albus stared straight ahead for a while before nodding like the conversation was done. “Thanks, Knightly. That’s not a bad idea.”

Cressida looked down at Albus. “I have a first name, you know.”

Albus shrugged. “When James talks about you at home he only refers to you as Knightly. I thought that was your first name the whole summer after his First Year until Molly told me otherwise.”

With that, Albus grabbed a random book from the shelf and disappeared into the First Year dorm rooms.

A Fifth Year had finally come up with a way to stop the singing knight by simply freezing him in place so he couldn’t move or sing anymore. How none of them had thought of that sooner made Cressida slightly embarrassed, but at least the singing has stopped.

 

 

Monday 1st October 2017

 

The first yearly edition of  The Chatterbox  had gone out at breakfast and invoked widespread chatter throughout the hall. The retelling of the tryouts had been printed, but Jac had missed the grand reveal as Faro had scheduled Slytherin practise first thing that morning, much to the annoyance of Jac, who had to wake up at five.

The boy’s portrait prank had obviously been written about in the gossip column, with the slight mention of the rumours involving Scorpius Malfoy at the very bottom.

“I can’t believe you wrote about him in the paper, Margo,” Molly huffed reading over the passage.

“Veronica insisted. It was causing too much drama to  not  write about it. We would have seemed biased otherwise,” Margo reasoned. “Besides, I didn’t write about anything bad, and it was the better alternative to helping Penelope write about that stupid portrait prank.”

“You said he was a constant reminder of the war our parents faced,” Felix pointed out.

“Well, he is!” 

“By that logic so is Potter and Molly’s whole family,” Cressida argued.

Margo huffed and pushed her scrambled eggs away from her. “How come none of you are berating Knightly’s article?”

“Because Cressida didn’t bring up senseless rumours,” Felix said.

“No, all she did was praise Jac on making the team,” Margo complained. “The other team’s tryouts didn’t have half as much detail as Slytherins.  That  was biased writing if I ever saw it.”

“Hey, I helped write those,” Molly interjected.

“And Jac deserved it,” Cressida said sharply. “Plus, I didn’t see you there cheering her on.”

“ I  was busy doing my Divination homework!” Margo snapped.

“Finally trying to get one right, were you?” Felix jabbed.

Margo slammed her tea down onto the table and stormed away.

Molly mopped up the spilt tea with a napkin. “One of these days, Felix, you’re going to listen to that tiny voice in your head when it tells you to shut up.”

“Unlikely,” Cressida teased.

Jac arrived at the table then, her brow furrowed, and her hair incredibly windswept. “Why did Margo snap congratulations at me as she stormed past?”

“Felix opened his mouth,” Cressida explained.

“Ah,” Jac said sinking into Margo’s vacated seat. “That’ll do it.”

“Here,” Molly said, passing Jac the newspaper. “Revel in your glory.”

Jac downed a cup of orange juice. “I would if I wasn’t already exhausted. Faro had us doing laps and drills until we nearly dropped.”

“That’s the price you pay for Quidditch stardom,” Felix said, refilling her glass for her.

“ Slytherin’s new Beater, Jacqueline Redwick, is a force to be reckoned with as McGonagall warns two of Gryffindor’s team members to keep an eye on her in the first game of the term, ” Jac read with a wide grin, then dropped it slightly. “That’s sweet, Cressie, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll last on the team if Faro keeps training us like this.”

“Does everyone on the team feel that way?” Molly asked.

Jac shrugged, continuing to read Cressida’s article. “Maybe, but they never say it outright. Luckily, Faro leaves Hogwarts in a year so maybe I can outlast him.”

“That’s the spirit,” Felix smiled. “Hey, do you reckon Mini-Potter will be as Quidditch crazy as James? It’d be interesting if they’re on opposing teams next year. We could start a betting pool.”

Molly looked up over her breakfast. “Are you suggesting we profit from my cousin’s feud?”

“They don’t have to hate each other, I’m just saying it’d make for some good competition,” Felix went on. “If  you  had joined the Slytherin team I would have already started raking in the sickles.”

“In that case, I’m glad I didn’t join the team,” Molly said, going back to scooping up her beans with her toast. “And if Albus is smart, he’ll do the same.”

“You have no sense for profit or self-gain, do you, Weasley?” Felix teased.

Molly didn’t humour him with a reply and swiftly moved on. “Potions starts in five minutes. We better start heading down.”

The group all got to their feet, with Jac taking two pieces of toast from the table with her as they left.

“What’s after Potions?” Jac asked, squirrelling her toast into her mouth. Cressida took to finger-combing the knots from Jac’s hair as they walked to counteract the early morning practise effect. 

“Divination,” Felix answered.

“Perfect,” Cressida complained. “If Trelawney goes on another rant about my doomed future, I’m going to poison myself with her tea.”

“You could always drop it, you know,” Molly suggested. “You only have to take a minimum of two extra subjects.”

“You’re going to leave us!?” Felix asked affronted. “But we need you to make the rest of our futures look better in comparison.”

“Her prophecy about someone dying around me is about to become true real fast if you keep talking, Finnigan,” Cressida threatened.

Felix smiled and nudged her playfully. “You’d miss me if I was gone.”

They entered their Potions classroom to find Slughorn was eager to start the lesson before the students had even gotten a chance to sit down.

“This term I shall be the one assigning partners for our brewing process of the shirking solution,” Slughorn said to the class. “Mr Finnigan, would you like to accompany Mr Weasley?”

Neither boy looked put off by the partnership. “And Miss Redwick shall go nicely with Mr Wood, I imagine,” Slughorn continued. “And Miss Weasley can accompany Mr Potter-”

“Unlucky,” Cressida laughed as Molly begrudgingly swapped seats to sit beside her cousin. It looked as though James was already rambling about some nonsense before Molly had even sat down.

“Miss Knightly, could you accompany Miss Swinley?”

Cressida and Beatrix looked at one another. They’d hardly ever had a proper conversation, and it was slightly awkward as the two girls moved to sit beside each other while Slughorn paired up the rest of the class.

A part of her wished she could have James or Thomas as her partner for the lesson. At least she had stuff to talk about with them.

“So…” Beatrix said, trying to break the silence. “How’s being a Slytherin treating you lately?”

Cressida set her grey eyes on the dark-skinned girl. “It’s great. People don’t tend to spit at us anymore, but who’s to say that trend won’t come flooding back at any time.”

Beatrix dipped her quill in ink with a huff. “It was just a question. I thought you would have liked to talk about it, given your nickname.”

“Which nickname?”

“Princess of Slytherin, isn’t it?” Beatrix asked, glancing sideways at her. “Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard people calling you.”

“Oh, that,” Cressida sighed, fiddling with a piece of loose wood on the table’s edge. “Yeah, it wasn’t intended to be a compliment.”

“Still a princess, though,” Beatrix shrugged. “Princesses are supposed to be pretty… that’s probably why all the boys talk about you so much.”

“Boys don’t talk about me.”

“James, Wood and Fred never shut up about you.”

“Yeah but they don’t count,” Cressida said. 

Her eyes trailed down to the desk where she found a range of carvings in the old wood. The letters  A+P  were engraved in a heart. Slightly below that, a carving read ‘ Future Mrs Potter’.  There seemed to be a lot of carvings and messages in the girl’s bathroom along these lines lately. Frankly, Cressida was fed up with seeing random girls’ names etched into the wooden desks accompanied by the surname Potter. Occasionally, there would be a Weasley, but some of them were too faded to be for the recent generation so Cressida didn’t mind them as much.

“Well,” Beatrix continued. “If I had three boys talking about me like that, I’d be bragging about it to the whole school.”

“Honestly, it’s not like that,” Cressida told her, looking up from the desk. 

Beatrix turned to face her in the chair. “But the prank war you guys were doing is over, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And they’re  still  talking about you. You must be doing something right.”

“Not intentionally,” Cressida said tightly. She started collecting all the ingredients for the potion as Beatrix continued fidgeting in her seat. It appeared as though she was going to be even more of a useless partner than Potter.

“You have to admit he is kind of cute, though. Don’t you think?” Beatrix blushed, leaning over to Cressida and distracting her once again.

Cressida looked over at the boy’s table where Beatrix was gazing adoringly. James had his and Molly’s wands sticking out of his top lip, pretending to be a walrus.

“I guess he has his moments,” Cressida admitted before she could stop herself. Clearing her throat, she looked back down at her ingredient list. “He’d probably be even better if he managed to do something with that mop of hair on top of his head.”

Beatrix narrowed her eyebrows at Cressida as if she had said something ludicrous. “Fred’s hair is perfectly fluffy and curly, I don’t think he  can  do much more with it.”

Cressida’s hand froze midway through adding the sliced caterpillars to the cauldron. She had naturally assumed Beatrix was fawning over James. It had never occurred to her she would be looking at Fred or anyone else while making that statement.

“Oh,” Cressida said when Beatrix was still staring at her expectantly. “Yeah, I guess Fred’s alright too.”

Beatrix rested her chin on her hand, staring adoringly across the classroom. “One day I hope he asks me to hang out with him. I’d kill to know what they get up to after lessons.”

Cressida glanced sideways at the girl. “Trust me, it’s not that interesting.”

“I wonder if they fancy anyone,” Beatrix said dazedly. “Speaking of which, are you interested in either of them?”

Cressida laughed louder than she meant to. When it looked as though Beatrix’s question had been completely genuine, she composed herself, sending a quick glance back over to James. “No. I don’t fancy them.”

“That’s good then,” Beatrix continued. “If you were in the running, I doubt some of us would stand a chance. I mean, it’s obvious James has a thing for you.”

Cressida frowned. “He does not.”

Beatrix raised an eyebrow. “All of the girls were talking about it in the bathroom the other day. Your friend Margo was there as well. She thinks James liking you is stupid though. She said he’d probably fancy someone a bit more… you know, girlie.”

“Girlie?” Cressida repeated with mild offence.

Beatrix went on as if Cressida’s side of the conversation hardly mattered. “Do you think you could find out who they  do  fancy? You’d be a legend amongst all the girls.”

Cressida forced a smile, wishing violently for this conversation to be done. “I’m sure Fred wouldn’t tell me even if I tried. He’s so mega mysterious and everything,” she said in a tone that would have made Jac snort with laughter.

“Hmm, he is rather mysterious,” Beatrix replied, not picking up on Cressida’s joking tone. She went back to staring at Fred, and that’s where she stayed all lesson.

Chapter 51: Third Year: Tension

Notes:

Sorry for the delayed upload my plans ran over last night and this was the first chance I've had to upload.
Also, next week I'm away so will be uploading on Monday as well. Sorry for the inconvenience and I hope you enjoy the new chapter :)

Wednesday 3rd October 2017

 

Cressida hadn’t been able to forget her conversation with Beatrix Swinley since their Potions lesson. It was like it replayed in her mind mocking her until the early morning came.

She thought about it at breakfast, and in lessons, and even in the secret room when listening to music, and she didn’t know why.

It just bugged her.

It bugged her that it bugged her.

A never-ending circle of annoyance with no solution as to why she was annoyed. She didn’t want Potter to have a thing for her, but she didn’t like the idea of her being out of the running because she wasn’t  girlie  enough. She was plenty girlie in her opinion. Sure she wasn’t delicate and she hadn’t outgrown her training bra yet, but she was still a girl.

Besides, she liked to think she was on a parallel line to the other girls in her year so far. They all batted their eyelashes and giggled at the boys whenever in the same vicinity as them lately. She’d throw herself off the Astronomy Tower before she giggled at one of James’ jokes like that.

He had to earn her laughter, and even then she'd be reluctant to give it to him. It made him work harder, and James Sirius Potter was nothing if not an over-achiever.

The only other normal ones were Jac and Molly, who never spoke about boys openly and Cressida was glad. She had better things to be doing than worrying about boys.

The thing she perhaps hated the most was the fact everyone seemed to be talking about it in the bathroom of all places. She could only imagine the conversations happening in that sinkhole of gossip. 

“Knightly, you awake in there?” Felix asked, waving a hand in front of her face as they made their way to lessons.

Cressida snapped out of her thoughts and steadied herself as the staircase started turning.

The trio of Gryffindors jumped on the staircase just behind the Slytherins and Cressida looked over her shoulder at the disruption. Beatrix and April were next to them, laughing at something Fred had said. James sent Cressida a grin when he saw her watching them.

“Yeah,” Cressida said, turning around quickly. “Just thinking.”

“About what?” Jac asked curiously.

“Shoes,” she lied. “I’ve been meaning to get a new pair.”

“Since when do you care about shoes?” Margo asked.

“I care about shoes sometimes, Margo,” Cressida said more snippy than usual. 

“Sorry for asking,” she sulked, looking away. “It’s just normally you don’t care about that sort of thing.”

Cressida fought the urge to glare at the other girl as the staircase ground to a halt.

They arrived at their Charms class and walked in taking their respective seats. Flitwick stood on top of his pedestal of books, residing over the classroom with his wand. “Yes, come in, come in. Today, we shall be going over a spell I remember a few of you struggled with last year. Now, I realise we’ve done the theory on the engorgement charm in thorough detail, but I need you to be able to put it into practice at a moment's notice and on a variety of objects. If you’d all like to line up and come collect what we will be engorging-”

“I didn’t know the word engorging could sound so wrong,” Jac mumbled as she joined the queue beside Cressida. 

Cressida glanced behind her to see the trio of Gryffindor boys laughing while Molly rolled her eyes. It wasn't hard to decipher what she was saying to them. “Honestly, boys. Grow up.”

“Two sickles bet they said a dirty joke,” Felix bargained.

“Of course they did,” Margo interjected. “I’m surprised you had the willpower to avoid saying one.”

“It was too easy,” Felix shrugged.

“Here you go, Miss Knightly,” Flitwick said as Cressida stepped to the front of the queue. He placed a small circular tub in her hands. “Feel free to demonstrate to the rest of the class if you feel confident enough. I remember you had a certain knack for this Charm in your exam last year.”

Cressida could see Fred painstakingly holding back a dirty joke due to the harsh glare of Jac. “Thank you, sir,” she said to the professor.

Felix peeled back the container lid curiously once he had been handed his and something fuzzy and black crawled out and dropped to the floor at an intense speed.

A shriek ran out and everyone turned to see Molly had jumped up on the table. “Kill it! Kill it!” She demanded as the hairy bug crawled along the floor.

“Calm down, Miss Weasley. The spider will do you no harm,” Professor Flitwick told her.

“Merlin, she’s as bad as her Uncle Ron,” Margo said.

“I didn’t know it was in there! Last year we used chairs to practice this spell,” Felix reasoned.

“Yes, but you can’t fit a  chair  into a container, Felix,” Jac told him.

“You can if you shrink it,” he argued back.

Fred nudged his peers excitedly. “ Engorgio !” He uttered aiming his wand at the spider.

It grew three times larger in an instant and Cressida swore Molly was going to start climbing the walls. Felix aimed his wand at the spider threatening to crawl up Molly’s leg.  “Reducio!”

The spell missed the spider and instead hit the desk Molly was taking refuge on, causing her to rapidly sink to the floor.

“Don’t try and help, for Godric’s sake!” Molly yelled, now running around the classroom.

James and Thomas started pulling the lids off more containers setting the spiders free into the room and it turned into a free for all on who could get the spiders to shrink or swell. Flitwick sprinted about the room, trying to regain control of the lesson in between complimenting the odd student on their wand work.

“Although this is a very good practical exercise, I must remind you to use restraint and to remain calm!” Flitwick was saying as he whizzed to and fro.

Cressida and Jac had taken refuge by standing on chairs back to back, ready to strike if a spider dared make its way towards them.

Thomas and James adopted a similar method and were skirting their chairs across the floor to move next to them. “Hagrid would love this,” Thomas was laughing. “Wait until we tell him-”

“Why would Hagrid care you freed a bunch of shitty spiders?” Cressida asked.

“He used to be friends with one,” James said. “His children tried to eat my dad.”

“’ Course they did,” Jac said sarcastically, firing a shrinking spell at an enlarged oncoming spider. “At this point, what  hasn’t  tried to kill your dad?”

“Not much, honestly,” James shrugged.

“Be free my babies!” Fred said dramatically, opening a window and emptying a container full of spiders out of it. “Return home to your overlord. Rule over the Forbidden forest with iron fangs.”

“Mr Weasley! I strongly advise you to not dispose of my spiders from a third-floor window!” Flitwick called. “You have no idea how long it took to catch all these critters,” he uttered quietly.

Screams rang out from below then and Fred peered out the window guiltily. “I didn’t see them walking down there, professor, honest!”

“That’s it, I’m stepping in,” Cressida said, raising her wand.

 

*

 

Cressida stood alongside the trio of boys in McGonagall’s office and it was deserved this time.

“Am I surprised to see you four in my office? No,” McGonagall said blatantly as she paced in front of them. “I am, however, surprised to see  you  here.”

They all turned their eyes on Molly, who stood awkwardly at the end of the line.

She took a deep breath and looked down. “It won’t happen again, professor.”

“Five extremely talented wizards, all in the same vicinity of each other… forgive me if I am inclined to not believe your statement, Miss Weasley. I happen to know you all better than that. If I’m honest, I’m surprised this is the first time Miss Weasley has accompanied your four in here after two years.”

“To be fair, professor,” James said, stepping forward tentatively. “This incident was all Molly’s fault.”

“Was not!” Molly objected. “You made them grow!”

“That was the lesson plan, Molly,” Fred pointed out. “I thought we showed excellent skillmanship of the engorgement charm, to be honest.”

“Oh yes, Professor Flitwick praised your ability to perform the skill quite enthusiastically. What he had a problem with was the number of times you cast the spell  and  the fact you dumped a bucket full of spiders onto a bunch of Fourth Year girls.”

“That was an unintentional side quest,” Thomas defended them.

“Punish them, I say, Minerva,” the portrait of a long-haired man with a hooked nose suggested in a drawl.

McGonagall pinched her nose. “Their punishment will be justified, Severus, don’t panic.”

“Severus?” Cressida said. “As in Albus Severus?  That’s  who he’s named after?”

“You should have heard the family debates about it,” Fred muttered.

Snape’s portrait quirked an eyebrow. “Minerva, what are they talking about?”

“I do believe,” the portrait of Dumbledore chimed in. “That the now grown Mr Potter has named his youngest son after you, Severus, as well as myself. How honourable for us both.”

Snape gave an unintelligible grumble. “Is he a troublesome toe-rag like his older brother?” He asked, turning his eyes on James. 

“No, my brother is much more agreeable,” James said, his face as hard as stone.

“Well, it’s no surprise they named  you  after Potter’s father,” Snape continued turning his face to the side. “You appear to have similar attributes to him with the number of times I’ve heard you mentioned around the castle.”

“Severus,” McGonagall stepped in authoritatively. “Let bygones be bygones. The boy isn’t the same James that you knew.”

“I wouldn’t say that professor,” James said, glaring at Snape’s portrait. “I rather look up to my Granddad. After all, he died a hero protecting the love of his life and my dad.”

Snape’s beady eyes flashed with anger.

“Perhaps,” Dumbledore’s portrait said calmly. “It is time we wrap this up.”

“Quite,” McGonagall said tightly, sitting at her desk. “Detention for you all under Hagrid’s watch tomorrow night. Don’t be late.”

“Yes, professor,” Molly said, bowing her head. She turned on the three boys and ushered them out of the room with a harsh glare.

Cressida hung back slightly, watching the portraits hanging on the wall. When McGonagall realised Cressida was still present, she sat behind her desk primly. “Is there something more you wanted, Miss Knightly?”

“Yes,” she said, tearing her eyes away from the paintings. “I want to drop Divination.”

McGonagall looked up over her glasses. “Let me guess? Doom and destruction foretold?”

“Pretty much.”

McGonagall sent a sideways glance to Albus Dumbledore who gave a pleasant smile in return. “Understandable. I’ll make the arrangements… and Cressida, try not to cause more trouble tomorrow. It’s Miss Weasley’s first detention. I would like her to survive it.”

Cressida gave the old head Mistress a small grin as she left the office.

 

 

Thursday 4th October 2017

 

“This is so unfair,” Molly grumbled as she and Cressida waited for Argus Filch at the entrance doors.

“It’s just detention, Mol.”

“But  I  don’t get detentions!” She went on. “This is exactly why it’s a bad idea to hang around my cousins for too long. They’re bad influences. My dad has already written a letter to ask whether I deserved it or not. I said no, obviously.”

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “You cast the final spell.”

“To protect you!”

“I had it under control.”

“You were wearing a spider as a hat.”

“And if you hadn’t completely  missed  the spider on my head, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Cressida said. Molly had no counterargument and sulked back against the wall.

The three boys rounded the corner flanked by Argus Filch. “Apparently, we weren’t trusted to turn up for this without a fight,” Thomas said as they merged together.

“Smart,” Cressida nodded.

“Excited for your first detention, Mol?” James asked cheerily.

“Bite me,” she replied, folding her arms.

“Biting is prohibited,” Filch sneered as he started leading them down to Hagrid’s hut.

The cold of autumn had already started peeking into Hogwarts and it seemed to be heightened as they trekked through the grounds in just their robes in the late evening. Cressida was extremely jealous when she saw Hagrid was wearing a thick fur coat over his large frame.

“Alright, are ye, Molly? I’ve not seen you about much,” Hagrid greeted them once Filch had quickly sulked off back to the castle. “Been meanin’ to invite you ‘round for some of my rock cakes.”

“She’d love to!” Fred cut in.

“Oh, good,” Hagrid grinned, turning toward his hut. “I believe I got some leftover from when the boys were last ‘ere.”

“Best not, Hagrid,” Molly said softly. “We’re supposed to be in detention. McGonagall might think you’re playing favourites if she finds us having your lovely rock cakes instead.”

“Right you are, Molly,” Hagrid agreed, facing them once again. “’ Course I am guilty of playing favourites, how can I not? You’re like family to me, you are… and Cressida, o‘course,” he added on quickly at the end, not wanting her to feel left out. “Now, on the with the detention, I suppose. One of my Streelers got loose. A giant colour-changing snail-type creature, he is. Need yer help finding the poor thing. Mind the slime when you spot him, it’s poisonous,” Hagrid said plodding off in the direction of the trees.

Fred patted Cressida on the back, leaning his head down next to hers as they followed behind. “Welcome to the family, Knightly.”

She shoved his face away with a roll of her eyes.

 

*

 

Two hours. 

For two hours they had been looking for that blasted creature- or more so, Molly and Cressida had been looking.

The two girls trudged through the undergrowth and weaved between trees as the ever-growing dark of night drew in. Meanwhile, the three boys were having a rather pleasant conversation with Hagrid about all sorts of nonsense.

First, it had been Hagrid asking how the family was since James’ birthday. That had taken forty minutes by itself. Then they’d started talking about presents and how James wanted a ferret, which then brought them on to Hagrid telling a story about Harry Potter involving a ferret which used to be Draco Malfoy (Cressida had rather lost track by this point). 

Once Molly had fallen over her second log in the woods and gotten startled by a pigeon flying out from the trees above them, she demanded she walk up front with Hagrid instead.

“He bulldozes the path for you,” Molly said by way of reasoning. “And nothing will try and eat me if I’m next to him.”

“So you’re leaving me to defend myself?” Cressida whispered back furiously.

“I’ll walk with Knightly,” James offered.

Molly smiled sweetly at Cressida as she walked ahead. “See, James will defend you.”

“I think I’d rather be eaten,” Cressida grumbled as James came to walk beside her.

Up ahead, Hagrid engaged Molly into a conversation about what she’d like to do for her N.E.W.T’s and Fred and Thomas veered to the left in their own conversation, poking through the bushes.

“What are those two looking for?” Cressida asked.

“Who knows,” James shrugged. “Could be the centaurs or a unicorn… sometimes a troll wanders through here.”

“It’s amazing anyone is able to survive this place,” Cressida muttered.

“Can’t say Hogwarts doesn’t teach you resilience,” James joked. 

They walked alongside each other in silence for a bit then. The forest seemed scarier if you were forced to listen to the rustling noises surrounding you.

“You and Molly seem to be getting along better this year,” Cressida said conversationally. She wouldn’t let herself look at Potter directly.

James smiled. “Yeah, I think she’s over hating us now at least, but we never really spoke about it.”

“What is there to talk about?” Cressida asked. “Talking about it will just bring up all the problems you had in the first place. At least, if you move past them naturally there doesn’t need to be a big conversation.”

“Ah, the old  ‘ignore a problem until it goes away ’ strategy,” James grinned. “I’m very familiar with that one.”

“You’ve never left a problem alone in your life,” Cressida contradicted. “You tend to poke at your problems with a stick until they acknowledge you back.”

“No, I poke  you  with a stick. You’re very different from my other problems,” James countered. The ground was becoming very uneven under their feet now. He helped her over a fallen log and Cressida pulled her hand out of his quickly once they were on solid ground again. “A lot of it is probably to do with you, you know,” he continued as they kept moving.

“Me?”

“Well, yeah. You’re Molly’s best friend and you’re our…well, you’re whatever you are,” he said somewhat awkwardly. “If you didn’t exist I don’t think Molly would have ever spoken to any of us again.”

“I doubt that,” Cressida said, not liking the responsibility of what James was saying. “Surely, your brother would have brought you lot back together again.”

James looked down then, deep in thought. “It’s complicated. We both want Albus to be safe, of course, but he’s not a common factor between us. Albus and Molly never really spoke, even before Hogwarts. He’s always just been… alone.”

“I know how that feels,” Cressida said without thinking better of it. James turned his green eyes on her then. She felt the back of her neck prickle slightly. “Being alone isn’t always a bad thing before you give me that look-”

“What look?”

“ That  look. Like I was deprived of some great childhood because it was different from yours,” she explained haughtily. “The truth is I liked being alone. It gives you time to think and watch other people around you.”

“You’re never really alone anymore though,” James pointed out. “You haven’t been for a while.”

Cressida didn’t want to admit that she  had  been alone. She had been alone all summer and at his birthday party. Sometimes, even at Hogwarts, she still felt alone. Especially in the late nights when she couldn’t sleep but didn’t want to wander aimlessly.

Cressida shivered and pulled her uniform around her tighter. James noticed and glanced sideways at her. “You should have brought your winter coat with you tonight.”

“Don’t have one,” Cressida replied. 

James’ brow furrowed. “Why not?” Cressida turned to face him and he flushed with realization. “Right. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Cressida said. “I’ve dealt with colder.”

“Here,” James said, shrugging his robes from his shoulders. “Wear mine.”

Cressida stepped away from it like the robe was diseased. “Put that on me and I’ll kill you-”

“Just let me be nice!” James said, chasing her with the robe like a matador.

“No. I don’t want your stupid robes,” Cressida refused, running ahead of him.

Fred and Thomas glanced up from where they were exploring. “There they go,” Thomas muttered,

“Knightly, get back here!” James called as Cressida got further away. “It’s dangerous and cold out here!” Cressida kept going, storming through the bushes and around trees. James annoyingly kept up with her. “You’ll catch your death… literally. Just let me help-”

“Don’t need it,” Cressida said.

“You’re being stubborn again,” James sighed irritably, struggling to avoid a branch she sent swinging backwards.

“I am not stubborn!”

“Yes you are,” James continued, walking alongside her again now, the robes draped over his arm. “It’s one of your most annoying yet redeeming qualities-”

Both of them tripped forward and were suddenly rolling down a steep hill. After a lot of bumps and bruises, they eventually came to a stop at the bottom with James landing on top of Cressida with a huff.

“Now look what you did,” Cressida groaned as she rolled her shoulder back into place.

James ruffled the leaves and dirt out of his hair. “If you had just taken the jacket like a normal girl-”

“A normal girl?” Cressida asked, propping herself up on her elbows to glare at him through the darkness. Perhaps Beatrix and Margo had been right, and all those confusing and annoying thoughts came flooding back. “Are you saying I’m not a normal girl?” 

James rolled his eyes, getting to his feet. “I didn’t mean it like that-”

“No. Enlighten me, Potter. What else do  normal girls  do?”

“Knightly-”

“Don’t  Knightly  me. Answer the question,” she pressed, standing up as well.

James glared back at her. “Are you seriously doing this right now?” He asked. She gave a firm nod. “Fine,” he sighed. “A normal girl would be… I don’t know, be grossed out by slime, or bat their eyelashes in that stupid way, or refuse to fight back properly. You don’t do any of that stuff-”

“Do you  want  me to do that stuff?”

“No, I don’t-”

“Because I can bat my eyelashes all day long,” she went on, twirling her hair and battering her eyes at him mockingly. “I can tell you how great you are at absolutely everything and pretend that seeing you is the highlight of my day like I have no other purpose to my pathetic girlie life. Is that what you want?” She snapped her face inches from his. “Well?” She coaxed when he refused to answer. “Is it?”

His green eyes stared back at her, his mouth a firm straight line. Cressida refused to move. She refused to back down until James did. Her back was officially up.

She involuntarily shivered again as they glared at each other.

“Your lips are turning blue,” he pointed out, glancing down at them.

Cressida covered her mouth with her hand. “Stop staring at my mouth, you weirdo.”

“What the bloody hell has gotten into you today?” James asked, his brow furrowing.

“Nothing,” she snapped. She could feel it now. She was shaking and her teeth had started chattering, but still, she refused to admit she was cold or in the wrong. 

James’ eyes remained fixed on her and then, out of nowhere, he made the slightest movement forward.

“There ye are!” Hagrid’s voice boomed interrupting them. He had appeared on top of the hill, peering down on them with the rest of the group. “And you found the Streeler’s trail, good on you!”

Cressida turned to see the faintest trail of dead foliage leading further into the forest.

James and Cressida remained glaring at each other as the others climbed down the hill to join them.

“What happened between you two?” Fred asked, looking between them.

“Absolutely nothing,” Cressida answered, turning her back on him.

James matched her stance with his arms folded. “Let’s just find the stupid snail and get out of here.”

As he passed, he forced his robes into Molly’s hands and then stormed off with Fred and Thomas curiously following behind.

Molly watched James walk ahead and then looked down at the robes confused.

“Your cousin’s a prick,” Cressida muttered, pulling leaves from her hair.

“No arguments there,” Molly said slowly, her eyes assessing Cressida. “I take it these are for you.” She gestured the robes out to Cressida. 

“For fuck’s sake,” Cressida cursed after a moment. She took the robes and pulled them on. She really was cold, and she didn’t think her stubbornness was worth getting hypothermia over. 

Chapter 52: Third Year: Preparations

Summary:

Hogwarts prepares for Hallowe'en

Tuesday 17th October 2017

 

Cressida wasn’t talking to James Sirius Potter. Not obviously, but ever so subtlety. So subtlety in fact, that even Molly hadn’t twigged on to it.

She couldn’t have the likes of James judging her for not being a  normal girl .

She hated the fact Margo had been right. Maybe Potter  did  want to hang around someone more girlie- not that Cressida cared.

She’d realised after the argument with Potter that they were at that age now where being girlie meant something. The inevitable issue of hormones and bodily functions had cropped up and that’s where Cressida got off the bus. She wouldn’t succumb to it. Her mum had always told her she was better than that. Cressida believed she was smarter than that too.

She’d spent her entire childhood watching the girls in the village go through it. As soon as they hit a certain age their shorts got shorter, their tops got lower and their voices got higher. Not only that, they seemed to lose brain cells for the benefit of the boys they were trying to impress. It was all a lie. Cressida knew this. Boy’s egos were fragile. They had to believe they were the smarter ones and the stronger ones. The girls went through all the effort for every little reward as she saw it, and then the boys seemed to take all the credit as if the girls hadn’t planned every move from day one. She thought she’d have more time before she had to deal with it herself.

Either way, Cressida would be having none of that. She simply refused to dumb herself down for the sake of a boy and then get treated like crap for it. She especially refused to act like a normal girl if that’s what James Sirius Potter wanted. He had plenty of them sniffing around him at Hogwarts that he could spend time with instead. She didn’t care one bit.

“Prick,” she muttered as she tried to go over her Potions essay in the secret room.

“Potter again?” Jac asked, looking up from where she was cleaning her CDs.

“His name is banned from this sacred place.”

“Shall we give him a nickname?” 

“Dickhead.”

“Right, so Richard then…” Jac compromised. “Are you thinking about him again?”

“I do not  think  about him,” Cressida contradicted. Jac rolled her eyes and continued cleaning with her cloth. Cressida sighed and put her essay down. “It’s just I didn’t realise he thought that way.”

“What way?”

“ That  way. The way boys think. I thought Potter was, I don’t know… stupider than the others. I thought it’d take him longer to get to that stage.”

Jac put her cloth down and moved to sit beside Cressida on the cushions. “Maybe you took it the wrong way.”

Cressida glared at her. “He said I wasn’t a normal girl.”

“But Pot-  Richard - doesn’t pay attention to those other  normal  girls,” Jac reasoned. “Remember in class the other day when April asked for a quill and tried to talk to him about Quidditch, he was too busy throwing paper aeroplanes at our heads to notice.” 

Cressida shoved her homework back into her bag grumpily. “Whatever. I don’t want to think about it anymore.”

Jac followed suit as they prepared to leave the room. “Have you tried talking to him about it?”

“I’d rather die.”

“His winter robe is still at the end of your bed, Cressie. You have to talk to him eventually.”

“That’s what  you  think.”

The two girls made it to the stairwell leading to the dungeons before they were stopped in their tracks. “Where’ve you two been hiding?” Felix asked as he approached them. “I’ve been stuck with Molly and Margo doing homework all afternoon.”

“Cressie was having a rant session,” Jac explained.

“About?”

“Potter,” Jac answered. Cressida glared at her. "Otherwise known as Richard from this moment onwards."

“In that case, I’m glad I was lumped with homework,” Felix joked. “Speaking of Potter, have you spoken to the mini version recently?” 

Cressida was rubbing her temples to try and prevent her headache from getting worse. “Why would I have spoken to Albus?”

“Aren’t you keeping tabs on him?” Jac asked.

“I’m not his babysitter, I just said I’d keep him out of trouble.”

“Well, you’re doing a fantastic job,” Felix commented sarcastically. Cressida’s eyes snapped up to him. “He’s got detention with the Malfoy kid tonight.”

Cressida cursed as she descended the staircase. “Where are you going?” Jac asked debating whether she should follow or not.

“To find Mini-Potter.” 

“And do what?” Felix asked following behind. “Lecture him like a mother?”

“To find out what he did to get detention!” Cressida replied.

When they reached the dungeons, they saw James pacing in front of the Slytherin common room, not having enough courage to try and enter by himself. Jac instantly turned Felix around and pushed him back up the staircase against his protesting.

When James spotted Cressida standing there, they both froze, staring at each other. “I assume you’ve heard about your brother?” Cressida spoke first.

James returned to pacing. “He’s who I’m waiting for. Mum and dad won’t be happy if they find out about this.”

“I was about to go and find out what he did,” Cressida said, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. “Do you know where he likes to hang out?”

“I’ve hardly spoken to him all week. We keep missing each other,” James admitted somewhat agitatedly. “I hope he’s not done anything stupid. Who knows what that Malfoy kid’s got him into-”

“Maybe it’s not the Malfoy kid,” Cressida defended him. “You’ve had plenty of detentions… why are you panicking about your brother getting one?”

James faltered and Cressida had the sinking feeling that he wasn’t saying something. “I know they’re not all bad, I do,” he told her firmly. “But a Malfoy is  still  a Malfoy.”

“And a Potter is still a Potter,” Cressida replied stonily. “Always the heroes, never the ones in the wrong.”

“This has nothing to do with me!” James defended himself. “I’m trying to look out for him.”

“By thinking that he’s must be up to something bad?” Cressida argued back. “What if he got detention for forgetting to hand in homework or wandering around the secret passageways?”

A look of realisation spread across James’ face. “The secret passageways, of course!” He slapped his forehead. “That’s how the little sod has been avoiding me.”

Cressida crossed her arms. “I don’t blame him. If I knew where they all were I’d use them to avoid you more often too.”

“You seem to be avoiding me perfectly fine with what you’ve got,” James countered. 

“I’m surprised you’ve noticed,” she huffed. 

“After three years of it, I’ve picked up on your habits. You seem to disappear off the face of the planet for hours sometimes. None of us can figure out where you go.”

“Good,” Cressida snapped. “In fact, I might just go there now and not come out again!”

James reached out and stopped her from storming off. “Will you just help me find my brother first?” He asked. “Then you can go back to being mad at me.”

“Is that something a normal girl would do?” She muttered as she pulled her wrist out of his hand and moved forward regardless, an unspoken agreement.

“I didn’t mean it that way and you know it,” James sighed as they both climbed the stairs in the secret passageway together.

“What other way did you mean it?”

“Just that-” he faltered, flailing his arms in front of him. “It’s different. You’re confusing. I can’t predict what you’re going to do. I try to keep up with you and it’s hard sometimes.”

“Try harder then.”

James spun around to face her near the end of the passageway. “I never said it was a bad thing,” he said. “I happen to like how you are-”

“Stop talking.”

“What?”

Cressida covered James’ mouth and gestured to the rest of the tunnel. Voices were coming from up ahead.

Cressida grabbed James’ hand and pulled him ahead until they’d reached the other end where they could peer out through the second tapestry.

Albus was walking past with Scorpius.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Albus,” Scorpius was saying.

“They were being mean.”

“But it’s not your battle to fight.”

“You’re my friend,” Albus said. “I’m going to stick up for you.”

James put his ear closer to the tapestry just above where Cressida was listening. She tried to ignore the fact his whole torso was practically pushing against her back.

“But now you’re in trouble.”

“My brother gets in trouble all the time and no one cares-”

The tapestry was pulled open and Cressida and James stumbled backwards as Albus and Scorpius entered.

“Hiya, Albus,” James said trying to force nonchalance, straightening up. “Heard you’ve been up to mischief, and not the good kind.”

Albus’ mouth twisted to the side. Scorpius looked between the two brothers. “He was helping me, it’s my fault-”

“No,” Albus cut in. “I made the decision to do it.”

“What  did  you do?” Cressida asked.

The two First Years glanced at each other. “Bat Bogey Hex on some boy who was making fun of my family,” Scorpius said.

“Fair enough,” Cressida said. She grabbed James’ wrist and started pulling him back down the staircase. “Next time don’t get caught.”

“Are you mental?” James asked as he was dragged away. “This is not over, young man!” He shouted over his shoulder at his brother.

Once they had broken out of the end of the tunnel, she pulled him around the corner to speak privately. “Your brother was sticking up for his friend,” she told him firmly. “I see nothing wrong with that.”

James ruffled his hair. “Yeah, but-”

“You’d do the same for Wood, right?”

“That’s different, Wood’s family.”

“Okay. Then you’d do the same for me?” She asked. James gave a small nod. “Then there’s no but.”

James stared at her for a moment, then sighed. “I feel as though your logic is slightly flawed, but you make an annoyingly good point.”

“You’re panicking because he was placed in Slytherin, I get that,” Cressida continued. “But you’ve got to trust him.”

“It’s Malfoy I don’t trust,” James grumbled. “There’s something up with that kid. I’m positive. If my dad was here he’d agree with me.”

“Well, luckily for the rest of us, your dad isn’t here to agree with your bat-shit logic.”

James crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. Cressida remained standing in front of him. For what reason, she didn’t know. She could have stormed back to her secret room and continued with her avoiding tactics, but something invisible seemed to keep her feet plastered to the floor for just a moment longer.

“Are you done being mad at me now?” He asked before Cressida had the good sense to disappear.

“No,” she said instantly. When she glared up at him, he raised his eyebrows and she couldn’t help but let her defences crumble down again ever so slightly. “It depends.”

“On?”

“Whether you’re going to turn into a stupid boy,” she said.

James gave a lopsided smile. “Haven’t I always been a stupid boy to you?”

“This isn’t a joke!” Cressida punched his arm lightly. 

“Okay, okay,” James held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry for saying you’re not a normal girl.”

“And don’t expect me to start acting all goo-goo eyed and girlie around you either,” she continued. “Because I won’t.”

James pulled the back of her robes up over her head. “Like I said, I rather like how you are now. If you started acting all soppy, I’d be worried.” Cressida shoved her robes back to normal with a small smile, her hair now sticking up in every direction. “I want my winter robe back, by the way. Unless you wanted a keepsake of me at your disposal,” he teased.

“Get fucked, Potter,” she said turning her back on him. 

“What about my robe?” He called as she left.

“You said yourself, I needed a winter robe. Now I have one.” She sent him a smile over her shoulder as she walked into the Slytherin common room.

 

 

Tuesday 24th October 2017

 

Hallowe’en was fast approaching and took priority over  everything . So much so, that even Molly’s birthday had been put to the wayside in favour of preparation for the Hallowe’en festivities in a week’s time.

“I don’t need a birthday sleepover, what I need is a costume design!” Molly had said when Jac asked about the yearly tradition a week in advance. No more had been said about the matter since.

Molly and Margo had been stressing about it for two weeks, discussing and panicking about what costumes to wear and whether to match or not. Jac had suggested they go as a unicorn, Felix had joked that Margo should be the back end and ever since then Molly banned Felix from giving his input on the party.

The upcoming parties had also been written about in The Chatterbox  that week, with predictions on who would have the best party and what chaos would be caused. Teddy’s name was mentioned a few times in the column reminiscing about Hogwarts Hallowe’en past. James had apparently demanded an extra copy from Molly to send to Teddy specifically.

Despite the school knowing Gryffindor was going to have the most extravagant party, every house was having some semblance of a party in their common rooms to celebrate the holiday and the group of Third Year Slytherins were excited about the idea of a proper party in Hogwarts.

Cressida didn’t know why Molly was stressing so much about the party, however. It wasn’t  their  party, it just happened to be happening in their common room. She doubted the older years would even want a bunch of Third Years hanging around them at the party. She knew that they wouldn’t tolerate First and Second Years by any means, why would Third Years be any different?

Besides, Margo had started acting like the dictator for other people’s costumes, insisting they had to be good but not better than hers. Jac had whispered to Cressida that she didn’t want to get shown up and Cressida had to agree. 

She shrugged it off and followed her friends up to Transfiguration.

Cressida took her seat in class, getting her quill and books ready. Despite the energetic mood throughout the school, she knew McGonagall would still expect them to work as if it was a normal Tuesday.

“Today’s topic of discussion is  Vera Verto ,” McGonagall started. “It’s the spell required to turn an animal into a water goblet. We will, in time, be practising this rather complicated spell on birds, rats, or felines, but for today… with the growing excitement and the knowledge of  who  I have in my class, it makes me glad to say today we are just revising wand movements in preparation.”

Cressida had the distinct feeling McGonagall was referencing her and the trio of Gryffindors when she said that. She didn’t think the stern Head Mistress had completely forgiven them for the fiasco with the mouse in First Year.

She had barely started copying down her notes about wand movements for the spell when James was invading her personal space. “By any chance, are you going to be at the Hallowe’en party tomorrow night?”

“Considering it’s in  my  common room, the chances are high,” she replied.

“We’ll be seeing you there then,” Fred grinned.

Cressida cocked an eyebrow at them. “You three idiots got invited to the Halloween party in Slytherin?”

“Well, not technically, but you’re about to invite us,” James said surely.

Cressida laughed. “No, I’m not. I’m not sure if  we  are even going to be allowed in the room despite what Margo and Molly believe. This is going to be a proper party with dancing and alcohol-”

Thomas looked up from scribbling on his parchment to make it look like they were doing the work. “There won’t be any alcohol for us, we’re not Fourth Years yet, and even starting to drink it then can be risky.”

“Then what’s the point in even going?” Cressida asked. She knew that back in Conwell if a party didn’t have some semblance of alcohol, even watered-down vodka would suffice, the party wasn’t worth going to. Albie and his gang had invited her to many house parties, but knowing her mother would likely ground her if she found out, Cressida never went, but she had seen the aftermath of them plenty of times. One morning, Butchy had been pushing a horrendously drunken Albie around in a stolen shopping cart in order to retrieve the cigarettes from her. Four other of the group members were still drunk as she did the transaction, despite it being nine in the morning by that point. One of them had been about her age.

James looked at her with raised, shocked eyebrows. “You’ve already started drinking?”

Thomas also had a look of impressiveness and shock spread across his ink-smeared face, he had gained a bad habit of chewing his quill when he wasn’t writing. Hidden out of view behind his two smaller friends, Fred grinned at Cressida confirming he had also tasted alcohol at some point, although, she wasn’t sure how he had managed that without including his two counterparts.

“Well, not really, but people in my village just kind of… drink whenever they feel like it, I guess,” Cressida shrugged. “I know some guys-”

“ Some guys !” James interrupted pointedly, boarding on lecturing.

The whole class went silent at James’ exclamation. McGonagall paused in her wand demonstrations and looked toward them. “Something wrong, Potter?”

James looked like a deer in headlights. “No, Professor. Sorry.”

McGonagall gave a curt not. “Get back to work then… and, for Merlin’s sake, take that quill out of Wood’s mouth before he poisons himself!”

Fred slapped the quill out of Thomas' mouth instantly, then offered the Head Mistress a thumbs up.

The group stayed quiet for a moment, watching as McGonagall finished her demonstrations and then instructed the class to draw up their own wand movements with what animals are acceptable to practise on ready for next lesson. 

Once people had started writing, and McGonagall returned to her desk, Fred set his eyes on Cressida. “So, about the party-”

“You’re not coming,” Molly’s voice called out. She had been passing their table to go hand in her parchment to McGonagall. Cressida suspected she had completed the required task before McGonagall even set it.

“Oh, come on, Molly,” James begged. “We  love  Hallowe’en parties, you know that.”

“Then go to the one in your own common room. You’ll ruin ours if you come,” she said dismissively.

“How could we possibly ruin your party?” Fred asked.

“I don’t know, but you’d find a way,” Molly said before turning her back and continuing on to McGonagall’s desk.

The three boys stared intently at Cressida. “If it helps, I doubt the party is going to be as good as everyone says” she shrugged.

“You’ve clearly never seen a Hogwarts Hallowe’en party,” James countered.

“Or any Hogwarts party, come to think of it,” Thomas added on.

Cressida rolled her eyes and got to her feet to hand her essay in.

 

 

Friday 27th October 2017

 

It appeared that all anyone could talk about was the Hallowe'en parties taking place  on the weekend. For the whole of Defence Against The Dark Arts, Cressida had to listen to Arabella boasting about how Ravenclaw have 'Dignified' parties, where she was going to have the best costume out of all her friends and was going to have champagne sent from her family over in Sweden. Felix pointed out that underage drinking was technically illegal and McGonagall would intercept the package before it even made it through the doors and she quickly shut up.

That had greatly improved Cressida's mood, and watching Arabella then go on to fail the impromptu quiz about the Grindylow from Professor Whimbrel made it even better. Although, if she was honest, the only reason she got half the answers right was because Felix was whispering them to her whenever Whimbrel turned his back.

But as soon as she walked out of the classroom, her jubilant mood was interfered with by the trio of boys already looming nearby waiting for her.

“Knightly, wait up!” James called, running after her with Fred and Thomas in toe. “You still need to give us the password to your common room for tomorrow.”

The three boys came to a stop in front of the group of Slytherins. “Cressida isn’t going to give you the password, because you aren’t coming, James,” Molly said firmly. “Right, Cressida?”

Molly set her eyes on Cressida expectantly. Cressida looked from her back to the trio of boys. “Right,” she agreed.

Molly nodded contently, and then she and Margo continued down the hall. Felix and Jac stayed at Cressida’s side, watching her curiously. 

“Well?” Fred coaxed as the six of them all stared at her.

“What?” Cressida asked.

“Aren’t you going to tell them?” Felix asked.

She narrowed her eyes, offended. “Did you really think I’d break the moment Molly left us?”

“We were kind of banking on it, actually,” Thomas replied.

“Well, unfortunately for you, Wood, I can actually keep a secret,” she said. “Besides, like I told you earlier, it’s probably not going to be as good as Gryffindor’s anyway, so why do you care?”

James shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. “I figured you owe us one.”

“You what?” Cressida laughed. Felix and Jac exchanged glances in the background.

“For the robe prank last year,” Thomas elaborated.

“That was for  you ?” Felix asked, turning his eyes on Cressida.

"Why do you sound surprised?" Jac asked quietly.

Cressida rolled her eyes, moving through the hall, the five others following a step behind her. “I didn’t  ask  you to do that for me.”

“Yeah, but we still made your life easier,” Fred countered. “And got a month’s detention for it.”

“The least you could do is let us into your party, Molly won’t even know it was you who told us!” James encouraged.

“She’ll know,” Jac said. “She always knows.”

“Okay,” Fred started. “So you tell us, Redwick.”

“What?” She squeaked.

“Molly said Knightly couldn’t tell us. Didn’t say anything about you,” Fred smirked.

Cressida linked arms with Jac, pulling her to her side protectively. “If you find a way into that party tomorrow, I won’t stop you, but I’m not just going to  give  you the password.”

James nodded, gnawing on his bottom lip thoughtfully. “Okay, Knightly. You’ve got a deal. Come on, lads.”

James led the trio of boys away around the corner, deep in discussion. Once they were gone Jac and Felix looked to Cressida. “What deal did you just make with him?” Felix asked confused.

Cressida shrugged, as equally confused. “I have no idea.”

“Well,” Jac smiled widely. “Can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

Chapter 53: Third Year: Cat Got Your Tongue?

Summary:

The Hallowe'en party takes a weird turn

Saturday 28th October 2016

 

The day had finally come, and apparently, it had come with a vengeance.

Cressida, feeling as though the party wouldn’t meet everyone’s expectations anyway, already had indifferent feelings towards the events of the evening, and soon after breakfast, her indifference turned into blatant annoyance. 

It had started when the owls arrived over the breakfast table. To her surprise, three owls swooped in and landed in front of them. She recognised Hermes, Molly’s owl, but was shocked when Felix and Margo both received packages from the school owls as well.

“Is there some wizard Halloween tradition we didn’t know about?” Jac asked, watching as the majority of the hall started opening packages delivered by owls as well.

“It’s our costumes for tonight,” Molly said placing her package neatly into her bag. “I’m sure yours will be here any moment.”

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other. “We were supposed to order in costumes?” Jac asked.

Margo slammed her package down on the table, splashing tea everywhere. “I expected this from Knightly, but you too, Jac? You knew it was a costume mandatory party if we want to attend!”

Cressida, pushing past Margo’s comment, turned to Molly. “Can’t we just wear normal party clothes with some weird make-up?”

Molly looked affronted. “No costume. No entry. Those are the rules. We’ve been talking about this all week, how did you two not realise you had to get your costumes delivered for tonight?”

Cressida shrugged, returning to eating her toast. “We’ll figure something out by tonight, don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

“You better,” Molly said firmly. “It’ll be social suicide otherwise.”

“What are you going as, Finnegan?” Jac asked, clearly fishing for ideas. 

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Felix grinned back, shoving some scrambled egg into his mouth.

Cressida stood from the breakfast table, making to leave. “Where are you going?” Margo asked.

“To find costumes for tonight,” Cressida answered over her shoulder.

Jac jumped up eagerly. “Oh, thank god.” The two girls started walking out of the hall together. “So, what’s your plan?”

“I don’t have one,” Cressida admitted.

Jac grew nervous again. “Molly’s going to kill us if we don’t find costumes good enough by tonight. If I had known I could have written to mum, she could have bought something and sent it over last minute.”

“Wouldn’t help me much,” Cressida said as they descended the stairs into the dungeon. “Mum couldn’t afford to buy a costume and send it over so last minute.”

“Don’t you have an old costume she could have sent?” Jac asked.

“I’ve never had a proper Halloween costume,” Cressida replied as they strolled into their common room.

“Never?!”

“I didn’t exactly have many opportunities for lavish parties growing up, Jac, but it does give me one benefit.”

“What’s that?” Jac asked as they entered their dorm room. Rasper instantly darted across the room and jumped into Cressida’s arms.

“Improvisation,” Cressida answered, perching Rasper on her shoulder.

 

*

 

By lunch, Cressida had managed to pull odd ends and pieces together to resemble a costume fit for Jac. The two girls had emptied their trunks onto the dorm room floor, sifting through anything that could be used to put together an outfit.

After realizing they had an abundance of casual clothes, uniform, and not much else, Cressida had started to panic that she couldn’t pull it off.

Jac had lifted one of Cressida’s second-hand skirts off of Rasper’s head after the tiny kitten had practically been buried under all the chaos. “You should really ask McGonagall to find you a newer uniform next year,” she said, poking her finger through the hole in the waistband.

“I think she’s waiting for me to outgrow this set first,” she said, still thinking desperately. “Not like that’s going to happen any time soon, my uniform will likely disintegrate entirely before I outgrow it at this rate.”

Jac picked up a blouse next, trying to rub off the ink stain on the collar. “Maybe if you burned all the useless bits she’d be forced to find you some better stuff.”

Cressida’s eyes widened with the beginning of an idea. “Try them on.”

“I’ll rip them,” Jac said, glancing doubtfully at the smaller shirt. She was two sizes bigger than Cressida.

Cressida launched across the room, searching for her tights with rips and snags in them as well. “Just do it, rip it as much as you need to.”

Jac obliged, somewhat perplexed, and struggled into Cressida’s uniform. Luckily, the skirt fit, but Jac had to rip the arms of the blouse to get it on properly, and the buttons wouldn’t do up all the way.

Cressida stepped back at looked at her best friend dressed in shambles. God, her uniform really was in a state. She tapped her chin, running through more ideas in her head for a moment.

“How is this a costume?” Jac asked, pulling on the tattered tights.

When she was standing up straight again, Cressida had an ink pot and her wand in hand. “ Colovaria .”

The black ink turned red and without warning, Cressida threw it all over Jac.

The taller girl wiped the surprise splatter away from her face. “What did you do that for?”

Cressida didn’t answer. She went up on her tiptoes and started messing up Jac’s hair, back-combing it and pulling strands up into bunches until she looked like she had been mauled by a bear. 

Once Jac’s hair was adequately ruined, Cressida stepped back again, assessing her work. “You’re going as a zombie school girl,” she finally explained.

Jac moved to stand in front of the mirror, looking at the costume for herself, and then she turned to Cressida with a grin. “Not bad, Cressie. It might be good enough to fool Molly into thinking it’s a real costume… but there’s not enough ruined stuff left for you to make a costume-”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said dismissively. “I’m not finished yet.” She started walking towards the door. 

“Where are you going now?”

“To find you a tie,” Cressida answered in the doorway. “I only have the one, can’t let it get ruined.”

She left the Slytherin common room promptly, not stopping to admire the decorations that were already being put up in the green embellished room as she passed. She avoided bumping into two Sixth Years carrying a crate of something Cressida assumed was alcohol and climbed out into the hall. 

To her surprise, Fred was lingering in the hall, leaning against the wall beside the tapestry. He appeared to be talking to himself, and then once he noticed Cressida, he stopped abruptly.

Rolling her eyes, she approached him, sensing he wasn’t going to come to her. “You know if you linger down here too much you’re going to end up getting hexed.”

“Nah, the Slytherins love me,” Fred grinned cockily.

As if they had heard what Fred said, more Sixth year students passed carrying more crates of alcohol and glared at Fred and Cressida talking in the hallway. “Keep telling yourself that, Weasley.” The tapestry gave the slightest movement. If Cressida didn’t know better, she would have assumed it was simply the wind. “Was there a reason your down here?” She asked, focusing on Fred again.

“Yes,” Fred said, too eagerly. “I wanted to ask if we could come to your party tonight.”

“You know the answer is no.”

Fred sent a quick glance to the tapestry and then back to Cressida. “What if we paid you… or not paid you, exactly… but gave you something you want?”

Cressida folded her arms across her chest. Although she was on speaking terms with the trio of Gryffindors, she knew Molly was right when she said the trio would likely ruin the Slytherin’s party, which seemed highly unfair considering Gryffindor were clearly going to be having the best party anyway. “Your tie.”

Fred looked confused. “My tie? I’m here to offer you anything we could possibly acquire and you want my stinking tie?”

“Jac needs one. Can’t ruin my own for the sake of a costume.”

Fred reached into his back pocket and produced a crumpled red and golden tie, holding it out for Cressida. She pocketed it before Fred could change his mind. 

“Okay, now tell me the password for tonight,” Fred grinned, thinking he was making progress.

Cressida looked around the hall to check for listeners dramatically. “Come closer.” Fred bent down slightly, keeping as close to the wall as he could. “Closer,” she said again. Once Fred had taken a step away from the wall and bent down for her to whisper to him, Cressida smiled, eyeing up the tapestry. “Did you really think I was that stupid?”

Fred moved back, his arms crossed over his chest. “Don’t know what you’re talking about-”

Cressida jabbed the tapestry with the tip of her wand and heard James yelp in pain. He poked his head out furiously, glaring at her. “That was my ribs!”

“You’re not coming to our party tonight, Potter,” she told him firmly.

James pouted. “Why not?!”

Cressida raised her wand again and James disappeared back behind the tapestry for safety.

“Accio tie!”  The red and golden tie flew out of Cressida’s pocket and back into Fred’s hand before she could stop it. “Knew this wouldn’t work. Potter and his stupid plans,” Fred muttered, turning around. He punched the tapestry and another yelp rang out.

“That was  me !” Thomas’ voice groaned.

“Hit Potter for me then,” Fred said to the tapestry. 

There was a slight pause, then two yelps of pain. James and Thomas both stumbled out from behind the fabric, Thomas holding James in a headlock as the two boys wrestled. Fred, tall enough to tower over all of them, pulled Thomas and James apart by grabbing their ear lobes. 

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Thomas complained.

“Yeah, we agreed only Grandma Molly gets to do that to us!”

James squirmed his way out of the hold and started hopping around like an over-energetic rabbit as a smile spread across his face. Fred smirked as if a silent challenge had been set. James turned and ran, yelling loudly for people to move out of his way as he bounded down the corridor. Fred let go and shoved Thomas lightly, giving himself a head start before he took off after James. Thomas gave a small groan before running off as well.

“Can we avoid visiting Madam Pomfrey this time!” He called after his two best friends. 

Shaking her head at them, she snuck behind the tapestry and headed up the secret passageway in search of another tie and a costume for herself. If those three managed to stay on task for more than five minutes at a time, they’d probably take over the world, and yet play fighting seemed to take priority.

 

 

*

 

By seven o’clock, Cressida was still without a costume. 

Molly and Margo had taken up the entirety of the dorm room getting ready, and knowing better than to get in their way, the remaining three Slytherins took to getting ready in the hexagonal secret room.

They had debated getting ready in the comfort of their own common room but the older years had already started setting up the party by this point, yelling and swearing at the three Third Years taking up valuable space. Gabriel had practically restrained a Sixth Year from hexing them.

Besides, Cressida preferred the secret room anyway. They could listen to music and talk about whatever they wanted without being watched or yelled at by the older years. Felix had put on his favourite album from Jac’s older brother,  Hot Fuss  by  The Killers .

“I’m still not convinced this is going to fool Molly,” Jac said as Cressida attempted to do her make-up in the darkening light of the hideout. The sun was starting to set over the grounds, giving the room an odd orange glow.

“I doubt Molly put this much effort into her costume anyway,” Cressida answered, tilting Jac’s head sideways to do her eyeliner. Cressida hadn’t brought any make-up with her to school, mainly because she didn’t own any, but she had convinced one of the older Slytherin girls to lend her some. It consisted of a broken black eyeliner pencil, some pale face powder, and lip balm. Not much, but enough for what Cressida needed. 

“Don’t be so sure,” Felix said. He was lounging across the blankets and cushions opposite the two girls. He had decided to go as a pirate, hook hand and eye patch included. “She’s been thinking about this for weeks.”

“Well,” Cressida huffed, adding the finishing touches to Jac’s make-up. “I still think this will be better, besides, we know yours will definitely be one of a kind.”

She moved back to asses Jac’s appearance again. Her hair was in messy bunches that would take ages to comb out again, she had a black tank top on under Cressida’s blouse to cover up for the skin that would have been on show due to its small size and rips. Between the pretend blood splatters, and the make-up Cressida had managed to do, she felt like she had pulled it off. The pale powder had dulled out Jac’s otherwise brown and bright complexion rather well, adding to the zombie-like effect.

“I don’t want to sound like Weasley, but you still don’t have a costume, Cress,” Felix pointed out, glancing at her casual clothing.

Cressida packed away the utensils around her back into her hobo bag, disturbing Rasper who had been napping in there. “I’ve got it sorted.”

“You have?” Jac asked surprised. “What are you going as?”

Cressida moved the kitten from inside the bag to a nearby pillow, then grabbed the pointed hat they were supposed to wear to lessons, pulling it firmly onto her head. “I’m going as a witch.”

Jac and Felix laughed. “But you’re  already  a witch,” Jac pointed out.

“It’s inspired that you think Molly will let you get away with this,” Felix laughed, pulling the hat down so it covered her eyes.

Cressida shoved him away. “She doesn’t have a choice. It’s the best I could do.”

“You came up with an elaborate costume for Redwick but you couldn’t think of anything better for yourself?” Felix asked.

“I can only have one good idea at a time, Finnegan. I’ve used my quota for the day on Jac!” Cressida replied.

“I offered to swap costumed with you!” Jac said.

“But then I’d just be wearing my normal uniform with some red ink on me,” Cressida explained. “It wouldn’t do.”

“Oh, but the pointy hat clearly changes everything,” Felix chastised.

Cressida pulled Rasper back into her arms. “I have a cat too. Witches  always  have a cat.”

Rasper gave an irritated meow at being woken up again and darted out of Cressida’s arms seeking refuge in her hobo bag, causing another wave of laughter from the three Slytherins.

“You can borrow my broom as well if you like,” Felix offered in between laughs. “At least that won’t run away from you.”

Cressida threw a pillow at him just as Jac got to her feet. “It’s nearly time to meet Molly and Margo.”

Felix jumped to his feet, turning off the CD player. “What do you reckon Smithers went as after?” Felix asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

“Whatever it is, you can’t make fun of her,” Jac lectured knowingly. “Molly wants a nice, calm night with no trouble.”

Felix and Cressida shared a glance. “She realises who she’s friends with, right?” Felix asked as the trio started leaving the secret room behind in order to head back down to the dungeons. “Speaking of friends, have you spilt the password to the Gryffindors yet?”

“No,” Cressida scoffed. “And I’m not going to. Jac’s right. We  should  have a calm night with no trouble.”

Felix slung an arm around Cressida’s shoulder as they walked through the halls. “But it’s a  party ! Come on, Knightly, I expected you to have something up your sleeve!”

Cressida rolled her eyes, shoving Felix off. “If I think of something, I’ll let you know.”

The three of them rounded the corner and clashed head-on with Arabella Chauncey, Declan, and the usual band of giggling girls that surrounded them. Cressida couldn’t help but notice Arabella’s exquisite and elaborately decorated mediaeval dress, complete with a weird-looking crown. She assumed it was supposed to be some sort of princess.

“Merlin, abandoned your own party already, have you?” Arabella asked, glancing the group up and down. “Or were you chucked out completely?” The girls lived up to their reputation, giggling annoyingly at Arabella’s jabs.

“For your information, we were just heading down there!” Felix snapped.

Arabella turned her eyes on Cressida and a sly smirk came onto her glossed lips. “Is that your costume, Knightly? And what are you supposed to be?”

“She’s a witch,” Jac answered.

Dahlia laughed this time. “Oh, I see it now. I suppose Knightly  is  scary enough to be her own costume.”

Cressida fought the urge to give into the girl’s taunts. “Come on, let’s just go meet the others,” she said to her group.

The three Slytherins barely took a step before they were stopped again, this time by Declan. “You won’t get into the party like that,” he said to Cressida. “I doubt you’ll even make it to the dungeons before being turned away for your sore excuse for a costume.”

Cressida turned back to face the group of Ravenclaws. “Is there a reason you lot are out wandering the halls tormenting a bunch of Third Years instead of being at your own pathetic party?”

Declan’s smile grew tight. “Just a bit of friendly advice. After all, I thought Slytherins were supposed to be the height of class. You don’t exactly fit that statistic.”

“If you can come up with a better costume in five minutes, feel free to share, but otherwise, you can suck my dick,” Cressida snapped, turning away again with Jac and Felix in toe.

Cressida heard it before it happened- the girls giggling, signalling something was being done as soon as she turned her back. She couldn’t even turn back around to deflect the spell before it hit her.

“ Transmogrify !” Arabella smiled mirthfully, her wand raised elegantly in her hands.

Felix had his wand in his hands instantly, aiming it toward the group. “ Ducklifors !”

Arabella and Declan had avoided Felix’s counter spell, disappearing quickly around the corner. Dahlia, however, was not so lucky, and transformed into a duck, quacking loudly as she rounded the corner for safety.

Cressida could feel it on her skin. Something had changed. She waited for Jac and Felix to look at her to judge how bad it was.

“Um,” Jac said, pressing her mouth into a fine line. “It’s not that bad considering.”

“Considering what?” Cressida asked nervously.

“The fact it’s Hallowe’en,” Felix answered. He moved forward, lifting Rasper out of the bag to rummage around for the compact mirror. When Rasper saw Cressida’s appearance, he hissed and scattered away disappearing down the hall. That wasn’t promising.

Felix passed Cressida the mirror and held it up to her face. Her appearance had indeed changed. Instead of her regular grey eyes, she now had yellow-slitted eyes. Her pale, freckled skin, was now covered in black fur. She promptly removed the hat from on top of her head to find two triangular ears sticking out. She was a cat.

Without saying anything, or barely reacting beyond a small noise in the back of her throat, she put the mirror back into her bag and continued leading the way down to the dungeons using the secret passageway to save time. Jac and Felix followed behind in cautious silence.

“We can go curse them if you want,” Felix offered once they had re-entered the dungeons. 

“It’s okay. It’s a costume, isn’t it?” She asked almost too calmly. “At least we’ll definitely get into the party now.” She turned towards the space of stone wall that was the entrance to their common room, the music was already pounding inside. “ Bat-bogeys. ”

The wall slid open, allowing them access. 

Entering back into the common room, Cressida could hardly believe how busy it was. Students were in the large space often, but never all at once like this, and they were never this rowdy. Some  Maroon 5  song was playing, adding to the energetic energy surrounding the party. She almost felt sorry that the trio were missing this. They would have been in their element. A small part of her wondered what the Gryffindor party looked like in comparison.

It didn’t take long for Molly and Margo to spot Felix, Jac and Cressida in the common room full of people. Margo’s skin was painted blue, with wings coming out of her back, and Cressida realised she was dressed as a Cornish Pixie. A bit over ambitions, considering she looked more like a naked Smurf having an identity crisis. Molly had seemingly gone for a more neutral costume and was dressed as a vampire.

“Knightly,” Molly said slowly. “Did you transfigure yourself, or do you have a secret skill in special effects make-up none of us knew about?”

“Arabella did it!” Jac said before Cressida could stop her.

Molly and Margo’s eyes grew wide. “She hexed you?”

“Did you retaliate?” Margo asked quickly after.

Cressida shrugged. “No.”

“Right,” Margo said cautiously. “Well, let’s try and enjoy the party, okay? We’ll figure out the reversal spell later.”

Cressida smiled. “Party first, got it.  Accio bottle! ” A bottle of amber liquid came flying out of a nearby crate into Cressida’s hand. She unscrewed the cap and raised a toast to her friends.

“Knightly, you are a gem!” Felix laughed, clapping Cressida on the back.

“Cressida!” Margo squealed. “You can’t just  take  that.”

“Oh, shove off, Smithers,” Felix said, taking the bottle out of Cressida’s hands excitedly. “No one’s going to notice one bottle missing at a party!”

 Margo stamped her foot and stormed off. Molly folded her arms over her chest but made no objections. 

With Margo’s input promptly ignored, Felix took a tentative sip, and then coughed loudly after he had swallowed. “Merlin, no wonder dad never lets me try fire whiskey… it’s rank.”

“Let me try,” Jac said, reaching for the bottle.

“Oh no,” Felix said, shaking his head. “You couldn’t handle it, Redwick. I’m Irish bred and even I could barely swallow that stuff.”

Cressida grabbed the bottle from Felix and took a swig herself, grinning at Molly who was watching with growing vexation. She swallowed a large gulp, struggling to not splutter it back up. It was awful, a lot worse than the drink Butchy had given her a taste of in the summer, and her throat felt like it was on fire.

Molly finally snatched the bottle from her while Cressida was trying to recover discreetly. “Hey! I didn’t get a turn!” Jac complained.

Molly passed the bottle on to the next Fourth Year that passed them. “No fire whiskey, for  any  of you!” She lectured them. “Socialize and dance, that’s all we’re going to do tonight. You’re enough trouble sober, I don’t want to imagine you lot under the influence.”

With that, Molly stormed off, no doubt in search of where ever Margo was sulking.

“Buzzkill,” Felix muttered, glaring at the ginger witch leaving.

Cressida glanced around the party, taking it all in. She wasn’t sure where the music was coming from, but it felt like there were speakers in the ceiling, making it impossible to find a quiet corner.  Arctic Monkey’s  were playing now. Cressida wanted to search for whoever was in charge of the playlist and personally thank them. She had half imagined the Slytherin party to be nothing but classical music and wizard songs she didn’t understand.

“What song is this?” Felix asked, listening to the music pounding around them. 

Jac stared at him in disbelief, and within the next two minutes, Felix was being informed on the entire discography of the Arctic Monkeys, not that he seemed to mind.

Cressida left her two friends discussing their latest album, and wandered further into the party in search of a drink more similar to what she could handle.

It was hard to push her way through all the people dancing. It was clear the older students still weren’t pleased with having Third Years in attendance, and it was made worse by the fact a lot of them mistook her for a First Year based on her height. Most of them, however, just stared at her odd appearance.

As she passed by a group of drunk Forth Year girls, one of them reached over and petted her, causing her ears to twitch. “Good Kitty!” She giggled when Cressida glared at her. With a rude gesture thrown up, Cressida quickly kept moving through the party.

She had found the makeshift bar. A long varnished table filled with fire whiskey bottles, glasses and various other types of alcohol. Nearby, a Sixth Year was pouring a line of shots for him and his friends to take. In the middle of the table, some girls had set up a tower of champagne glasses that automatically filled themselves, or replaced themselves if a glass was taken. Clearly, five of the girls who had helped set it up had taken their fair share of glasses already.

Looking around to make sure no one was watching, she grabbed a glass from the champagne tower and sipped it. Much to her annoyance, it tasted even worse than the fire whiskey but in a completely different way. She was beginning to wonder why everyone back home spent all of their time and money consuming alcohol if all of it tasted bad.

She turned to the nearest drunk girl who was rambling about her ex-boyfriend to one of her friends. “Here,” she said, passing her the glass.

“You’re a cat,” was all the drunk girl said in response, swaying slightly as she stared at Cressida with glassy eyes.

“It would seem that way, yes,” Cressida responded.

“Can I pet you?” The drunk girl continued hopefully.

“Only if you want to lose a hand.”

Cressida continued moving through the party.

She lasted another twenty minutes at the party. She had been stepped on, had drinks spilt on her clothes, had every cat-related pun and joke she could stomach, and had a drunken girl follow her around shouting  ‘pretty kitty!’  over and over again before she decided that maybe parties weren’t for her after all.

Not able to locate her friends anywhere, Cressida sought refuge out in the dungeon halls, but to her surprise, there were just as many students filling up the cold hallway as there were in the party. It was quieter out there allowing for a chance for people to hear themselves think, but you could still faintly hear the music raging on inside the other room.

She noticed a lot of people seemed to come out here for a rest-bite, to talk, or- much to Cressida’s disgust- make out. Some girls were already crying on the floor, clutching a bottle of fire whiskey in their arms, rambling incoherently about their love lives.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the tapestry move again and rolled her eyes as she moved toward it. She pulled it open and stepped inside, met with Fred and Thomas grinning at her. When they saw her appearance, however, their smiles dropped.

“What happened to your face?” Fred asked instantly.

“Where’s the third stooge?” She asked, not answering his question.

“On his way now. We cursed him and ran ahead,” Thomas answered still staring at her feline appearance

“The pumpkin head curse, very in theme with the holiday if I do say so myself,” Fred said proudly. 

Cressida’s cat ear twitched involuntarily as an idea sprang into her mind. She was sure she’d seen someone use that spell before and the results had been hilarious. It was even hilarious imagining Potter stammering around his room with a pumpkin for a head. She would have loved to use that spell on Arabella as payback for the cat curse, but she didn’t know it off the top of her head, and she didn’t want to ask Fred to teach her it. Maybe it was written in a book somewhere.

Fred was grinning widely now, bringing her out of her thoughts. “What’s it like in there?” He asked nodding his head out of the tapestry.

“Music’s good,” she answered simply. That was the only perk of the party so far.

“Listen. You’ve got to let us in,” Thomas said eagerly.

She rolled her eyes. “Molly won’t-”

“Molly won’t know,” Fred said confidently. Cressida quirked an eyebrow. Fred and Thomas both reached into their back pockets and pulled out two cardboard masks, pulling them on over their heads. Fred now resembled the Queen and Thomas’ donned a mask with Justin Bieber on it. “We bought them from a muggle-born in the year above.”

“Potter doesn’t have one,” Thomas continued, lifting the mask up to reveal his real face. “We formed a coo against him. He’s convinced he can get you to break but we know better.”

“So, what’s it going to be Knightly?” Fred asked, wiggling his eyebrows. 

She stared at the two boys. Perhaps if she had been in a better mood, she would have stuck to Molly’s wishes and turned the two boys away, but given her current mood, she fancied some chaos. The party was boring for her anyway, and if she did decide to storm up to Ravenclaw for revenge, the trio of boys crashing the party would prove a good distraction to keep Molly busy.

“The password is Bat-bogeys. Avoid Molly if you can.”

“You’re the best, Knightly,” Fred said, forcing the three of them out of the tapestry and back into the open.

“We owe you, Knightly!” Thomas saluted her as he and Fred turned on their heels and started making their way towards the common room.

Cressida remained in the hallway, feeling no desire to re-enter the crowded party as her idea revolved around her mind. She leant against the cool stone walls listening to the faint music playing from the common room.  Imagine Dragons  was playing now but she didn’t tend to like their music as a general rule.

The tapestry moved again, and Cressida didn’t bother looking who had snuck out of it. She glanced around at the crowded corridor, nobody else seemed to notice it had even moved.

She stayed silent, watching Potter check no one had seen him before he took another step forward. When he noticed Cressida looking, he narrowed his eyes.

“Is that you, Knightly?” 

Cressida rolled her eyes. How did he recognise her so quickly, even as a cat?

“I’m not letting you in,” she said, as James came to a stop in front of her. He had pumpkin seeds in his hair.

“Oh, come on! I just ran all the way here. Freddie and Thomas hexed me to get a head start!” He complained. She noticed he lacked a costume and wore his normal weekend clothes instead. When Cressida didn’t respond quick enough, he continued haughtily. “Fine, if you won’t let me in  there , will you at least come to Gryffindor with me?”

Cressida stared at him. She wondered in the back of her mind if her cat eyes had widened into the size of saucepans like Rasper’s often did. “You what?”

“I just thought it’d be cool, you know… to hang out all together. You can invite Redwick and Finnegan too if you want. Once I find Fred and Wood, we can all go up together,” he rambled, seeing the shocked expression on her face. “I’d say to invite Molly and Smithers, but we both know they won’t come.”

Cressida felt her throat close up as she stared at him. Did he seriously want to get into the party so badly just to spend time with her and her friends? Is that what this whole thing had been about? Were Fred and Thomas in on it?

Just as Cressida opened her mouth to speak, Molly was suddenly storming toward them. “There you are!” She said, coming up to Cressida’s side. “I just confiscated another bottle of fire whiskey from Finnegan, and Wood and Fred have wormed their way in but I’m sure you knew about that already.”

James’ eyes darted between Molly and Cressida. “Freddie and Thomas are already in there?”

Cressida shoved down the slight bit of guilt that had started bubbling in her stomach.

“Yes, but you’re still not getting in, Jamsie,” Molly said, folding her arms.

“Why not?!” James frowned.

“No costume,” Molly said. “You know the rules. Even the other two managed to find some semblance of a costume before crashing.” 

James glanced around the hallway as students passed, coming in and out of the common room. “Can I borrow these?” He asked one of them quickly, and then took the glasses from the random passer-by dressed as  ‘Where’s Wally’  before they could refuse.

“What are you doing?” Molly frowned.

James grabbed the pen out of his back pocket and drew a zigzag on his forehead before messing up his hair even more than it already was. “See!” He exclaimed opening his arms. “Now I’m my dad. Let me in.”

Molly shook her head. “You’re an idiot and you’re not coming into the party without a costume.”

With that, Molly disappeared back into the Slytherin common room leaving Cressida to try and get rid of James alone.

“Hey, cool Harry Potter costume!” A Fifth Year called as he passed by carrying another crate of fire whiskey into the party.

James gained a smug smirk and turned to Cressida expectantly. Perhaps James could get her to break after all. “The password is Bat-bogeys,” she sighed, regretfully.

James went to move towards the party but backpedalled when Cressida didn’t move with him. “Aren’t you coming?”

“Not likely,” she answered. “I might try and reverse the hex on my face before I head back in there.”

“You didn’t do this to yourself?” He asked.

“Yes, Potter, I  wanted  to turn myself into a weird cat-hybrid and be called a  good kitty  all night,” she said dryly. James was still staring at her expectantly, waiting for further explanation. She sighed irritably. “Chauncey cursed me in the hall. I’ve been debating storming up to Ravenclaw tower and cursing her and her giggling friends for the last ten minutes.”

James was silent for a moment, the cogs in his mind clearly turning. “Wait here,” he said suddenly. Before Cressida could blink James was gone, leaving her alone in the hall.

She pushed herself off the wall and ventured towards the common room. She had barely opened her mouth to say the password before the entrance slid open and she was met with Jac and Felix stumbling out in front of her.

“I knew you’d crack!” Felix was saying merrily. He had a bottle of fire whiskey held tightly in his hands, probably out of fear of Molly confiscating it again. 

“What?” Cressida asked as she took a step back to accommodate the two bodies standing in the hall with her.

“The Gryffin-gang,” Jac said. “I bet Felix that you wouldn’t let them in but he said you’d break before the party finished,” she explained passing Felix a Galleon, which he kissed dramatically before pocketing.

“You saw them then?” Cressida asked, peering around them at the closed stone wall.

“Yeah, Potter said you wanted to meet us out here and then continued on through the party. He looked like he was on a mission,” Felix said, taking a swig out of the bottle and instantly coughing. He still hadn’t gotten the hang of drinking in the hour since he started.

The stone wall opened and Fred and Thomas were being shoved out into the corridor laughing like mad men. James stepped out behind them, looking very diplomatic compared to his two counterparts.

“Good, you’re all here,” James said, putting his hands in his jeans pockets. 

“Watch out,” Fred laughed. “He’s got his speech voice on.”

“What are you doing, Potter?” Cressida asked.

James smiled at her. “We’re taking a visit to Ravenclaw’s party.”

“What?” Jac gawked. “But you only just got into our party.”

James started moving through the corridor, walking backwards with his hands still in his pockets as he spoke. “Are you lot coming or not?”

“Us too?” Felix asked, somewhat bemused.

Fred slung an arm around Felix’s shoulder, giving him no choice but to follow. “Welcome to the club, Finnegan.”

“Good luck,” Thomas muttered, coming up on Felix’s other side.

Cressida remained stood by the wall, her arms folded. She wanted revenge on Arabella and her stupid friends. She didn’t want a whole group effort. She especially didn’t want  all  of them to suddenly disappear. Molly would definitely notice their absence then.

When she hadn’t moved James, who now stood with the rest of the group at the end of the hall, turned back towards her. “Either come or leave us to our own devices, Knightly!”

Rolling her eyes and cursing under her breath, she walked towards them, stepping over a passed-out drunken Third Year.

It was a quick walk to Ravenclaw tower with the group of six. Although, Cressida was slightly unsettled by how well everyone was getting on. Fred and Felix had taken to sharing the bottle of fire whiskey, both boys now leaning on each other and swaying slightly. Jac and Thomas had taken to walking side by side, Jac listening intently as Thomas gave her some tips and tricks for Quidditch manoeuvres. James swaggered in front of them all, his hands in his pockets as he lead the way to Ravenclaw’s party. 

Cressida hung at the back of the group, watching it all unfold in silence. Surely at least  someone  should be fighting right now. Felix and Fred should not be happily singing a Lady Gaga song from five years ago. If Molly and Margo had been present, there would be no way this would be happening. It all felt very odd.

Her ears continued to twitch whenever she had a thought and she was starting to get very annoyed about her feline instincts.

Once they climbed the steps and were about to round the corner to the entrance, James huddled them all together. “You lot stay here, then follow me in.”

“How are you going to get us in there?” Cressida asked, her voice low so no one outside of their huddle could hear.

James tapped his nose mysteriously then turned. The group were quick to follow behind him, concealing themselves around the corner to watch whatever magic James Sirius Potter was about to pull.

“Does anyone know what we’re actually here to do?” Felix asked, taking another swig of the fire whiskey. The bottle was getting considerably low at this point. Cressida was surprised Felix was still able to stand after the amount he had consumed so far.

Fred took the bottle from him, having a small swig before passing it to Jac, who looked surprised by the inclusion. “Potter has a plan in motion, we’re just here as backup.”

Cressida watched Jac air out her tongue in disgust once she took the tiniest sip, then she quickly offloaded the bottle to Cressida. Fred was grinning down at Jac’s reaction in amusement. Cressida rolled her eyes and finished off the bottle, terrible taste in her mouth be dammed.

They all turned their attention back around the corner. An older boy was guarding the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room, dressed as a werewolf. Despite this, James swagged up to the Fifth Year like he owned the place. “My cousin said we had an invite.”

The Fifth Year boy glanced down at James with a raised eyebrow. “Which one? There are tons of your lot running around this place now.”

“Victoire,” James said. “She sent a letter and said your lot was cool enough to let us in.”

The older boy, perhaps swayed by James’ clever phrasing or by the fire whiskey he had already consumed that evening, smiled. “She said that?” He asked with a slight blush. “I’m really not supposed to let anyone else in, no matter what Victoire told you,” he said regretfully. “How come you left your house party so early, anyway? Gryffindor’s are always the best.”

“Oh, we weren’t at our own house party,” Thomas called out without thinking, alerting the Fifth Year to the group’s presence.

The Fifth Year’s interest had apparently been piqued. “So, where were you?”

“Slytherin’s,” Fred answered.

The older boy seemed impressed. “That’s brave, especially for Gryffindors… but then I suppose that’s your whole thing.” He paused, thinking for a moment, then looked towards them again. “What’s it like? I’ve never managed to get into a Slytherin party before.”

Cressida stepped forward and was met with the familiar look of confusion about her appearance. “Let us into yours and we’ll let you into ours,” she offered, ignoring his expression.

He eyed her up suspiciously instead. “You’re a Slytherin?”

James looked astonished he didn’t recognise her. “That’s Cressida Knightly!”

“Oh.” He glanced her up and down. “Thought she was blonde again now?”

“She’s also not normally a cat,” Felix chimed in.

Fred pushed forward impatiently. “Will you let us in or not?”

He still seemed hesitant. “Did Victoire mention anyone by name?”

“Dave,” James said unsurely. “Or maybe it was Charles.”

“Oh,  Charles !” The boy exclaimed. “Victoire and him dated way back when. Wait until he hears she told her cousins he was cool enough to let you in.”

“So you’re going to let us in then?” Thomas asked.

“Sure,” the older boy smiled again. “What harm could six Third Years do?” He turned, opened up the door to the common room and sent a loud whistle into it. “Oi, we’re moving downstairs!”

In mere seconds, a group of five boys had tumbled out into the corridor with them. “To Hufflepuff?” One of the boys dressed as a goblin asked.

“Better,” the first older boy said. “Grab, Layhem and let’s go before Filch catches us. And tell Charles Victoire was talking about him, he’ll have a fit!”

With that, the small party of Ravenclaws left the tower, letting the door swing open for the group of Third Years to enter.

Jac stood beside Cressida wringing her hands. “Cressie, are you sure that was a good idea?”

Cressida had spotted Arabella amongst the crowd dancing inside the blue-coloured common room, and her reason for following alone came rushing back to the forefront of her thoughts. “No one will know we sent them there.”

Fred was pushing the group forward, so he could get a better look at their target. “Merlin, of  course,  she’s dressed as Helena Ravenclaw.”

James gestured for them to all re-group behind one of the many pillars surrounding the Ravenclaw’s common room. It wasn’t as comfy looking as the Gryffindor common room, nor as extravagantly decorated as the Slytherin common room. It was somewhere in the middle, with simple decorations, worn-in blue sofas, and a  lot  of bookcases.

Their music choice seemed to be different as well, with much more mellow 90s songs playing that Cressida had heard at the Slytherin party. Felix didn’t look impressed with their music selection.

“Okay,” James started, ducking his head low and getting everyone’s undivided attention. “Chauncey struck Knightly, so we’re striking back.”

“What’s the game plan, Jamsie?” Thomas asked eagerly.

“Pumpkin heads,” Cressida answered instead. “And not just Arabella. I want to get all of her giggling friends too.”

“And her brother,” Jac added on. Cressida nodded in agreement.

James was grinning widely. “Done. We’ll go at them from three sides. Me and the boys will tackle the friends. Jac and Finnegan can tackle Declan, I imagine he’s good at deflecting spells, so you’ll have to be sneaky. Knightly, you take Arabella.”

“Won’t Chauncey recognise Knightly, though?” Fred pointed out. “She’s kind of hard to miss at the moment.”

“Oh, oh!” Thomas fumbled for his wand, pointing it at Cressida. She didn’t have time to object before he muttered, “ Finite Incantatem. ”

Cressida reached up and touched her face, relieved when there was a sudden lack of fur and whiskers. 

“Okay, now Knightly is her lovely self again, let’s get to work,” James nodded. He told them the spell and demonstrated the wand movement to them before they all broke apart.

Cressida snuck around the outskirts of the party. Arabella, Declan, and her friends were all huddled together, luckily enough, on the edge of the dance floor.

Cressida watched for a moment, assessing the best cause of action. Declan seemed to be the only one with a drink in his hand, his sister and her friends all hanging off of his every word as he told a story. He didn’t look at all compelling when he told stories, Cressida thought. He wasn’t animated and lively like James was when he did it. Declan was perfectly straight-backed, only vaguely moving his hand now and again to emphasise a point. He was the definition of poise. He deserved to have a pumpkin for a head.

Arabella had just made a joke, interrupting her brother’s undoubtedly boring story, but her gargle of friends giggled anyway. Cressida crouched down wand at the ready and moved closer. Across the room, she saw the trio of boys advancing from the other side. Jac and Felix were less subtly doing the same from a different corner of the room, although it looked like they were arguing over which one of them got to cast the spell.

Cressida’s attention was momentarily stolen when she heard a loud quack from beside her. Looking down, she saw Dahlia, the girl who Felix had turned into a duck shortly after Arabella had cursed her, quacking loudly to try and alert everyone to Cressida’s presence. Cressida shooed the duck away, but it was too late. The group of Ravenclaws were all looking in her direction.

“How did  you  get in here?!” Declan demanded to know, looking towards the abandoned doorway still swinging open.

Three girls behind him screamed, their heads suddenly orange and pumpkin-like. Declan and Arabella whirled around. Two more girls on the other side met the same fate. Cressida caught James’ eye as the three boys continued throwing out the spell, and he winked at Cressida before throwing out another one.

Declan rounded on Cressida, getting his wand out about to advance on her. “You slimly little-”

He stopped dead in his threat, his wand falling out of his hand as he instead reached up to grab the pumpkin covering his head. Felix and Jac were laughing hysterically on the sidelines.

Cressida moved forward, heading straight for Arabella. The fair-haired girl watched Cressida approach with hateful eyes. “Knightly!” She squealed. “How the hell did you- I’ll get you back for this- you ruin  everything !” Apparently, she couldn’t decide which insult took priority and kept falling over her words as Cressida got closer. “I’ll tell McGonagall! I’ll get you expelled!”

Cressida smiled, coming to a stop right in front of her. “You tell McGonagall, I’ll tell her you cursed me in the hall. A bit of advanced magic you used on me too, definitely more serious than a simple pumpkin head jinx.”

Arabella had turned the brightest shade of red Cressida had ever seen, giving Margo a run for her money. “You’ll regret this.”

“No, I won't,” Cressida said surely, lifting her wand. “ Melofors !” 

Cressida regrouped with the other five, watching the chaos unfold from behind a pillar. The Chauncey siblings and anyone within a five-foot radius of where they had been parading over the party suddenly had their heads covered with pumpkins. Screams rang out, muffled by the large vegetables encasing their heads. People started toppling over from the weight of them, bumping into one another on their way to the ground. Some people took to smashing their heads against the stone walls to try and break the pumpkin apart. Arabella tried lifting the pumpkin from her head to no avail, screaming bloody murder.

“I do believe our job here is done,” James said primly.

“Indeed, my good sir,” Thomas agreed, in the same overly British tone.

“Good show, gentlemen. Good show.” Fred faked delicate clapping towards the group.

Felix nudged Jac and Cressida, gesturing to Flitwick barging into the room, his wand aloft, casting the reversal spell in bulk. “Time to go.”

“How are we going to get past Flitwick?” Jac asked nervously.

Fred rolled up his sleeves. “Leave it to me, Redwick.”

Fred stepped out from behind the pillar, raising his wand and casting a few more spells to random bystanders, bringing Flitwick’s attention solely to stopping him.

James clutched his heart. “Such a brave soldier.”

The remaining five Third Years managed to sneak out undetected, Fred’s manic laugher ringing in the background of their escape as he constantly slipped the small Professor’s grasp, spells still flying randomly out of the tip of his wand.

Chapter 54: Third Year: The Fear

Notes:

Hey guys, so I made a tumblr for the story in case any of you had any questions, theories, opinions or headcannons you wanted to put out there or wanted to see some random little tid-bits that aren't included in the story.
Again I wanted to say how grateful I am for all your engagement and comments and kudos, it means the world to me that you're enjoying the story that existed in my head :)

https://moonmoonbaby98.tumblr.com/post/692485814404464640/we-are-the-young-chapter-1-moonmoonbaby

Saturday 11th November 2017

 

Cressida was awoken by Jac jumping on her bed at sunrise. “You’ve got to get up, Cressie!” She was saying as Cressida regained consciousness. “You have to wake up and tell me I can do this because otherwise, I’m going to walk out those doors and keep walking until I hit the water and never come out again.”

Cressida sat up and looked around the dorm room. Molly was awake as well, whereas Margo’s bed curtains were still firmly shut.

“Quidditch match is today,” Molly yawned as she passed on the way to the bathroom. “Hufflepuff vs Slytherin.”

“Right, I forgot,” Cressida said, groggily rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Jac shook her by her pyjama shirt. “You  forgot !?”

Cressida pried her best friend’s hand off her. “Relax, would you? I had something in place for today in case you had a meltdown.”

“What could you possibly have in place to calm me down right now!?”

 

*

 

“Okay, this will do nicely,” Jac said breezily as she relaxed back into the cushions an hour later.

Felix was opposite, giving her a foot rub while Cressida braided Jac’s hair into two tight plaits down to her shoulder blades. The  Footloose  album was playing from the Cd player to pump up the mood.

“Remind me again why I had to do the feet part?” Felix grumbled.

“Do you know how to Dutch braid?” Cressida shot back.

“Do  you ?” He asked, looking at the loose strands Cressida had missed.

Cressida stuck her middle finger up at him as she restarted the second braid. “Do you remember what Wood told you?” She asked, focusing on Jac again.

Jac nodded slightly. “Hufflepuff’s Seeker is slow. Their Keeper is good at blocking but not diving with short notice, and their Chaser goes for the Wollongong Shimmy to throw off other Chasers.”

“I’d say she’s ready,” Felix said. “Now put your shoes back on your feet and never ask me to touch them again.”

“Then let’s go,” Cressida decided, standing up. “I have to do interviews on both teams before the game if I have time.”

They had barely been back in the corridors of Hogwarts for more than five seconds before the trio of Gryffindors found them.

“Where the bloody hell have you been?!” James shouted when they eventually found each other. “We’ve been searching the whole castle for you.”

“What for?” Jac asked nervously.

“What for, she asks,” Fred shook his head.

“To support you, of course!” Thomas said eagerly, he shoved Cressida out of the way to walk beside Jac as they continued going through the halls. “Now do you remember what I taught you?”

“ Yes , we’ve been over that already this morning,” Felix answered for her.

“Good. It’s important you have the other team’s tactics down before the game starts, it gives you the upper hand,” James said, taking up the other side of Jac. “Here, these are for good luck,” he said, shoving a packet of green jelly slugs into Jac’s hands. “I eat a whole pack before each game. They’ve never let me down.”

“Apart from the time you nearly died,” Felix muttered.

“I left one in the packet that day,” James countered.

James was pulled backwards and replaced by Fred. “Don’t listen to them. You don’t need luck, I’ve watched you practising and I reckon you’ve got this in the bag.”

“You’ve been watching me practise?” Jac gulped, her mouth already half full with jelly slugs. She was turning a funny shade of pink.

“Okay, thanks for the gifts and all but you lot need to go away,” Cressida said, storming forward and shoving all the boys away from Jac. “She doesn’t need you three making her more nervous right before her first game.”

“Shouldn’t you be there already?” Thomas said. “You’ve got interviews to do for the paper.”

“I couldn’t leave Jac alone,” Cressida said.

Fred put an arm around Jac. “She’s not alone now. We’ll take it from here.”

“I don’t-”

“Trust us, Knightly,” James smiled. “We’ll get her there in one piece. Go do what you got to do.”

Cressida’s eyes fell on Jac, who gave the slightest nod. “Fine,” she said reluctantly. “But I want her looking pristine when she gets on that pitch. No funny business.”

“In that case, shall I redo her braids?” Thomas asked. “They’re already falling out.”

“You can braid?” Felix asked.

“I have an older sister.”

Cressida rolled her eyes and broke away from the group. “One piece. You promise?”

The three boys put their hands over their hearts. “Gryffindor’s honour,” they smiled just as Cressida lost sight of them around the corner.

She eventually made it down to the tent where the Slytherin team were preparing for the game ahead. Molly was pacing outside, waiting for the others to appear.

“I got the calming tea-” Molly started when she saw Cressida. “Where’s Jac?”

“With the boys,” Cressida huffed.

Molly’s face dropped. “You just  left  her?!”

“She practically got commandeered, I had no choice!”

“She’s not a pirate ship for Godric’s sake!” Molly shouted back, starting to drink the tea meant for Jac.

“They promised she’d get here in one piece. I have to start the interviews,” Cressida said walking past Molly and opening the tent. She could vaguely hear Molly cussing her cousins out as the tent closed behind her.

Inside the tent, Faro was presiding over the team on a stool so he seemed taller.

“Knightly,” he said once he spotted her. “Where’s your friend?”

“On her way,” Cressida answered. “I’m here to do the pre-game interview-”

“No chance,” Faro cut her off. “We’re about to go on and your friend better be here in time otherwise she’s off the team entirely.”

Cressida turned and left the tent, biting her tongue. On her notepad, she wrote ‘ dick’  next to Faro’s name.

She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the Hufflepuff Captain’s unusual and innuendo-filled way of doing interviews.

 

*

 

By some miracle, Jac had made it to her team before they walked onto the pitch to start the game, and her braids did look exceptionally better than what Cressida had done.

Molly and Felix sat beside her in the stands overlooking the game as Hooch introduced both teams.

“Margo’s really not going to come?” Cressida asked, checking the stands one last time.

Molly sighed, rubbing her gloved hands together to warm them up. “She said she was too busy.”

“We’ll remember that next time she wants us to support her doing something,” Felix replied, pulling his hat further down over his head. “Merlin, it’s fucking freezing. I’d be surprised if their brooms don’t turn into icicles by the end of it.”

Cressida was inclined to agree it was much colder than it had been so far, and yet again, she was only in a jumper and some jeans.

“I did a heating spell on Jac’s gloves before she went on,” Molly said. “Hopefully, it’ll last the whole game.”

“Did you remember to do a cut-off temperature?” Felix asked. “One time Dean forgot and Dad’s gloves burst into flames.”

Cressida passed her notepad and quill-pen to Molly. “Take notes for the beginning of the game for me.”

Molly looked down at the notepad. “All you’ve written so far is that Faro is a dick and a bunch of nonsense from Stokes.”

“Where’re you going?” Felix asked as Cressida started walking away.

“To get a jacket, I’ll be back before Jac notices I’m missing!”

She descended back down the stands just as Hooch blew her whistle and the game started.

Amazingly, as she broke back into the dungeons they felt colder than the outside. She rushed into her dorm room and shut the door behind her, hoping to leave some of the cold on the other side of it.

Margo’s head snapped up at the intrusion, she looked like she had been doing homework. “It’s not all gone wrong already, has it?” She asked.

“No,” Cressida said tightly. “You’d know that if you were there to support Jac.”

Margo simply looked back down at the objects spread out in front of her. “I’m using Divination to tell which way the game’s going to go.”

Cressida peered closer. “Any luck so far?”

“The cards say it’s not looking good for Jac. Some terrible embarrassment is coming for her if I’m reading it correctly.”

“Right,” Cressida said, walking to her trunk and picking up Potter’s winter robe. “Well, I’ll make sure to warn Jac in that case.”

“I would,” Margo said simply as Cressida turned and left again.

Cressida pulled the robe on as she re-entered the abandoned common room. It appeared as though everyone was out watching the game.

“Are those my brother’s robes?” A small voice asked.

Cressida whirled around to see Albus peering out from behind a bookcase suspiciously. He looked like he was alone. “Where’s your blonde friend?”

“At the game with Rose,” he shrugged, coming more into the open. “They both love Quidditch.”

“You didn’t fancy going?”

“I didn’t fancy seeing my brother,” Albus corrected. “You never answered my question about his robe, by the way. That one’s his favourite.”

Cressida fiddled with the cuffs guiltily. She hadn't known that when she stole it from him. “I was going to give it back to him now actually.”

Albus nodded. “Don’t let me keep you then.”

Cressida turned her eyes back on the smaller boy. Something seemed off. As she watched him, Albus subconsciously glanced sideways giving away what he had been doing previously. The portrait of R.A.B was facing toward the bookcase when it normally wasn’t.

“Were you talking to Regulus?” She asked.

Albus looked down. Regulus gave no indication he was listening, or even alive inside his frame. “He gets me.”

Cressida hardened her eyes on the younger Potter boy. “The ex-Death-Eater turned Horcrux hunter  gets you ?”

Regulus flinched slightly at her words for a mere second.

Albus shuffled uncomfortably on his feet. “He was Sirius’ younger brother… the less popular and cool brother. He gets me,” Albus explained. “He knows what it’s like to be stuck in your older brother’s shadow.”

Cressida moved towards him. “Albus-”

“Don’t call me that,” he snapped. “I hate my name. I hate that James and Lily got the good names.”

“The good names?”

Albus kicked the side of the bookcase. “Everyone thinks it. They were named after our grandparents and great Gryffindors and brave people who fought in the war with my dad. I was named after a manipulative headmaster and  Snape … who, despite being a war hero, made people outside of Slytherin miserable and bullied children for the majority of his life. I didn’t get the good names. I was set up for disaster.”

Cressida perched on the end of a sofa facing him. “Change your name then.”

Albus stared at her. “What?”

“Don’t like your name? Change it,” she said simply. “I’ve thought about it before but my dad…” she stopped herself looking down slightly. “I think my name means something, I just don’t know what. You know what your name is supposed to mean and you still don’t like it. Maybe it’s not the name you’re meant to have.”

Albus looked at her as though she was mad. “I can’t just  change  my name. My dad-”

“Dad’s make mistakes,” Cressida said. “Even good dads.”

Albus sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her. “People would think I’ve lost the plot if I started going by Greg all of a sudden.”

“It doesn’t have to be entirely different from Albus,” Cressida suggested. “It could just be a nickname. For instance, I have a friend called Albert after the uncle from  Only Fools and Horses  but all of us call him Albie-”

“Albie?” Albus cut her off. A small smile formed on his lips. “That sounds kind of cool. I bet there’s no famous wizards, good or bad, called Albie. ”

“Probably not,” Cressida agreed. “But there is a chav in Conwell named one, so depending on your perspective that could be worse.”

Albus laughed then, and it was so different from James’ that it startled her.

“The only one that thinks you’re stuck in your brother’s shadow is you,” Cressida continued. Regulus and Albus scoffed at the same time, his laughter stopping as abruptly as it started. “No one is asking you to be like James. I don’t think Hogwarts could  handle  a second James.”

Albus looked down at his feet again. “But everyone seems to love him so much.”

She put a hand on the younger boy’s shoulder. “People will love you for you too… you just have to show them who you really are. Don’t be another James. Just be yourself. Be Albie for all I care.”

Albus looked up with the same striking green eyes as his brother. “He likes you, you know,” he said suddenly. “I didn’t understand it at first. You always seemed so cold and distant… but now I get it.”

Cressida removed her hand from his shoulder. “Thanks,” she said uncomfortably, the heat returning to the back of her neck. “Now are you going to watch the game with your friends or sulk in here talking to a portrait?”

Albus glanced at Regulus, who gave an indifferent shrug before walking out of the frame entirely, making the decision for him.

Begrudgingly, Albus stood up and followed Cressida out of the common room.

When they made it back to the stands ten minutes later, it appeared as though everyone was celebrating. She had only been gone for thirty-five minutes. She’d never known a match finish so quickly.

“Cressida! Cressida, it was amazing! You missed everything!” Molly was saying, running down the stands to meet her. “Jac hit the Bludger right towards the other team’s Seeker so ours could get the snitch first when we were points up!”

“Holy fuck, that’s great!” Cressida beamed. When she turned towards the pitch she saw Jac was being congratulated by Faro.

“Why is Mini-Potter with you?” Felix asked, noticing the smaller boy accompanying her.

“It’s Albie now,” Albus corrected him.

Molly narrowed her eyes at her younger cousin. “Albie? Where did that come from?”

“Knightly gave it to me,” Albus smiled. 

Molly and Felix both turned their eyes on Cressida as two more First Years shoved their way through the crowd to join them.

“You came!” Scorpius yelled, engulfing Albus in a hug.

“Slytherin won! I can fill you in on everything behind the tents, they may have left some brooms lying around!” Rose was saying excitedly as the three of them started leaving together.

“I have some things to fill you in on as well,” Albus grinned at them.

“What the fuck have you done now?” Felix asked once the First Years were out of earshot.

Cressida shrugged. “He didn’t like his name. I was trying to help cheer him up.”

“You missed Jac’s first game because you were renaming my little cousin?” Molly asked.

“I didn’t do it intentionally,” Cressida defended herself. “Besides, I left you in charge of note taking and Margo said something bad was going to happen which meant something bad  wasn’t  going to happen.”

“Ay, she is shit at Divination in all fairness,” Felix agreed.

“Did Jac notice I was gone?” Cressida asked then.

The trio of boys were approaching. Jac was on Fred’s shoulders throwing her arms up in the air in celebration. “I won! I frickin’ helped us win! Cressie, did you see?! Did you see how badass I was?!”

“I’m going to go with no,” Felix whispered in reply to Cressida’s question.

Cressida jumped up and high-fived her best friend with a wide smile. “McGonagall was right to call you a threat!”

“Faro said you can do the interview with him now,” Thomas said, getting Cressida’s attention. “He’s waiting for you in the tent.”

“We’re taking Jac there now if you’d like to walk in with the player of the hour,” Fred said, wobbling Jac on his shoulders playfully.

“Lead the way,” Cressida said, allowing Fred and Thomas to walk ahead.

James hung back beside her, his eyes wide. “Are you wearing my robes?”

“Wait until you hear what she did to your brother,” Molly muttered. “The robes will be the least of your concern.”

Cressida slipped them off and handed them back to him before following after Jac. She’d rather just be cold than steal his favourite robe from him.

James kept in time with her. “When did you talk to my brother, Knightly? Knightly, what did you do to my brother? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine, James,” Cressida said.

“Then what is Molly talking about?” He pestered her.

Cressida pulled James around the tent and pointed to Albus talking with Rose and Scorpius in a quiet corner. Rose was pretending to re-enact the game for Albus with an imaginary broom between her legs. Albus was laughing again as Scorpius jumped on his back pretending he was a broom instead to join in with Rose. 

Molly and Felix peered around behind the two of them. “He looks… happy?” Molly said surprised.

“He’s getting there,” Cressida said allusively. 

James looked from his brother back to Cressida. “You did that?”

Cressida turned to face him. “Not really. I just listened to him.”

“Oi, are you lot coming or what?!” Fred shouted, getting their attention from by the tent. “Faro says you have five minutes to get in here or he’s not doing the interview!”

“He also threatened to chuck us out if you’re not in here to control us!” Thomas called, poking his head out.

“How can Faro still be in such a shit mood after winning a match?” Felix asked.

“Because he’s not the reason we won,” Molly answered as she and Felix departed to join Fred inside the tent.

James remained beside her with a grin, visible relief spread across his features as he looked at her. “Have I told you you’re an angel in disguise lately, Knightly?”

“Don’t go around saying that too often, Potter,” Cressida said, putting space between the two of them as she moved towards the tent. “People will start to get the wrong idea.”

“That you’re a decent person?”

“Exactly,” Cressida said. “I’m only a decent person to the people I can stand to be around.”

James’ face dropped as Cressida pulled open the tent flap. “Is that your way of admitting you like me?” Cressida didn’t answer as she slipped inside. James instantly pursued her. “Knightly, answer the question!”

 

 

Thursday 16th November 2017

 

With a full rundown of what had happened at the Quidditch match and help making sense of the interviews from both teams from Molly, Cressida’s article had been printed and went out first thing Monday morning. Every day since the Quidditch match itself, Jac had been practically beaming, so much so that even lessons didn’t dampen her mood. She’d answered every question in Potions correctly, she’d managed to perform the transformation of a tortoise into a teapot flawlessly and she’d even managed to stay awake all through History of Magic. It appeared as though nothing could halter her good mood.

That wouldn’t stop Arabella Chauncey from trying, however.

“I read your article about your friend winning Slytherin the match last Saturday, Knightly,” Arabella whispered as they sat in Defence Against the Dark arts. “High praise for someone so unskilled, don’t you think?”

Cressida didn’t answer.

“It was a fluke, you realise that, right? Faro was telling Declan about it the other day,” Arabella continued. “She won’t get that lucky again.”

“She deserved to be praised. If she hadn’t hit that Bludger, Hufflepuff’s seeker would have dragged out catching the snitch,” Cressida replied.

“I’m beginning to wonder whether this newspaper of yours is biased,” Arabella went on. “I mean it’s praising Slytherins an awful lot lately. Maybe it needs some fresh perspective. I bet your pig-nosed friend would love to write some new drama that doesn’t compliment Potter and his friends constantly.”

“I thought you liked James?” Felix asked with a scowl.

“Oh I did, but I’ve since learned he’s rather fond of rolling around in the mud with the likes of you so I’ve grown past it,” Arabella countered.

“That’s a shame,” Cressida said. “I heard he was asking about you the other day.”

Arabella perked up with interest. “He was? What was he asking about? I bought a new headband the other day, it could have been that.”

Cressida turned to face Arabella with a grin. “He was asking why you were such a self-centred bitch.”

Professor Whimbrel passed their desk, slamming his hands down in front of the two girls to get their attention. “Lassies!” He boomed in his thick Scottish accent. 

“I’m here too, in case anyone cared to notice,” Felix called out.

Professor Whimbrel continued as though Felix hadn’t spoken. “I do believe if you two weren’t too busy having a mother’s meeting, you would have noticed the massive wardrobe at the front of the classroom.”

Cressida and Arabella both turned their eyes toward it.

“What’s in there?” Dahlia asked from near the front.

“Boggart.”

“Boggart?” Cressida repeated.

“Boggart,” Whimbrel nodded. “A creature that depicts your worst fear. Today we’re going to be letting it loose and learning how to deflect it. If you’d all like to line up, we’ll start the demonstration.”

Everyone around Cressida got out of their seats and lined up in the middle of the classroom, but Cressida remained seated watching the wardrobe rattle slightly, indicating there really was something hidden inside it.

“So that thing in there shows our worst fear?” Cressida asked.

“Yeah,” Felix nodded standing up beside her. “I’ve heard about them from dad. He reckons they don’t actually hurt you though. Not physically at least.”

“Come on. Chop chop!” Whimbrel said, passing by her and clapping his hands. “On your feet, lassie.”

Cressida wasn’t thrilled to be forced to her feet.

Arabella looked back, brushing her long hair over her shoulders. “What’s the matter, Knightly? Scared of a monster in the closet?” She mocked.

“No,” Cressida snapped back.

“Good. You can go first then,” Whimbrel said enthusiastically.

“No!” Cressida panicked. All eyes turned to her at her reaction. “I just- I don’t want to go first, that’s all,” Cressida said, joining the back of the line.

“I’ll go first, sir,” Jac said, stepping forward.

“Brilliant. Off you go then,” Whimbrel praised her, moving to the front. “Stand in front of the door and when I open it, remain calm. I want you to say the following spell.  Riddikulus !”

Jac nodded and prepared her wand.

Professor Whimbrel pulled open the door and a spiral of grey swooped out and started taking the shape of the Bloody Baron. Jac seemed momentarily frozen as the ghost lingered over her, and then she waved her wand.

“ Riddikulus !”

The Bloody Baron transformed into a depiction of Caspar the Friendly Ghost   and started waving and smiling at the students.

“Very good!” Whimbrel called. “Next!”

Jac moved to the back of the line and was replaced by Dahlia, whose worst fear was apparently snakes. It transformed into a balloon animal and deflated around the room after she cast the spell.

A group of three Ravenclaws were next in line, each one casting the spell and turning the Boggart from something scary into something hilarious.

Next was Felix, who stepped up with confidence. The Boggart transformed into a giant squid looking over Felix with one beady eye and large tentacles threatening to take up the whole classroom.

“Interesting fear, Mr Finnigan,” Whimbrel mused.

“You try sleeping knowing that thing is right above your bedroom,” Felix countered before he cast the spell.

The squid transformed into an inflatable man you’d find outside a car dealership and started throwing its long arms around the classroom all willy-nilly.

Arabella was next in line to step up. The Boggart transformed once more to depict an open safe with burning piles of money and jewels inside.

“What’s that supposed to be?” Margo asked.

“The family fortune,” Arabella said with a frown. Once she cast the spell, the safe slammed shut and turned into a jack-in-the-box.

No more was said on the issue and they moved on.

Molly stepped up then with some hesitation.

“Remember. Stay calm,” Whimbrel reminded her.

The Boggart started taking shape and slowly turned into the familiar shape of James Sirius Potter. 

Everyone in the room was silently watching as Molly stared back at the face of her cousin. 

Boggart James pulled a face and started mocking Molly, and the more it went on and the more it mocked her, the more it changed shape. It turned from James into Fred, and from Fred into Thomas. 

“What is your fear, Miss Weasley?” Whimbrel asked.

“My family,” she croaked out. “Being separated from them. Being different.”

Molly returned to staring at the scene in front of her in complete silence. 

“Cast the spell, lassie,” Whimbrel prompted her. “It’s just an illusion. Not real.”

Molly didn’t move. The longer she remained looking at it, the more the Boggart changed. Again and again it changed, each time showing a different family member, isolating Molly even more.

“She’s not going to do it,” Felix whispered beside Cressida. “She’s getting too caught up in it.”

“Can’t someone do something to stop it?” Margo asked worriedly. 

“Whimbrel wants her to cast the spell,” Jac said. “He’s not going to help her.”

Behind her, Cressida could hear Arabella laughing and pointing along with her friends.

“Fucking hell,” Cressida sighed, pushing forward.

She stood in front of Molly and the Boggart instantly started changing form.

She glanced back at Molly, who stared back at her gratefully, tears on the verge of spilling out of her eyes as she took the chance to move away.

Cressida turned back around to face the wardrobe and awaited her Boggart with a beating heart. She wasn’t sure what would come out, she just prayed it wasn’t embarrassing. Gareth could be a good contender to appear. Or, it could be something small like the ghosts for Jac.

Cressida blinked and when she opened her eyes again she found herself standing in front of her, completely alone. It was like her reflection had stepped right out of the mirror, it was even wearing the same clothes as she currently was. The second body didn’t look strange or hurt, but Cressida could tell there was something off about it.

The longer she stared, a dark cloud of grey fog started descending around the Boggart’s frame. It was starting to take a shape but Cressida couldn’t make out what.

“That is peculiar,” Professor Whimbrel murmured, stroking his chin.

Another snigger rang out through the room. Cressida tore her eyes away from her Boggart to see Arabella was the cause of it. Molly was quick to send her a death glare, meanwhile, Jac rolled up the sleeves of her jumper, showing a clasped fist waiting to be thrown her way.

Trying to ignore the class staring, Cressida turned to Professor Whimbrel. “I don’t understand,” she said looking at herself again.

Professor Whimbrel moved to stand beside Cressida, demonstrating how to hold the wand again. “Repeat after me, lassie.  Riddikulus !”

Cressida aimed her wand at the Boggart, but she couldn’t bring herself to do the spell. Why was her worst fear herself?

The fog continued to try and take shape around her. A head and shoulders.

“You can do it, Cressida,” Jac encouraged her from behind.

She saw it then. The change in her Boggart’s eyes. They were dull. They had no emotion behind them. Something in its eyes had shifted suddenly. 

“Riddikulus!”

 

*

 

Molly had practically run out of their class once it was over, and the group of Slytherins were quick to follow behind her. However, it was evident Molly was not in the mood to talk about it, so she promptly disappeared and the group didn’t see her again for the rest of the evening. 

The four remaining Slytherins had taken to sitting in their alcove, playing exploding snap to try and ease the heavy mood that shrouded them after their Boggart lesson. Jac’s good mood was officially over.

“Do you think she’s okay?” Margo asked for the fourth time as she placed down a card.

“What’s the worst she could do?” Felix asked in retaliation.

Cressida didn’t bare thinking about it. 

“I didn’t expect that to be her fear,” Jac spoke up next. “I feel kind of bad we found out that way.”

“I knew,” Margo said then. “Molly’s always felt different from her family, even before Hogwarts.”

“But she’s not that different from them,” Cressida said. “Not really. I’ve seen her with James and I’ve seen her thought process. They’re more similar to each other than everyone thinks.”

Margo scoffed. “They’re rule breakers, Cressida. All they care about is having fun and pulling pranks. Molly is the opposite of that.”

“They handle rules differently, sure… but if you watch them for long enough you can see it,” Cressida argued. “If a situation calls for a sleight of hand, Molly is the best one to do it.”

“When has Weasley ever done anything underhanded?” Felix asked.

“Well,” Jac started. “She did give Arabella and Declan the potion at the end of last year.”

Margo placed down another card. “That was a lapse in her otherwise good judgement. Not a regular occurrence.”

Cressida put down a card, winning the game. “If you say so.”

They had ventured off the bed shortly after that after Margo claimed Cressida had cheated. Margo had gone about her usual nightly routine and then promptly shut her bed curtains, seeing no reason to stay up and engage in conversation with the other two girls.

Jac waited until Margo’s soft snoring filled the room before sneaking over and sitting on the end of Cressida’s bed.

“Should we go searching for Molly?” Jac whispered.

Cressida peered out her bed curtains and checked the time. Twelve o’clock.

“No. She’ll be back soon.”

“How do you know?”

There was a familiar creak in the floorboard.

Cressida shrugged. “Lucky guess.”

Jac and Cressida peeked their heads out through the curtains to find Molly tip-toeing through the room.

“I thought you two would be asleep,” she whispered.

“You should have known better,” Jac replied lightly. 

“Want to come in?” Cressida offered.

Molly glanced over to Margo’s closed bed curtains then nodded.

Once Molly had climbed onto the bed with them and settled beside Jac, Rasper plodded over and started rubbing his head against her knee, begging for pets.

“So,” Jac said. “I take it you don’t want to talk about earlier?”

“Nope,” Molly said resolutely, lifting the kitten into her lap. Her eyes glanced up towards Cressida. “I’m interested in yours, though.”

“What, so you don’t have to talk about yours but I have to talk about mine?” Cressida asked.

“No, I was just wondering,” Molly said sheepishly. “Well, everyone knows about  my  issues anyway. It wasn’t exactly hard to decode… but yours. I have no idea what your Boggart was. I was trying to figure it out all afternoon.”

“What conclusion did you come to?” Cressida asked calmly.

Molly shrugged. “Nothing good.”

“Suppose that’s why it’s her worst fear, after all,” Jac chimed in. “If it was good, the Boggart wouldn’t have picked it.”

Cressida led back against the headboard. She had been thinking about her Boggart all afternoon as well. “My Boggart,” she said slowly. “It wasn’t me. I’m not scared of myself.”

“Then what was it?” Jac asked. 

“Maybe what I could have been if things had gone differently,” Cressida said thoughtfully. “Or maybe the fact I was alone…”

She had seen it in the eyes of the Boggart version of herself. When it heard Jac’s voice, the Boggart’s eyes changed, looking greedily towards the encouragement. It was looking for companionship.

“What about that fog?” Molly asked softly. “What was that about?”

Cressida took a deep breath in. “I don't know... maybe... my dad.”

Molly stared at her. “But you don’t have a dad.”

Jac’s eyes bore into Cressida then, searching for the silent clue as to whether or not Cressida was going to admit to what they both already knew.

Silently, Cressida reached under her pillow and pulled out the picture of her father, placing it down for Molly to see. “I found it over the summer.”

“She didn’t want anyone to know about it,” Jac said. “No one can know about this outside of this room, got it?”

“Got it,” Molly agreed instantly. She looked at the photo and then back at Cressida. “Why would he be a fear of yours? Do you think he did something?”

Cressida shrugged, trying to fake indifference. “I don’t know. I think that’s why he showed up. I don’t  know  what he did, or what I did. I don’t know why he left.”

Molly hummed thoughtfully. “Someone must know what happened. Have you tried asking your mum?”

“My mum can hardly remember anything about him and when she does, she refuses to talk about it,” Cressida said dismally. “I doubt she’d be willing to sit down and tell me exactly why he ran off on us.”

“You deserve to know though, Cressie,” Jac said. 

“He could be alive,” Molly said then. “You could have a whole other side of the family out there somewhere.”

“You think I haven’t considered that?” She asked snippily. When Molly averted her eyes, she softened her tone again. “Sorry. I’m still figuring out what to think about it… truth is, I don’t even know if I want to look for him. What if he’s a dick?”

“What if he’s not?” Jac countered.

Cressida stared down at the photo. How could someone who ran off on his family  not  be a dick?

If he wasn’t a dick, maybe that meant Cressida and her mum really had done something to make him leave.

She didn’t know which one she wanted to be true.

There was a bang on the dorm room door, and all three girls jumped at the sound of it. Even Margo poked her head through her bed curtains with a frown. Jac crept out of the bed and pulled open the door to see Felix scrambling his way in, a pillow and blanket tucked under his arm.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he grumbled as he plonked himself down on the rug in the middle of the room. “Stupid fucking Boggart.”

The four girls all looked from Felix attempting to sleep on their floor to each other. Evidently, there were no objections to it, and all four girls returned to their beds and settled down for the night as well, sensing no other option. 

Rasper jumped down from Cressida’s bed and snuggled into Felix’s side on the floor.

Chapter 55: Third Year: Hogsmeade

Saturday 2nd December 2017

 

Nine thirty Cressida had been woken up despite her protests.

Jac had already done her hours of training with the Slytherin team and showered by the time Cressida’s eyes were being forced open by Felix.

“Why’re you here so early?” She grumbled, swatting him away.

“He slept here again,” Margo answered, passive-aggressively adding locks to her chest of drawers.

“Do you honestly think that’s necessary, Margo?” Molly questioned.

“Yeah,” Felix said, lounging across Cressida’s bed. “It’s not like I’m going to go riffling through your bra drawer.”

Margo clamped the lock down and stormed into the bathroom with a pointed glare at Felix.

“Best hurry up and get changed, Cressie,” Jac said, using her wand to dry her hair. “Slughorn will be calling us soon.”

“What for?” Cressida asked, lying back down on her pillow

“Hogsmeade, obviously!” Felix exclaimed. 

“I thought that was next week?” She grumbled.

“McGonagall moved it up. Madam Rosmerta’s having a Christmas party next week and she didn’t want to risk anyone causing chaos at the Three Broomsticks before it,” Molly explained.

“She knows her students so well,” Felix joked.

People had been talking about the first trip to Hogsmeade for weeks, and Cressida was excited about the chance to leave Hogwarts for a few hours over the weekend. She would have been more enthused if she had been allowed a lie-in to go along with the occasion.

“Come on,” Jac said, dragging Cressida off her bed by her ankle. “Put on your best glad rags. We have a lot to get through.”

“The Three Broomsticks. Butterbeer. Zonko’s. Honeyduke's!” Felix listed excitedly. “We’re doing it all.”

“Beatrix swore she was going to meet Fred in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop,” Margo said coming out of the bathroom again. Her eyes were suspiciously glittery and smudged with silver. “I think it was a load of rubbish to impress the other girls.”

“Fred never said anything to me about it,” Jac frowned slightly.

“Why would Fred have told you if he had a date?” Molly asked, pulling on a knitted jumper.

Jac shrugged. “I assumed if he had a date he would brag about it to everyone, not just me.”

“Exactly,” Margo agreed, staring in the vanity mirror. “Load of rubbish, like I said. Honestly, you’d think if she was going to lie about it, she’d make sure Fred was in on it beforehand.”

Cressida narrowed her eyes at the other girl as she fussed over her appearance in the mirror. “Are you wearing make-up, Smithers?”

Margo’s cheeks blushed as she started fiddling with her hair. “As a matter of fact, yes I am. So is Molly.”

Cressida and Felix turned their eyes on Molly then, who discreetly wiped the clear gloss off her lips. “Why’ve you started doing that?” Felix asked.

“Because we’re  girls , Felix!” Margo said haughtily. “We’re supposed to wear make-up.”

“Well, that’s a rather old-fashioned way to look at it,” Jac chimed in.

“The gloss tastes like kiwi,” Molly said.

“Ooh, let me try!” Jac said intrigued.

Cressida rolled her eyes and got to her feet, grabbed the closest weekend clothes to her and started heading towards the bathroom.

An hour later, the group of Slytherins were walking towards the Entrance Hall along with the rest of the students taking part in the trip down to the wizard village. It appeared as though every Third Year was in attendance, waiting and chatting enthusiastically in large clumps.

“Right, students!” McGonagall called from the front. “Line up neatly in front of your Heads of House and as you pass they’ll tick your name off from the list. Remember, you are representing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on this trip. I would like it to end with dignity and not disgrace!”

“Here we fucking go,” Felix grinned excitedly, rubbing his gloved hands together as the group moved forward.

“Molly, can you redo the heating spell on my hat? My head’s already cold,” Margo asked.

“I would take it off first,” Jac suggested. “Otherwise your hair will end up in flames.”

Cressida pulled her leather jacket tighter around her chest. The buttons were so old they were hanging on by threads now. She didn’t want to risk doing her coat up and having them pop off completely. She slightly regretted giving Potter his robe back out of the kindness of her heart. It was much warmer than her current option.

“Good morning, ladies,” Slughorn smiled down at them. 

“Nice to be noticed as always,” Felix replied.

“Yes, yes, isn’t it just,” Slughorn said dismissively as he wetted his quill on his tongue. He made his way down the long list of names, ticking them off one by one. “Redwick. Smithers. Finnigan. Weasley…” He paused, his brow furrowing. “Miss Knightly, your name appears to be missing from the list.”

Cressida frowned. “You what?”

Slughorn whirred his head around searching for McGonagall. “Minerva! Oh, Minerva! Sorry to bother you but could you assist me a second? There seems to be a mistake!”

McGonagall shuffled through the crowd of students preparing to leave and came to a stop in front of them, peering over Slughorn’s shoulder at the list.

“Miss Knightly,” McGonagall said. “Did you hand in your permission slip at the beginning of the year?”

Cressida paled. “Permission slip? But I wasn’t given a permission slip to sign.”

McGonagall's face softened sympathetically. “My dear, the slips would have gone out in the mail during the summer. Are you sure your mother didn’t sign it and slip it in your trunk for safe keeping?”

Cressida looked from McGonagall to her awaiting friends and back again, forcing down the embarrassment creeping up the back of her neck. “No. There’s no slip. I would have noticed.”

“Then I’m afraid I can’t grant you permission to attend Hogsmeade.”

“Oh, dear,” Slughorn said, glancing around the group awkwardly. “That is a pity. Oh well, there’s always next time, dear girl.”

“Sir, Cressida has to come,” Jac said. 

“Yeah, she can’t be the only one not allowed to come!” Felix argued on her behalf.

“Surely, you can sign her slip for her, professor,” Molly suggested desperately.

McGonagall gave Cressida’s shoulder a small squeeze. “I’m afraid not. I’m saddened to say Miss Knightly must remain here.”

“Then I will too!” Jac said instantly.

“No,” Cressida said. “No, you guys should go. Really. It’s fine.”

“Are you sure?” Molly asked sympathetically.

“It’s only a couple of hours,” Cressida reasoned. “I can wait that long. Got homework to catch up on anyway.”

McGonagall nodded. “As you wish, Miss Knightly.” She turned to the rest of the group. “You may follow Gabriel down if you are ready,” she said, turning and walking away to attend to another problem.

The four remaining Slytherins all glanced at one another, clearly feeling guilty about leaving. After a moment, Margo shrugged and started walking forward.

“Margo!” Jac chided as she stepped away.

“What?” She asked looking over her shoulder. “Cressida said we could go. I’m not waiting around all day.”

Their eyes turned back to Cressida. “Go,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”

Molly gave her a small hug before following after Margo. Felix and Jac were next to leave, sending one last glance over their shoulders as they walked out of the doors and into the cold. “We’ll bring you back some sweets!” Felix called just as they disappeared from sight.

Cressida sighed to herself and turned around, residing herself to her fate of sitting alone for the next few hours while her friends were all off having fun.

Just as she made it back to the Grand Staircase, the trio of boys were running down it at record speed, their scarves and robes billowing behind them.

“Knightly, you’re going the wrong way!” Thomas called once they spotted her.

“I’m not going.”

James stopped dead in his tracks a step above her. “Not going? But you have to go!”

“No permission slip, no Hogsmeade. Those are the rules,” she replied.

“That’s bullshit,” Fred frowned. “We’ll talk to McGonagall, she’ll-”

“Molly already tried,” she cut him off. The three boys remained staring at her as if they could simply summon a solution if they thought hard enough. “Don’t let me keep you,” she said, moving past them on the stairs. “I’m sure you three had loads of fun stuff planned.”

James ran back up the stairs after her. “But what are you going to do?”

Cressida shrugged. “Homework, probably.”

James went to open his mouth when a fifth voice interrupted them. “Boys!” Longbottom called, coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. “You’re the last ones, are you coming?”

James looked from Cressida down to Longbottom. “Yeah, we’re coming.”

“Really?” Thomas asked.

“But what about Knightly?” Fred whispered as James started walking back down to them.

James had a resolute expression on his face. “Like she said. She’s going to be doing homework.”

Once the trio of boys had walked ahead of Longbottom heading for the Entrance Hall, the Herbology Professor looked towards Cressida. Cressida simply shrugged in response. There was nothing either of them could do.

She headed up the stairs, wondering how she was going to spend the rest of her day alone.

At first, she thought listening to music in the secret room would help improve her mood. It did not.

She didn’t even attempt to start her homework. She was already depressed enough.

She’d wandered back down to the Entrance Hall fifteen minutes after everyone had left and found Filch patrolling it, ensuring no one could leave that wasn’t on the list. Her small hope of simply sneaking down there went out the window rather quickly.

In the end, she’d decided to sit and stare out the window at the falling snow. It wasn’t heavy, but just flurrying enough to make her think of Christmas and hot chocolates and the terrible Christmas jumpers the knights would be wearing. 

She wondered if her friends were out there enjoying the snow right now. Throwing snowballs at each other or making snow bunkers. She assumed she’d hear all about their day out when they eventually returned and have to pretend she was happy to listen to it. She couldn’t be jealous. It wouldn’t be fair. After all, it wasn’t their fault she didn’t have a permission slip.

She glanced at the clock ticking away on the wall. With a dismal realisation, she noticed it had only been an hour and a half. She still had practically the whole day left to entertain herself.

Sighing, Cressida descended the spiral staircase and started making her way down to her dorm room. Hopefully, Rasper would be wide awake and in the mood to play for hours on end now. He was her last hope of entertainment. 

When she entered the common room, she passed Albus and Scorpius on their way out. They were both wrapped in thick scarves and woollen hats.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in Hogsmeade with my brother?” Albus asked her as he passed. 

“Aren’t you supposed to mind your own business?” She shot back. Albus shrugged in response. “Where’re you two off to?”

“Meeting Rose for a snowball fight,” Scorpius answered. “You can come if you like.”

Cressida looked down at the two First Years. “Nah, that’s okay. You have fun though.” The two boys nodded and started making their way forward. “Oh and, Albie!” Cressida called before they disappeared. Albus turned back around with a grin. “Stay out of trouble.”

“Or don’t get caught,” he called back smartly.

Cressida turned and walked to her dorm room with a small smile.

When she entered her dorm room, however, her smile was wiped clean. The room was absolutely trashed. Rasper came darting out from under her bed and climbed up Cressida’s body until he was perched on her shoulder.

“What the hell have you done?” She scolded the kitten.

“Oh, do not blame the creature!” A tiny voice called. Cressida looked up to see Winky the House Elf hanging from the light fixture in the middle of the room. “He thought Winky was an intruder so tried to kill me, but that is alright. Winky outsmarted the creature by climbing very high and waiting for the lovely miss to come.”

Rasper hissed at Winky and went to pounce off Cressida’s shoulder towards the pink elf until Cressida caught him and dropped him on her bed. “No, Rasper, Winky is a friend,” she told the kitten firmly.

Rasped swiped his tail a few times, staring up at Winky, but then led down. “You can come down now, Winky,” Cressida said reaching her arms out to catch the elf as she let go of the light fixture.

“Thank you, miss,” Winky said dusting herself off. “Sorry for the mess, Winky will tidy it.”

Cressida watched as Winky clicked her fingers and things started flying around the room back into their original places, making the room look even more spotless than it was before.

Cressida sat beside Rasper on the bed, smoothing the fur on his back in case he decided to try attacking Winky again. “What are you doing here?”

“The lovely sirs have requested a meeting with you, miss,” Winky said climbing up on Cressida’s trunk to sit on the edge of her bed. Cressida found it amusing that Winky swung her legs like a toddler as she sat there.

“The lovely sirs?” Cressida repeated. “You mean James, Fred and Thomas?”

“Yes,” Winky nodded. 

“But they’re in Hogsmeade?”

“They said they needed your help and that I wasn’t to leave until you agreed to see them.”

“Great,” Cressida muttered. “Well, you’ve delivered the message now, so you can go back to your normal job,” she said getting to her feet and fiddling with the loose buttons of her jacket. Winky jumped down from the bed back to the floor, but lingered, wringing her tea towel dress in her hands. Cressida turned back around to find Winky still there. “Oh I’m sorry, am I supposed to give you money for your services or something-”

“No, no, miss, not at all!” Winky said quickly waving her hands through the air. “Winky was just wondering if the lovely miss would like her hair braided for the occasion.”

Cressida glanced in the mirror on the vanity and saw the state her hair was in. Normally she wouldn’t care, especially when she was only meeting the trio of Gryffindors, but she sensed that Winky wanted to.

“I suppose a braid or two couldn’t hurt,” Cressida agreed.

Once Winky had done what she considered to be the appropriate amount of braids in Cressida’s hair, she had walked out of the dorm room to go and figure out what the trio of boys were planning on pulling. She would be slightly furious if they had abandoned going to Hogsmeade and come back just for her sake. She didn’t want their pity.

She climbed out of the secret passageway and found the trio waiting for her, snowflakes speckled across their hats and shoulders. Once they saw her extravagantly braided hair, Fred was trying to stifle a laugh while James grew wide-eyed. 

“Who did that to your head?” Thomas asked her.

Cressida reached up and pulled some of the braids loose so it didn’t look as extreme. “Your messenger elf wanted to braid my hair,” she told them once half of her hair was down in its natural state again. “Why are you even here?”

“To get you,” James grinned.

“You should be in Hogsmeade.”

“As far as everyone else is concerned we are,” Fred said.

“And you will be too,” Thomas smiled. “But they won’t know that.”

Cressida looked between the three of them. “I don’t follow.”

“No, you  will  follow,” James said walking backwards in his usual cocky manner. “Follow us.”

Cressida quirked an eyebrow at Fred, who winked back down at her and then went after James. Finally, she turned towards Thomas who heaved a sigh. “I told them not to be dramatic about it but you know how they are.”

“Yeah,” Cressida smiled. “I do.”

Cressida followed the three boys down the hall of the third floor until they came to an abrupt stop in front of the one-eyed witch.

“Voilà!” Fred said, gesturing towards the old crummy statue.

“Fabulous,” Cressida replied sarcastically. “Thank you so much for showing me the same statue I’ve passed every day for the past three years.”

James stepped forward, producing his wand with grandeur.  “Dissendium.”

The hump of the witch slid to the side revealing an opening. Thomas extended an arm towards it. “After you, Knightly.”

Cressida tentatively stepped into the opening and felt her way through the beginning of a tiny dark passage. The three boys piled in after her, lighting up Fred’s wand so they could see. 

“Where does this lead?” Cressida asked as they trudged along.

“Wait and see,” James said, taping the side of his nose. “But you have to do everything we say without question, okay?”

“Okay,” Cressida agreed.

The passageway lasted much longer than Cressida thought it would. It was the longest by far, compared to all the other passageways around Hogwarts.

Eventually, they came to a stop and Thomas took the lead, pushing open a trap door above them.

“Follow our lead,” James said, pulling Cressida up through the trapdoor behind him.

They popped up in a room filled with boxes of all shapes and sizes. “What is this place?”

“That’s a question,” James said. “Now put this over your head and stay quiet.”

Cressida had no choice but to let James drape some old fabric over her body. He reached a hand under the fabric and wrapped it around hers to continue leading her forward. Luckily, the fabric was thin enough for Cressida to see through to walk without relying only on James’ direction. She just hoped it wasn’t thin enough to show that she had gone slightly red. The storeroom was incredibly stuffy, Cressida thought to herself.

The three boys crept forward and came to stop in front of another door. Fred did some very specific secret knock on it and then they waited with anticipation. A second later a matching knock replied from the other side.

“We’re safe,” Fred whispered, pulling open the door just enough for the four of them to sneak through it.

Once on the other side of the door, James quickly pulled the fabric off Cressida, causing her hair to stick up from the static. Frantically, trying to smooth her hair back down she stared around at her new surroundings. There were people everywhere and an incredibly sweet scent wafting through the air.

“Welcome to Honeyduke's,” Fred grinned, gesturing out to the room.

Cressida stared at them in awe. “You mean I’m in Hogsmeade?”

The three boys looked very impressed with themselves. “No, you’re doing homework, remember?” James prompted her.

“Right,” Cressida grinned. “Homework.”

She turned to face the door they had entered through and found Teddy leaning against it, sucking on a lollipop. “Long time no see, Little Knightly,” he greeted her. He walked forward, ruffling the three boy’s hair. “Now if you’ll excuse me from being your accomplice, I have a date to attend.”

“Victoire’s here?” Cressida asked.

“Yeah, she said to give you this.” Teddy flicked two sickles towards her. “Have a Butterbeer on us.”

She caught the money in her hand just as Teddy disappeared into the crowd of the shop.

“Come along, Knightly,” Thomas said, leading her forward then. “You have much to see.”

When they broke out of the shop onto the wizard village street, Cressida felt her cheeks sting from the cold. Snow trickled down and got caught in her eyelashes. She did her coat up, buttons be dammed.

It was better than she imagined. More cosy and quaint than Diagon Alley. She couldn’t believe she’d almost missed out on seeing the beautiful scenery in the snow.

James nudged her shoulder as she stood there staring and alerted her to Molly coming out of The Three Broomsticks across from them. When the ginger witch spotted them, she grinned widely.

“She knew?” Cressida caught on.

“We told her where to meet us and when,” Fred said.

“The old Beebe treatment,” James joked.

“We thought you’d want to spend your first Hogsmeade trip with them,” Thomas elaborated.

“We’ll sneak you back through the tunnel when it’s time to go back,” Fred told her.

Jac and Felix piled out of the pub after Molly, curious at what she was looking at.

“Cressie!” Jac exclaimed running towards her with her arms open. “How did you get down here?!”

Felix was behind her, swooping Cressida into a hug as well. 

“Oh you know,” Cressida smiled, turning in the group hug to see the three boys. “I have my ways.” 

She mouthed a thank you to them. The three boys bowed back at her and then walked off in search of their own entertainment.

 

 

Thursday 7th December 2017

 

The trip to Hogsmead had been just the beginning of the joyful mood as the Christmas season took over the school for the third year in a row.

Snow had engulfed the grounds of Hogwarts and festive cheer had never been higher. There wasn’t a single thing that could dampen the good mood throughout the castle. The trees were brighter. The ghosts were merrier. The garlands were longer.

Everywhere reeked of pine and chocolate.

Felix, as usual, had drunk his weight in hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy canes sticking out of it. The group of Slytherins had made a game of it, guessing how many he would drink until he had to lie down complaining of a stomach ache that he claimed had absolutely nothing to do with the gallons of chocolate-induced drink he had consumed.

The four girls had even decorated their dorm room this year after Jac had convinced Longbottom to lend her a tiny potted pine tree that he was going to dispose of for being too sickly. It stood in an old pot in the corner of the room, dropping brown pine needles all over the floor, and the tip of it dropped over significantly due to the weight of the star they had placed on top of it.

Jac simply refused to remove her comically large Santa hat, even during Quidditch tryouts, which Faro was less than impressed with. She and Felix had managed to scramble together the top one hundred Christmas songs of all time for  The Chatterbox  and both found it hysterically funny when everyone seemed to love  ‘Have a Cheeky Christmas’  by the  Cheeky Girls  more than anything on the list. Apparently, wizards who had never heard the song before found it incredibly catchy and fun to sing at any moment throughout the castle.

Molly and Margo didn’t complain once about Jac repeating the same two Christmas CDs over and over again in their dorm room. Margo had even started singing ‘ Rocking Around The Christmas Tree’  to herself in the shower in the mornings.

“Are you going home for Christmas this year, Margo?” Jac asked as the group walked through the halls to their next lesson.

“I’m staying with Molly at the Burrow,” she answered. “It saves trying to decide whether to spend it with mum or dad that way.”

“So you’re dad’s finally moved out now then, has he?” Felix asked.

Margo nodded, chewing on a candy cane. If Cressida had taken to chewing gum when she was stressed, Margo had taken to eating whenever she was sad, which was a lot. It was also the explanation for why she had put on a few pounds over the last few years, not that any of the Slytherins were willing to point it out. “Yeah. He left last summer and hasn’t been back since by all accounts. Mum says he’s too preoccupied with the other child to care about anything else anymore.”

“What are you going to do this year, Cressida?” Molly asked curiously, changing to move the conversation swiftly on in case Margo upset herself thinking about it.

Cressida gave a shrug. She normally found out on her birthday whether she was going to go home or not for the holidays, not that the others knew that. “I haven’t thought much about it to be honest. I haven’t heard from mum saying to stay or go yet,” she told them.

“Well,” Molly said as they came to a stop outside their Potions classroom. “There’s always my family’s Christmas party on the 23rd if you fancied coming to that.”

“Jac’s already been invited,” Felix chimed in. “She told me yesterday.”

Cressida turned her eyes on Jac. “Who invited you?”

“Fred did last week,” she answered. “But I haven’t said yes yet. I didn’t want to just in case-”

“You don’t have to alter your plans around me, you know,” Cressida told her. “You can go to the party without me if you want to.”

Jac shrugged guiltily. “I was waiting to hear what you were doing. I wanted to make sure you weren’t going to be left alone.”

“Well I’m going, if that helps your decision,” Felix said, taking a candy cane from Margo and gnawing on it for himself. “Dad’s already written to tell me.”

“So you’re  all  going then?” Cressida asked.

The four looked from one another and then back to Cressida. “By the looks of it,” Molly confirmed.

The classroom door opened and Slughorn welcomed all the students in. He had blinking lights wrapped around his pointed hat, resembling a Christmas tree.

Cressida broke away from her friends, leaving the conversation hanging in the air, and walked into the classroom and collected her cauldron, waiting at her desk dutifully. The trio of boys stumbled into the classroom, their usual grins plastered across their faces as they did the same.

“Now, considering it’s the holiday season, in a one-off lesson I will allow you to pair up how you please,” Slughorn told the class. “I want you to try and make the best red or green potion. Can be anything you see fit. Experiment with what is on offer. At the end of the class, we will discuss what you have intentionally or unintentionally made!”

Cressida moved away from her table and approached the three boys. 

“Alright, Knightly,” James grinned at her instantly. “Who has the pleasure of pairing up with you this lesson?”

Cressida looked between the three of them. “Weasley.”

Fred looked slightly shocked. “Well, alright then,” he said, following behind her. He pulled a face over his shoulder to James as the two of them departed.

Once Cressida and Fred were stood over an empty cauldron, Fred leant down on the desk, watching her curiously. “Why’d you choose me?” He asked.

“Bad judgement,” Cressida shot back. When Fred’s eyes did not move away from her, she sighed and started pulling random ingredients towards her, a large majority seemed to be Christmas-themed. Mistletoe berries, holly leaves, figs. “This Christmas party of your family’s… what’s it like?”

“Amazing,” he answered without missing a beat. “You’re on the invite list, just waiting for you to accept.”

“I am?”

“Obviously,” Fred nodded. “You didn’t think we’d leave you out, did you?”

“Why didn’t any of you tell me then?”

“We left it up to Molly,” Fred answered. “James and Wood wanted to send you a proper invite through owl mail, but Molly told them to hang off because of something to do with your mum.”

“Oh, right,” Cressida said. She entertained her hands by ripping apart Valerian sprigs, one of the few normal ingredients available. She hadn’t received a letter from her mum, and after how the summer went, Cressida was more inclined to stay in the wizarding world for just a little while longer before being carted back to Conwell. One day wouldn’t hurt, she told herself. She wasn’t abandoning her mum and leaving her all alone if she was only gone for one day to enjoy a party with her friends. 

She still had her yearly birthday letter to get yet though. That could change things, for the better or worse.

“Well, as it happens, I might be free for your Christmas party,” Cressida said, looking on the bright side for once.

“Good. You staying the week beforehand as well?”

“ Week ?”

“Felix, Jac and Margo are going to be at the Burrow leading up to the party… you might as well be there too. There’s enough room,” Fred explained. “You’ll get the train back with all of us, stay the week and then once the party is done, we’ll pop you back home in time for Christmas Eve.”

Cressida looked down at the table. “I’d have to write to my mum and sort some stuff out first.”

Fred nodded. He leant back on his stool. “Potter!” He yelled. 

James and Thomas broke away from their bubbling cauldron instantly, making their way towards them without being spotted by Slughorn, who was overseeing Felix’s cauldron with concern.

“How may we be of service?” James asked, crouching behind the desk alongside Wood.

“Can Knightly borrow Barnabas?” Fred asked.

“If he’s there, sure.”

“What do you need him for?” Thomas asked.

“She’s writing to her mum to ask about the Christmas holidays,” Fred explained on her behalf.

“Does that mean you’re considering coming to the party?” James asked next, both boys looking towards her expectantly.

“I’ll think about it,” she said, going back to her cauldron.

“Yay!” Jac’s voice rang out then. All four of them turned to see Jac and Molly had snuck up to the other end of the table.

“We just came to check you weren’t saying anything stupid,” Molly said by way of explanation. “But that’s good about the party. I’ll write to Grandmother Molly and tell her to set up an extra bed.”

“Don’t use Barnabas. Knightly needs him,” James said as the four crouching students started making their way back to their respective tables.

Once they were gone, Cressida looked to Fred again. “I can’t afford presents or anything… is that still okay?” She whispered, slightly embarrassed.

“What do we need with presents anyway?” Fred asked in retaliation. “We’d rather you just be there.” He pulled out something from inside his robes and added it to the potion, which had turned a sickly grey colour.

“What’s that?” Cressida asked, watching as the cauldron magically turned into a vibrant green.

“Green food colouring,” Fred answered with a grin. “We were going to dye the water supply, but this seems more appropriate.”

 

Chapter 56: Third Year: Just Turned Fourteen

Notes:

The song Rose-Coloured Boy by Paramore is Cressida's favourite song on the album for a reason ;)

Wednesday 13th December 2017

 

Cressida’s eyes cracked open to find her bed curtains undisturbed. There was light peeking in through the smallest crack in the fabric. It was definitely morning.

The day of her fourteenth birthday. Another year older. She was beginning to wonder when she’d feel different on her birthdays. Surely, at some point, you woke up one morning and just felt older. Apparently, that birthday was not her fourteenth though. Maybe next year.

Voices were coming from outside her curtains.

She shuffled to the end of her bed and poked her head through to see Molly and Jac jump toward the disturbance, Rasper was lounging in Jac’s arms, swatting at the end of her braid.

“Cressie!” Jac exclaimed once she noticed her. Rasper jumped out of her arms at the commotion. “I didn’t expect you up so early.”

“It’s seven. Normally, I don’t have a choice  but  to be awake at seven thanks to you lot,” Cressida replied. “What’re you two talking about?”

“Nothing important,” Molly answered, beginning to get dressed for lessons. “Jac was just asking for some advice on her hair.”

Cressida turned her eyes on Jac. “Your hair?”

“Mhm,” Jac nodded. Her eyes kept darting towards the bathroom. “Wondered whether I should chop it all off or not. I’ve not had it cut since First Year, you see.”

“Me neither,” Cressida said, getting to her feet. “But you can’t do those braids you like with short hair.” 

The door bust open and Felix came hopping in. “Bloody restrictions. I swear if I don’t find an easier way into these sodding dorm rooms soon, I’ll turn myself into a girl full time.”

“At least then people might notice you with us,” Jac teased.

Felix sent her a middle finger as he plonked himself down on the end of Cressida’s bed. “Where’s Misery Margo?” He asked. “I’ve been in here all of five minutes without being shouted at.”

Molly was pulling her socks on. “Got up and left early. It’s the anniversary of her mum’s letter.”

“Right,” Cressida said. She assumed that was something the two girls had been talking about before she woke up. “So is she making today a big deal again?”

“No,” Jac said instantly. “Are you going to have a shower this morning, Cressie?”

“Suppose so,” Cressida said, somewhat unsurely.

“Great, I’ll join you!” Jac said.

Felix’s attention whipped towards them. “I’m aware you two are as thick as thieves but don’t you think sharing a shower is a step too far?”

Jac grabbed Cressida’s hand and started pulling her into the adjoining bathroom. “Obviously we won’t shower at the same time. We’ll take it in turns or something.”

“That’s still slightly weird,” Molly said.

“Margo came in a peed in front of you while you were brushing your teeth the other night,” Cressida pointed out.

Molly turned back to the vanity mirror. “She said it was an emergency.”

“I retract my statement about being a girl if it means watching each other pee,” Felix commented.

Once Jac had firmly shut the door behind the both of them in the bathroom, she turned toward Cressida with a wide smile. “I’m sensing your excuse was not as thought out as the rest of this plan,” Cressida said.

“I thought they’d all be gone before you woke up,” Jac answered. She got on her knees and opened a floor panel Cressida didn’t even realise was loose. From inside it, Jac pulled out a card and a small wrapped present. “Happy birthday, Cressie.” Cressida took to unwrapping the present instantly. It was P aramore’s  newest album  ‘After Laughter’ . “I know how much you loved their songs so I made Nish order you the newest one as soon as it came out and send it over to me.”

Cressida pulled Jac into a hug. “I love it, thank you.”

There was a knock on the door. “Fifteen minutes until breakfast and I don’t hear a shower going!” Molly’s voice called from the other side.

Jac rolled her eyes and stepped out of the bathroom to let Cressida get ready in peace.

Once she had read the card, Cressida placed the Cd safely back in its allocated hiding place for later and then got in the shower.

Stepping out onto the soft shower mat, she wiped the condensation off the sink mirror.

Yep, still the same as always. She used a spell to dry her hair and brushed her teeth while she haphazardly pulled her uniform on and then, just before she turned to leave the bathroom for the day, her eyes drifted to the clutter around the sink.

Hairbrushes, bobbles, various soaps and hair products, wet wipes and lip balm were scattered around at close reach. Mixed in with the usual mess of products this year, however, was the make-up Cressida had used on Jac at Hallowe’en. It was shoved to the side out of the way, meanwhile, the small amount of makeup Margo had accumulated was at the forefront of the over-sink shelf. 

Shrugging to herself, she picked up the strawberry-flavoured lipstick and applied a small amount looking in the mirror. Once she had stared at herself for a few seconds, she used her cardigan sleeve to wipe the pink-toned goop away, deciding against it.

“Stupid idea,” she muttered to herself as she pulled open the door to meet her friends. 

Breakfast had continued on as normal, with the exception of Margo being absent. Cressida ate her hash browns, this year keeping a keen eye out for any owl about to descend on her. Felix shoved huge amounts of food in his mouth and refused to stop talking while doing so. Molly poured them cups of tea and Jac engaged them all in pleasant conversation. If the rest of the day continued on in this way, Cressida thought it'd shape up to be another rather decent secret birthday.

“Where do you suppose Smither’s is sulking?” Felix asked, changing the topic away from the latest newspaper meeting.

“Bathroom probably,” Jac answered. “If she’s not careful she’s going to end up joining Myrtle in there for all eternity.”

“A part of me thinks she wouldn’t entirely be against that idea,” Molly commented. “She’s bound to show up for first lesson though.”

Felix groaned loudly. “Does that mean I have to listen to her moping about her scumbag dad all the way through Ancient Runes?”

Molly sent a sideways glance to Cressida. “If people want to complain about their dads, scumbag or not, I feel as though we should give them the chance to get it off their chests.”

Cressida sipped her tea, sending Molly a pointed look. Subtlety wasn’t her strongest suit.

“Maybe you two should head there now in case Margo’s waiting to talk to you,” Jac suggested.

“That’s a great idea,” Cressida agreed, stabbing her last hash brown with her fork. 

“Is this you two trying to get rid of us for one of your schemes?” Felix asked with a frown. 

“Yes,” Cressida said instantly.

“Fair enough,” Felix nodded. He rose to his feet. “Let us know when our parts come into play. Come along, Weasley.”

Molly looked from Felix to the two girls. She looked like she was about to object for a moment, but then shrugged, getting to her feet as well and following him out of the Great Hall.

Once they were gone, Jac and Cressida turned to each other. “That was almost too easy,” Cressida mused.

“Maybe Molly knows better than to try and stop us now,” Jac offered. “Look, here come the owls!”

Both girls waited for one of the school owls to land on the table in front of her with a package and a card attached from her mum. Cressida thanked the bird this year, wanting to avoid upsetting it for another year in a row, and it flew off again without a fuss.

To her surprise, however, a second bird landed shortly after that one with another package. “Barnabas,” Cressida said, recognising the owl. 

“Who sent him?” Jac asked.

Cressida unravelled the note attached and read it. “It just says from the family.”

“The boy’s family?” Jac frowned. “But they don’t know it’s your birthday.”

Cressida looked over her shoulder towards the Gryffindor table. Beatrix and April sat next to Fred and James this morning, with Thomas Wood looking slightly put out about it. Neither boy was looking back at Cressida or indicating they had anything to do with the owl currently resting in front of them. 

Shrugging, Cressida turned back around and broke off some of her toast for Barnabas before he took flight and disappeared back out the window. She opened up the parcel from the owl first. A packet of green jelly slugs. 

“Aren’t they James’ favourite?” Jac asked, peering over her shoulder. “I don’t see why mind. When I tried them they tasted awfully sour. The red and orange ones are much sweeter.”

“Maybe Potter just has weird taste,” Cressida reasoned. She opened the package from her mother next. Another box of sweets and enough gum to last her the exam season. Perfect. The card was a normal muggle one, depicting the number fourteen in birthday candles. 

There was no note saying her mum had good or bad news. There was no note telling her she could or couldn’t come home. Just a simple  ‘happy birthday, love mum.’

Cressida read the card over again, thinking about the invite to the Potter’s Christmas party.

She hadn’t used Barnabas to send a letter asking to go yet. She had written it out, writing down exactly what she wanted to say, but when she had made the trek up to the owlery to send it off, something in her mind wouldn’t let her. Maybe she did feel bad about potentially leaving her mum alone in Conwell for a week before Christmas. Maybe she was nervous about making the drift between them even bigger. Maybe, somewhere deep down inside her, she felt like she was choosing the Potters over her own mum, and felt terrible about it.

So instead, she had waited until her birthday note arrived. She was hoping her mum would have said to either stay at Hogwarts or go home, making the decision for her.

She had no such luck, but she was grateful for the card and the presents all the same.

Cressida placed all her presents back into the safety of her bag but purposefully left the green jelly slugs out. “Shall we head to Magical Creatures?” She asked Jac. “I reckon Hagrid has something good for us today.”

“ Anything  would be better than Flubberworms,” Jac said as the two girls weaved through the tabled and left the Great Hall.

Once in the corridor, it appeared as though Fred and James had been lingering by the staircase waiting for them.

“Alright, Knightly?” James called when he spotted them. 

“Where’s your fan base?” Jac asked.

Fred grinned. “We told April and Beatrix to wait for us at Hagrid’s. It took some convincing for them to go though. They wanted to walk to lessons with us.”

“Why didn’t you let them?” Cressida asked curiously.

James shrugged. “We always walk with you.” He looked down at the sweets in her hand. “Oh, my favourite! Give us one-”

Cressida pulled them out of his reach. “They’re not for you.”

“What are they for then, Knightly?” Fred asked pointedly, wiggling his eyebrows. He was baiting her.

“No reason,” Jac lied, not realising. “Cressida can eat jelly slugs whenever she likes.”

“Hey, Jamsie,” Fred said then, changing the topic abruptly. “I bet five sickles you can’t beat me down to Hagrid’s with a two-second head start.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” James scoffed. “I’m not going to race you-”

“One,” Fred started counting.

James took off at a sprint instantly, yelling about how Fred couldn’t go until two. Once James was gone, Fred turned to Jac. “You should follow him and make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.”

“Why me?” Jac asked.

“Do you think Knightly will prevent him from running straight into the Hippogriff paddock?”

“Good point,” Jac sighed, taking off after Potter.

Cressida turned to look up at Fred. “I know what you’re doing.”

Fred grinned as the remaining two started making their way through the grounds. “Come on, Knightly. You’ve got to tell him. His owl delivered your birthday present for Godric’s sake.”

“Those sweets were off the family.”

“And James is a part of that family, unfortunately for you,” Fred countered. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“He could make a big deal.”

Fred eyed her up. “Your lot still don’t know, do they?”

“No. Just Jac,” Cressida said, folding her arms across her chest.

Fred pursed his lips just as Hagrid’s hut came into view. “He’s going to find out eventually,” Fred continued, ignoring her question. “He always finds out everything to do with you.” 

“Well, if you keep your mouth shut, he won’t for a long time.”

 

*

 

She’d made it the entire day yet again without anyone suspecting it was her birthday. A few times throughout lessons she thought Jac might have slipped up, or Fred would just come out and declare it to the whole school to spite her.

Margo had been in lessons but was unusually quiet throughout them all. She didn’t even fight back with Felix when he called her a mopey-guts. Molly found this very concerning.

“Just talk to her for me,” Molly asked quietly on their way out of History of Magic. “You can help her.”

“I tried last year,” Cressida answered. “I was shit at it, remember? I can’t even talk about my own dad, never mind hers.”

“I suppose,” Molly sighed.

Felix and Jac came up beside the two girls then. “Please tell me we’re doing something fun this afternoon and not using our precious time trying to cheer up Margo, who is hell-bent on being depressed today?” Felix asked.

“McGonagall and Flitwick were asking people to help decorate the Christmas trees in the Great Hall today,” Jac suggested.

Molly shrugged. “I suppose some holiday cheer before talking to Margo wouldn’t hurt.”

“You two go ahead, Jac and I have stuff to do,” Cressida said. The two Slytherins nodded and started making their way through the corridor.

Jac turned her attention to Cressida. “Didn’t you fancy decorating the trees?”

“Maybe later,” Cressida replied. “I fancied just wandering about for a bit first without having to worry about slipping up.”

“Well,” Jac said, shaking Cressida’s shoulders playfully. “Your wish is my command, birthday girl-”

“ Shhh !” Cressida stopped her abruptly. “Someone could hear.”

“Right, sorry,” Jac whispered. 

The two continued through the hall. “We need to keep it as quiet as possible. Barnabas delivering that package this morning was too close for comfort. That last thing we need is the Gryffin-gang all figuring out it’s my birthday-”

“It’s your birthday?!”

Both girls spun around to see the trio of boys standing directly behind them. Fred was grinning like he had planned this perfectly. Cressida internally groaned while Jac took a step backwards guiltily, hoping to disappear discreetly.

“Happy birthday, Cressida,” Thomas offered quietly. Cressida gave him a small smile of gratitude that was quickly overshadowed by James stepping forward.

“Why didn’t you tell us?!” James asked affronted.

Cressida sighed. The jig was up, much her to own annoyance. “It’s not a big deal. It’s just my birthday.”

“Kept that one quiet, didn’t you, Knightly?” Fred asked smugly. “I’m surprised none of us found out sooner.” 

She glared daggers at him.

“Unfortunately not,” Cressida said. “Now, if you’ll excuse us we have a detention with Longbottom,” she said, reusing her excuse from last year.

“Oh, so do we!” Thomas said cheerfully as the three boys walked ahead.

Jac leant down to Cressida. “Now what?”

Cressida forced herself to keep her face neutral. “Give me a second.”

“Well,” Fred prompted her. “Are you coming or not?”

“Looks like we don’t have a choice,” Cressida said through gritted teeth.

“Great. In that case, after you, birthday girl,” James said, bowing over-dramatically.

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other. Seeing no other option, Cressida followed the group of boys with Jac in toe.

“Wait, we’re actually sneaking  into  detention?” Jac whispered frantically.

“Do you have a better idea?” Cressida countered. Besides, she was intrigued by how Longbottom would react to the situation of them turning up for a detention they didn’t have.

“Men,” James clapped his hands authoritatively. “Into positions!”

Fred and Thomas instantly stepped in front of the two girls. 

“OUT OF THE WAY!” Fred suddenly boomed, causing a path in the hallway.

“BIRTHDAY GIRL COMING THROUGH!” Thomas yelled next.

James took up position behind the two girls, using his wand to cause confetti to rain down over them as they moved through the hall. If Cressida wanted her birthday to be a secret before, it definitely wasn’t now. She was just silently glad they hadn’t tried to carry her on their shoulders.

When they arrived, Professor Longbottom had been incredibly confused when Cressida and Jac showed up to take part in their undeserved detention, insisting he didn’t give one to Cressida and especially to Jac- who was his top student. 

“If you don’t remember issuing a detention, sir, we can just go-” Cressida tried, turning towards the door.

“Hang on, how come you remember giving  us  one and not them?” James asked then.

“I say that’s blatant favouritism,” Fred nodded.

“Yeah, just because it’s Knightly’s birthday doesn’t mean she gets to walk out on us,” Thomas said next.

“Oh,” Longbottom blinked, looking at Cressida just as she had nearly escaped through the door. “It’s your birthday, Cressida?”

After Cressida had confirmed it was, in fact, her birthday, there was no escaping it. Longbottom summoned some tea and biscuits for them all to share in celebration and instead of it being a detention, it turned into a mini tea party, accompanied by the trio of boys singing terrible variations of  ‘Happy birthday’  telling Cressida she smelled like  ‘Hippogriff poo and she looked like one too. ’

James then went on to accidentally eat her entire box of green jelly slugs, making the excuse that he  “just couldn’t help himself” , but then the group found great pleasure in changing the colour of James’ tongue for the next half hour.

Ironically, it was the best and closest thing to a birthday party Cressida had ever had. She only wished Felix and Molly had been present for it. Although, if they had been, she doubted it would have gone so smoothly.

Once the detention was over, running longer than it was supposed to due to the celebration, the trio of boys stuck with the two girls as they walked through the halls.

“So,” James asked. “What’s next on the agenda?”

“What do you mean?” Cressida asked, finishing the last of her sugar quills Fred had offered her.

“Aren’t you having a party or something?” Thomas asked.

Cressida looked at the floor. “I guess that was it.”

“No,” Fred disagreed. “ That  was detention. Come on, Knightly, aren’t you having a proper celebration?”

Cressida set her glare on the trio of boys, a warning not to push the conversation. “Nobody is supposed to know it’s my birthday. So, no, I’m not having a party. I’m not getting presents or anything either-”

“Well, now I feel bad about eating the jelly slugs,” James muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Why don’t we make it up to you? There must be something you want to do?”

“I don’t know, what did you do for your fourteenth birthday?” Cressida asked turning to Wood.

“I flew around on a broom and then stuffed my face with cake,” he answered.

James’ eyes grew wide. “I know  exactly  what we can do-”

“No,” Cressida cut him off. “I don’t want a big fuss before you get any grand ideas.”

“Okay,” Fred said then. “So you’re just going to sit in your common room and waste the rest of your birthday?”

“Pretty much,” Cressida nodded, linking arms with Jac and escorting her away.

 

*

 

Cressida had done exactly as she had told the three boys. She spent the rest of her birthday with Jac, wasting her time eating sweets and listening to her new album in the safety of the secret room. Molly, Felix and Margo had been elsewhere for the remainder of the day, not that Cressida had really minded. She feared if she and Jac had spent the remainder of the afternoon with them in the alcove, they would have slipped up and then everyone would know about her birthday.

“It’s nearly curfew,” Jac said, skipping the tracks until  ‘Rose-Coloured Boy’  played for the seventh time per Cressida’s request. “Shall we head down soon?”

Cressida sighed, blowing a bubble with her gum. She really wanted the hear the song play one more time before she moved. It had quickly become her favourite on the album after the second listen-through. “In a minute, I want to finish the song.”

Jac gave no complaints and the two girls went back to bobbing their heads along to the upbeat song.

'Rose-colored boy
I hear you making all that noise
About the world you want to see
And oh, I'm so annoyed
'Cause I just killed off what was left of
The optimist in me'

There was a pop interrupting the song. “Oh, hello, lovely miss!”

“What is that thing?!” Jac asked, jumping up at the surprise interruption.

“Winky,” Cressida answered, unphased by the sudden appearance of the house elf. 

“I came to give you this, miss,” Winky said, extending an arm out to Cressida. “It’s from the kind sirs again. It took a long time for Winky to find your hiding place, miss.”

Cressida took the note from her. “Sorry, Winky. If I had known you were looking for me I would have gone back to my room.”

“Oh, it’s no bother, miss,” Winky said, waving a frail hand through the air. “I popped into your bedroom first, your little cat wasn’t pleased and your crying friend was quite furious I had interrupted her so I didn’t stay after she threw the book at me but it's alright. Winky found you in the end.”

"Margo threw a book at you?" Cressida asked concerned for the tiny elf.

"Yes, miss. It bonked Winky right on the head," she said, using her fist to re-enact what happened until Cressida stepped in and restrained the elf from hurting herself further.

“What does the note say?” Jac asked then, looking slightly cautious of moving to stand beside Winky.

Cressida opened up the hastily scribbled note.  ‘Meet us in the Astronomy Tower at curfew.’

“They said it was very important you agreed to go before I left you,” Winky said, wringing her hands.

“It’s okay, Winky. You can go and tell them we’ll be there,” Cressida sighed. “Sorry you had to come out of your way.”

“Oh, Winky is glad to be of use to you and the kind sirs,” Winky nodded happily, her large ears flopping comically. “Does the lovely miss want some braids in her hair again?” She asked tentatively.

“That’s okay, Winky,” Cressida said kindly. “Maybe next time.”

Winky gave a small bow and then popped away.

“So you failed to mention the talking sphinx cat,” Jac said once Winky was gone.

Cressida listened as the last of the song played.

'Just let me cry a little bit longer
I ain't gon' smile if I don't want to
I know we all can't be like you
I wish we were all rose-coloured too
My rose-coloured boy'

“Come on,” Cressida said once the song was finished. “We should get going now before Filch starts his rounds.”

“Will this end with broken bones?” Jac asked concerned.

“Probably,” Cressida answered.

The two girls snuck all the way up the Astronomy Tower with minimal interference. It turns out Peeves was messing with sink fixtures in the bathrooms, taking up Filch’s valuable attention.

Jac poked her head up into the meeting location first. “Are you ready for us?”

“Ready,” three voices chorused back.

Jac and Cressida climbed into the space fully then, to see each boy standing with a broom in his hand. “What the fuck are those for?” Cressida asked.

James put his broom between his legs, facing the open window in front of them. “Jump on the back and I’ll show you.”

Cressida shook her head. “There’s no way I’m getting on that-” She was lifted on either arm by Fred and Thomas and plonked indelicately on the back of James’ broom before she could properly refuse. “I told you I didn’t want a big fuss-”

“Keep all comments until the end,” Thomas cut her off, perching on his own broom.

Fred had Jac jump on the back of his broom beside Thomas.

“Ready, boys?” James asked with a grin.

“Ready,” both of them answered.

James crouched down low. Cressida glanced nervously at Jac, who against all odds, looked absolutely enthralled with whatever was about to happen. 

“Go!”

James took off at record speed, flying through the window and out into the cold night air. Cressida had her breath taken away from her and had to latch onto James so she didn’t fall off the back of the broom. She buried her face into his back and wrapped her arms around his waist, not caring about how close she was to him as long as it kept her on the stupid broom.

“This is the worst birthday present ever!” She shouted into his back. It hardly mattered, she suspected he couldn’t hear her over the wind anyway.

James’ back straightened and the broom slowed down significantly. He reached an arm back behind him, to lift Cressida’s head so she could see in front of them. “It’s not over yet.”

Cressida begrudgingly forced her eyes open to see they were soaring above the castle. The lights shining in the windows mirrored the stars shining above them in the black sky. The Black Lake glistened in the darkness and she could see just how big the Forbidden Forest was.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed, amazed by the sight of it all. She’d never seen the grounds from this height before. It really was magical.

Laughter sprung out then, and Cressida’s attention was pulled sideways to see it was coming from Jac, who was laughing as Fred did loop-de-loops with his broom. Thomas followed shortly behind them, showing off his own set of tricks.

“I’m warning you now if you try and pull that shit with me on the back of this thing, I will be the reason for your death,” Cressida warned James once she finished watching them.

“Don’t worry,” James smiled. “I had something else planned for you.”

He turned his broom and started aiming toward the trees. He hovered there for a minute, pulling something out of his robes and waving it in the air.

“Is that a dead rabbit?” Cressida asked, covering her nose. “I was beginning to wonder what that smell was. I just thought you hadn’t showered.”

James continued to wave it in the air, bobbing them up and down on the broom. “Come on, come on…” he was muttering to himself.

“What are you waiting for?” Cressida asked, leaning to look down below them.

A familiar neighing sound rang out and Cressida’s eyes widened as she watched not one, not three, but ten Hippogriffs emerge out of the trees flying towards them. James let the rabbit go and Beebe caught it in her beak elegantly as she continued to fly upwards with her herd.

Within seconds, Cressida and James were flying amongst the creatures through the night air. She could practically reach out and stroke them if she wanted to, but her arms were firmly wrapped around James’ torso to keep her steady.

“Liking it more now?” James asked as he kept in time with the creatures.

Cressida rested her chin on his shoulder, unable to look away from the amazing scenery around her. “Have you done this before?”

“A couple of times,” he grinned. “Uncle Charlie taught us how to do it.”

Cressida settled more into the comfort of the broom and James. “It’s amazing.” ‘ You’re amazing,’  she thought fleetingly. “I can’t pay you back for this in a million years.”

“Who said anything about paying me back?”

“I will,” Cressida said adamantly. “Even if it takes me forever, I’ll pay you back for this.”

“Just do me one thing and we’re even,” James said.

“Anything.”

He glanced back over his shoulder. “Admit we’re friends.”

Cressida turned her grey eyes on him. She could have fought it or denied it. She could have been stubborn and refused, but sat there, looking at James’ small grin amongst the Hippogriffs flying past them and the lights of the castle illuminating them, it hardly seemed worth lying.

“Alright, Potter. I give in. We’re friends.”

James threw both hands into the air rocking the broom so much it threatened to send Cressida plummeting to her death unless she gripped onto him as he let out a loud joyful cheer. James' celebration startled the Hippogriff herd so much that they instantly abandoned their flying and headed back down to the ground with annoyed neighs and whinnies.

James couched back down on his broom and sped up as he looped back around towards their friends. Jac was on the back of Wood’s broom now, and Cressida dreaded to think how they’d managed that without landing first.

“Did she do it?!” Fred called, cupping his hands over his mouth.

James sent them a big thumbs up. “Commence phase two!”

Cressida rolled her eyes but smiled. “What’s phase two?”

James tutted. “So impatient, Knightly.”

He sped up again, forcing Cressida to hold on tighter as they approached the castle roof along with the rest of the group. They all landed on top of Gryffindor Tower, where a plaid blanket was already set up.

“Did you do this?” Jac asked, using her balance to climb off the broom and walk across the slanted tiles.

“You didn’t think it stopped there did you?” Thomas asked. He demounted his broom and led it on the tiles beside him as he sat down. Fred, however, walked to the edge of the roof and dangled a foot off the edge. 

“Careful you don’t fall,” Jac said, watching him.

Fred grinned back at the two girls purposefully, pretending to wobble and lose his balance. Cressida looked away for one second, pretending like she didn’t care if he fell, but then with a yelp, she turned back and he was gone. 

She jumped back to her feet and rushed to the edge, only to see Fred grinning up at her, completely fine.

He was standing on the very edge of a window ledge below them. “That’s our bedroom,” James explained as Fred disappeared into the window. “We came up here most nights during First Year because no one else can get to it.”

Fred reappeared, climbing back up onto the roof with them, something concealed in his jacket. He pulled it out and forced it into Cressida’s hands as she sat on the blanket. 

“It’s fire whiskey,” she said, recognising the bottle now she could get a good look at it.

“Your fourteenth birthday deserves an adequate celebration, does it not?” He countered. 

“You don’t have to drink it, we just figured you might fancy it,” Thomas said. “We wanted to cover all bases.”

Cressida unscrewed the top with a grin and took a large swig. It still tasted as horrible as it did on Hallowe’en, but the burning in her throat was welcomed compared to the cold chill in the air. “Cheers!”

Fred took the bottle next, having a swig for himself. “Happy birthday, Knightly.”

“Happy birthday!” They all chorused back.

“It’s a shame the others had to miss this,” Jac said after a moment, taking her turn with the bottle. 

“They don’t know it’s my birthday, remember?” Cressida said, taking a second swig. “It’d be hard to explain why we were doing this without letting them in on the secret.” She went to pass the bottle to James but he refused, and instead, passed it on to Fred.

“One of us has to keep their wits to fly you two back down,” he explained.

“Can’t we climb in through your window?” Jac asked.

“Sober, maybe,” Fred said, passing the bottle to Thomas. “Drunk and clumsy, not a chance. It took us a while before we figured out how to do with without falling to our deaths.”

“What happened the first time you tried it?” Cressida asked curiously. 

“We had a big blanket. It was a whole thing. Longbottom caught us and nearly killed us,” James grinned.

 

*

 

Hours had passed, not that Cressida cared. She’d spent the entire time sitting on the blanket watching the stars, laughing with her friends, drinking fire whiskey and swapping stories.

It was perfect.

It was  more  than perfect.

Her brain was fuzzy from all the alcohol by this point, but she’d still lasted longer than Jac, who was curled up fast asleep with a second blanket over her on the roof. Thomas had left nearly an hour ago, saying he needed a toilet break and had yet to reappear. Fred had gone to search for him and also failed to re-emerge from the window below.

The sun was beginning to rise now but Cressida wasn’t tired in the slightest. 

With a content sigh, she put her hands in her pockets, leaning back against the tile roof. Her fingers brushed against the two cigarettes she had left over in her jacket from the summer.

She pulled one out, making sure no one else around her could see, and stared down at it. She rolled the thin object between her two fingers, debating what it would be like to light one up and smoke it. There must be a reason everyone back in Conwell wasted their time and money on these things. After all, she had already tried proper alcohol and after a few tries she was beginning to like it, maybe smoking was like that. It wasn’t like her mum could tell her off for trying it given what happened over the summer.

James suddenly stirred and the thought quickly left her mind. She shoved the cigarette back into her pocket for another day.

James rolled over on the roof after dozing off on the plaid blanket beside her. “You’re still awake?” He asked in a deep sleepy voice.

She glanced down at him, the warm fuzzy feeling taking over her whole body. “How could I sleep with a view like this?”

James propped himself up on his elbows, blinking at the rising sun over the Scottish mountains. “You get used to it after a while, I suppose.”

She reached for the bottle and drained the very last drop. 

“James,” she said then, wiping the corner of her mouth. “You have no idea how much yesterday meant to me.”

James sat up fully, nudging her with his elbow. “I live to please.”

Cressida led her head against his shoulder and she felt him go rigid at the unexpected contact. As she sat there, her stomach started doing funny flips and her throat went incredibly dry.

She lifted her head again, sitting upright.

“You alright, Knightly?” James started asking, looking at her concerned.

She turned to face him, her eyelids heavy. His nose was practically touching hers. She couldn't tell who's breath was turning to steam in front of them. It hardly mattered when they were this close. "Yeah, I just-"

She lunged forward, heaving right over the edge of the roof. James moved forward after her, wrapping an arm around her waist to stop her from tumbling off the roof altogether.

Just as Cressida covered her mouth, she saw McGonagall’s face appear from the window below, quickly accompanied by Longbottom’s.

“Shit,” Cressida grumbled, fighting the urge to throw up again.

“Shit,” James breathed, still holding onto her.

McGonagall’s nostril flared. “You five in my office.  Now !”

 

*

 

Two weeks of detention and a stern telling off from both of their Heads of Houses had been given to the group, which would have been bad normally, but was especially bad with four out of five of them suffering with their first hangover and Cressida fighting the urge to puke her organs up every five minutes.

When the two Slytherin girls eventually trudged their way back to their common room, they walked in to find Felix, Margo and Molly pacing in the alcove.

“Where the bloody hell have you been!?” Molly shouted immediately.

Cressida and Jac both winced in pain. “Volume, Mol,” Cressida begged.

Felix got in their faces then. “Fucking hell, are you two drunk?”

“ Were  drunk,” Jac corrected him, holding her head. “This is far less fun.”

“What were you thinking?” Molly asked.

Cressida forced a smile to ease the tension. “It was my birthday… surprise.”

Molly’s face went slack. “Your birthday? This whole time you were out celebrating your  birthday ?”

“More importantly,” Felix started. “You went drinking  without  me?!” 

Margo folded her arms over her chest. “I’m glad I told McGonagall you were missing now.” 

Cressida and Jac both glared at her. “You told McGonagall on us?”

“She went rogue,” Felix explained. “Weasley and I tried to find you ourselves and lost Margo in the process.”

“It did the job, didn’t it?” Margo asked. “We got them back without us getting in trouble.”

“And we got two weeks detention for something we could have gotten away with if it wasn’t for you,” Cressida grumbled.

“By the looks of you, I think McGonagall would have noticed anyway,” Margo quipped back. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get ready for lessons.”

“Holy Krishna,” Jac wailed, resting her head on Felix hopelessly. “Lessons. I forgot about lessons!”

Felix patted her back as they both trudged after Margo. “That’s the price you pay for a good night, I’m afraid.”

Molly sighed, looking at Cressida once the others had gone. “Was it fun… you know, before we accidentally got you caught?”

“There were Hippogriffs and brooms and a lot of fire whiskey,” Cressida answered, smiling at the mere memory of it. “You should have been there.”

Molly put an arm around Cressida’s shoulders, turning her towards the dorm room. “Maybe next year we’ll actually get an invite.”

Chapter 57: Third Year: Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time

Summary:

Cressida spends her first Christmas at the Burrow then returns home to an unsuspecting surprise

Sunday 17th December 2017

 

Shortly after the affair and group effort on her birthday, Cressida had finally sent a letter off to her mum asking about going to theirs over the holidays.

She still had some guilt surrounding the decision, and her mum could always write back and say no, but she had to try.

In fact, if her mum agreed to it, she was rather looking forward to it. Jac would sneak over to her bed late at night and the two of them would talk about what they thought Christmas at the Burrow would be like and whether it would be a big extravaganza like James’ birthday was. All the while, Cressida kept reminding her it wasn’t set in stone she was going, despite Jac’s excitement about it.

“But you have to come,” Jac has insisted late one night. “It wouldn’t be the same without you. Imagine it, Christmas all together with a big massive family. How amazing would that be?”

Cressida’s heart had sunk slightly at the thought of it. She’d never known a Christmas like it, and the way Jac was talking about it, made it sound slightly daunting the more Cressida thought it over. She was used to small Christmas’ with just her mum. Even her Christmas’ at Hogwarts hadn’t been surrounded by family cheer and embellished parties.

As the week drew on, and the more Jac hyped up the family aspect of it all, the more Cressida’s reservations about sending the letter off in the first place got.

However, by Friday, Cressida got her answer on whether she would be attending or not regardless.

An owl had arrived at breakfast, and Cressida had stored it in her bag to open later in the safety and solitude of the secret room.

 

‘Cress,

I’m so glad you’ve been invited to a Christmas party at your friend's house. Of course, you can go! 

If you had any worries about me being on my own, don’t. I’m doing much better now. You’ll see it for yourself when you come home on Christmas Eve. I’ve booked two days off work this year, especially to spend time with you too.

I hope you have a wonderful time with your friends, and I can’t wait to see you soon.

All my love,

Mum xx’

 

That had made the decision for her. She was going, but her nerves as the leaving date for the holidays drew closer didn’t disappear completely. Although, she was slightly glad to hear her mum was doing okay and that she’d booked some much-needed time off for when Cressida went home to her.

Cressida had reread the letter the morning they were departing, just to double check her mum really was okay with Cressida spending a week at the Burrow before coming home. 

Jac poked her head through the bed curtains just as Cressida placed the letter back under her pillow. “Are you all packed? Molly’s already gone after Finnigan.”

Cressida climbed out of her bed and gestured to her trunk already packed with her leather jacket folded neatly on top ready to go at a moment’s notice. “Did it last night when I couldn’t sleep.”

Jac grinned then as Rasper jumped into Cressida’s arms. “Are you excited? I can’t wait to see what Christmas is like with their family. I bet it’s amazing!”

Cressida smiled back tightly. “I guess we’re about to find out.”

The dorm room opened and Margo walked in. “Do either of you fancy doing the shrinking charm?” She asked. “We can’t get all of Felix’s things into his trunk and Molly’s losing her mind.”

“I’ll help,” Jac said, following the other girl out of the dorm room.

Cressida turned back to her bed, dropping Rasper down on it. The kitten ran over to the pillow and crawled under it, re-emerging with the photo of Cressida’s dad in his mouth.

She took the photo from him and stared at it with a sigh. “I suppose I should take this with us, huh?” She asked the kitten. Rasper didn’t answer and instead stared silently up at her. 

Cressida placed the photo safely in the inside pocket of her leather jacket and then headed into the bathroom. She knew she had to ask her mum about the photo eventually, but she really wanted a good Christmas. She worried if she brought up her dad, her mum would go back to working all the time to avoid talking about it. Still, she had a whole week before that happened. She’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

 

*

 

Eventually, once Molly was sufficiently done fussing over all of them packing the appropriate amount of clothes and supplies for the week ahead, the group of five Slytherins departed out into the common room to find Slughorn was already rounding up the First Years ready to walk down to the train.

“It’s not time already is it?” Molly panicked. “But we haven’t even eaten breakfast!”

“I’m sure your Grandmother will make up for that fact once we arrive,” Margo said, lifting her heavy trunk into her arms.

“And  you’re  the one that insisted you had to count out every jumper each one of us packed to make sure we had enough,” Felix said.

“She even assessed our socks to make sure they were thick enough,” Jac chimed in.

“And when you’re all toasty warm without frozen toes you’ll thank me for it,” Molly huffed.

Cressida glanced around the common room and the commotion of people rushing to and fro trying to pack the last of their things for the break ahead. Amongst the group, she spotted Albus and Scorpius sitting in a quiet corner, deep in conversation. Both of them had their trunks beside them. “Are Albie's friends coming to the party?” She asked curiously.

Molly followed her eye line and pursed her lips. “Well, Rose will be there because she’s family… but I’m not sure Uncle Harry is all for the fact Albus has befriended a Malfoy.”

“First Years, if you could follow me down to the train beforehand!” Slughorn called, attempting to round them all up. Albus and Scorpius glanced at the Head of House then back at each other resolutely. Scorpius was the first to move, standing up and grabbing his trunk, offering a timid smile to Albus. Albus followed suit, standing up and following behind Scorpius as they went with the other First Years towards Slughorn.

Shortly after the First Years were gone, the five Slytherins walked up to the Entrance Hall awaiting the trio of boys to come running toward them at any moment.

“Maybe they got caught up with something?” Jac suggested when they seemed to be running late.

Molly frowned. “If there is a prank happening, we’ll know about it soon enough.”

The hall was getting rather crowded now, as people stood around with their trunks awaiting the Heads of Houses to allow the older years to start loading onto the train.

Professor Longbottom came through the crowd, accompanied by his daughter Lana. “Hiya, you lot,” he greeted the Third Years. “You excited about the party this year? Lana can’t wait, can you?” Lana shrank back behind her dad embarrassed but gave a small nod to his question. Longbottom gave her a small pat on the back. “Say,” he said to the group. “Where’re the boys? I’ve not seen them around this morning.”

“No one has by all accounts,” Felix answered the professor.

“Oh,” Longbottom said. “Oh god. I can’t imagine that means anything good-”

“Not to worry, Neville!” McGonagall’s voice called as she descended down the Grand Staircase behind them. “I managed to wrangle them before they could cause chaos this time.” Three heads popped out from behind McGonagall with wide grins. “Longbottom, you and Lana should go ahead before the other years start loading up. Hagrid can take over this lot.”

Neville nodded and followed his instructions leading his daughter away through the crowd with a wave goodbye to the group. “See you at the party!” He called as he left.

“Where were you?” Molly asked the three boys once Neville had fully disappeared.

“Near my office, if you can believe it,” McGonagall said, tutting at the younger boys. “Anyone would think they wanted to get caught this time. Now,” she said, ushering the three boys in line with the Slytherins. “Go and enjoy your Christmas before I tell your family everything you’ve gotten up to this term.”

James looked back over his shoulder as McGonagall turned to leave again. “Professor, wait!” McGonagall paused on the stairs and looked back at them. “Happy Christmas, from all of us.”

McGonagall’s wrinkled face gave way to a smile. “You too, Potter,” she said as she finally turned and left.

“Third Years!” Hagrid’s voice boomed. “Off yer go!”

The group moved forward altogether. “What were you doing by her office?” Cressida whispered to James.

“Left her a present, of course,” Fred answered instead on the other side of her.

“One of those laser pointer toys,” Thomas said. “She’ll have hours of fun with it.”

 

Saturday 23rd December 2017

 

The week had flown by.

Old Christmas songs rang out from the record player that was charmed to never end. They sat in front of the burning fireplace drinking hot chocolate and playing wizard snap. They went sledging down a hill near the Burrow in the snow. They had snowball fights, which got very comparative with the entire family involved, there were bunkers and hideouts and a watch tower, which Teddy presided over, raining terror down on the younger ones threatening to invade him.

They decorated the tree and every room in the house with paper chains, snowflakes and tinsel. Every dessert was Christmas pudding or so sweet Cressida was sure she would return home with three more cavities than she came with. The family all sat snuggled up in blankets and forts, telling stories about their time in Hogwarts and years past. It was like Christmas threw up on them, and Cressida soaked in every minute of it, dreading the end of the week when she knew it would come to an end.

How she thought it would be overwhelming seemed silly now.  This  is what Christmas should be like. She didn’t think she could ever go back to a muted Christmas now, after this. It was addicting, being around the Potters and Weasleys like this. They made Cressida feel like she really belonged there. Like she deserved to be a part of their massive family, and she couldn’t be happier.

She woke up in her sleeping bag in Percy Weasley’s old room where she and the rest of her friends had been sleeping all week. Molly and Margo were still snoring in their shared bed in the corner of the room. Jac’s sleeping bag was stuffed in next to Cressida’s, and Felix made a nest for himself out of blankets and pillows in the bay window, which he was currently threatening to roll out of in his sleep.

She was the first awake. It made a nice change.

Carefully stepping over Jac and pulling on the dressing gown that Hermione lent her, she tip-toed out of the bedroom and started making her way downstairs. On the bottom step, she found Snuffles fast asleep with Rasper nestled under the large dog’s paw. She did her best to jump over the two dozing pets without disturbing them.

It appeared as though the rest of the house was just waking up as well. Harry, Ron and Ginny were settled in the living room under a variety of blankets all talking in hushed voices. They all bid good morning to her as she passed on her way to the kitchen. 

Ginny particularly seemed to have a small smile whenever she caught Cressida wandering around during her stay at the Burrow. It was even worse if she caught her talking to James in a quiet hallway or in the garden. It was like she knew something or expected them to both be up to mischief. Cressida hoped James’ mother didn’t have a bad opinion of her. She always seemed so nice, Cressida didn’t want to do anything to make her think she was a bad influence on her son.

In the cramped kitchen, Molly Weasley was already rushing about, putting on the stoves and pulling food out of the fridge. Arthur Weasley sat at the dining table, reading his newspaper while his wife fretted, running to and fro. Bill and Fleur sat opposite Arthur, watching Molly over their breakfasts.

“Are you sure you don’t want help, mum?” Bill asked.

“No, no,” Molly said, struggling to carry three large pots in her hands. “You sit there and let your mother do it all. Honestly, I never get any help around this house, why start now?”

George appeared in the kitchen, itching the spot where his left ear had once been. He passed his mother and grabbed the pots just as she was about to drop them, plonking them down on the table effortlessly as he took a seat. “Do us a cup of tea will you, mum?”

“What am I, your slave?!” Molly asked, already putting the kettle on. She finally noticed Cressida lingering in the doorway then. “Oh, good morning, dear. Fancy a cup of tea?”

“No thanks,” Cressida answered. Molly looked stressed enough as it was.

As she stood there, someone came up behind her, ruffling her hair as they passed into the kitchen. “You excited for the party tonight, Little Knightly?” Teddy asked. He had Victoire under his other arm as they leaned against the counters together.

“Buzzing,” Cressida answered. Molly walked over and placed a cup of tea in her hand regardless of her answer and then continued fussing about her kitchen. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Ginny walked in then, a cup of tea already between her hands. “You could find my eldest son,” she said to Cressida. “He and the boys weren’t in their room when Harry went to wake them up.”

“Up to trouble already, are they?” Teddy asked.

“At only seven in the morning? I’m so proud,” George smirked.

“They look up to you, you know, George,” Arthur said then, looking up over his newspaper. “You should be a better role model for them.”

“Excuse you, I’m the owner of a highly regarded business amongst the wizarding community,” George replied. “I’ve been referred to as godly before now.”

“Delusional, were they?” Ginny teased.

“Here,” Molly said, plonking a crock-pot into Ginny’s arms. “Make yourself useful and pop this over to Ron’s. Tell Hermione it needs to go in for two hours and a low heat ready for tonight.”

George stuck his tongue out at his younger sister as she begrudgingly apparated away.

“Fleur, sweetie, how are the presents for tomorrow coming along?” Molly asked next. 

Fleur looked up from where she had been doing the crossword with Arthur. “Good. Victoire and Dominique are doing the final little touches.”

Victoire suddenly winced, breaking away from under Teddy’s embrace and snuck out of the kitchen. Teddy and Cressida shared a knowing glance. Apparently, the final little touches weren’t as final as Fleur thought they were.

Once Molly had started dishing out more dishes with instructions on whose house they had to be taken to in order to be cooked, Cressida passed through the kitchen and broke out the back door in search of the trio of boys.

In the garden, Cressida pulled on Wood’s spare pair of wellies to stop her feet from getting wet and hitched up her pyjama bottoms. As she trudged her way through the snow-filled path, at the bottom of the garden on the wall sat Albus, using a dustbin lid as a table.

“Is that one of our quill-pens?” Cressida asked as she approached.

Albus hastily tried to hide the letter he had been writing, having not heard Cressida enter the garden. “No!” He exclaimed. Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “Yes,” he sighed, relaxing again. “James has a bunch lying around all the time so I nicked one. They’re quite handy.”

“They were my idea,” Cressida boasted. Albus looked mildly surprised by the fact. “Who are you writing to?”

Albus’ shoulders sagged as he wiped the snowflakes away from his penmanship. “If you must know, I’m writing to Scorpius to try and convince him to come tonight… he won’t though. Some stupid thing with our dads keeps putting him off.”

“The fact they hated each other?”

“How’d you know?”

“James told me,” Cressida shrugged.

Albus nodded distantly. “Well, don’t let me keep you. I’m sure you and my brother have some fun thing planned elsewhere.”

Cressida opened the gate and walked through. “Hey, Albie,” she said before she disappeared. “You should still be at the party tonight with everyone. It’ll be fun.”

Albus looked back over his shoulder at her. “I’m the elephant in the room. No one’s mentioned the Slytherin thing to me since coming home. It’ll just make everyone uncomfortable.”

“They’re your family,” Cressida told him. “And besides, you’ll be in a room with at least five other Slytherins. Some wise girl once told me that Slytherins stick together, so you have to come for our sake.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Cressida nodded.

Albus looked back at his letter. “It’s just a shame there won’t be seven Slytherins at the party tonight.”

“Maybe one day there will be,” Cressida said as she kept moving forward.

It was only a short walk before she found the trio of boys, all bundled up in woollen scarves and hats, rummaging around in what looked like an abandoned work shed. Three snowmen stood outside, seemingly depicting each boy. Wood’s was by far the smallest and they’d used leaves to mimic his curly hair.

Peeking her head inside, Cressida knocked on the rickety wooden door to alert them to her presence. All three boys spun around instantly, clearly trying to hide something large behind them.

“Knightly!” James jumped. He glanced down. “Nice pyjamas by the way. Big fan of sheep, are you?” He teased which was met with a glare from her.

“Wood, you were supposed to be on the lookout,” Fred told the smaller boy.

“I got distracted,” Thomas defended himself.

Cressida gained a small smile. “What’cha doing?”

“Nothing,” James said, obviously lying. He leant back on something that was covered with a large white tarpaulin. “What makes you think we’re up to something?”

“The fact you’re trying to act innocent.”

“That’s a fair judgement,” Fred conceded.

“You promise you won’t tell if we show you?” Thomas asked, turning his brown eyes on her.

“WOOD!” Both boys rounded on him.

“Oh, come on,” Thomas rolled his eyes. “We know she’s going to make us crack eventually. This way just speeds up the process.”

James and Fred looked at each other, and then after a moment, gave a curt nod. “Come in and shut the door behind you,” James said.

Cressida followed her instructions and stepped fully into the shed. It was incredibly old and over-cluttered with random objects. Gas canisters, measuring blocks, tools, spider webs, wheels, planks, sofa cushions, dining chairs, light fixtures, and license plates. Broken and hastily repaired wands scattered the worktops. It was like a hoarder’s paradise.

But the thing that took up the majority of the space in the old shed was whatever was under that tarp in the centre.

On the count of three, Fred and James pulled it back to reveal it was a partly demolished and rusted car. One of the headlights was smashed, a door was missing, the roof was ripped to shreds, and the paint job was practically non-existent. It looked as though a small ecosystem had taken up shop on the interior of the car.

“Is that a Ford Anglia?” Cressida asked, running her finger along the dusty bonnet. An old woman used to park one outside her block of flats when she visited her crackhead son. The wheels got stolen and Cressida never saw her again after that.

“Yeah,” James said. “But it’s kind of dead compared to what it used to be.”

“Teddy found it in the Forbidden Forest in his final year and hauled it back here without Arthur seeing it,” Fred explained. “It was just sat there under a tree. He apparently had to fight a family of gnomes out of it.”

“Why would he go through all the trouble for this piece of crap?” Cressida asked, peering inside the car. She lifted her eyes to the three boys with a knowing glare. “There’s some ridiculous, long-winded story to do with your family, isn’t there?”

“Hey, she’s catching on,” Thomas smiled.

“Granddad Arthur built the car himself,” James went on to explain. “It used to fly and gained some sort of sentience during my dad’s Second Year.”

“Saved him and Uncle Ron from that spider we told you about too,” Fred added on. “But after that, it kind of just lived in the forest and nobody went back in to get it.”

“So what are you planning to do with it?” Cressida asked.

“Build it back up,” James said. 

“Or revive it, more like,” Fred re-worded.

“Our working theory is that Arthur’s magic is still on the car itself, but the forest and wear and tear destroyed it so much it needs a little help to get moving again,” Thomas explained.

Cressida turned her eyes back on the three boys with amusement. If there was something they thought they couldn’t do, they hadn’t found it yet. “And what do you know about fixing up a car?”

“Well,” James started. “There’s always books and… stuff.”

“We can’t ask Arthur,” Fred said then. “He’d let slip to Grandma Molly and then we’d be grounded for the rest of our lives for bringing it back here.”

“And Teddy says it’s our problem if we want to fix it up,” Thomas sighed. “He didn’t think it was worth it to do it himself. He just thought it should be back in the family’s possession.”

“Right,” Cressida said, turning towards the door. “Well, you three enjoy your little project. I’m going back to the house where people know their limits.”

“Knightly, wait!” James said, running out of the shed after her. “You’re definitely coming to the party tonight, right?”

“Considering I’m still at your house, yes, I’m still going.” 

“Good,” James smiled. “We’ll see you there then.”

Cressida narrowed her eyebrows in confusion at his odd manner. “Okay,” she said, turning back towards the house to get ready for the party. “See you there, I guess.”

 

*

 

At six o’clock sharp, people started descending on the Burrow in the same magnitude as Potter’s birthday.

If she had expected everyone to be wearing their best party clothes, she was sorely mistaken. When Cressida and her friends walked down from getting ready in their designated bedroom, they all looked around to see who had already turned up.

“Why is everyone wearing knitted jumpers with letters on?” Jac whispered to Cressida.

“Maybe it’s some sort of family cult thing,” Cressida shrugged.

“Ugh, my mum is here,” Margo muttered, pointing out a dignified-looking witch who was talking to Molly’s mother. She looked far too overdressed in a long flowery dress compared to the rest of the guests. 

“You lot go ahead, I have to find my grandmother,” Molly said, breaking away from the group. Felix and Margo were quick to join in the party and get lost in the crowd, leaving Jac and Cressida to stand there on the bottom step overlooking everything.

She glanced around the party.  ‘I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday’  was blasting from the record player as people danced and laughed together. People were pulling wizard crackers left and right, enjoying their presents from inside and passing around the paper hats. Longbottom and Lana seemed to be doing some sort of impromptu jive together. Harry and Ginny pecked each other under the mistletoe hanging down from a pole Teddy was carrying around while dressed as a sexy Santa. Victoire followed behind him dressed in a matching Mrs Clause costume- something Bill looked slightly unhappy about as he kept trying to wrap a blanket around his daughter’s shoulders every time she passed by him.

Felix was now standing with Seamus and Dean talking to Ron. As Seamus put his drink of fire whiskey on the table behind them, Felix quickly swooped it up and started drinking it, hoping to not get caught by the three adults surrounding him.

Lily-Luna and Hugo were chasing behind Snuffles, trying to convince him to put on a Santa hat, Rasper ran after the two of them, dawning jingle bells around his neck. Rose and Roxanne were passing around bowls of sweets to everyone. Dominique and Louis seemed to be telling Hermione and Fleur all about their studies at Beauxbatons Academy.

Cressida thought it would never cease to amaze her watching their family interact with each other like this.

The party raged on as expected, and there was so much happening at any one time it felt impossible for Cressida to catch everything. Siblings had gone outside to play fight in the snow, accompanied by their parents doing the same thing. Molly and Arthur sang songs on the piano and slow danced to Doris Day’s ‘ Winter Wonderland’ . 

Jac was trying to teach a large amount of the family how to do the dance to ‘ Saturday Night’  by  Whigfield . George constantly refilled everyone’s cups before they had a chance to get empty, claiming that if they had an empty cup they weren’t partying properly. Margo’s mother had since left the party missing out on all the fun, claiming she had other business to attend to and tried convincing Margo to leave with her. Margo ended up staying, but was in a rather non-talkative mood after that and disappeared elsewhere. 

Meanwhile, Teddy was attempting to get the most random people to kiss under his mistletoe pole. He’d caught Harry and Luna Lovegood, Ron and Seamus, and Felix and Victoire, each of whom gave a respective kiss on the cheek to the other. That was until he dangled the pole over Ginny and Hermione, which resulted in Ginny grabbing Hermione by the face and jumping on the unsuspecting woman with loud cheers from the onlookers all in good fun. 

“Don’t be such a tease, Ginny,” Hermione laughed once Ginny had released her. “You know Ron gets jealous.”

“I wish I had some bleach,” James heaved as he watched with the rest of the party.

“You and me both,” Albus said, appearing beside him out of nowhere.

Halfway through the party, once everyone was sufficiently drunk, including Felix simply through sneaking everyone else’s drinks, George had started up some sort of drinking game where people had to name as many Christmas-related words as possible. This lasted for well over an hour and got everyone involved.

“ Psst! ” Cressida turned to see Molly II lingering on the stairs, trying to coax her up them. Her party outfit was now covered by a green knitted jumper with the letter M on the front.

“They have a surprise for you,” Albus said, once again appearing out of nowhere, drinking a hot chocolate.

“Like a present?” Cressida asked nervously. It was bad enough the whole family had let Cressida stay in their house and eat their food for nearly a week. If they suddenly started giving he gifts as well, she’d never be able to repay them.

Teddy appeared then, wrapping an arm loosely around Cressida’s shoulders, causing Albus to immediately leave. He was now wearing a bright yellow jumper on top of his Santa shorts, and Victoire stood nearby dawning a purple jumper covering her dress in nearly its entirety. “Don’t panic, Knightly. This isn’t some weird blood pact.”

“Are you in on it then?” Cressida asked.

Victoire started pulling Teddy away by his arm. “It’s a family thing. Just trust us,” she smiled at her.

Once they had disappeared Cressida glanced back out at the party surrounding her. Felix and Jac were doing the chicken dance and laughing loudly with each other. Margo sat in the armchair near the window, staring at the record player spinning around and around. She wondered whether her three friends had already had their surprise or if it was just her getting one.

Taking a deep breath, Cressida climbed the stairs.

She eventually found Molly waiting for her outside of the room the three boys were staying in. “What took you so long?” She asked once Cressida was standing in front of her. “Come on, we’ve got something for you.”

“So I’ve heard,” Cressida muttered as Molly pushed the door open and pulled her inside.

Inside the room, Cressida was surprised to see it had been completely transformed into a massive den made of blankets and sheets. Molly led her through the maze of pegs and fishing wire holding up the structure, and when the two girls ducked under a floral bed sheet, they seemed to break into where the three boys had actually been sleeping all week. Three bare mattresses all pushed together on the floor surrounded by lamps, sweets and various notes on parchment. One note was pegged to the sheet walls, and all it said was  ‘Stink. Need more of it. Think James after Quidditch practise.’

Cressida decided against asking questions and instead turned to face the three boys who were sat in a line on the furthest mattress wearing bright red jumpers with their first initial stitched on the front. “Welcome to our den, Knightly,” James greeted her diplomatically.

“Glad to be here,” Cressida replied, kneeling down on the middle mattress in front of them. “I assume I’m here for a reason.”

“You are indeed,” Thomas nodded.

“May we present to you… your Christmas present,” Fred said, setting off a party popper for extra flair.

Molly rolled her eyes and placed a brown package in Cressida’s lap. “We know sometimes your mum struggles to get you stuff, and we really wanted you to have a decent Christmas, so we all pitched together and got this done for you.”

Cressida took a deep breath and started opening the parcel only to find it was a knitted sweater made of every colour yarn, with a slightly crooked yellow C on the front.

“You did this for me?” Cressida asked, running her thumbs over the fabric as she held it.

James’ face fell at her less than enthusiastic reaction. “Oh, Merlin. Fuck, she hates it!” He panicked.

“I told you it was too much,” Fred said next. 

“It took me ages to find all that spare wool and get it to Victoire in time,” Thomas muttered.

Molly placed a hand on Cressida’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Cress. I really thought you would have liked it-”

“Is it made out of leftover wool from all your jumpers?” She sniffed.

The four cousins all looked guiltily down at the jumpers they were currently wearing. “It was the best we could do on short notice. Grandmother Molly’s hands aren’t what they used to be so we all chipped in and did a few rows,” James started saying. He stopped abruptly when he saw the tears in Cressida’s eyes. “Shit. No. Don’t cry, please don’t cry-”

“We’ll destroy it,” Fred jumped in. “Wood, get the blow torch!”

Thomas reached under a pillow and produced the blow torch within seconds, lighting it up.

“No, no, it’s okay,” Cressida said, lowering Thomas’ hand. “I like it. Really. Thank you… I just… I can’t take it.”

“You have to,” Thomas said, discarding the blowtorch. “It was made for you.”

“But I’m not a part of your family,” Cressida shook her head, trying to hand it back. “Not really.”

“It’s a present,” Molly said, placing it firmly back in Cressida’s lap. “Nothing more, nothing less. We just wanted you to have something you could keep.”

Cressida sniffed again, trying to blink away the tears. “Thanks.” She hated the fact they were all watching her. “I’m going to go get some tea. Thanks again,” she said over her shoulder as she crawled out of the den.

 

Sunday 24th December 2017

 

The party had eventually finished about two in the morning with wizards popping away or dropping where they stood. Cressida, since receiving her gift, hid out in the kitchen watching various drunk wizards come and go. She spoke and laughed at their Christmas cracker jokes and pretended everything was fine, all the while she held the jumper between her hands in her lap. She never loosened her grip on it as though it might spring to life and run away from her if she took her eyes off it for one second.

At around four, once most people were snoring their heads off or had disappeared to their designated bedrooms, Cressida remained in the kitchen, sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and her toes dangling off the edge of one of the dining room chairs. Snuffles lay asleep under the table, a party hat loosely fallen around his neck. Rasper was asleep in the fruit bowl.

She heard footsteps and Cressida lazily lifted her eyes to see George Weasley entering. He moved and leaned back against one of the counters facing Cressida as he sipped on some water from the tap. He still had a fake elf ear stuck to the left side of his head from the party.

“Sorry,” Cressida said. “I didn’t think anyone else would be up.”

“You got your present then?” He asked, nodding his head towards it curled up in her lap.

“Oh, yeah,” she said quietly. “I really liked it. Thank you-”

“Save it, kid,” George said softly. He pushed a mince pie across the table towards her. “I know that look when I see it. Harry used to get the same one when he was little. You don’t owe us anything for this.”

Cressida frowned. “I should though-”

“Nah,” George shook his head. “The way I see it is we’re a big family of idiots. One more added to the pile wouldn’t hurt. Take the gift and run with it. You’ll regret getting it soon enough anyway,” he said walking to the door. “They itch like a bastard after the first wash.”

Cressida was left alone in the kitchen once more.

 

*

 

By ten o’clock the next morning, the three Slytherins returning home were all supposed to be packed up and ready to be teleported back to their actual homes. Cressida still had yet to get up from the dining chair. She didn’t really have to re-pack, she never emptied out her trunk in the first place. The only thing she had to do was brush her teeth, grab Rasper and be popped back to Conwell where her mother was waiting for her.

Her grip on the jumper tightened even more as she watched the clock ticking by.

“Hey,” Jac smiled, coming into the kitchen first thing in the morning. “It’s Christmas Eve.”

Cressida nodded. “It is.”

Jac took the chair facing her. “Are you looking forward to spending it with your mum?”

“Yeah,” Cressida answered. “What about you?”

She smiled, picking at an orange left on the table. “Nish and I always open one present tonight and the rest in the morning. It’s a stupid little tradition, but I like it.”

“Sounds nice,” Cressida said, resting her chin on her knees. “Are the others awake yet?”

“Margo’s refusing to get out of bed. She says because  she  doesn’t have to leave, there’s no point getting out into the cold.”

“And where’s Felix?”

“Currently running around upstairs with Margo’s duvet,” Jac laughed.

The rest of the family started waking up and entering the kitchen in drips and drabs then. Jac had disappeared again to help finish packing alongside Molly. Apparently, Felix was just as disastrous packing up to leave the Burrow as he was packing up to leave Hogwarts. Most of the adults came in holding their heads and requesting large amounts of coffee and cold water. Teddy and Victoire were especially sluggish, with Victoire still wearing her Santa outfit as she jingled into the kitchen miserably.

“No more fire whiskey,” she muttered, banging her head against the table.

Teddy gave an intelligible grumble, then painfully lifted his head. “If you’ll all excuse me I’m going to go throw up in a bush now,” he said, disappearing out the back door.

“I blame Teddy,” Ginny said, holding a wet tea towel over her head as she took a seat. “It was his idea to start doing the shots.”

“No one said you had to do them with him, Gin,” Ron said, getting a cup of coffee for both him and Hermione.

“I couldn’t just let everyone else have the fun,” Ginny conceded.

“That’s the sister I know and love,” George said, stealing her cold tea towel for himself as he passed.

“Hey, mum, did Charlie turn up in the end?” Bill asked, throwing a blanket over Victoire as she lay slumped over on the dining table. She didn’t protest this time.

“Stuck in Romania, love. Bad weather meant he couldn’t fly over,” Molly answered. She and Arthur seemed to be the only ones not suffering from a hangover, and took to preparing everyone a large fry-up breakfast whether they wanted it or not.

“Come and get it while it’s hot!” Arthur called, loud enough for the whole Burrow to hear. It was not met with gratitude.

“Cressida, dear, take this down to the boys will you?” Molly asked, piling sausages and toast onto a plate. “I think they’re down by the shed.”

Ginny turned her eyes towards them suspiciously. “What would they need from the shed?”

Harry entered then, stealing one of the sausages from the plate Cressida was now holding. “I asked them to go to and search for the sledges the other day. They must have found something that took their interest.”

Ginny didn’t look entirely convinced but once her breakfast was placed in front of her she quickly lost interest.

Cressida held the plate in one hand and her jumper in the other and took her leave through the back door. As soon as she stepped out into the cold, she saw Teddy slumped over on the back doorstep cuddling a wellie. He lifted his head slightly when he felt her presence. “Don’t tell Harry but I threw up in his favourite wellies.”

“Want a sausage?” She offered him.

Teddy reached up and took the whole plate from her instead, munching on them before she could protest. “You’re an angel, Little Knightly. I’ve said it from day one.”

Cressida’s mouth twisted into a smile as she continued on through the garden, leaving Teddy to gorging on his stolen breakfast.

Once she had broken out of the gate and was starting the trek through the muddy grass and last bits of snow, the shed came into sight. There were more snowmen standing guard outside it now, practically the whole family. The one resembling Molly was perfectly made with a green embellished scarf, giving Cressida a sneaking suspicion Molly had made it herself.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled the multicoloured sweater on over her head and approached the door.

She pushed it open and leaned against the frame, waiting for the three boys to notice her. They all had their backs turned, staring thoughtfully at the broken-down car in front of them.

“I reckon when it’s done we should paint it red,” James was saying.

“Or,  or ,” Thomas said excitedly. “We could make it look like the car from Grease. I watched it once with my sister over the summer. It was very good.”

“Yes, let’s just walk around in leather trousers and start singing while we’re at it, shall we?” Fred mocked.

James shrugged. “I’m up for that plan.”

“You in leather trousers doing a Danny Zuko is something girls would pay good money to see, Potter,” Cressida spoke up. 

All three boys whirled around to face her. 

“You’re wearing the jumper?” Thomas noticed.

“I am.”

“You decided you like it then?” James asked, breaking into a smile.

“It’s alright,” she replied, matching his smile.

Fred smirked at her knowingly. “You love it, don’t you?”

Cressida rolled her eyes and moved forward, avoiding the question. “I just came by to say goodbye. We’re going to be leaving soon.”

“Oh,” James’ face fell slightly. “Right, well… see you back at Hogwarts, Knightly.”

Cressida nodded, looking down. “Yeah… yeah, I’ll see you in a week, I guess,” she said turning back towards the door. She paused for a moment, cursing herself, before turning back around. “If I do this, we never speak of it again, deal?” 

Thomas furrowed his brow. “Do what?”

Cressida took a step forward and opened up her arms, keeping her eyes firmly on the ceiling.

Fred’s grin widened significantly. “Are you offering us a hug, Knightly?”

She turned her glare on him. “You have five seconds to accept it, or I’m leaving and you’re never getting this chance again.”

Thomas was the first to move forward at an immense speed, wrapping his arms around her in a hug that caused her feet to lift off the floor momentarily. Next came James, joining the hug on the side, and then Fred, who towered all three of them and had arms long around to encase them all.

“Happy Christmas, Knightly,” James said. His face was inches above her own as she was crushed under the body weight of the three boys.

“Yeah, you too,” she croaked out. After a few more seconds, she squirmed her way out of the hug and moved back to the safety of the door. The three boys remained watching her. “As I said, we never speak of this.”

“Tough luck,” Fred smiled. “It’s going in Jamsie’s diary as soon as you’re popped back home, ain’t that right, Potter?”

James hit Fred on the shoulder in retaliation.

“Brilliant,” she sighed as she finally turned and left.

 

*

 

As soon as Cressida had returned from the shed, Molly was rounding everyone up to be sent home. Felix had left with Seamus and Dean. Fleur had apparated away with Jac, and Arthur had offered to return Cressida home.

Once they both popped in under the graffitied  ‘No Balls ’ sign, Arthur looked around the empty street curiously. “Hmm, so this is Wales nowadays,” he said. “Not as many sheep as you’d expect.”

He then offered to walk Cressida right up to her door but she’d refused, saying she could manage it from here. She thanked him and then watched him apparite back to the Burrow.

A part of her wished he had taken her back with him, but she knew she had to see her mum. She couldn’t leave her on her own for longer than she already had. It was too selfish, especially after what had happened in the summer.

She looked across the street to her block of flats looming over her. There was no snow in Conwell. Just brown sludge lining the pavements and melted crude snowmen in the parking lot outside the flat.

“Home sweet home,” Cressida muttered as she heaved her trunk up the stairs to the third floor.

Just as she reached her front door, Rasper’s head popped out of the hobo bag and he gave a chirp. Thinking nothing of it, Cressida went to get her keys out, only to find the door already unlocked.

“What the fuck?” She muttered, pushing the door open and walking in.

Once inside the flat, Cressida heard noises coming from the living room, and when she rounded the corner she found her mother kissing a man on the sofa and laughing with him. It wasn’t Gareth, she knew that for a fact. For starters, this new guy had hair, a weird ginger colour of hair, but still hair, and a beard. 

“Cressida!” Alice jumped when she finally spotted Cressida standing there. Rasper abandoned the hobo bag and jumped to the floor, pouncing on the pair of work boots near the kitchen door.

Cressida’s grey eyes bore into the man currently trying to sink into the sofa cushions. “What the  fuck ?!”

“Cressida, sweetie, I can explain-” Alice panicked, jumping up. She was wearing her pyjamas. The fancy ones. Had he slept over? “This is Dayle.”

“Dayle?” Cressida repeated. “Who the fuck is  Dayle ?!”

Dayle gave an awkward wave. “Hiya, nice to meet you-”

“Don’t  hiya  me, you’ve been violating my mother!” Cressida snapped.

Alice grabbed Cressida by the shoulders and started steering her into the kitchen. Once the door was shut, Cressida moved to the furthest point, leaning back against the counter while her mother blocked the doorway. 

“You failed to mention our new house guest, mum,” Cressida started calmly, despite feeling anything but calm. “What’s this one’s problem? Drug abuse? Domestic violence? Crippling debt like Gareth? A drunk? Oh, wait, Gareth was that one too. Come to think of it, there wasn’t one Gareth didn’t do-”

“Would you just listen?” Alice asked, stepping forward. “He’s not like Gareth. He’s been helping me with the crap Gareth left behind after I chucked him out. He’s lent me money to get rid of the debt problems… he’s not like the others, Cress. He’s a good one.”

“A good one?” Cressida asked doubtfully. “You’ve said that before.”

Alice stared down at her daughter desperately. “I mean it this time. I’m happy. Just give him a chance?”

Cressida stared at her mother for a long time. Her face had aged since the summer, she thought despairingly, but her hair was curled. She was making an effort. Breaking the eye contact, Cressida passed Alice and walked back out into the living room. Dayle was still sitting on the sofa, but he was currently trying to fight off Rasper who kept pouncing on his shoes as he attempted to pull them on.

She sat straight-backed in the armchair opposite Dayle, eyeing him up as he looked towards her. Alice lingered in the doorway, biting her nails nervously. 

“How old are you, Dayle?” Cressida asked.

“Um, I’m- I’m thirty-eight.”

“Do you live in Conwell?”

“My parents are from the next village over,” he answered.

“Do you smoke?” Cressida continued to ask. “Drink? Drugs?”

Dayle was starting to look very uncomfortable, sending glances to Alice. “I drink and smoke yeah. Don’t do much drugs anymore though, not since I was about your age-”

“I’m fourteen,” Cressida told him.

“Oh, Alice made you sound a bit older,” Dayle admitted. “She’s spoken loads about you, mind,” he said then. “Couldn’t wait to meet you when you came home for the holidays. I even got you a little something, considering I was intruding on your Christmas and all.”

Cressida’s brow furrowed as she watched Dayle grab something from behind the sofa. He extended a small wrapped present towards her.

Sceptically, Cressida took the present from him and opened it up. Once she’d removed the Christmas-themed paper, she found an eye shadow palette and a pair of fluffy socks.

“You don’t have to use it if you don’t want but my niece said that’s the kind of thing girls liked,” Dayle continued. “I wanted to make a good impression.”

Cressida turned her eyes back on Dayle, keeping her face straight. “What do you do, Dayle?” She asked.

“Um,” Dayle flustered. “I’m a mechanic down the garage.”

Cressida’s interest was piqued ever so slightly. “A mechanic for cars and stuff?” He gave an unsure nod. She glanced at Alice standing in the doorway. “Fancy a cup of tea, Dayle?”

“You what?” Alice asked, surprised by the offer.

“A cup of tea,” Cressida repeated. “You two pop the kettle on and then we can watch a film or something.”

Dayle and Alice shared a glance, and then Dayle shrugged. “I can never say no to a good cuppa,” he said, getting to his feet and walking into the kitchen. Alice gave Cressida one last odd glance before spinning around and following behind Dayle.

Once both of them were out of sight, Cressida upturned the sofa cushion and stuck her hand under it. There were far fewer red labelled letters under the sofa compared to the summer, but the cigarettes had remained the same. Shuffling through the letters quickly, Cressida finally plucked out one with a red Hogwarts seal.

Her permission slip.

Alice must have seen the red and immediately discarded it along with the rest of the bills.

“Cress, honey, how many sugars do you want!?” Alice called from the kitchen.

Cressida shoved the envelope into her back pocket and walked into the kitchen to help make the tea.

Chapter 58: Third Year: R.J. Lupin

Saturday 6th January 2018

 

Cressida, much to the surprise of even herself, had the best Christmas in years. Between the first week at the Burrow and the second half spent with her mum and Dayle, she had no complaints. Dayle was the polar opposite of Gareth. He was nice and funny and didn’t start drinking until the evening. He cooked and helped clean the flat. He let Rasper climb on him while they sat watching movies, and best of all, he liked music.

Whenever she’d wander out to sit on the sofa, Dayle would be flicking through the music channel or playing songs on the radio or listing off the best guitar solos in songs.

It was nice to actually have a decent conversation with one of her mum’s boyfriends for once. Not only that, Alice seemed genuinely happy too. She smiled and sang along with the songs and cooked pancakes with extra syrup like she hadn’t done in years. It was like all of a sudden the mum Cressida remembered had come back.

One night towards the end of the holidays, Cressida held the photo of her dad in her hands in her bedroom. She’d been debating finding a quiet moment with her mum to ask about him, to find out the truth of what happened or even get a name, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t bring herself to upset her mum when she was so happy. 

Showing her mum that photo could ruin everything that had happened over the last week and send them spiralling back into what it was like in the summer. How could Cressida do that to herself? How could she do that to her mum?

“But you can’t go on not knowing!” Jac had whispered, sitting opposite Cressida on her bed late one night once they had returned to Hogwarts.

“Honestly, Cressida, you should have asked her,” Molly agreed earnestly. “Who knows what your dad could be up to right now?”

“Probably ruining someone else’s life,” Cressida had replied. “Besides, I didn’t want to know over Christmas. The time wasn’t right.”

“The time will never be right,” Felix had chimed in. He was led beside Cressida on the bed, having snuck into sleep again. 

“Don’t you have your own dorm room to be in?” Cressida shot back at him.

Apparently, Teddy had given him the secret method to sneaking into the girl’s dorm rooms without the use of the  Leviosa  spell during the Christmas party and he intended to use it every night until they left Hogwarts. 

He’d strolled in one night as a surprise and found the three girls looking at the picture of Cressida's dad together. After that, they caught him up to speed, and to Cressida’s surprise, he didn’t have a joke to make about the situation.

“Felix is right though,” Molly said, continuing the conversation along.

“That’s a first,” Jac teased quietly.

“Listen, Knightly,” Felix said authoritatively. “You had a good break. Your mam’s happy. You got that weird jumper you now refuse to take off-” At this, Cressida fiddled with the hem of the multicoloured jumper she was currently wearing protectively. “Everything seems grand now. But in the back of your mind, you’ll always be wondering about your dad. You have to ask her.”

“I will,” Cressida conceded. “Just in the summer once she’s more settled with Dayle or something.”

“This Dayle seems nice,” Jac said then, lightening up the conversation slightly. “You haven’t complained about him yet, which is a good sign.”

“Yeah,” Cressida nodded. “He’s actually pretty decent. Showed me around the garage and how to check the oil in cars and stuff.”

“Why the sudden interest in cars?” Molly asked.

Cressida shrugged. “It’s always good to know these kinds of things.”

 

Wednesday 17th January 2018

 

Molly and Cressida had been making their way through the halls together on their way out of Muggle Studies. 

“I’m just saying, it’s not exactly fair we all know and Margo doesn’t,” Molly was saying quietly. Ever since Felix had found out about the photo of her dad, Molly had been trying to advocate for Margo to know as well.

“I don’t trust her not to blab.”

“She wouldn’t,” Molly said surely. Cressida sent her a sideways glance. “Okay, maybe she would say a few insensitive comments but if she finds out we all know and left her out it’ll be much worse.”

“I don’t care,” Cressida said determinedly. “My issues, my prerogative. Margo finds out when I can trust her enough to tell her.”

Molly gave a small grumble. “Speaking of Margo, have you noticed she’s not around much lately?”

“Not really,” Cressida admitted. “To be honest, it’s been nice to not listen to her and Felix arguing most of the time.”

“I don’t know,” Molly sighed. “I think I should spend more time with her. Especially after what happened last year-”

“You mean when she freaked out because she realised you had other friends than just her?”

Molly gave her a signature look. “You know what I mean.”

“Whatever. As long as she’s not spilling our secrets or arguing with all of us, she can do what she wants,” Cressida said as they made their way to Defence Against The Dark Arts. Just as they joined the Grand Staircase, the three remaining Slytherins ran up and joined them.

“Cressie! Oh my god! We had a centaur teach us Divination today!” Jac was telling her excitedly. “Like a real-life centaur, can you believe that!”

“With this place… yes,” Cressida answered. “But I’m sorry I missed it.”

“Me too, you would have loved it,” Felix said. “And, the best part was, he doesn’t preach death and misfortune to everyone.”

“Why does Margo look like the centaur killed her entire family?” Molly asked, bringing attention to the pale and dazed-looking girl who stood beside them.

“Oh,” Jac rolled her eyes. “Firenze mentioned final exams and Margo malfunctioned.”

“At this rate, I’m still going to be revising for Third Year exams during Fourth Year!” Margo whined.

“Well, if you follow my study plan I made for all of us we’ll all be fine,” Molly comforted them. “We each have a speciality we’ll teach to the others-”

“What’s your speciality, Molly?” Jac asked.

“Everything,” Cressida and Felix said in unison.

Molly flushed just as they lined up outside their classroom. “No. I’ll just pick up the slack on the subjects none of us is particularly skilled in like last year.”

There was a burst of airy laughter from down the line and the group of Slytherins peered over to find Arabella had been the cause. She was showing off a new gold necklace to her group of usual friends.

“Looks like Chauncey got a decent Christmas present this year,” Felix commented. “I swear that girl is part Niffler.”

Professor Whimbrel opened the classroom door and greeted everyone in his usual blunt manner as they all filed in. 

“Werewolves!” Whimbrel proclaimed dramatically once they were all sat. He pulled down the projector screen to show a diagram of the creature in question. “Who can tell me a fun fact about these grotesque beasts?!”

“That they’re not beasts,” Molly said instantly.

Whimbrel turned his beady eyes on the ginger witch. “Are you mad, lass?”

“That’s up for debate,” Arabella commented under her breath to her friends.

Molly ignored her and focused on Whimbrel. “I’m not mad. I just happen to know the beast is a separate entity from the man inside. It’s not the man’s fault-”

“They killed hundreds in the wars, you are aware of that, correct?” Whimbrel cut her off.

“They were just following their pack,” Molly tried. “Greyback manipulated them.”

“They were killers,” Arabella chimed in then. “My uncle who worked at the Ministry came across one once. Nearly bit his leg off. Had a massive scar from it.”

“Did he get turned into a werewolf?” Felix asked.

“No, of course, he didn’t,” Arabella scoffed. 

“Then he couldn’t have  nearly  had his leg bit off, could he?” Felix shrugged. “If a werewolf bites you, you turn into one.”

“I’m sorry, are you trying to defend the monster that went on a rampage on my family?” Arabella snapped.

“Oh, it’s your whole family now is it?” Cressida asked. “That’s a step up from just your lying uncle.”

“Well,” Arabella blanched. “When you come after one of us, you come after all of us.”

“I feel as though we’ve gone slightly off track,” Whimbrel stepped in. “The basic point is, werewolves can’t be trusted. Miss Chauncey is right in her beliefs-”

“Not all werewolves are bad,” Molly called out again. “My family knew one. He wouldn’t have hurt a fly-”

“Ah, yes. I heard Moody talk about him,” Whimbrel frowned. “Died in the war, didn’t he? Moody was very reluctant to work with Lupin in the beginning. Something that happened here inside these very walls made him believe even he wasn’t as innocent as everyone believed him to be.”

“What happened?” Jac asked before Molly could stop her. Cressida had a sneaking suspicion Molly already knew and didn’t want it to get out.

Whimbrel, however, had no such convictions about talking about what happened. “Well, he nearly killed a student, so I hear. That smarmy git that knocked off Dumbledore… um, Snape, or something. Lupin had these friends, you see. Snape was nearly the first victim of the murderer Sirius Black. He tried to use Lupin to attack the poor kid-”

“Sirius wasn’t a murderer,” Cressida said firmly.

Arabella turned to face Cressida with a quirked eyebrow. “And you know that for a fact, do you?”

“It was Pettigrew, everyone knows that. Sirius was innocent. Ask McGonagall,” Felix pointed out.

“Either way,” Whimbrel continued. “When you really look at it, you can’t ever fully separate the beast from the man, if you can even call them a man-”

“Let’s not forget it was a werewolf who used to stand where you are now doing a far better job at teaching!” Molly snapped then.

The whole class went silent as Whimbrel and Molly looked at each other. Whimbrel's mouth opened and closed several time as his face started turning an odd shade of purple. “Detention, Miss Weasley!” He eventually shouted out.

“Excuse me?” Molly asked.

“Detention!” Whimbrel squeaked, turning back to the diagram, his heart rate seeming to slow back down again. “You cannot speak to your superior in that manner.”

“She was expressing her opinion,” Felix defended her.

“And it was the wrong one,” Arabella shot back.

“Two points to Ravenclaw,” Whimbrel called with his back turned.

Molly folded her hands over her chest and sank low in her seat.

“Sir,” Cressida called out then. “Have you ever spoken to a werewolf?”

“Well,” Whimbrel huffed, rounding on the class again. “Of course not, lassie. Why would I want to do such a thing?”

“So your opinion of them is biased?” She continued. “If you’ve never met one then you won’t understand what it feels like for them to transform and how it affects them as people. As a teacher, shouldn’t you be able to have the perspective of both sides in order to fully round out our education on them?”

Whimbrel scoffed. “If you can summon up a conversation with a werewolf and walk away with your body intact, be my guest. Until then, Miss Knightly, I shall carry on with my own opinions and the facts I know.”

 

*

 

Molly had been furious about the detention right up until last lesson and for an hour after before she promptly decided to go and complain to McGonagall about Professor Whimbrel’s opinions. Felix ran after her, claiming he was intrigued to see Molly  ‘take on the system’ .

Cressida, however, had a different plan in action.

“But why can’t I come?” Jac complained just before Cressida was about to set off and do it.

“Because I need you to keep Margo entertained so she doesn’t rat me out,” Cressida replied.

“How am I supposed to do that?” Jac asked dismally. “Margo’s not really a big talker when it comes to me or you.”

Cressida shrugged. “Ask about her dad or say something about the lack of windows in the common room. That’ll keep her talking for at least an hour or two.”

Jac gave a faint grumble in reply as Cressida walked out of the hexagonal room to carry out her plan.

She’d traipsed all around the sixth floor, the dungeons and the grounds before she eventually found who she was looking for lingering near one of the secret passageways.

“You two!” Cressida called, moving towards James and Fred. The two boys weren’t sure whether to run towards her or away from her. “With me!” She ordered, grabbing them by their ties and pulling them along so they didn’t have a choice either way.

James glanced sideways at Fred. “I don’t know whether to be scared or-”

“Scared,” Fred answered in a high-pitched voice. “Definitely scared.”

Once Cressida had moved them to a quiet place where they could talk with no interruptions, she released their ties and turned to face them. “Lupin has a portrait in the castle somewhere, right?” She asked.

“Yeah,” James nodded. “It’s in Gryffindor Tower.”

“Good,” she said. “Take me to it.”

“Care to explain why?” Fred asked.

“You know that new teacher, Whimbrel?” 

James pulled a face. “Unfortunately. He’s already decided he hates me. Says I’m too  flouncy … whatever that means.”

“Well, he was talking shit about werewolves and Molly got detention for sticking up for Lupin. I’m going to prove him wrong and that they’re not all bad.”

Fred grinned deviously. “Then, by all means, follow us.”

Cressida followed behind the two boys as they all made their way back up to Gryffindor Tower. Fred made James cover Cressida’s ears as he whispered the password for them to enter.

“Hang on,” James said suddenly. He removed his school robe and put it hastily over Cressida’s shoulders, shrouding her in the fabric. “If people find out we let her in here, they’ll kill us.”

“Won’t they recognise my face?” Cressida asked.

“Nah. Gryffindors are simple people. They see a red robe and assume you belong,” Fred said moving them forward. "Especially if you're with us."

“Interesting. I’ll have to remember that for the future,” Cressida said as they ducked into a stairwell.

They eventually came to a stop on a small landing in between a second staircase curving upwards. It was small, and only had enough room for the three of them to stand together on the wooden floorboard, but on the stone wall a golden frame was placed with a comfy-looking armchair inside and more books than Cressida could ever imagine reading piled up around it. The plaque underneath read  R.J. LUPIN.

To Cressida’s dismay, it was empty.

“Where do you think he’s gone?” She asked.

“Could be anywhere,” Fred shrugged. “I think Teddy had a frame set up for Lupin to come and visit him at his house once he left Hogwarts.”

“Can you get him to magically come back here or something?” 

“We can try,” James said. He stepped up to the frame so his nose threatened to be squashed into it. “LUUUUPPPPIIIIINNNNN!”

Cressida shook her head at him. Simply yelling his name as loud as a banshee did not constitute subtlety or magic, but to her surprise, a face popped into the corner of the frame.

“Is that you James?” Lupin asked. When he saw the three teenagers outside his frame, he cleared his throat and straightened up. Cressida was slightly taken aback by the number of scars covering the middle-aged man’s face, and how he still managed to radiate kindness despite it. She saw the resemblance to Teddy massively. “Oh, hello. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Knightly has some questions for you,” Fred told the portrait.

Lupin turned his eyes on Cressida. “Ah, the great and mighty Cressida Knightly,” he smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about you, you know. I’m very fond of your work.”

“My work?” Cressida asked.

“Pranks,” James elaborated. “Lupin was a Marauder.”

“So,” Lupin said, moving the conversation swiftly along. “What questions can I answer for you?”

“I need to know about being a werewolf,” Cressida said, straight to the point.

“Ah,” Lupin’s face darkened slightly. “For any particular reason, Miss Knightly?”

“Just trying to prove a point,” Cressida answered. She turned to the two boys. “You two can wait downstairs for me. I’ve got it from here.”

James and Fred both glanced at Lupin, who nodded his head at them, a clear dismissal. Once the two boys had descended back down the stairs, Lupin settled in his armchair with his hands clasped in his lap.

“Ask away, Cressida,” Lupin said then. “I quite literally have all the time in the world.”

“Well, we’ve got this new teacher and he’s not a big fan of… anything really. Anyway, he says all werewolves are bad and that the wolf and the man are the same thing… but I thought, well, based on what I’ve heard from James and all, I just thought that can’t be true.”

“Right,” Lupin nodded. “So what exactly is your question?”

“Whether they’re right? Whether you can control it when you turn or not, I suppose.”

Lupin looked down at his hands in his lap. “No. No, I can’t control it. But it is still me inside it. Sometimes, if I had a positive experience as the wolf… a good memory during the full moon… I could remember it. Otherwise, it was like waking up from a bad dream.”

“How would you know if you did something bad in wolf form then?”

“Well, the problem is I wouldn’t. I would have to rely on my friends to keep me in check. A normal werewolf would have relied on their pack for that,” Lupin answered.

“So you could be around people as a wolf without hurting them?” Cressida asked enthusiastically. If what Lupin was saying was true, that disproved Whimbrel’s opinions. They weren’t just killing machines.

Lupin frowned slightly. “They weren’t people when they were around me. I’m sure by now James and Fred have told you all about my friend’s nature to try and do the impossible. Being an animagus was one of those things for my sake…. Unfortunately, if I did come across a person as a wolf, I wouldn’t be able to control what happened. Especially if the wolf felt scared or threatened in any way.”

“Oh,” Cressida said. 

“Sorry to disappoint you, Miss Knightly,” Lupin said then.

Cressida turned her grey eyes on him again. “Whimbrel mentioned something happened with that grumpy git, Snape. Sirius Black was involved too. How did you stop yourself?  Surely  a small part of you can control it?”

Lupin’s face darkened even more. “Sirius was foolish as a teenager. He didn’t think. Our rivalry with Snape was getting out of hand and he was threatening to out me. Sirius thought it would shut him up if he saw just exactly what I was. I know what you’re trying to do, Cressida, and I appreciate it, but I didn’t stop myself that night. Snape would have died at my hand if Prongs hadn’t rushed in and saved him.”

Cressida looked down, nodding slightly. “Right. I just didn’t want Whimbrel to be right. I mean, you seem so nice.”

Remus gave a humourless laugh. “It’s jarring, isn’t it? A lot of people refused to believe it was true at first. That I could be this monster once a month… but I want you to walk away with this, Miss Knightly.” Cressida looked at him intently. “Werewolves, although having a terrible condition placed upon them, are still people inside. They are a wolf for one or two nights a month. They’re just like you for the rest of the time. They aren’t  just  monsters… a lot of people seem to forget about the human side of us.”

“You think I can convince Whimbrel of that?” She asked.

Lupin shrugged. “Maybe not him, but maybe somebody else. Someone’s bound to listen and change their opinions if you talk to them enough. May I ask, why didn’t you naturally assume the same as everyone else?” He asked curiously. “You’re a muggle-born correct?”

“Yeah I am,” Cressida answered. “And I don’t know really. The boys said you were good so I believed them.”

Lupin smiled then. “James tends to wear the same rose-coloured glasses as his grandfather did, I’ve noticed. Never a beast or monster James didn’t try and kill with kindness… you should keep them around. They could be good for you in the long run, speaking from experience.”

Cressida laughed. “Ironically, last year I had another portrait tell me the opposite.”

“Oh?” Remus asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Whom might that be?”

“Regulus-”

“Ah,” Remus said before she’d even finished. “I should have expected as much.”

“He wasn’t your biggest fan when he was alive, was he?” Cressida asked knowingly.

Remus bit back a laugh. “You could say that. Can’t really blame him though, with what he and Sirius went through and all.”

“Right, well,” she started. “I should get going before those two run off and do something stupid. Thanks for talking to me.”

“Yes, I know that feeling,” Remus grinned at her as she started backing away. “It was nice to meet you, Cressida. I hope to see you again with the boys soon.”

“Oh, I doubt it,” Cressida replied. “I’m not really supposed to be in here. I’m a Slytherin.”

Remus stood from his chair, a small glint in his eye as he walked out of the frame. “Don’t let that stop you.”

Cressida smiled at the empty frame for a moment before she continued on her way. She’d find a way to change someone’s mind about werewolves, purely for the fact she felt like Remus deserved it. Whimbrel could be an opinionated old sod, but that doesn’t mean everyone in Hogwarts had to learn werewolves were bad because of him.

 

Saturday 20th January 2018

 

Trying to convince Whimbrel had, in fact, been like talking to a brick wall. Apparently, he didn't think talking to the portrait of a dead werewolf counted as a true experience with a werewolf. Cressida had gone to the trio of boys and demanded they take her to the nearest werewolf just to shut Whimbrel up, but once James had started talking some sense into her she knew it was a bad idea. Plus, apparently the three boys couldn't just summon a werewolf for her at a moment's notice, but Fred and Thomas assured her they'd work on getting some contacts if it was that important.

James had suggested they go around school poking people with a silver pin to try and figure out if there was a secret one in the school in the meantime and then offer their support if they found one. It seemed like a fairly good idea at the time, until Thomas jabbed Margo in class one day and Molly caught wind of what they were doing and immediately shut down the operation, causing Cressida's hope of meeting a real, alive, werewolf to dwindle away.

Still, like Lupin said, she may not be able to convince Whimbrel but she could try and convince everyone else. She just had to spread the word.

“Hey, Margo, I need you to print this in your gossip column on Monday,” Cressida said, pushing a piece of parchment across the table towards her in the weekly meeting.

Margo looked up from where she was proofreading her and Penelope’s latest report. “What is it?”

“An insight into werewolves.”

“Are you nuts?” Margo asked then, pushing the parchment back towards Cressida. “I can’t print that.”

“Why not?” Cressida pressed. “You saw how everyone reacted in class the other day, and I have it in writing that they’re not that bad if we just gave them a chance.”

Penelope tuned into the conversation then. “Do we  know  any werewolves in the school?”

“Maybe,” Cressida lied. “There could be one living in secret, and imagine how good they’d feel if they saw this written in the newspaper.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure,” Penelope mused. “It’s not really gossip if there’s not actually a werewolf running around here.”

“Thank Merlin there’s not!” Margo said then. “Whimbrel had some good points. Werewolves can’t be controlled-”

“But they’re still people,” Cressida insisted, forcing the parchment into Penelope’s hand. “Just read it and think about it. If you never tell anyone different they’ll always believe the same thing, even when it’s not completely true.”

“Okay,” Penelope said. “We’ll see if I can work it in.”

“We will?” Margo squeaked. “But it’s ludicrous. We already have two article’s written about the House Elves suspected to be helping out students around the castle and the Hot or Not section.”

“Hot or Not?” Jac asked then, chiming in as she passed by the table with Felix. “What’s that?”

“We put pictures of all the most eligible boys in Hogwarts into a pile and are letting the girls vote for the most desirable one,” Penelope said proudly.

“Am I on it?” Felix asked with a grin.

“No,” both girls answered. Felix huffed and stormed away.

“Isn’t that kind of… degrading?” Cressida asked pointedly.

“And you think werewolves are a better idea?” Margo shot back.

Jac shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind hearing about a werewolf. I can already see who’s hot around the castle without needing it in writing-”

They all paused then, turning towards the door as it was pushed open. Arabella and Declan strode into the room, taking all the attention as the two siblings moved towards Veronica at the front of the classroom.

“What are you two doing here?” Felix asked them grumpily.

“We’re here to join the paper,” Arabella replied cheerily, for the sake of all the on-lookers. 

“You are?” Michael asked. “Why?”

“We thought your newspaper could use a pair of fresh eyes,” Declan said.

“You’re not completely wrong, I suppose,” Veronica said, straightening up. She looked incredibly stressed from trying to piece together all the different articles. “And we could always use the extra help. It’s not as easy as Victoire made it look… um, Arabella, you can do gossip with Margo and Penelope. Declan, you can be on sports-”

“I wanted to do sports, actually,” Arabella cut in. 

“Okay, then your brother can do the gossip column,” Veronica agreed. “Knightly, Chauncey is going to be working with you.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Cressida cursed as she watched the siblings turn towards where she was sitting with Margo.

“Perfect,” Arabella smiled. “I can’t wait to get started.”

Chapter 59: Third Year: Love Letters

Saturday 3rd February 2018

 

Arabella and Declan joining the newspaper had already started to have a disastrous effect. It appeared as though, despite Declan being the one assigned to the gossip column, Arabella was still going to interfere with that alongside him, as well as the upcoming sports column. Margo said Arabella just walked over and started telling Declan how to do everything and they had no choice but to listen to them.

Arabella and Declan had gotten their hands on Cressida’s notes about werewolves and printed an article claiming some people were  ‘blinkered on their opinions’  and  ‘letting one werewolf’s good actions out-way the terror they inflicted on the wizarding world for centuries’ . They had also included a poll at the bottom, asking who was in favour of werewolves vs who wasn’t.

The majority seemed to share the same viewpoint as Arabella or was beginning to after she only pointed out the bad things werewolves had done.

Cressida had felt terrible. So much so, that she had snuck back into Gryffindor Tower late one night while everyone was sleeping to talk to Remus’ portrait again. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to him, using her wand light to see. “I just made it worse.”

“Cressida,” Remus had smiled. “I’m dead and there aren’t any werewolves currently residing in Hogwarts… I admire what you tried to do, but don’t do it for my benefit. People believe what the majority are saying, but as long as you and your friends advocate that we’re not all monsters… that’ll be enough for some people. Even having just one person in favour of you is life-changing. I should know.”

She had left shortly after that once Remus pointed out the trio of boys were normally wandering around by this point in the night.

However, the effort to clear werewolves as people had not been completely for nought. After Molly had complained to McGonagall, the Head Mistress had demanded Professor Whimbrel keep his personal beliefs to himself and read passages and extracts from the latest book on werewolf life that had been printed since the war for an updated perspective.

Not only had Arabella overtaken the passage about werewolves, but she had also gone ahead with the ‘Hot or Not’ column the week after, and much to Cressida’s annoyance, James was included in it.

“What a piss take,” Cressida huffed, shoving the newspaper away from her at breakfast.

“I know,” Margo agreed. “If anything it should have been Fred in there instead of Potter, but Chauncey wouldn’t listen to me-”

“You actually helped write this crap?” Jac asked.

Margo folded her arms across her chest. “Penelope came up with the idea. Besides, Arabella had practically taken over the gossip column anyway, so don’t go blaming me for everything anymore.”

“Still,” Molly chimed in. “Couldn’t you deter them away from including my cousins in the contest?”

“Are you aware that your cousins have every Third Year girl sniffing around them?” Felix asked, quirking an eyebrow as he poured some juice. “None of the rest of us get a look-in with those three around.”

“Which girls do you want looking your way?” Cressida asked curiously.

“Any would do, quite honestly,” Felix replied.

“Anyway,” Molly said, moving the conversation along quickly. “I’m starting to think Veronica is losing sight of what the newspaper is supposed to be about with some of the choices she’s been making lately.”

“What do you suggest we do about it?” Jac asked dismally.

“I don’t know,” Molly shrugged. “Form a revolt?”

“Or we could just quit?” Cressida suggested. “We don’t  have  to do the newspaper, it was just supposed to be a bit of fun, but then Victoire left and it went to shit. I mean, the Keeping Up with the Weasley’s column gave a play-by-play on what Albie and Scorpius got up to last week- which was hardly riveting information.”

“Ay, I didn’t need to read about Malfoy’s kid learning to ride a broom with Potter and their Gryffindor friend,” Felix agreed.

“Her name is Rose,” Jac said then. “And I thought it was sweet-”

“Until the article made it out like Rose was betraying her house by teaching Malfoy how to ride a broom ready for team tryouts next year,” Cressida pointed out.

“Veronica said to focus more on Albus while the trio are apparently on a pranking hiatus,” Margo explained.

Molly looked down at her breakfast with a thoughtful murmur. “Leave it with me. I’ll consider our options.”

“Speaking of our options,” Felix spoke up. “Aren’t you supposed to be doing your pre-game interviews?”

Cressida sighed, scooping up the last of her cereal into her mouth. “Yeah, Arabella insisted she do Ravenclaw’s interview and I do Gryffindor’s. I’m going down to the tents now as soon as breakfast is finished.”

“Good luck,” Felix said to her as she stood up. “My guts telling me you might need it working alongside the she-devil.”

Cressida gave an inaudible grumble as she got up from the table and walked out of the Great Hall. 

She had made it out onto the grounds when she heard steps behind her. Whipping around, she saw it was Arabella, stalking her way toward her.

“God, be more creepy why don’t you?” She frowned at her. 

Arabella gave an indifferent shrug. “I’m simply heading down to do my job in an unbiased manner.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Are you insinuating I’m biased and you’re not, despite you  requesting  you interview your own house?”

“I requested my own house because I’m familiar with the captain and can get more out of her, plus she already trusts me more than you,” Arabella answered smugly. “And I can hardly blame her really. Going against your precious Gryffindors put her in a bad position before I came along.”

“They’re not my  precious Gryffindors ,” she snapped. 

Arabella’s eyes turned towards the Gryffindor tent as they drew closer. James, Fred and Thomas were waiting outside and once they saw Cressida waved and called her over-enthusiastically.

“Tell them that,” she said pointedly. “Oh, and I saw April Cattermole cosying up to James over the weekend… you might want to keep better track of your boyfriend before you lose him.”

Cressida’s neck burned red in an instant. “He is not my boyfriend and you know it.”

Arabella shrugged her hair over her shoulder. “Look around, Knightly… people are pairing up and you’re going to get left behind. I mean, have you even had your first kiss yet?”

Cressida scowled. “Have  you ?”

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Arabella smiled as she skipped ahead.

Cressida, now feeling extremely infuriated, stormed over to the boys, biting back a remark.

As she came to stand in front of them, James instantly backtracked, knocking into the tent. “I know that expression, who’s in trouble?!” 

“Not you,” was all she said before storming into the tent to get the interview over with.

Once the main bulk of the interview was done with Aslow, the team all started preparing to head out onto the pitch. For the majority of the interview taking place, Wood sat on a nearby bench hunched over while Fred rubbed his back and assured him it would be okay. James, however, was zooming to and fro on his broom, seemingly making Thomas’ nerves worse.

“Let’s head down people!” Aslow announced, despite Cressida still having a few questions Molly had written down for her to ask.

Fred reached out his hand to grab James’ broom in mid-air, sending the boy rolling across the floor. “That was for Thomas,” he smiled when James glared at him.

“I was just warming her up,” James relented, taking his broom back from Fred as they all moved forward.

“Wait, just one more question,” Cressida said, running after Aslow.

“Make it quick,” he said, coming to a stop by the exit.

Cressida double-checked her notes. “Aren’t you worried Ravenclaw will outsmart you?” 

“Nah,” Aslow said. “They’re strategic, we’re impulsive. That means they can’t predict our next move at any given moment.”

Fred took her attention then as they stepped out of the tent. “We have yet to lose to Ravenclaw, knock on Wood.” 

A round of hands hit Thomas over the head as they continued walking.

Thomas rubbed the new sore spot on his head. “I’m not convinced I like this new tradition.”

“It gives us good luck,” Aslow said, patting the smaller boy on the back. “Now, game faces people. Ravenclaw is looking to win and they won’t go down easily.”

Aslow stormed ahead, the majority of the team following him in a line. Fred slung his arm around Thomas, forcing him to move forward and started saying encouraging words again. Cressida grabbed James’ arm and held him back. A small part of her wanted to ask about April, but she shoved that thought straight back down where it came from.

“Keep an eye on Chauncey today,” she warned him. "I think they might be up to something."

James gave a firm nod. “Thanks for the head’s up.” He gave her a cheeky smile. “Wish me luck?”

Cressida removed her hand from his arm and used it to lightly punch it instead. “Good luck, Potter.”

 

*

 

The game had been ruthless. Both teams played exceptionally well, so much so that it was a draw for the first hour of the game. Each team scoring directly after the other one.

Cressida stood in the stands with her friends, gripping her quill-pen and parchment so tight she thought they might be fused into her hand by the end of it. Luckily, Molly was there to pick up the slack and kept track of who was doing what moves with the help of Felix. Margo was absent from the game once again, claiming she didn’t care who won.

“I don’t understand why you’re so nervous about this game, Cressie,” Jac said to her after another fifteen minutes had passed.

“I don’t trust Declan or Arabella,” she answered. She glanced across the pitch to the Ravenclaw stands. Arabella was nestled in amongst the crowd cheering on their team, sat primly with a grand-looking feather quill in her hand as she scribbled on her parchment paper. She hadn’t seen her actually lift her eyes to the players the entire game.

In the Gryffindor stands beside them, Cressida saw Beatrix and April standing together holding up a cardboard sign saying ‘GO MIGHTY GRYFFINDOR!’  and on both their cheeks they’d painted a red and golden J P. 

Rolling her eyes, she looked away again.

“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Felix said then, after celebrating another Gryffindor goal. “They’re playing like their arses are on the line out there. They’ve got this in the bag.”

“Especially James,” Molly chimed in. “He’s the reason for at least four goals so far.”

“And Declan is the reason for five,” Cressida argued. 

“But Potter is trailing Declan like a fly to shit,” Felix pointed out. “Wherever Chauncey is, Potter is right behind him.”

“Do you think he’s trying to throw him off?” Jac asked.

“Who knows,” Molly said. “But whatever he’s doing, Declan looks rattled about it.”

Aslow had the ball now, trying to keep it out of the hands of Kimberly Cattermole, the Ravenclaw’s captain. He dropped it down to James, who caught it as he flew underneath, heading straight for another goal.

“Potter has the Quaffle!” The commentator called. “Will they score a second time in a row breaking the back-and-forth tie?!”

Arabella looked up for the first time in the entire game, an easy smile on her face.

Cressida kept her eyes firmly on Potter as he flew at record speed. Just when he lifted his arm to try and score the goal, Declan and Kimberly came up beside him on both sides, squashing him in the middle and forcing him to drop the Quaffle.

“That’s got to be a foul!” Jac yelled, jumping up in her seat and leaning over the stands.

“Completely legal move if Potter’s still on the broom,” Molly sighed.

“But still a dick move,” Felix complained.

“Ooh and a body blow by Cattermole and Chauncey there. Unlucky Potter. You’ll get it next time- but oh wait! What’s this?!” The announcer called excitedly. “Wood has eyes on the snitch with Gryffindor still one point up! It’s neck and neck people!”

The stands went crazy, cheering Wood on as Ravenclaw’s seeker chased after him. 

Declan, now in possession of the Quaffle, was zooming towards the goal, looking back over his shoulder to check he could get there before Thomas caught the snitch.

“Hey, Chauncey!” James yelled suddenly. Declan’s attention shot down where James was flying directly under him with a smile. “Tell your sister to make me look good in her review.”

Declan scowled. “What-”

James abruptly turned straight up, centimetres from knocking the tip of Declan’s broom upwards with him. Declan suddenly flung himself backwards, thinking he was avoiding a collision.

“What was that, Chauncey?!” Kimberly yelled at him, flying up behind him.

“WOOD HAS THE SNITCH. GRYFFINDOR WINS!” The announcer called.

Everyone erupted into cheers and celebrations. Albus and Rose, who were on the bench below the group, were perhaps celebrating the loudest. Declan threw the Quaffle down into the mud in a tantrum while Gryffindor did a victory lap.

Cressida sought out Arabella on the stands opposite and saw her face contort into a scowl as she glared at James celebrating on his broom.

“I have a feeling she was banking on her brother winning this match for her first article,” Felix said amongst all the cheering.

“Tough,” Cressida smiled. “She should have known James wouldn’t let that happen.”

“Wood technically won them the match,” Jac said.

“And he will be praised accordingly in  my  review,” Cressida said, as they prepared to head down the stands.

“Knightly!” The group of Slytherins paused at the bottom of the stands to see Arabella storming toward them. “I suppose you’re happy they won?”

“Obviously,” Felix answered instead. “But more importantly, we’re happy  you  lost.”

Arabella’s scowl worsened. “James clearly cheated. That’s against team rules, he could have caused injury-”

“But he didn’t,” Cressida smiled smugly. “So shove that up your ass and smoke it.”

Arabella stomped her foot and stormed off with a long string of curses that even Cressida was impressed by.

Just as she left, the trio of Gryffindors came running up to the group, James and Thomas dripping in sweat. “Thanks for the tip-off about Declan, Knightly,” James was saying with a wide grin. 

“So that’s why you were tailing him?” Molly asked, folding her arms and turning to Cressida.

“I just wanted a fair game,” Cressida explained, avoiding looking directly at any of them.

Fred and James grabbed her by the arm then, pulling her to one side while Thomas entertained the rest of the group. “Aslow said you can come to the after-party tonight if you want,” Fred whispered. “As a thank you for the tip-off.”

“Great,” Cressida smiled. “I’ll go tell the others-”

“Well,” James stopped her, looking down guiltily. “That’s the tricky thing. He said only you can come. He’s not really up to date on the whole  Slytherins being cool  thing, and now we’re up against you in the final match of the year. He thinks it’d send a weird message to have anyone other than the reporter there.”

“Oh,” Cressida’s smile faded. “Then I don’t want to go.”

“You sure?” Fred asked. “We can try and sneak the others in-”

“No, it’s alright,” Cressida cut him off. “I only want to go if we can all go without having to be snuck in.”

“Right,” Fred nodded. “That’s understandable.”

“Congrats on your game though,” she said then. “You played really well.”

“James! James, over here!” The three turned to see Beatrix and April running up to them, still waving their banner over their heads. Cressida took that as her sign to leave.

 

 

Monday 14th February 2018

 

Arabella hadn’t managed to do much damage where the Quidditch commentary column was concerned, although, she did try and point out James could have nearly knocked Declan off his broom. Much to her annoyance, no one seemed to care.

However, between the Quidditch match, the ‘Hot or Not’ poll and Potter’s popularity in general, James had more attention from the female variety on him than ever, and where Potter had attention so did Fred and Thomas. Wood didn’t seem as thrilled with this as Fred did, and instead awkwardly scurried away when a group of girl’s attempted to engage the three of them in conversation.

The worst of it was yet to come, however, as Valentine’s day soon took over Hogwarts.

Cressida didn’t know whether she had just never paid much attention to the castle during this particular holiday because it never affected her, or if the teachers had just momentarily lost their minds and decided Valentine’s day was worth the odd decoration here and there, but when they entered the Great Hall for breakfast on Monday strings of paper hearts lined the walls of the Great Hall. Their goblets only had pink and red drinks in them. There were flowers lining the centrepieces on the table.

It was slightly sickening, Cressida thought.

The only people who surprisingly didn’t look mad about the new celebration of the holiday around the castle were Scorpius and Albus, who sat and ate their breakfast opposite one another and had pleasant conversation as though nothing was different about their surroundings. Cressida even saw Scorpius fill up Albus’ goblet for him. Nothing seemed to phase those two lately, even the usual rumours about Malfoy’s father around the castle.

“It’s nice McGonagall listened to our requests for some acknowledgement of the holiday,” Margo said, looking around at all the decorations.

“You did this?” Jac asked.

“Well, me and the girls were talking in the bathroom about how we deserve something for the special day to get everyone in the mood. Veronica headlined the idea and presented it to McGonagall,” Margo explained.

“What  mood  are you exactly trying to emulate?” Molly asked.

“A nauseating one by the looks of it,” Felix complained, poking at a heart-shaped pancake.

Margo huffed and started pouring herself some pink coloured juice. “I think it’s nice. We did a Valentine’s special at the bottom of our gossip column encouraging people to send out anonymous Valentine's cards and everything.”

As if on queue, the owls started arriving with a flurry of pink and red coloured envelopes. McGonagall’s face gave away that she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the show of it all, and her juice was normal-coloured as she sat at the teacher’s table.

Cressida watched as envelopes started getting dropped left and right to people throughout the hall, but it was clear that the majority were heading straight to the Gryffindor table and dropping thick piles of love letters right in front of James, Thomas and Fred.

“Well, that’s just perfect,” Molly frowned, watching the three boys start shuffling through the ever-growing piles of letters. “There’ll be no living with them after this.”

“Who do you suppose is sending all those letters?” Jac asked, lifting out of her seat slightly to get a better look.

Cressida’s eyes instantly fell on Beatrix and April, who lingered nearby the boys on the bench, giggling with each other and sending the boys long glances. “Two guesses,” she mumbled.

“Oh yeah,” Margo said, watching as well. “Beatrix and April have been hanging out with them more since that after party they had the other week. Apparently, they spent the whole party dancing together. Beatrix hasn’t shut up bragging about it yet.”

“Good for them,” Cressida said snippily, stabbing her heart-shaped pancake with her fork. Molly sent her a curious look as she sipped her tea. Cressida lifted her glare to the ginger witch, warning her against asking anything.

“By the looks of it every girl in Hogwarts sent them a letter,” Felix grumbled, sinking in his seat.

“It’ll wear off in a few days,” Molly said surely. “Everyone’s just bigging them up because of the Quidditch match.”

Jac and Cressida looked at each other then. They doubted Molly was right about it warring off. 

“Whatever, let’s just go to class,” Cressida huffed, shoving her plate away from her and standing up.

“Hang on, there’s still one more coming,” Felix said, looking up. Cressida paused and watched as a small brown owl dropped a card into the space Cressida had been sitting seconds ago. All five Slytherins stared at it for a moment, not knowing what to do.

“Is that for you?” Jac asked, looking up at Cressida.

“It can’t be for Cressida,” Margo said instantly. “She doesn’t even talk to boys-”

“It’s for Knightly,” Molly confirmed, opening the letter and reading it.

Cressida snatched it out of her hands and started reading for herself. 

‘You’re cute. We should get to know each other- Anon.’

“Who’s Anon?” Felix asked confused. “Is he a Hufflepuff?”

“It’s short for anonymous,” Jac explained.

“Perfect,” Cressida said crumbling the note into her bag and turning away from the table. “Just what I needed.”

The remaining four Slytherins all glanced at each other. “She must be the only girl pissed off about being fancied,” Felix muttered.

 

*

 

Her day did not get better from there, and neither did her mood. In every single lesson she shared with the Gryffindors that day, the trio were swarmed with a bunch of girls talking to them and asking if they got their letter, which Cressida thought massively missed the point of them being anonymous.

Only once Longbottom had practically swatted a crowd of girls away with a broom in Herbology did James finally acknowledge Cressida for the first time that day.

“Alright, Knightly,” he had grinned, coming up and leaning on her table as she trimmed her nettle plant. “It’s mental around here today, isn’t it?”

“Really, I hadn’t noticed,” she said dryly.

“I don’t understand what all the fuss is honestly,” James continued, not noticing her cold demeanour. “I mean, girls keep asking me about Quidditch and all but I don’t think they actually care. They just stare at me with these odd looks on their faces whenever I try explaining the runner-ups to the Quidditch World Cup this year. It’s even worse for Fred, five girls have asked him to go to Hogsmeade with him in a few weeks.”

“Has anyone asked you?” Cressida asked, her voice level.

James shrugged, flicking the nettle plant with the tip of his finger. “A few. I doubt I’ll go though. They all want to go to that ridiculous tea shop. I might just stay at the castle with you this time to avoid them all-”

“I’m going to Hogsmeade this time,” Cressida said before he had finished. “My mum signed the permission slip over Christmas.”

“Oh,” James said, frowning slightly. “Right… so has anyone asked you to go then?”

Cressida kept her eyes firmly on her plant. “None of your business.”

James’ green eyes bore into her. “Did you get a letter this morning? I thought I saw an owl drop one near you.”

“I’m surprised you noticed with all your fan mail piling up in front of you,” Cressida grumbled in reply.

“Are you pissed off about something?” James asked then. “Is it the letters?”

“Nope,” Cressida replied. “Why would I care whether you get a bunch of letters or not?”

“Hey, Jamsie!” Avery Bell called, coming up to the table. She was the newest addition to the Potter fan base ever since the Quidditch match, and she had slightly better moves than Beatrix and April. Plus, even Cressida had to admit she was beautiful. “Can you come help me carry the heavy pots to our table? I can’t lift them by myself and you’re so strong.”

James straightened up. “Um, I’m actually just having a conversation-”

“It’s fine,” Cressida cut him off. “Go and be strong over there. I don’t need your help.”

James kept his eyes on Cressida, even as he was being pulled away by the stunning girl towards the other end of the classroom.

Cressida snipped the nettle plant a little too forcefully and a whole stem fell onto the table.

After that, Cressida had gone to her usual spot in the alcove and that’s where she remained long after curfew once her friends had all gone to bed.

Cressida had started to wonder how it could possibly get worse from here. She could hardly stand to be around the two boys when it was accompanied by a mob of girls. For instance, Hagrid had asked for them to get into groups of four in order to examine a Fire Dwelling Salamander and Beatrix and April had snatched the two boys up before Cressida and Jac had even blinked. Neither boy seemed to mind, which irked both Slytherin girls slightly, not that they were willing to admit it.

“Now that’s not a very happy face.”

Cressida’s head spun around from where she’d been staring at the murky water, thinking in silence for the last two hours.

Thane pushed himself up off the bookcase he had been leaning on and moved to sit on the sofa opposite her. “Sickle for your thoughts?” He asked.

“I’m not in the mood to talk,” Cressida grumbled in reply. She pulled the sleeves of her multicoloured jumper down over her wrists to keep herself warm.

“Are you angry about being poor or being a Slytherin this time?” He asked regardless.

She turned her grey eyes on him. “Neither.”

“So a boy then?” He asked, quirking an eyebrow as he spread his arms out along the back of the sofa.

Cressida scoffed and turned back to stare out the window. “Why do you care?”

“I’ve been watching you watching everyone else,” Thane admitted. “You’re not as tough as you make out to be, are you?”

“You don’t know me,” she snapped.

“But I’d like to,” Thane said then, taking her slightly by surprise. “I don’t invite just anyone down to the greenhouses with me. It’s like an invitation from the queen.”

“Oh really?” Cressida asked, sending him a sideways glance. “Lucky me.”

“So, come on then,” Thane prompted her. “Spill your guts before I force it out of you.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” she said surely.

“Haven’t you heard? I’m evil born and bred, baby. Forcing a bit of gossip out of someone is barely on the radar of the things I’m apparently capable of.”

Cressida rolled her eyes, bringing her knees up to her chest and hugging them. She watched Thane for a moment, and when he showed no sign of relenting on the issue she sighed. “My friends are hanging around with these girls who do nothing but flirt with them.”

“Ah,” Thane nodded knowingly. “This is about Potter, isn’t it?”

“No,” Cressida said, almost too quickly.

“Well,” Thane continued with a small smile. “Does he know you like him?”

“I don’t like him.”

There was a faint laugh coming from Regulus’ portrait. Cressida hurled a book at it.

“Does he like you?” Thane asked next.

“He’s my friend,” Cressida said firmly. 

“Then what’s the issue?”

“The girls are just talking to him because they think he’s cute, which slightly sickens me.”

Thane looked at her for a moment, as if assessing something silently. “Have you had a crush on someone yet, Cressida?”

Cressida felt redness creeping up her neck. “No. That’s a stupid waste of time.”

“So you’ve never looked at someone and thought they’re cute or wanted to be around them more?”

Cressida looked at Thane fully, keeping her face as straight as she could. “I think many people are  cute , but that doesn’t mean I want to snog their faces off at any given moment or act like a dosey twat around them.”

“And who do you find cute?” Thane asked then.

Cressida turned away again. “You know, I miss when I was sat here alone all of a sudden.”

Thane got up and moved to sit beside her on the sofa so she was forced to look at him. “I’m just trying to offer the one bit of advice I know. Potter is a Gryffindor, he’s eventually going to end up with another Gryffindor. It’s just the way things go.”

“You think?”

“I know,” Thane confirmed. “Look at the history. Potter married that Ginny girl. Ron Weaslebee married that Hermione swot and boy did she pick the wrong guy based on what I’ve heard.”

Cressida’s interest was piqued. “What did you hear?”

Thane opened his mouth to answer then thought better of it. “Just stuff my dad’s told me. My point is, you end up with people who share the same interests as you, and here, those people are placed in the same house as you for convenience.”

“So, what, I’m bound to end up with a Slytherin?” Cressida asked dismally.

“We’re not that bad if you give us a chance,” Thane smirked at her.

The redness had spread onto her cheeks now. “Right, well thanks for your unhelpful insight but I should get to bed,” Cressida said hurriedly, getting to her feet. 

“Hey, Knightly,” Thane called just before she could disappear. “Don’t let Potter get under your skin. There are plenty of boys around here that would kill for your attention.”

Cressida's stomach did a tiny flip and she very much wanted to disappear. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said flippantly, rounding the corner to the girl’s dorms. Once she was out of sight, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the letter she had received at breakfast, a fleeting suspicion rising in the back of her mind.

Chapter 60: Third Year: Growing Pains

Tuesday 13 ^th  March 2018

 

Hogsmeade had come and gone, and as Cressida told James, she had gone along with her friends this time. James had gone as well, in the end, walking alongside Fred and Thomas throughout the small village. The two groups had accidentally crossed paths in the Three Broomsticks towards the end of the trip.

“Decided against hiding from the girls then?” Cressida had asked as she and James both waited in line for their butterbeers.

“No, unfortunately they roped us into meeting them here for a drink before heading back to the castle,” James huffed, pointing out a group of Gryffindor girls all huddled around one of the largest tables in the pub.

Cressida grabbed her butterbeer and turned away. “Try not to have too much fun, Potter. You wouldn’t want to give them the wrong impression.”

“Fancy joining us on a prank later?” James asked hurriedly before she could leave. “We’re going to explode the toilets.”

“No pranks!” Molly had declared, appearing behind Cressida and pushing her away from James. Cressida gave him a small shrug as she was escorted back to her table on the other side to where he was sat.

The girl’s continuing to fawn over Potter and his friends was not the only thing that had been bugging Cressida since valentine’s day, however. She had yet to figure out who had sent her that anonymous note, but after her conversation with Thane in the common room that night she had started to dabble with the possibility it was him, despite that seeming slightly ludicrous.

It was for that reason she was currently sat in her alcove watching as he swapped out a book on the bookshelf then sulk off to a corner on his own. He was definitely around a lot more since valentine’s day, she had noticed. Always alone. Always reading.

“Who are you staring at?” Felix asked, bringing her out of her staring.

“No one,” Cressida answered quickly, turning back to her homework.

“You were staring at that guy over there,” Felix continued anyway, now looking over to Thane obviously.

“Please,” Jac scoffed. “Cressie doesn’t stare at boys-” Felix angled Jac to face Thane. “But he is worth staring at.”

Molly took interest now, following their eye line. When she saw who it was, she immediately went back to her book. “Thane Nott. Family was Death Eaters. Bad news.”

“He’s not that bad,” Cressida defended him.

Felix raised an eyebrow. “So you’ve spoken to him?”

“Not really,” Cressida said allusively. “Jac, would you stop staring at him!?” Jac snapped back round, a red blush on her cheeks.

Molly slammed her textbook shut loudly to get all their attention on her. “Trust you two to start fancying the Slytherin bad boy.”

“Would you rather they fancy your cousins?” Felix offered.

“I’d rather they fancy someone with no relation to me or to Death Eaters,” Molly argued back easily. “I’m telling you, Nott is bad news.”

“You say everyone is bad news, Mol,” Jac said, sneaking another look towards Thane.

“Plus, I thought Jeremiah was the best looking Slytherin in our year?” Felix asked. “Margo was going on about it the other day.”

“Nott’s in the year above,” Cressida said. “And for the record, I don’t fancy him.”

“Does that mean I can?” Jac asked.

“Absolutely not!” Molly said firmly.

“If you want,” Cressida contradicted, packing away her homework. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a murderous book of creatures locked in my trunk that I need to read from in order to complete an essay for Hagrid.”

“The one about Flubberworms?” Jac asked, her eyes following Cressida. “Could you do notes for the both of us. I don’t fancy getting my hand bitten off by mine.”

“It’ll cost you two sugar quills.”

“I’ll give you a pack of gum if you do my diagrams for me as well,” Jac offered.

“Done.”

Cressida had nearly reached the corridor leading to the girl’s dorm rooms when she got taken off track. Thane was leaning against the stone wall nearby reading a book in his hands, just out of sight from the group of Slytherins.

“You and your friends may want to work on your staring tactics,” Thane said to her. “You make it a bit obvious.”

Cressida involuntarily blushed. “I wasn’t staring-”

“Yes you were,” Thane smirked. “How’s your Potter problem going, by the way?”

Cressida scoffed. “I don’t have a Potter problem.”

Thane looked unconvinced. “Right. ‘Course you don’t, I must have imagined you sulking in the common room the other week.”

“I do not sulk.”

“Are you going to deny everything I say?”

“Only if it’s worth denying,” she shot back.

“You know, I’m becoming a big fan of this back and forth we got going on,” Thane smiled, pushing himself up off the wall and starting to depart. “It’s hard to find someone to bounce off easily around here that’s not a judgemental psycho.”

“Thane,” Cressida said before thinking better off it. “Did you send anyone a valentine’s letter this year?”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Who’s asking?”

“My friend,” Cressida lied. “She thought you were decent looking or whatever.”

“Then she has impeccable taste,” he said as he turned around and started walking away again.

“You never answered my question!” She called after him.

Thane sent her a wink over his shoulder as he disappeared into the boy’s dorms.

“Hey, Cressida,” Jeremiah Vonce said, rounding the bookcase near her.

“Hey, Vonce,” Cressida said dismissively, continuing on her way to her bedroom.

 

Wednesday 11 ^th  April 2018

 

Cressida hadn’t spoken to Thane again since, but the nagging feeling whenever she thought about him being the person who sent the note was still very much apparent. She hadn’t told her friends about her theory, however, wanting to keep it to herself even if it ended up being true.

Although, she wasn’t quite sure how to handle it if it was true.

She supposed she was just grateful that boys seemed a lot more adverse in the act of subtlety when they had crushes, as opposed to the girls around the castle, who were still fawning over Potter, Fred and Thomas at any given opportunity.

Both these situations had the same overlapping feelings whenever Cressida thought about them- which was a deep sense of dread in the pits of her stomach, mixed with something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

It mildly infuriated her.

“Coming to practise with the rest of us, Cressida?” Jac asked as the group left their final lesson of the day, bringing Cressida out of her thoughts.

“No Margo?” Cressida asked.

“Nah, she said she had better things to do,” Felix answered. He nodded his head down the hall. “There’s the better thing now.”

Cressida and Jac turned to see Margo talking to Jeremiah Vonce as he lingered in the hall.

“What’s she doing talking to Vonce?” Cressida asked.

Molly appeared beside them, holding her books to her chest. “She’s got a crush on the idiot,” she said. “Been following him around for the last week and he hasn’t told her to go away yet so she thinks she’s in with a chance.”

“You don’t think she is?” Jac asked.

Molly gave a small shake of her head. “He just likes the attention, I reckon. Saw him flirting with Beatrix the other day. He has yet to flirt with Margo, unfortunately, but she won’t listen to me.”

“But Beatrix has a thing for Fred,” Cressida said.

“And we’re all painfully aware of it,” Jac said grumpily. Felix raised an eyebrow at her. “Not that I care, it’s just… you’d think she’d make having a crush on someone like Fred a bit more secretive.”

Fred and the other two appeared then, leaning against the wall behind Jac after hearing the tail end of their conversation. “Are you saying I’m not crush worthy, Redwick?”

Jac jumped around with a startled squeak. “No, you are..." she rambled, failing to catch herself before the words had tumbled out of her mouth, leaving her to backtrack without much believability. "To some girls. Not to me though.”

“Oh?” Thomas asked intrigued, playing along. “And what’s not to fancy about Freddie? Just look at him.”

“Strapping young bloke if I ever saw one,” James nodded in agreement. “Wouldn’t you agree, Knightly?”

Cressida looked Fred up and down. “Not my type.”

James moved forward to stand beside her. “What is your type, pray-tell?”

Cressida stepped away from him. “Smart, charming. Not a Gryffindor.”

“Careful, you’ll break poor Jamsie’s heart if you keep taking like that,” Thomas joked.

“Godric forbid one girl not fancy him lately,” Fred added on.

“I’d say,” Felix complained. “I can’t get a girl for trying. They’re all too busy gawking over you lot.”

“Yeah, that’s the reason you can’t get a girl, Finnigan,” Jac teased.

Cressida allowed herself a small snigger at Felix's expense. She and Jac were fully aware that the reason he never seemed to get any attention from the other girls around Hogwarts was simply because outside of the three of them, Felix never acknowledged any girls. It was like he expected them to just come him and all he had to do was wait.

“Speaking of crushes, has Knightly’s secret admirer come forward yet?” James asked.

Cressida rolled her eyes, pushing down thoughts about Thane that were creeping in. “No, and I don’t want him too.”

“Why not?” Fred asked curiously.

“Because whoever it is, the likelihood of me liking them back is practically zero.”

“Even if it was Thane?” Jac asked teasingly. Cressida rounded on her and Jac paled, realising what she had said once again.

The three Gryffindors turned their eyes on Cressida. “Thane? Who’s Thane?”

“None of your business,” Cressida told them. “Jac, don’t you have practice to get to?” She asked pointedly.

“I’ll walk you,” Fred offered, steering Jac away quickly by the shoulders. “I have a feeling staying here would be a bad idea for your health.”

“James,” Molly said, taking control of the conversation. “Don’t you have a date with April on the grounds? She told Margo about it in Herbology.”

James didn’t take his eyes off Knightly. “Yeah, yeah, she can wait.”

“And it’s not technically a date,” Thomas added on. “I’m going to be there too.”

“So about this Thane guy,” James continued. “You’ve never mentioned him before. What’s his last name?”

“For Godric’s sake, James,” Molly sighed. “Just leave it alone-”

“Hey guys,” Margo’s unusually chipper voice interrupted them. When they turned around they found she was stood there with Jeremiah. “Vonce said he wanted to get to know all of us better.”

“I share a room with you,” Felix said. “How come you never mentioned this to me?”

Jeremiah shrugged. “Didn’t think of it, mate.” He turned his eyes on Cressida then. “Hey, Knightly. I heard you did well on our last potions essay. Do you think you could give me some pointers ready for our exams?”

“Sure, whatever,” Cressida said, not paying him much attention. “I’ll let you know when I’m free.”

Margo turned to him with a small frown. “Why didn’t you ask me to help you?”

Cressida started moving forward, hoping to avoid getting involved in this conversation.

“Hang on, I’m not done asking about this Thane fellow,” James strode after her adamantly.

“Actually, I changed my mind. Vonce come with me now or loose your chance!” Cressida announced. Jeremiah ran to her side as she rounded the corner.

 

 

Thursday 12 ^th  April 2018

 

Cressida had had a terrible night’s sleep.

After attempting helping Jeremiah with the potions essay the night before, Cressida realised what it must be like for Molly whenever she tried teaching any of the Slytherins an ounce of information. Any time Cressida started telling Vonce about the hand position for the freezing spell, he would go off on a tangent and start asking her questions about her personal life, or worse, telling her about his.

Cressida now knew Vonce had a younger sister, his parents were still married, and he had a dog. All information she was sure someone like Margo would find riveting but she just found pointless.

Margo had also quizzed Cressida relentlessly on whether Vonce had mentioned her at all during their hour trying to study. She’d tried telling the truth and say no but Margo simply refused to understand the meaning of the word and after two hours of this, Cressida had given in and lied. This at least cheered Margo up and allowed Cressida to go to bed in peace.

However, Jeremiah and Margo seemed to be the least of her problems that night.

One moment she was too hot, then she was too cold. Her stomach had a cramping sensation every few hours, causing her to curl up in the fetal position for ten minutes before it went away again. She had began to wander whether Potter had cursed her without her realising, but even he wouldn’t do something this cruel to her for a joke.

By around six in the morning, she couldn’t take it anymore. She clambered out of bed, pulled on her dressing gown and ran to the infirmary.

Madam Pomfrey had been tending to a First Year with the chicken pox when she burst in. “What ever is the matter?!” She exclaimed when she saw Cressida.

Another terrible cramp struck her at the precise moment. “I think I’m dying!”

Perhaps it was the lack of vegetables she ate that had caused this, or some sort of magical illness thrust upon her, or maybe it was her malnourished childhood finally catching up to her twenty years too early… she had lived purely off potato smiley faces for two weeks once when her mother had been working and Gareth wasn’t around.

Madam Pomfrey rushed over to her, rubbing her back as Cressida gripped her stomach. “My dear… I think I know exactly what this is. Come with me,” the old medi-witch said kindly.

*

Cressida had been traumatized at the ripe age of fourteen.

Madam Pomfrey had taken Cressida to a bed in the corner of the medical wing and sat her down. First she gave her a hot cup of tea, then a water bottle for her cramps, and then she started explaining what was happening- or going to happen any second now- and sure enough, it did.

Cressida had cried… an over reaction looking back, but at the time it felt justified. It wasn’t an easy thing to accept, and she still wasn’t thrilled about it. She had hoped she’d be one of those girls that didn’t get it until they were sixteen and she would have a few more years of blissful childhood without monthly visits from mother nature. Although, this did explain some of her erratic feelings over the last few weeks. Maybe she didn’t even care about Potter and the onslaught of girls crowding around him. Maybe it was just her body betraying her for a few days and then when this eventually passed she’d go back to normal.

“I hate being a girl,” Cressida cursed once Madam Pomfrey had helped her and she had calmed down quite a bit.

“We all go through it, sweetheart,” the medi-witch had said. “Now, off to lessons you go-”

“Lessons!” Cressida screeched. “I have to go to lessons like this!?”

Madam Pomfrey laughed. “Unfortunately, dear, yes. Life continues on, we can’t let our womanly problems get in the way of that.”

Cressida crossed her arms childishly across her chest. “I bet boys wouldn’t put up with this if they had this problem.”

“They wouldn’t,” Madam Pomfrey agreed. “They would have all died out by now if they had even half the problems us women have. Come now, you’re all sorted, off to lessons before people start suspecting anything.”

Cressida reluctantly got to her feet. She felt extremely uncomfortable standing up again. “Madam Pomfrey?”

The medi-witch had already started pottering around the room, making beds and cleaning bed pans away. “Yes?”

“Do I write to my mum… to tell her it… you know, happened?”

Madam Pomfrey smiled at her again. “If you wish to, dear.”

Cressida nodded, then, cursing her womanhood once more for good measure, she left the infirmary.

She completely skipped breakfast, feeling she had lost her appetite completely and instead trekked all the way up to the owlery to write to her mother. By the time she had figured out how to phrase it and sent the letter on it’s way with one of the school owls, Cressida begrudging made her way to first lesson.

She had barely been in the Potions classroom stood over her cauldron for more then ten seconds before a body came up beside her. “So about this Thane guy,” James started saying.

“Not today, James,” Cressida groaned. Slughorn had instructed them to continue making their Wiggenweld Potions and that’s exactly what Cressida was going to do.

“Come on, just tell me about this guy who has a crush on you.”

“It’s nothing, Potter. Honestly.”

“Then why did Redwick mention him?” He pressed.

Cressida added the Flubberworm mucus into her potion. “She didn’t think about what she was saying.”

“So you don’t have a crush on him?”

Cressida watched him out of the corner of her eyes. She’d had to watch him be flirted with by practically every single girl in their year over the last few months. It was about time he had a taste of his own medicine. It’s what he deserved, Cressida convinced herself. “So what if I did?”

“Are you serious?!”

“No, I’m Cressida.”

“Now is not the time for jokes!” James shot back.

“Mr Potter, I don’t see you stirring!” Slughorn pointed out as he passed.

James started adding random ingredients into his cauldron to look busy. “Are you friends with him? Have you kissed him?”

Cressida added the next part of the potion, fighting to ignore a cramp trying to rip her insides apart. “Yes, I snogged his face off in the broom closet on the fourth floor,” she said flatly. “Besides, you’ve got the attention of like a hundred girls right now, why do you care about what I’m doing?”

“Why do you care about the one hundred girls?” He countered, stealing the wiggentree bark she was about to put into the cauldron.

“I don’t care,” she said, snatching it back and putting it in.

“Well, I don’t care either,” James said, taking the remainder of the ingredients on the table and adding them all into his potion at once.

“Good.”

“Good!”

There was a large explosion and a second later James and Cressida were both covered in thick green ooze.

“Oh dear,” Slughorn said, waddling over to examine the scene. “Were we a bit over eager with our preparations? You have to go slowly with these kinds of things.”

“I was being careful until he came along!” Cressida said, not thinking to mind her tone in the presence of the professor.

“Are you accusing Mr Potter of tampering with your potion, Miss Knightly?” Slughorn asked, looking between the two students.

“James wouldn’t do such a thing,” April said surely from the next table over.

Cressida kept her eyes firmly on James, but the comment did not escape her notice and her hackles immediately got up. “No, I’m accusing him of being a jackass!”

Molly, Jac, Felix, Fred and Thomas had all gathered together to watch in amusement.

“Miss Knightly!” Slughorn gawked. “I will not tolerate that kind of language in my classroom! And as for Mr Potter, detention for you too. You shouldn’t have been over here distracting Miss Knightly.”

“Has he met James?” Molly muttered.

“Tonight at seven o’clock sharp!” Slughorn announced.

James and Cressida both wiped the goo from their eyes, glaring at each other. “Yes sir,” they said in unison.

*

At seven o’clock sharp, just as Slughorn had insisted, Cressida and James met in the Potions classroom for their detention.

“Considering you both made quite a mess in my lesson earlier you will be cleaning the cauldrons without the use of magic,” Slughorn said when they arrived. “And just so you know, Professor McGonagall has warned me of the last time you two were instructed to clean something as punishment, however, my storage cupboard needs reorganizing, so I came up with an ingenious solution,” Slughorn smiled to himself. “If you would both like to surrender your wands.” Cressida and James both begrudgingly handed their wands to Slughorn. “Now, you know where the cauldrons are. There is soap and water in a bucket for you each. I will be in the next room over if you should need me. Good luck.”

With that, Slughorn gave a pleasant pat of his bulbous stomach and then walked out of the room humming a tune to himself.

Cressida knew this would be bad, but having to do this on today of all days was torturous. Fifteen minutes before she had left for this detention she had been led on the floor of her dorm room using Rasper as a heat pack on her aching stomach.

James moved first, picking up one bucket in his hand and extending the other out to Cressida.

She took it from him and the two started dividing up the cauldrons.

It had only been twenty minutes since Slughorn had left them alone and Cressida was amazed James had lasted this long without her strangling him, or her crying. For what reason she would start crying she didn’t know, the feeling just came in flurries and then left again.

So far James had asked every single question about Thane at least twice, and Cressida refused to answer every single one of them. Then he had moved on to talking about Fred and Jac suspiciously spending a lot of time together which, in his opinion, was infringing on his ‘precious pranking time’. Cressida hadn’t given her opinion on that either. Although, she had also noticed Jac and Fred wandering off together a lot over the last few weeks.

When James had mentioned walking around the grounds with April quizzing each other on Herbology notes, however, Cressida finally snapped.

“Merlin’s beard, do you ever shut up?!” Cressida yelled at him in a fit of rage.

James looked up from his cleaning station, unphased by her tone. “You just used a wizard term.”

“What?” Cressida scowled.

“Merlin’s beard,” James repeated. “It’s a wizard term.”

“So?”

“So-” James grinned. “You never use our terms. You mainly just yell and threaten everyone.”

“No, I threaten and yell at you,” she corrected him. “With everyone else I’m a perfectly civilized person and use any terms I like.”

James tilted his head to the side. “Aw, does that make me special, Knightly?”

Cressida threw her dirty cleaning rag at him. “I am not in the mood, Potter.”

James leant back on his hands. “You haven’t been in the mood for a while… care to explain why?”

“Not really,” she huffed, continuing wiping down the cauldrons with a second, even dirtier rag.

James looked up at her through his eyelashes. “Is this about that Thane guy?”

“It is not about him,” Cressida said firmly.

“So, what’s the problem? Don’t feel like playing today?”

She threw her second dirty rag across the room at him in frustration. “No, I don’t feel like sodding playing whatever stupid game you’ve concocted in your thick head!” She yelled. “Especially not today!”

James remained calm and collected. “Why not?”

“None of your business,” Cressida snapped. Tears again. God, if she suddenly burst into a blubbering mess in front of Potter she really would off herself.

James waited for a moment, his eyes examining her as if she was still talking, telling him everything that was wrong and exactly what had happened to cause her foul mood. When she hardened her eyes on him with a warning glare, he simply shrugged and returned to cleaning, causing silence to descend over the room.

Having thrown all her cleaning rags at James, Cressida now took to pacing the room with her arms folded over her chest, until she turned back to glare at Potter again. He was cleaning with a content look on his face. If anyone walked in now, they would never have guessed Cressida had been having an argument with herself.

“I hate when you do that,” Cressida broke the silence finally, once the threat of crying had minimalized again.

“Do what?” James asked cheerfully.

“When you don’t yell back at me when I’m mean to you,” She snapped again. At least if he yelled back she wouldn’t feel so bad about taking her anger out on him.

James looked up with a raised eyebrow. “Have you tried asking a therapist why you feel that way?”

She refused to let herself laugh. “Don’t try and be the mature one here, Potter.”

“Someone has to be-”

She grabbed her bucket of soapy water and threw it at him, drenching him from head to foot. James simply wiped the suds from his eyes and looked back at her, water dripping from his now flat fringe. “Did that make you feel better?”

“A little,” Cressida admitted, failing to hide her smile.

“Good,” James nodded. He pulled out a wand from his back pocket and pointed it at her. “Aguamenti!”

Water rained down on Cressida so fast and hard that within seconds she looked more drenched than James was. “I believe we’re even now,” he smirked, pocketing his wand once she was sufficiently water logged.

“You always have a second wand hidden on you?” She asked, feeling the water dripping from her eyelashes.

“It’s Wood’s,” James grinned. “Told me to keep it safe while he’s at Quidditch practice.”

“’Course he did,” Cressida grumbled, wringing the water out of her hair.

“So,” James said then, strolling closer. “You really not going to tell me what’s wrong?” He asked. When she did nothing but glare at him, he dangled the wand tantalizingly in front of her. “Tell me and I’ll refrain from doing the spell a second time.”

“Fine,” Cressida huffed. James threw her a relatively clean cloth to dry her hair. “I just don’t want you to get big headed with all these girls hanging around you all the time and forget about the rest of us.”

James laughed. “That’s what you’re worried about?! Knightly, I’m painfully aware some of those girls have a crush on me but it doesn’t change anything.”

“Well, what happens if you start liking one of them back?” Cressida asked, feeling mildly ridiculous. “It’ll change things, I’ve seen it happen.”

James stalled for a moment, thinking hard. “In that case… I’d let you know.”

Cressida raised her eyebrows. “You’d let me know?”

“Yeah,” James nodded. “As my friend, I’d let you know if I liked someone and we’d handle it then.”

“Right,” Cressida nodded. “And as your friend, am I allowed to respectfully puke when that time comes?”

“I would expect nothing less,” James grinned.

His grin remained even as he walked back over to the buckets of water and started wringing out the rag.

Cressida followed suit, the two sending each other glances as they manoeuvred around in a newfound comfortable silence. She bent down to pick up a bucket in front of Potter and as she turned around she threw her hair over her shoulder, smacking him in the face with her sopping hair. She hadn’t realised how close behind her James had been standing.

“You did that on purpose,” he said wiping the droplets from his face and flicking it back at her.

“Did not,” Cressida said, drying her cheek.

She purposefully dropped her rag into the bucket and it sent water splashing up at him.

“Oh, that’s it!” James laughed, grabbing the wet rag from the floor. Apparently, he had given up with the struggle of not utilizing the vast amount of water in front of them for chaos. “You’re dead, Knightly!”

Cressida tried to run away but James grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her off the ground, causing them to stumble back. She wasted no time wrangling her way on top and stealing the wet rag from him as she had him pinned. “Honestly, Potter, when are you going to learn-”

Cressida was suddenly rolled sideways and James now had the upper hand, taking the wet rag back and holding it above her face as a warning. “What was that, Knightly?” He laughed as the two wrestled. “Your face needs a wash? Oh, let me help you-” he teased, rubbing the dirty rag all over her face while she tried to fight him off.

“You’re the fucking worst!” She laughed, using her hands to hold him off.

“No, you’re the worst,” James said, leaning down and smiling in her face.

Cressida looked up at him then, and she realised just how close he was. Her stomach did a small jolt that she assumed to be another less painful cramp.

Seemingly, once Cressida had stopped the wrestling, James came to the same conclusion on their close proximity, and he swallowed hard as he stared down her.

She expected him to move or continue the game any second now, but to her surprise, he didn’t move an inch, and the room felt like it was getting hotter by the second. Their breaths had quickened from the play fighting and now their breathing became the loudest thing in the room. Their chests rising and falling in almost perfect sync with each other.

“Knightly,” he said then, his voice quieter than normal. Almost different all of a sudden. “You’d tell me when… you know… you like someone, right?”

Cressida blinked a few times, struggling to find her voice. “Sure,” she eventually croaked out. She forced herself to move, shoving Potter off her and getting to her feet. “When that impossible time comes, you’ll be the first to know.”

James remained sat on the floor as she put distance between them.

Just when it looked like James was about to say something else, the classroom door clicked open and Slughorn strode in. He stopped dead when he saw the water still dripping from the two students. “Oh, good heavens,” he muttered. “Minerva really wasn’t lying about you two, was she?”

James and Cressida only glanced at each other, having no good excuse.

 

Chapter 61: Third Year: Problems and Excuses

Wednesday 25th April 2018

 

Cressida never spoke about what happened in the detention with Potter. She’d resigned herself to thinking it was another by-product of her new monthly issue and that it had all been in her head.

After all, Potter hadn’t acted any differently or strange around Cressida in the weeks that followed and she convinced herself she had made it up. Perhaps James hadn’t been that close at all. Maybe the change in his voice hadn’t happened.

Either way, Cressida refused to think about it, especially considering exams were fast approaching and she’d already started making a dent in her gum supply from stress. Molly had suggested they miss out on the last Hogsmeade trip of the year, claiming that was valuable time they could be preparing for their upcoming tests and going over their schedules. Felix quickly debunked that idea.

Cressida thought that Molly was far more stressed this year compared to the last due to the fact she had to factor in everyone’s additional lessons. Jac and Cressida had tried telling her not to worry about their lessons, but Molly had taken it upon her to be able to help in  all  areas regardless.

Still, to lessen Molly’s worries, Cressida spent extra time revising by herself this year so she wouldn’t have to rely on her. At every given moment, she was either revising late into the night in the hexagonal room, by wand light in her bed, or in the Quidditch stands while Jac practised. Sometimes Felix would join her in the stands, but he did very little revising there. He claimed he already knew all that the exams required. Cressida highly doubted that, considering he had yet to pick up a book to revise of his own accord.

Come to think of it, Felix never seemed to revise for anything and he had yet to be kicked out for poor test scores, so Cressida figured he must at least be doing okay whenever a test came up. Maybe he could cheat without getting caught, she pondered- and if he could, she'd be a bit pissed off if he hadn't shared his technique with her.

Unfortunately, until she could figure out how Felix always seemed so mellow, Cressida had resigned herself to following her new routine. Which is why she took to sitting under her favourite tree on the grounds with her books spread out in front of her revising in peace in the nice April sunshine. Jac was off doing Quidditch practice, apparently, Faro was training them even more ruthlessly now the game against Gryffindor was coming up in the next few weeks. Molly and Margo were off quizzing each other on random topics in preparations for the upcoming exams, and Cressida had no idea where Felix had disappeared to, but it likely had something to do with the kitchens.

Either way, Cressida wasn’t mad about being alone for an hour or two so she could get some work done. Rasper was rolling around in the grass beside her, enjoying pouncing and eating the longer blades swaying in the breeze.

Opening her Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook, Cressida popped a piece of gum in her mouth and settled down to read. She suspected the exam would involve something to do with the Boggarts and she wasn’t looking forward to it in the slightest. Boggarts hadn’t been mentioned again since their lesson on them but Whimbrel kept hinting at everyone to remember the spell for future use. 

If Cressida’s reluctance to face the Boggart again was bad, she could only imagine how Molly felt about the situation. Maybe there was something the two of them could do to face their fears in secret so when the time came they could both handle the Boggart with far more decorum than last time. Maybe they could get out of it entirely. They could hardly do an exam demonstration on a Boggart when there wasn't one in the first place. Although, then she pondered the repercussions of releasing a Boggart into the school... she supposed avoiding facing her own fear didn't warrant forcing everyone else to meet theirs as they rounded the corner and stumbled upon a loose Boggart.

Cressida’s fleeting Boggart thought was cut short when she heard laughter spring up from somewhere near the lake behind her. She craned her neck around the tree to see it had come from April Cattermole, who was walking along the lake bank with James. 

It was obvious James had been telling a story based on how dramatically his arms were flailing around and when he finished talking, April let out another airy laugh and reached out her hand to touch his bicep. Cressida’s eyes honed in on the pair and she was sure she saw April take a step closer to James.

Her jaw clenched as she watched the two stand there for a moment. James didn’t move away. She frowned. Why wasn’t he moving away?

When April started going up onto her tip-toes, Cressida slammed her book shut and turned back around, startling Rasper who immediately jumped up and darted off through the grounds. To Cressida’s horror, she saw her cat running straight toward James and April.

“Shit, shit,  shit !” she cursed to herself as she clambered after Rasper, hoping to catch him before James spotted her.

Unfortunately, Rasper ran right between the two Gryffindors, forcing them apart. James jumped back at the surprise interruption while April cursed.

Rasper climbed his way up James’ trouser leg until the boy was forced to hold the cat in his arms. His eyes then fell on Cressida as she came to a stop a few feet away from them.

April’s glare could have turned Cressida to stone. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Alright, Knightly,” James said. His voice was slightly higher than normal. 

“Sorry,” she said, glancing guiltily at April. “I’ll just take my cat and go.”

“You don’t have to,” James said quickly.

April’s glare turned to him now. “She doesn’t?”

“No,” he said, then he realised her glare. “I mean, we’re just hanging out, right? She can join us if she wants to.”

April huffed and looked back at Cressida. “Suddenly I don’t fancy going for a walk anymore. I’ll see you in the common room, Potter,” she said as she stormed off.

James watched April depart with a confused look. “Wonder what upset her. She was perfectly fine a minute ago…”

Cressida reached out and took Rasper from James and put him into the hobo bag, grateful James lived up to his promise of being a stupid boy for just a little bit longer. “I really didn’t mean to interrupt you.” 

“It’s fine,” James shrugged. “I’ll see her later in the common room anyway. She’s always hanging around us in there.”

“She is?” Cressida asked, turning her eyes to him.

“Yeah,” James said obliviously. “Kind of hard to avoid her if we’re stuck in the same room for eighty percent of the time.”

“Right,” Cressida said, hastily turning away. “Anyway, I have to get going.”

James ran to keep beside her. “Where’re you going?”

“Oh, um… Slytherin stuff,” she answered. “I’d invite you but-”

“I’m banned?” James guessed.

“Pretty much.”

“That’s only fair,” James shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets as the two kept walking. “Will you be wandering around later? Me and the boys might sneak out and try and pull something tonight if you’re up for it-”

“I have homework,” Cressida answered.

James paused, looking down at her. “You’re choosing homework over mischief?”

“Molly’s orders,” Cressida shrugged, coming to a stop before they were about to walk back into the castle.

“Oh,” James said, looking slightly disappointed. “Well, I suppose I’ll just hang out in the common room then.”

“With April?” 

“Probably,” James said. “Hopefully, she won’t ask me to go on another stupid walk. That’s all she ever wants to do.”

Cressida gripped her bag strap tighter. “Well, good luck with that.”

“Yeah,” James sighed dismally. “See you around, Knightly,” he said turning and walking into the castle.

Cressida waited to make sure James wouldn’t turn back around before she moved forward, heading straight for the greenhouses.

It wasn’t hard to find the group of students concealed behind a hidden corner where Longbottom kept his extra pots. There were more people there than she had expected, and the majority were made up of older years but it didn’t take long for who she was searching for to stand out.

Thane had been sat on a large upturned plant pot, sharing a cigarette with a second, very stocky boy. His brown eyes spotted her standing there and he smiled, exhaling the smoke.

“I knew you’d come to the dark side eventually, Cressida,” Thane said as she moved towards him. “Cigarette?” He offered, holding it out for her.

“No thanks,” she said, glancing at the people Thane was sitting with.

“So this is the girl you’ve been talking about?” A girl with beautiful dark skin and features said.

Thane extinguished the cigarette in the mud. “Be nice,” he said to the girl. “Cressida is one of us.” The girl made no comment and instead lit up her own cigarette and puffed on it elegantly. “Allow me to introduce everyone,” Thane said cheerfully. “This beautiful creature is Valentina Zabini. Our parents are old friends.”

Valentine outstretched her free hand towards Cressida. “Pleasure, I’m sure.” Cressida shook her hand and it did not escape her notice that there were several ornate and expensive-looking rings on the other girl’s fingers.

“And this is Goyle,” Thane continued, nodding his head to the stocky boy. “Don’t bother with his first name. He won’t answer to it… or to anything you say really.”

Cressida smiled politely at Goyle, who did nothing but stare blankly at her. She thought he greatly resembled a bulldog. She turned her attention back to Thane, swallowing her gum with a gulp. “Can I talk to you?”

Thane got to his feet, using his wand to light up a second cigarette. “I’m at your service.”

The two walked somewhere quieter, but that didn’t stop Valentina’s dark eyes from following their every move.

Cressida ignored her and faced Thane as he puffed on his cigarette. “I have a Potter problem.”

“Knew it,” Thane smiled. “So what exactly do you want me to do about it?”

“Everyone’s starting to get crushes and all that crap…” she started, feeling slightly embarrassed to even be saying this out loud. “I just don’t want to get left behind. If Potter can go around having  walks  and everything so can I.”

Thane nodded thoughtfully, finishing his cigarette. “You had your first kiss yet?”

 “No.”

“Has Potter?”

Cressida gulped. “I don’t know… I think he might soon whether he knows it or not.”

Thane flicked his cigarette butt to the ground. “You have two options, Knightly. One, you can wait and have your first kiss with someone you love and all that gunky crap, which, based on your apparent hatred of crushes, might take a while. Or… you can get it out of the way and keep up with who you’re concerned about.”

Cressida ran her hand through her hair, slightly regretting coming here in the first place. “I don’t know. Which would you do?”

Thane lent back against the tool shed they were concealed behind. “I mean, I had my first kiss at twelve so I feel like I’m not the best person to ask.”

“Twelve?” Cressida repeated with mild shock. God, if other people had started at twelve she really was behind everyone else. What if people had started kissing and she just hadn’t been paying enough attention? 

Thane watched her for a moment, then smiled ever so slightly. “You don’t have to keep up with them, you know, Cressida. Kissing someone just so you beat Potter at this weird competition you’ve made up in your head might not fix your problem.”

“No,” Cressida said stubbornly. “No, if everyone else is doing it I should too. I mean, I have to get it over with eventually.”

“I admire your attitude,” Thane said. “So who’s going to be your lucky guinea pig?”

Cressida felt redness creep up onto her cheeks. “I don’t know. Maybe, Felix- I doubt he’d care if I kissed him just to get it out the way.”

“And what if he starts liking you? Boys are very partial to liking any girl that shows them attention,” Thane pointed out. “Could end up ruining your friendship.”

“Shit. I don’t know then,” Cressida huffed, tugging on her hair thoughtfully. “Who am I  supposed  to pick?”

Thane lit up another cigarette. “I would suggest Potter but I doubt that’d go down well.” Cressida glared up at the older boy as he grinned down at her. “Tell you what,” he said, taking a puff. “I’ll do it.”

“What?” Cressida paled.

“We’re not friends, so that doesn’t matter, I’ve kissed plenty of girls before you, so it’s not a big deal, and I know the real reason you’re doing it so there’s no risk of feelings being hurt,” Thane listed. “That’s if you  really  want to go through with this plan.”

Cressida stared up at him, her mind whizzing with thoughts and how to proceed.

Finally, after she was sure her throat had dried up completely, she replied. “I’ll think about it.”

Thane took another puff on his cigarette, turning back to his friends. “I look forward to it.”

 

Tuesday 8th May 2018 

 

Thane’s offer had only added to Cressida’s seemingly never-ending list of stress as of late. On top of revision, exams around the corner, and trying to avoid thinking about what everyone else was up to in regards to kissing and dating Cressida’s sleep pattern was perhaps the worst it had ever been. She had it under control, she kept telling herself. She couldn’t sleep even if there wasn’t an ever-growing pile of homework and exam prep to complete, and besides, the pile of homework distracted her from Thane’s offer.

She hadn’t told Jac or Molly about the situation. She felt like if she said it out loud they’d call her ridiculous. As far as Cressida knew, neither of the girls had had their first kiss either, or maybe they had and it wasn’t the sort of thing you just blurted out randomly.

The more she thought about it, and what she was supposed to do without having any clue as to how she was supposed to do it, Cressida just wanted to join a nunnery. They didn’t have to deal with this crap.

That didn’t stop her mind from thinking about the alternative when she had nothing better to do while staring at her cloth ceiling into the early hours of the morning.

So when Molly pulled open Cressida’s bed curtains abruptly at seven in the morning, she was less than thrilled to see it was already daylight. She hadn’t even made it under the covers that night, and her homework was still plastered over her sheets with Rasper sleeping soundly on top of them as if even he was protesting to how much Cressida was studying this time.

“Merlin, have you even slept?” Molly asked once she saw Cressida’s puffy eyes.

“What do you think?” Cressida shot back.

Molly's brows narrowed in concern for her. "Jac won’t come out of the bathroom, says she’ll only let you in,” Molly said, moving the conversation along.

Cressida shuffled out of the bed with a frown. “Why is she hiding in the bathroom?”

“You tell me,” Molly shrugged, going back to her own bed.

Cressida knocked quietly on the bathroom door. “Jac, it’s me. Open up.”

The door creaked open just enough for Jac to pull her inside. She climbed into the bathtub and sat down as Cressida shut the door behind her. “I need your help,” Jac said, sending a cautious glance to the door. “I wasn’t sure how wizards dealt with this kind of thing.”

“What kind of thing?”

“You know,” Jac said, her eye welling up. “The  thing! It’s happened and now I’m too scared to stand upright for too long in case-”

“Oh,” Cressida said, realising suddenly. “Holy fuck, Jac, it happened to me last month. You’ll be fine.”

“So I’m not the only one?” Jac asked relieved.

Cressida climbed into the bathtub and sat opposite her. “No, you’re not the only one.”

Jac sniffed, hugging her knees. “Does it hurt as much as everyone says?”

“Unfortunately,” Cressida admitted. “It’s just more weird than anything else. Makes you feel all funny and emotional.”

“So that’s why I’ve been crying for the last hour?” Jac laughed lightly, wiping her face.

“Yeah,” Cressida smiled at her. “It’ll be okay though, we can help each other out with it now. You know, do spot checks and stuff if we’re paranoid.”

Jac nodded, using toilet roll to wipe her eyes. “Can you take me to Madam Pomfrey to get sorted before lessons start?”

“What should I tell Molly?” Cressida asked as she helped Jac climb out of the bathtub. 

“Tell her I’ve contracted a fatal disease called womanhood,” Jac grumbled.

 

*

 

Jac had handled the situation with slightly more decorum than Cressida had. If Cressida didn’t know any better, she wouldn’t even know Jac was going through it during lessons. Her emotions remained in check. She never winced in pain randomly. Cressida thought that after watching Jac all day, she made her situation last month incredibly obvious.

That was until Care of Magical Creatures happened.

“Right,” Hagrid has said, leading the group into the forest beside his hut. “I know yer final exams are comin’ up and whatnot, and I know you’ve been askin’ about cute creatures and all that, well, today is yer lucky day.”

The majority of the girls in the class gave excited squeals, ecstatic to see what creature they were going to be learning about.

Even Cressida and Jac weren’t ashamed to admit anything other than a Flobberworm or a newt would be one of the highlights of the month.

“May I present to you,” Hagrid said coming to a stop. “The Hippogriff!”

Hagrid threw three or four dead rabbits into the clearing ahead of them and slowly, one by one, Hippogriffs started trotting out from within the trees and snatching up their lunch.

James caught Cressida’s eyes and they shared a small smile.

“They’re beautiful!” Beatrix gasped as a pure black one spread its wings out in front of them.

“That’ll be Nightshade. Stubborn bugger, he is,” Hagrid said, throwing a rabbit’s foot at the one Beatrix was fawning over. “Now, yer final exam is going to be on these fine beasts. Today, I am going to teach you how to approach them without offending ‘em. Very prideful things, they are, so you’ve got to be careful.”

Fred shuffled his way to stand beside the two girls in the crowd. “Do you reckon he’s going to let us ride them?” Cressida asked him.

“Might do,” Fred said. “What do you say, Redwick, fancy a ride?” He asked, nudging her with his elbow. Jac laughed awkwardly but offered no comment. Fred didn’t seem to notice. 

Cressida’s eyes caught April standing beside James in the crowd, she was whispering something so Hagrid wouldn’t hear them, and James was nodding absent-mindedly along. “What’re those two talking about?” Cressida asked.

Fred followed her eye line. “She’s probably talking about Hogsmeade again. She’s been trying to convince James to take her to that stupid tea shop.”

“Oh,” Cressida said, tearing her eyes away. 

“That reminds me,” Fred continued, looking down at Jac. “Has anyone asked you to go to Hogsmeade yet?”

Jac’s body went ridged and she had turned such a bright red that it even took Cressida by surprise. “Why do you ask?”

Fred shrugged looking up at Hagrid as he rambled on about the Hippogriffs still. “Wondered if you fancied going with me-” He turned his eyes back to Jac and frowned slightly once he saw she was the colour of beetroot. “You alright, Jac? You’ve gone a bit-”

“She’s sick,” Cressida jumped in. “A really bad fever.”

“Redwick’s sick?” James asked then, whipping around to face them and interrupting whatever April was whispering to him.

“Yeah, she does look a bit feverish,” April agreed, looking over as well with genuine concern.

“You feeling alright, Jacqueline?” Hagrid asked, plodding his way towards them with James at his side. He put his large hand against her forehead and subsequently covered her whole face. “Yer burning up. You best pop off to madam Pomfrey and have the rest of the day off.”

Jac sent Cressida a small wince as she turned and begrudgingly started making her way back up to the castle.

“I hope she feels better soon,” Fred mumbled, watching her go.

“I’m sure she’ll get over it in a day or two,” Cressida replied, moving away from him in case he tried to ask any more questions.

“Right then,” Hagrid said, clapping his hands together and turning back towards the Hippogriffs. “Who wants to go first?”

The question was shortly answered when Beebe suddenly trotted into the clearing, scooping up one of the dead rabbits Hagrid was still throwing at them. The creature swallowed the rabbit whole and then turned her attention to the crowd of students.

“Now don’t panic,” Hagrid told them as Beebe started moving forward. “If you make any sudden movements or noises you might startle her.”

The class split into two to make a path for Beebe as she walked toward them. Eventually, she came to a stop in front of Cressida, swishing her horse tail behind her.

Cressida looked to James again, who bowed slightly as a prompt for her.

Taking a deep breath and praying this didn’t go wrong, Cressida bowed in front of the creature.

A second later, Beebe spread her wings and bowed back to Cressida.

“Merlin, Cressida, I didn’t even have to tell yer what to do,” Hagrid praised her. “Have you done this before or somethin’?”

“You could say that,” Fred chimed in, ruffling James’ hair.

“Well, go on then,” Hagrid continued. “Don’t just stand there, give her a pet.”

Cressida slowly reached out her hand. Beebe gave a chirp and then pushed her feathery head into the palm of her hand.

“There we go,” Hagrid smiled. “Come on the rest of you. Get to bowing and introducing yourselves. They hardly ever bite.”

“No, it’s the hooves you have to watch out for,” James quipped, bowing elegantly in front of Nightshade. Nightshade did not look pleased about the interaction.

 

*

 

After lessons, Cressida had eventually found Jac lying face down in the hexagonal room and it looked like that’s the position she had been in since leaving Care of Magical Creatures.

“I am a part of the floor now,” Jac’s muffled voice said once Cressida stood over her.

“I brought you a muffin.”

Jac lifted her head. “Is it chocolate?”

“Blueberry.”

Jac sat up properly and took the muffin gratefully. “I can’t believe I made such an idiot of myself,” she huffed, picking at the treat.

“It happens,” Cressida shrugged, settling into the beanbag opposite. “I doubt Fred even noticed.”

“How was the lesson after?” Jac asked miserably. “I was really looking forward to the Hippogriff lesson as well.”

“I’m sure we’ll get another chance,” Cressida comforted her.

“Did the others suspect anything about me today?”

“Felix actually sounded quite worried about you when you never showed up for Transfiguration,” Cressida admitted. “I had to stop him bunking it off to come up here and check on you.”

Jac took another bite of her muffin. “He’s getting suspiciously sweet this year.”

“Tell that to Margo,” Cressida joked. “She wasn’t worried about you in the slightest, by the way. She was more worried about you giving your disease to her after I told her you were sick. I think she’s quarantining our dorm room as we speak.”

“Well, luckily for her this isn’t contractible but it is inevitable,” Jac sighed.

“Fred was asking about you on my way here,” Cressida said then, cautious of upsetting Jac by bringing him up. “He wanted to know if you were going to Quidditch practice this afternoon.”

Jac gripped the sides of her hair, spilling her muffin in her lap. “Shitting fuck, I forgot about practice! How am I supposed to ride a broom like  this ?”

“Well, if anything I’d assume it’d be more comfortable now with the extra padding,” Cressida said.

Jac hastily got to her feet and started gathering her school bag. “I’m going to go back to Pomfrey and get a sick note. That way Faro can’t force me to play.”

“Good luck!” Cressida called fleetingly as Jac descended back down the spiral staircase.

Left alone in the room, Cressida heaved a sigh and started pulling out her homework due in for tomorrow. She’d only just put her quill to her parchment when she heard a noise.

“Did you forget something?” She asked, realising it was footsteps on the staircase and thinking nothing of it. She read over the nonsense she had copied down in lessons. She distinctly remembered the trio of boys distracting her in that lesson by sending paper aeroplanes through Professor Binns' translucent body whenever he had his back turned. “I don’t suppose you’ve already done the History homework and I could copy it?” She called out again, assuming Jac would appear again any second now.

“Nice spot you got up here.”

Cressida’s head snapped up to see James and Thomas poking their heads up through the gap of the spiral staircase. “How the fuck did you two find me?”

“We have our ways,” Thomas smiled.

“You followed me?” She asked.

James and Thomas walked into the space properly, looking out at the amazing view of the Hogwarts grounds. “We didn’t follow you, per se,” James told her while glancing around. Now he was focusing on the cushions and books Cressida had stored around the space to make it comfier. “Just saw you heading in this general direction and we thought we’d see what you were up to.”

“So you followed me?” she repeated pointedly.

“Okay,  yes , we followed you,” James rolled his eyes. “Redwick running out of the room just now confirmed our theories.”

“How did you find this place?” Thomas asked impressed.

“Hiding from you during First Year,” Cressida explained reluctantly. “Jac and Felix are the only other people who come up here.”

“You should put a locking charm on the staircase to stop everyone else from finding it. They’d hex you for somewhere quiet like this around here,” Thomas told her whilst admiring her collection of books.

Cressida sat back against her cushions and blew her hair out of her face. “I suppose now you’re going to go and tell everyone about it?”

“That depends,” James started looking back at her. “I won’t tell if you let us hang out here from time to time.”

“Why would you want to hang out here?” Cressida asked raising her eyebrow.

“Who wouldn’t?” Thomas asked gesturing around the hexagonal room.

James picked the dirt out from under his nails nonchalantly. “Truth be told the Gryffindor common room can be a bit loud from time to time, and we never get to see people from other houses in there.”

“You won’t be able to see people from other houses in here either if you put up a locking spell,” Cressida pointed out. 

James grinned mysteriously but ignored her point. “Do we have a deal or not?” He asked extending his hand.

Cressida thought about it for a moment. Perhaps having more company in the cosy room from time to time would be nice, and now they knew it was here she couldn’t use it to hide from them anymore anyway. “Fine,” she agreed, getting to her feet. “But you have to bring your own cushions and you tell  no one. ”

“What about Freddie?” Thomas asked.

“Weasley can come too,” Cressida decided.

“Then it’s a deal,” James smiled, plonking down in a beanbag. “So, what do you do in here?”

Cressida gestured out at the homework in her lap. “This mainly.”

“That’s boring,” Thomas frowned.

“That’s life,” Cressida countered. “Where is Fred anyway?”

James had started flicking through a random book. “Waiting to watch Redwick practise for Quidditch.”

“But she’s sick.”

“You can still play Quidditch when you’re sick,” Thomas said. “Trust me, I would know.”

Cressida sighed and threw all her homework back in her bag as she got to her feet. 

“Wait, where are you going now?” James asked.

“To find Jac.”

James got to his feet too, running after Cressida. “I’ll come with.” He paused when he realised Thomas had made no indication he was going to follow. “Aren’t you coming?”

“Nah, I quite like it in here,” Thomas answered, making himself comfortable.

Cressida looked back over her shoulder as she started descending the staircase. “Don’t move or touch anything while I’m gone or I will rip your nipples off,” she warned him.

“Noted,” Thomas replied, disturbed by the imagery.

Cressida had rushed through the halls with James following alongside her until they eventually found Jac and Fred near the Entrance Hall. Jac looked visibly relieved when she saw Cressida break through the crowd.

“Knightly, can you fill me in on what I’ve missed because Jac’s looking at me like I’ve got two heads all of a sudden?” Fred asked instantly.

“She’s sick, dude,” James answered.

“Then why wouldn’t Pomfrey give her a sick note to get out of Quidditch?” Fred asked.

Cressida looked to Jac. “How’re you holding up?”

“Not great,” Jac replied distressed.

“Look,” Cressida started, turning towards the two boys. “Jac’s not sick but she can’t play Quidditch and was acting weird for a  very  good reason today, just trust us.”

“Well, what is it?” James asked. “Is something wrong? Can we help?”

Jac and Cressida looked at each other.

“Let’s just tell them,” Cressida sighed after a moment.

“Really?” Jac asked doubtfully. “You think they won’t, you know… be weirded out by it?”

“Tell us and we’ll let you know,” Fred said impatiently.

“We’re going through… you know,” Jac lowered her voice. “The change.”

James and Fred’s faces both dropped.

“That’s why Jac was acting strange today and I was acting strange last month,” Cressida explained. 

“Oh. Right,” Fred said weakly. “Well… It’ll be alright.”

“Yeah, the Shrieking Shack was built for this type of thing,” James nodded. “It’s nothing our lot haven’t dealt with in the past. There are ways around it.”

Cressida narrowed her brows. “What are you talking about?”

“You know,” James leant closer. “The change. The thing that happens once a month.”

Fred checked no one was listening and then leaned forward as well. “Also known as your furry little problem?”

Jac and Cressida looked at each other and then simultaneously whacked Fred.

“Just because a woman starts growing body hair does not mean it’s a problem!” Jac snapped, continuing to whack him even after Cressida had stopped.

“Hey, hey!” James stepped in. “It’s nothing to be ashamed about. I’m sure there are loads of girl werewolves roaming about the place… probably in the mountains somewhere.”

Jac froze mid-hit as both girls stared at James in bewilderment. “You think we’re turning into werewolves?”

Fred and James stared back as equally confused. “Aren’t you?”

“ No !” Both girls snapped.

“But you were asking Lupin all those questions before, and saying how werewolves weren’t so bad,” Fred tried to reason.

"And you just said you were going through the change?" James added on.

“So naturally you assumed we must be werewolves?” Cressida asked, turning her and Jac around to leave. “Jesus, you two, take a biology class!”

“Oh come on, you know they don’t offer that class here!” James called after them.

"Ask your cousins then!" Jac called over her shoulder. "God knows you've got enough of them!"

Fred was now rubbing his many sore spots from all the hitting. “So, if they’re not werewolves… what are they?”

James gave a clueless shrug. “I'll owl Teddy, maybe he knows what’s wrong with them.”

 

Chapter 62: Third Year: First Date

Notes:

Sorry if this chapter seems a bit short, the next bit was too long to include afterwards

Friday 11th May 2018

 

Cressida knew the secret room wasn’t safe for her and Jac to talk in anymore. Since the trio had discovered it they ran the risk of appearing at any time and that was something the two girls definitely didn’t want to happen, especially when one of the three boys was the main topic of conversation lately.

And so they clambered into Molly’s bed for a change, whispering together late into the night.

“Do you really think Fred was asking me to Hogsmeade the other day?” Jac was asking the other two girls. “I mean… a bunch of girls keep asking him to go, why would he want to go with me?”

“Because he likes you,” Molly said matter-of-factly while turning a page of her textbook. Despite it being well past midnight she had decided to continue revising as long as she was being kept awake by the conversation. “Fred wouldn’t do anything he wasn’t sure of. He’s not as dense as James in that regard.”

“But how do I know if I like  him ?” Jac panicked.

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “Well, do you think he’s cute?”

“Thinking someone’s cute doesn’t mean you automatically fancy them, Cressida,” Molly argued. "There has to be more to it than that to count as a crush." 

Jac and Cressida both turned their eyes to Molly. “Do you think anyone is cute, Mol?” Jac asked.

Molly blushed slightly, pretending to be extra interested in her book. “Well, it’s just a matter of opinion, isn’t it? Some boys are just more attractive to certain people than others.”

“Fucking hell, only you could make talking about boys sound boring and mature,” Cressida joked.

"Give us an example," Jac went on. "Who do you think is more attractive than say... Potter?"

"Well, that's not fair," Cressida interjected.

"Yeah, can we not include my cousin in this discussion?" Molly frowned.

"Who's more attractive than Finnigan?" Cressida asked instead. "That should be an easy one."

Molly's eyes snapped up. Her mouth opening and shutting as she fumbled for an answer on the spot.

"Oh my god," Jac grinned. "Can you not think of someone cuter than Felix?"

Molly scoffed, her blush worsening. "Don't be ridicules-"

“It's not so far fetched," Cressida told her. "Felix isn't disastrously ugly. In fact, if he wasn't our friend I'd think he was decent looking-"

"He'd have a nice surfer boy vibe to him if he wasn't so pale," Jac chimed in. Cressida hummed in agreement.

Molly huffed as the two girls stared expectantly at her. “What on earth makes you think I could possibly fancy Finnigan?”

“Because he’s the only boy you talk to,” Cressida pointed out.

"And you just admitted he's cute," Jac added on.

Molly cleared her throat and put her eyes back down to her book. “Fine. Felix has some rather good qualities about him, not that it matters. He’s our friend. It would be ridiculous to assume anything else about him for more than a second.”

“Oh my God, Mol,” Cressida said, her eyes widening in excitement. “You actually fancy him, don't you?!"

Molly’s hand reached out and covered Cressida’s mouth with a deadly glare. All three girls froze, listening to the two other bodies in the room snoring soundly. Jac peered out of the bed curtains to see Felix still asleep in a pile on the floor in the middle of the girl’s room as he often was these days.

Once she was sure they ran no risk of waking him up, Jac turned back to the two girls. “How long has this been going on?” She whispered to Molly.

“Well, it hasn’t really,” Molly huffed, clearly reluctant to be having this conversation. “He’s just been a bit… nicer this year and it got me thinking, that’s all.”

“Does he know?” Cressida asked.

“Merlin no!” Molly said instantly. “And if he ever finds out I will personally destroy each and every one of you. I have the skills to do it. No one would ever find your bodies.”

Jac and Cressida were both grinning at Molly despite the threats. “It’s safe with us,” Cressida comforted her. 

“Good,” Molly said, going back to her books. “And anyway I thought we were talking about Jac potentially dating my cousin… which I’m not entirely thrilled about by the way.”

Jac led down on the bed with a sigh. “I just wish I knew for definite if I liked him before I do something stupid. Mum always said I shouldn’t date until I’m at least seventeen because girls who date younger than that end up pregnant and full of regret.”

“When did she meet your dad?” Cressida asked curiously.

“Fourteen,” Jac answered, not seeing the hypocrisy. 

“Right, well,” Cressida continued. “Hogsmeade is the day after tomorrow. That gives you just over twenty-four hours to decide if you like him or not.”

“I don’t think it matters anyway,” Jac frowned. “I missed my chance to agree to go with him Hogsmeade, even if I could  decide if I wanted to go or not. I bet some other girl is going with him now while I was off having a meltdown.”

"We would have heard about it by now if another girl was going with him," Cressida said.

“Plus, I don’t think it works like that,” Molly chimed in. “I think you’re just supposed to  know  if you like someone.”

“Oh and you just  knew  about Felix, did you?” Jac shot back. They were all as hopeless at this as each other it seemed.

Molly closed her book and placed it under her pillow pointedly. “I do believe it is time we get some sleep.”

Cressida and Jac took that as their sign to leave and designate their own beds for the night. The two girls paused, standing over Felix on their way, listening to him snore and mumble in his sleep.

“Who would have guessed this is what Molly would find attractive,” Jac whispered. “They’re so different from one another.”

Cressida shrugged. “Sometimes that’s a good thing,” she said. “Keeps it interesting at least.”

 

*

 

The next morning neither of the three girls mentioned what they had discussed the night before. However, Cressida did send Molly a small knowing smile as the ginger witch took to waking Felix up first thing in the morning with a glass of water.

“Cheers, Weasley,” Felix yawned, stretching his arms above his head. “Can always count on you to look after me, ay?”

Molly didn’t reply and instead sent Cressida a glare for watching them before moving into the bathroom for her shower.

After that, they trudged their way up to breakfast with Margo complaining about Chauncey vetoing all her ideas for the latest gossip article. The trio of boys had recently caused some chaos in their Defence Against The Dark Arts class but it was nothing outstanding like their normal planned pranks, and so the three girls working on the column couldn’t seem to decide whether it was gossip-worthy or not.

Cressida didn’t particularly care either way if it got written. The less focus the  Chatterbox  put on the trio of boys at the minute the better, especially because the final Quidditch match of the year was being held after exams were finished and Gryffindor having all the glory before the match even happened didn’t reflect well for the Slytherin team.

“Did I tell you Penelope wants to do an updated version of the Hot or Not column before the end of the year?” Margo was saying as they sat down at the table. “She reckons Fred has gotten more popular than Potter now.”

“Really?” Jac asked, a small frown on her face. 

“Mhm,” Margo continued, pouring herself some juice. “Apparently, James keeps turning all the girls away whereas Fred actually talks back to them… I keep trying to get Vonce put on the list but Chauncey says no one’s going to fancy him because he’s a Slytherin.”

“And he also flirts with anything that moves,” Molly mumbled so quietly that Margo couldn’t hear it.

“Either way,” Margo kept going. “Fred’s apparently one of the most eligible guys in our year right now. Whoever he ends up dating is going to make a lot of girls angry.”

Jac’s face paled and she sank low in her chair.

At that moment the group of Slytherins heard some vague shouts and they turned to see it was coming from the trio of Gryffindor boys trying to get their attention.

They watched as Fred blew a piece of parchment out of his hand and turned it into a beautiful bird-like structure, flapping its way over to them, before indelicately dropping in front of Jac.

“Oh no,” Jac squeaked, staring down at it.

Thomas and James were shoving Fred playfully as they watched Jac unfold the piece of paper and read what was written on it. 

“What does it say?” Molly asked, craning her neck to look at the note.

Jac blushed slightly. “It’s asking me to go to Hogsmeade with him tomorrow.”

"Told you he hadn't asked another girl," Cressida said.

Margo’s face grew suddenly very tight. Cressida took the note and read it for herself. She then looked at the trio of boys eagerly awaiting their response. 

“Well…” Molly prompted, pouring herself another cup of tea. “Are you going to go out with the idiot or not?”

Jac seemed stunned for an answer. Cressida could see Fred growing more anxious from the opposite table the longer it took for them to reply to his message. Thinking quickly, she turned to her best friend. “You don’t have to go alone if you don’t want to.”

“It won’t be a date if she doesn’t go alone,” Felix scoffed, piercing a fat sausage with his fork.

“No, she’s right. I’d feel better if you guys were close by,” Jac admitted gratefully.

“You can’t be serious?” Margo asked haughtily. “ You  can’t date Fred!”

“Why can’t she?” Cressida snapped back defensively.

Margo was lost for a comeback for a moment and then she turned to Molly. “How are you okay with this?!”

Molly glanced between the group. “Jac can do what she wants. I’m not getting involved.”

“Well, count me out,” Margo huffed, folding her arms over her chest. “I have better things to be doing than following you and Fred around for the whole of Hogsmeade. Molly and I will just entertain ourselves some other way, right, Molly?”

Molly swallowed her eggs and gave a small nod, offering no other comment.

“Felix and I will go with you then,” Cressida said. Felix started opening his mouth to complain but Cressida shot him a look that made him refrain.

“On second thought I’d love to third-wheel you on your date,” Felix said faking positivity. “Couldn't think of a  better  way to spend my last Hogsmeade trip of the year.”

“Thanks, guys,” Jac breathed not picking up on Felix’s sarcasm. She glanced at the note again and then looked up at Cressida. “Will you go and tell him? I don’t think I’ll be able to form a coherent sentence right now.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Molly said then. “You’ve spoken to Fred tons of times.”

“But it’s different when…” Jac lowered her voice so only they could hear. “It’s different when they like you, isn’t it?”

Molly thought about this for a moment, her eyes glancing at Felix briefly. “Yeah, I suppose so… if you’re both on the same page,” she answered simply before going back to eating her breakfast

“ Are  you on the same page?” Margo asked a little bit too interested.

“Well, I won’t know until after the date, will I?” Jac replied.

Someone cleared their throat behind the group and they all spun around to see James standing there. “Morning ladies… and Felix,” he nodded in greeting. Felix gave a grumble of appreciation for the inclusion. Jac sank low into her chair knowing exactly why James had come over to their table.

Cressida sprung into action, grabbing James by the robes and pulling him along until they were in a secluded corner of the Great Hall. “Merlin, Knightly!” He smirked as he allowed himself to be moved. “What’s caused such a bold move on your part? It wasn’t Fred’s stupid love note stirring up unrecognised feelings for me, was it?” He joked as they came to a stop.

“Of course not,” she snapped. James rolled his eyes and straightened out his robes. “Look, Jac wants to go on the date but she’s nervous and doesn’t want to go alone so we have to come with her,” she explained.

James narrowed his eyebrows at her. “Then that’s not a date, it’s an awkward friendly outing.”

“We’ll just follow behind them until Jac feels comfortable enough to go off on her own,” Cressida told him.

James glanced between his table and her table and then settled his eyes on her, licking his bottom lip thoughtfully. “When you say  we … who exactly do you mean?”

“Felix and I,” Cressida answered folding her arms. “But you and Thomas can tag along if you have nothing better to do.”

James considered this scenario for a moment and then grinned. “You realise that could mean spending an entire Hogsmeade trip stuck with me, yes?”

“Unfortunately, yes, I did manage to come to that conclusion myself,” she said rolling her eyes. “But it’s for Jac and I want her to have a good date even if that means I’m stuck trailing behind with you for a few hours.”

James turned, grinning wider still. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Knightly. I’ll let the lucky man know the plan.” 

James strode back to his table.

 

Saturday 12th May 2018

 

Cressida was amazed Jac had managed to get up and get dressed as well as she did with how little she slept that night. The two girls had stayed up until sunrise sitting on Cressida’s bed discussing the day ahead until they’d fallen asleep slumped together along with Rasper.

But still, as soon as Molly woke them up, Jac bounced out of bed and rushed into the bathroom, trying on three different outfits and commissioning Molly and Cressida to try and braid her hair perfectly.

Eventually, the group of Slytherins went to the Entrance Hall to start making their way down. By that point, Jac’s nerves were starting to go get the better of her and she’d started chewing on the end of her braid.

“And you promise you two won’t leave me?” Jac asked for a second time. She’d not bothered to ask Molly and Margo as Margo made it explicitly clear as soon as they started walking down, she was dragging Molly off to do something else.

“We promise,” Felix answered her, sending a begrudging glance toward Cressida. “Even if it nearly kills us, apparently we’re not allowed to leave your side.”

“Exactly,” Cressida agreed. “We will be on standby the entire time.”

“Here they come,” Margo pointed them out as the trio descended the stairs. “Which means as soon as they’re within talking distance we’re leaving.”

“Oh god,” Jac muttered, turning her back on them.

“Here,” Molly said pulling something out of her pocket. She reached out and applied some lip gloss to Jac and then held the tube out for her to take. “You should keep this on you today.”

“You sure?” Jac asked, pocketing the cosmetic.

“Probably for the best,” Felix said. “You don’t want to kiss Weasley for the first time with chapped lips.”

“Who said anything about kissing?!” Jac panicked, rounding on him.

“No one!” Cressida cut in. “No one’s kissing anyone!”

Fred cleared his throat alerting them to his presence and the group spun around to face the trio of boys.

“Well,” Molly said, linking arms with Margo. “That’s our queue to go. Try not to blow anything up or get arrested.”

“We make no promises,” James replied with a grin.

That left the group of six standing together, looking awkwardly at one another.

“So,” Felix said, breaking the silence. “Wood, what’re your plans for the upcoming match?”

That was all it took to get everyone engaged in a conversation they were all comfortable with and they started walking down to Hogsmeade in one big group.

 

*

 

They’d spent over two hours wandering around in Hogsmeade doing various activities. They’d gone into the Quidditch supply store, Zonko’s alone had taken up an hour as the group deliberated what would be the best objects to buy. After the first half of the trip was done, Jac and Fred seemed to naturally venture off on their own, but Cressida kept her promise of staying nearby in case Jac decided she needed backup.

Once they had visited Honeyduke's to replenish their sweet supply, they quickly lost Felix and Thomas to all the treats on show.

That left Cressida trailing behind with James.

“You don’t have to stick with me, you know,” Cressida told him as they walked out of the sweet shop. Fred and Jac were walking slightly ahead sharing a packet of Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans. “Thomas and Felix are still in the shop if you’d rather go back in.”

“Nah, that’s okay,” James said, biting the head off a green jelly slug. “It’d be unfair to abandon you in your quest to be a good best friend to Jac.”

“Potter!” Fred called, looking over his shoulder. “Fancy heading up to the Shrieking Shack?”

“Good with me!” James called back.

Fred grinned and turned back around, continuing his conservation with Jac as though they’d never stopped.

As they walked along the cobbled street, Cressida saw Beatrix, April and Penelope standing outside of the Three Broomsticks. When the group of three girls spotted James and Cressida following behind Fred and Jac, they looked less than impressed.

“Did you tell April you were spending Hogsmead with us?” Cressida asked curiously as they walked past.

James shrugged, shoving another jelly slug into his mouth. “I mentioned it to her when she asked if I’d made my mind up on going to that flouncy tea shop with her the other day.”

“How’d she take it?”

“Not well,” James mused. “Come to think of it she refused to talk to me for the rest of the day.”

Cressida tried to ignore their glares as they kept moving forward. “She likes you, James.”

“I had figured that out for myself,” James countered. “But she’s just a friend. I plan on keeping my promise to you.”

Cressida glanced sideways at him. “Have you specifically told April she’s just a friend?”

James gulped loudly, swallowing his jelly slug. “I thought she’d just kind of… know.”

“Stupid boy,” Cressida muttered as they started climbing the hill. It was a really sunny day out for the final Hogsmeade trip of the year and Cressida was glad she’d decided to wear shorts for the occasion so she wouldn’t bake in the hot sun.

“Do you reckon I have to tell her then?” James went on, now with a slightly nervous disposition. “That I’m not interested?”

“Are you sure you’re not interested?” Cressida asked, keeping her eyes firmly forward. She didn’t know why she had asked that, but the words had spilt out of her before she thought of the implications of his answer.

“What do you mean?”

That was it, she'd done it now. She'd have to keep talking. “Well… April is really pretty, and she clearly likes you. Nobody would blame you if… you know, you did like her or want to kiss her,” Cressida explained, despite her mind silently screaming for her to stop. She didn’t want to know about James and April. Not really. Especially when James was currently staring at her intently. But if he was going to start kissing girls she had to get used to it and hope he would still want to be her friend at the end of the day. That’s all she was concerned about. “I’m just saying, if you’re worried about your promise, I wouldn’t be mad.”

“You wouldn’t?” He asked, his brow furrowed.

“Nope,” Cressida answered, keeping her voice cheerful. “Kiss away for all I care. Everyone else will be soon anyway by the sound of it.”

“You reckon?” James asked, staring at the ground ahead of them as they walked.

“Some people have already started, apparently.”

James’ eyes lifted to her again. “Have you?”

Cressida blinked, caught off guard. She hadn’t expected him to turn the conversation around on her. “I’ve had an offer.”

“An offer?” James repeated.

“Yeah,” Cressida said. “But I don’t know if I’ll go through with it yet.”

“Right,” James said, clearly deep in thought. “Why haven’t you? Gone through with it, I mean?”

Cressida looked at him. “Don’t know,” she admitted. “Waiting to see what happens, I suppose.”

“Right,” James said, breaking the eye contact. “Well, in that case, I might give it a go with April. Maybe there’s something I’m missing.”

“Maybe,” Cressida agreed, watching as the Shrieking Shack came into view.

Jac was laughing loudly at Fred up ahead. He was making dog noises and howling into the sky. For what reason, Cressida wasn't sure.

“We’ll still be friends, right?” James said then. “If I end up liking April after all. That doesn’t mean things change between us like we said in Sluggie’s detention.”

“Right,” Cressida agreed. “You go out with April. I try and keep my vomit down when you tell me about it. We carry on as normal.”

“Okay,” James said, looking up ahead as Fred and Jac came to a stop. “Sounds good to me.”

“Good,” Cressida said.

“Good,” James repeated.

The two of them hung back slightly, watching as Jac and Fred seeming completely immersed in their own conversation. Jac hadn't so much as turned back to check Cressida was still there for twenty minutes.

"I think Jac's okay now," Cressida said, not wanting to stand in silence with Potter for the next half hour. "I'm going to head back down and find Felix. Maybe get a Butterbeer with him before it's too late."

James nodded, watching Jac and Fred moving closer together. "I suppose Thomas could use some company by now as well. We could all go to get Butterbeer together?" He offered as Cressida turned around. 

Cressida quirked her eyebrow at him over her shoulder. "Aren't you sick of me yet?"

James grinned as he moved to her side again. "Oh, completely nauseous, but I doubt the last half hour of the trip is going to make it any worse so I'm willing to put up with it," he joked as the two continued back down the path leaving Fred and Jac alone.

 

Chapter 63: Third Year: Saviours Of The Wizarding World

Notes:

I'm deeply saddened about the death of Hagrid and although he's only briefly in this chapter there are one's I've written that include him more that I now read with fond memories of all the love and light he brought to the character and the world of Harry Potter as a whole. He will be dearly missed but Hagrid will live on in our hearts forever.

RIP Robbie, the best groundskeeper at Hogwarts x

Friday 18th May 2018

 

Third Year exams were relentless and even with all the extra effort Cressida had put in, she was still far behind where she was supposed to be. 

Cressida wasn’t the only one, however. Late into the night, Jac would randomly barge into Cressida’s bed curtains and demand she practice her Divination skills on her.

So far, according to Jac, Cressida was going to suffer a great loss, receive a great fortune, buy a rather nice hat, and lose something important. Cressida didn’t have high hopes for Jac’s Divination grade based on her predictions considering none of them seemed likely and she was firmly against wearing hats since the fiasco at the beginning of the year.

Felix was perhaps the only one of the group of Slytherins that was not in a panicked frenzy about exams, and as Cressida sat staring at him at breakfast, eating toast like there was no great rush to accomplish anything important, it dawned on her that she had never once heard Felix tell them what grades he’d received for the last two years. 

“Finnigan,” Cressida said over the table, breaking the silence. There had been no conversation happening that morning. Jac’s head was face down on the table complaining of a headache, and Molly and Margo were drinking several cups of tea while turning the pages of four separate textbooks. If Felix was calm and collected about the upcoming exams, the three girls were the opposite. “What were your exam results last year?”

Felix's eyes lifted from where he was piling beans onto the crust of his toast. “Come again?”

“Your results, you never told us how you did.”

Molly and Margo tuned in to the conversation then. Felix scoffed and continued eating. “Sure I did.”

“Actually, Cressida’s right. You never told us,” Jac said, not lifting her head.

“It’s alright if you did terrible, Finnigan,” Margo said then. “None of us will judge you.”

Felix shrugged, not taking Margo’s jab as bait. “Believe whatever you want, I know I told you-” 

All of them went quiet as their attention was pulled towards the doorway, Jac had even bothered to lift her head.

“Why’s everyone running out the door?” She asked curiously, watching as more and more people leapt from their seats midway through their breakfast to join the ever-growing crowd.

“Only one way to find out,” Cressida said, getting up from the bench and doing the same at a much slower pace. The group of Slytherins hurried to pack their things away and follow after her.

Only once they had left the Grand Hall did they see the full extent of the crowd in the hallway. Teachers and students from every year all huddled together, fighting and pushing to get a better look at whatever had caused such a stir.

Cressida assessed the crowd for a moment then huffed. “Sod this, I’m going in.”

Before the others could stop her, or follow after her, she ducked her head and started elbowing her way through the crowd. Being small had its uses sometimes.

Eventually, after being cursed at and pushed around a bit, she broke out near the front of the crowd and when she did she stopped dead.

McGonagall and Longbottom were both already at the front, a barrier of space between them and the onlooking students like a forcefield, and in front of the two teachers were Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Longbottom was embracing Ron and Harry with happy smiles on their faces. McGonagall was chatting quietly with Hermione, but the glint in the old Head Mistress’ eyes was unmistakable. The two witches seemed to be discussing the crowd gathering around them like animals at a zoo.

Cressida stood there for a moment, staring at them. After seeing them so casual at the Burrow, it was odd to see them dressed in their work uniforms and looking so professional. They didn’t look like the people who had been dancing badly at Christmas and playing kissing games forced on them by Teddy. Harry Potter certainly didn't seem like such a grand event once you'd seen him in his pyjamas with a hangover.

“DAD!”

Cressida was suddenly shoved slightly as the crowd all moved apart to accommodate the three bodies running through it like bulldozers. James Sirius Potter broke out beside Cressida and didn’t even stop to acknowledge her before crossing the invisible forcefield between the adults and the students to go and hug his father.

Harry hugged James back, laughing as he continued talking to Ron and Neville with his son now in the mix. Fred and Thomas were next, all greeting the three wizarding heroes as though they weren’t being watched at all. Hermione even commented on how Fred’s hair was getting too long and started fussing over him until Fred swatted her away.

“Well then. I see no need to waste more time with introductions,” McGonagall said, finally addressing the sea of students. “As you can all see, Aurors Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, as well as Minister of Magic Hermione Granger have all graced us with their presence today. We will be holding workshops so everyone gets a turn to interact and learn from some of the best the wizarding world has to offer. Until it is time for your workshop, lessons resume as normal.”

There was a small groan.

“You’re too harsh on them, McGonagall,” Ron said just quiet enough for the group standing near to hear. “One day off wouldn’t hurt them. Look at them. They’re all excited.”

“Lessons go on as planned until I say otherwise,” McGonagall reiterated but now with a fond smile on her face. “Off you go. Don’t stand about all day, you have places to be!”

The crowd starts to slowly disperse after that, and only once the majority had given up arguing with McGonagall and moved on did the group of Slytherins manage to break through and finally get a glimpse.

“Molly!” Hermione beamed, opening her arms as the ginger witch ran over and hugged her aunt. “How have you been? How’s your studying going?”

Cressida didn’t hear what answer Molly gave as suddenly James was pulling Harry toward her. “Nice to see you again, Cressida,” Harry nodded to her. "Have you been keeping well?"

“Dad’s going to give us a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, aren’t you, Dad?!” James said excitedly, talking over his father.

“Yeah, McGonagall thought it’d be good for you all to get some extra tips ready for your exams,” Harry explained.

“What are you going to teach us about?” Felix asked.

“It’s a good one,” Ron chimed in from where he was talking to Fred and Thomas. He seemed to now be sharing a bag of sweets with the two boys. “Boggarts.”

Cressida and Molly both froze, their eyes falling on each other. The three Gryffindor boys didn’t notice and continued on with their rambling chatter. Hermione’s eyes had fallen on Molly, narrowing her brow in thought.

Jac pressed her lips into a thin line, wincing. “Great. Can’t wait,” she said to stop the oncoming awkwardness.

Then, the Main Entrance doors burst open and the thumping steps of Hagrid strode in wearing his best bear skin coat despite it being summer. "'Arry! 'Ermione! Ron! McGonagall said you'd be coming by today and I got all dressed up ready for yer!" He beamed, grasping the three adult wizards in his big arms, lifting them off the floor in a bone crushing hug. 

"Hiya, Hagrid," Harry strangled out, trying not to show the pain he was in from the hug.

"Been keeping well have you, Hagrid?" Ron asked, trying to keep his face out of Hagrid's unruly beard.

Hagrid dropped them all back to the floor, getting a hanky out of his big coat pocket. "I just can't believe yer here again. God, look at the three of yer all grown up in yer uniforms! Yer makin' me well up like a bumblin' baby just lookin' at yer-"

"There, there, Hagrid," Hermione comforted the large man, tapping him on the arm as he sobbed into his hankie. "No need to cry."

Hagrid seemed to pull himself together ever so slightly. "Right yer are, 'Ermione. I just miss yer being here, is all." The three wizards smiled fondly up at Hagrid as he wiped his tears from his beads eyes. "Anyways, I just came up to say I made some of my rock cakes for yer. They're down at the hut once you're done being all professional and whatnot."

Fred lent towards Ron. "Bet you thought you'd avoided them, didn't you?"

"You have no idea," Ron mumbled back.

"Come now," McGonagall said, taking control of the situation again. "These students aren't going to teach themselves!"

 

*

 

By some grace of God the Third Year’s turn for the workshop wasn’t until last lesson. However, that meant a full day of Molly worrying and Cressida silently pondering.

“There’s got to be some way out of this,” Molly was muttering over and over again as she and Cressida hid in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. “I can’t go in there and let my family see themselves as my Boggart.”

“At least your family Boggart is clear rather than a bunch of ominous wispy bits,” Cressida replied. When Molly turned to her, Cressida sighed, resting her head back against the tiles. “I warned you I’d be broody. You insisted on sitting in here with me.”

“It’s better than being out there with them,” Molly countered. She’d started biting her nails down to the beds. “James can’t see himself. He’d never let it go. He’ll think I hate him. The others would let it go, they’d try and understand. James wouldn’t. He’d blame himself-”

Cressida ran her hands over her face. “What if we just don’t go?”

“What?”

“We don’t go. We don’t look at the Boggart.”

“We have to go,” Molly said. “McGonagall would kill us if we didn’t go. Plus, I wanted to show off to Aunt Hermione-”

“Yeah, I bet she’ll be thrilled to see you pull this off,” Cressida said dryly. Molly glared at her again. “You know I’m not good at family stuff, don’t give me that look.”

Molly rested beside her against the tiles, both girls facing forward at the dirty and cracked mirror opposite them. “We have to go,” Molly said resolutely. “We have to face it.”

Cressida refused to meet the eyes of her reflection. “I don’t want them to see mine. They don’t… they don’t know about my dad. I haven’t told them.”

“I thought they knew everything about you?” Molly asked, rolling her head to the side to face her. “I’ve seen James pull out revision cards based purely on you.”

“Yeah, well, this hasn’t exactly been a relevant topic between us. They know about Gareth and that was as far as it went,” Cressida said. “I didn’t want them- I didn’t want  James  to look at me like he always does with this stuff. Like I’m broken.”

“He doesn’t think you’re broken, Cress,” Molly said softly. “He’d just want to help you-”

“Well, I don’t want his help,” Cressida snapped.

Molly sighed, turning back to stare straight ahead. Cressida followed suit.

Silently, Molly reached over and grasped Cressida’s hand in hers.

Cressida was grateful for it.

The door was pushed open and Jac poked her head in, searching for the two girls. “McGonagall’s rounding us all up for the workshop,” she said. “Have you found a way out of it yet?”

“No,” Molly said, pulling her hand out of Cressida’s and pushing herself up off the wall. “We’re pretty much resigned to our fate.”

Jac looked to Cressida as Molly joined her in the doorway. “You coming, Cressie?”

Cressida’s eyes finally flickered over and looked at her reflection. The one that was about to walk out of whatever closet they’d wrangled the creature into.

“Go without me,” she said, looking away again. “I’ll meet you there.”

Molly looked like she was about to argue but Jac held her back and gestured for them to do as Cressida had asked. Reluctantly, the two girls left Cressida alone in the dismantled bathroom.

She waited there for a while, alone in the silence. Every ten seconds there would be a drop of water coming from an old pipe. She’d counted it four times to take her mind off everything.

She didn’t know where Moaning Myrtle was. She hadn’t shown up to berate the two girls the whole time they had hidden in her bathroom. The whiny ghost must have something better to be doing with her afternoon for once.

Finally, after a fifth drop of water had fallen, Cressida stepped out of the bathroom.

The halls were empty at this point, all apart from a quiet whispering concealed behind one of the corners.

When Cressida walked towards it, she found it was coming from Rose, Albus and Scorpius.

“Knightly,” Albus greeted her. He looked flushed.

“Albie,” she nodded back. “Have you lot had the workshop yet?”

“We just went,” Rose said. “Mum and dad were amazing. Didn’t even give me special attention. If anything mum made me work harder than all the others.”

Cressida’s eyes fell on Albus again. “How was your dad?”

“Oh, you know,” Albus shrugged. “The hero everyone loves him to be. Nice to everyone. Patient. Gave us lots of encouragement, even when I messed up four times-”

“You didn’t mess up, you were just nervous,” Rose told him comfortingly. “Mum understood why you kept going wrong.”

“Why were you nervous?” Cressida asked.

“Because it’s my dad,” Albus said heavily. “He’s  Harry Potter . Everyone was staring at me like I should have been as great as him and I just… wasn’t.”

“Plus,” Scorpius spoke up guiltily. “I was there. I made you worse.” Albus gave no comment. “You didn’t want your dad to see us being friends.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Rose cut in. “Albus doesn’t care about that, he’s always shown you off as his friend-”

“I don’t blame him,” Scorpius continued as though Rose hadn’t spoken. “I would have done the same if it was my dad stood in front of us.”

Rose folded her arms across her chest. “Bloody hell. You’re both being silly about this whole thing. Now, are we going to mope all day or are we going to do something constructive?”

Albus and Scorpius both looked up at her. “If you say homework, I’m going to drown myself in the lake,” Scorpius said

“I was thinking we raid the kitchens and  then  do homework,” Rose said, linking arms with both the boys. “Homework is much more enjoyable on a full stomach.”

“Lucky us,” Albus huffed, as they were dragged away by the Granger-Weasley.

Cressida watched them go with a small smile. That family were all a lot more similar to each other than they gave themselves credit for.

Taking a deep breath, Cressida turned and forced herself forward. It was time to face her own family issues.

When she eventually pushed open the doors to the Grand Hall she found it had transformed into a larger version of the Defence Against the Dark arts classroom, with two large wardrobes placed where the teacher’s table normally was. Harry, Ron and Hermione stood at the front with the whole of Third Year crowded around them in anticipation. 

Cressida snuck in and wormed her way through to stand beside her friends stood with the other Slytherins. It appeared that despite the whole year being in here together, they had still separated themselves to stand in their Houses out of habit.

“Have I missed anything?” Cressida whispered.

“No, we’ve just been setting up so far,” Molly said. Her nail beds were practically torn to shred by this point.

“Okay,” Harry said over the crowd, seeming to take charge. “Now I know this can seem a bit daunting to you all, but I want you to all know we’re no different than you and your parents-”

“You took my mum to the Yule Ball, sir, do you remember?!” A Hufflepuff girl, Savani, called out.

Harry gave a coy smile. “Yes,” he said. “Tell Parvati I say hello. Anyway,” he continued, getting back to the point. “Believe me when I say, we don’t live up to all the rumours you’ve probably heard-”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Ron laughed, standing beside Harry. “I heard one woman praise me for punching Voldemort straight in the nose once. He didn’t even  have  a nose.”

There was a small chuckle of laughter amongst the students.

“What Harry’s trying to say is,” Hermione said stepping forward. “We aren’t legends. We were students of Hogwarts, just like you are.”

“Exactly,” Harry agreed gratefully. “And we managed to help win the war because of everything we learned here at this school… so now we’re here to teach you some of it.”

“And hope you never have to use it like we did,” Ron joked.

Cressida peered forward and sought out James, Fred and Thomas. All three boys stood as close as they could possibly get, and James looked the proudest he had ever been, with a wide grin and bright eyes as he looked up at his dad.

She once again found it jarring how differently the two brothers seemed to react to having their dad in Hogwarts.

“We’ve heard from McGonagall that you’re all familiar with the Boggart,” Harry went on. “So, let’s get to it and see what you’ve got.”

“And don’t worry about not getting it right straight away,” Hermione comforted them as she started lining up the students. “Harry couldn’t get this spell right first try either.”

“Yeah,” Ron laughed. “Whatever yours is, it can’t be as bad as Harry’s was.”

“Want to bet?” Molly grumbled under her breath as she and Cressida smartly moved to the back of the line.

 

*

 

Being at the back of the line for their turn with the Boggart meant Cressida and Molly got to watch everyone else tackle their fears first.

Jac’s and Felix’s had remained the same, with Ron agreeing that the squid freaked him out as well.

Beatrix Swinley’s turned out to be a giant Flobberworm that’s mouth was bigger than her head, until it turned into a bouncy castle and everyone found it very fun to see if they could bounce on it before the next person was called up.

Thomas’ Boggart came out as a rampaging goose that chased him around the large hall for nearly five minutes before Wood did the spell and it turned into a waddling duckling quaking and chasing after him, which didn’t quite have the same effect.

“They’re  evil , I’m telling you,” Thomas had complained once he had joined the back of the queue beside the two girls.

“Not to mention you got chased around by one when you were two,” Fred had laughed, lacing an arm around Wood’s neck to torment him further. “Wouldn’t go near a pond or lake unless you were armed ever since.”

“Evil,” Thomas muttered again, shoving Fred off.

Fred’s usual teasing demeanour had seemingly not been squandered in the slightest by his Boggart, mainly because nobody could figure out what his was. It had been something small and sickly looking, wrapped in a black robe.

Even when Cressida tried to get a closer look at what it was, she couldn’t understand why Fred would be scared of it. It looked as harmless as a new born baby.

However, when she glanced toward Harry stood nearby observing them, his face was grave. He caught Fred’s eye, they both nodded at each other, and then they moved on to the next person without speaking of it.

“Fred,” Cressida said quietly, ignoring the next Ravenclaw boy to take his turn. “What was your Boggart?”

Fred stiffened at the question for a moment before he shrugged it off and returned to smiling. “Nothing of importance, Knightly-”

“Was it Voldemort?” Molly asked regardless, her eyes firmly forward pretending to watch as the Ravenclaw boy performed the spell. “Him returning?”

Fred’s eyes hardened on his cousin. “Yeah, well I’d like to see what yours is, Mol. The stories get to you after you’ve heard them so many times… don’t tell me yours isn’t based on what our parents went through as well.”

Molly’s eyes went to the floor. “No. Mine isn’t about the wars.”

Cressida had a sneaking suspicion that Molly wished hers was based on the trauma their parents faced. At least she could explain it away easier.

Fred and Wood continued on through the crowd then, not feeling like sticking around to discuss it further.

Arabella had gone up and banished her Boggart as quickly as possible to prevent people from seeing that hers was the family fortune a second time. As she joined the back of the queue passing Molly and Cressida, she paused.

“Merlin, you two couldn’t look more nervous if you tried,” she mocked them. She looked back to Ron and Harry instructing a Hufflepuff girl how to hold her wand the right way. “Nervous about everyone seeing just how messed up you two are? I mean, I doubt they’re going to react well to Molly being scared of her own family.”

“I’m not scared  of  them,” Molly snapped.

“Oh, my mistake, I’m sure they’ll be able to tell the difference,” Arabella quipped. “And you,” she said, turning to Cressida. “How do you think Jamsie-Waymsie is going to react to finding out his little Knightly hates herself most of all?”

“Back off, Chauncey,” Cressida warned.

“Or what?” Arabella challenged. “You can’t hit me in a room full of the most important wizards in the world-”

Someone cleared their throats and the three girls spun around to find Hermione standing there. “Everything alright, girls?”

“Fine,” Molly nodded, averting her eyes. “We’ve got it under control, Aunt Hermione.”

Hermione’s eyes went to Arabella. “You showed good skills out there, Miss Chauncey. You’d make an excellent witch in time.”

“Thank you,” Arabella smiled.

“But don’t let that get to your head,” Hermione said pointedly. “Kindness gets you further than brilliance, I’ve often found.”

Arabella’s smile disappeared as she continued on her way. Hermione offered a comforting look to the two girls before returning to the front.

Molly and Cressida stood in silence then as the next few people all took their go. Watching the Boggart transform into something moderately scary and then something funny over and over again, all the while Harry, Ron and Hermione stood watch, offering helpful tips and encouraging the ones who were struggling in between cracking jokes.

Cressida doubted even Ron would have anything funny to say about her or Molly’s Boggarts. If Cressida was extremely lucky, their time for the workshop would run out before either of them had to step forward and have a go, but she highly doubted it. Harry was the type to spend extra time in a room just to make sure everyone had a go. He was nice like that, Cressida thought.

James was next, so at least that would occupy Cressida’s attention for the next five minutes it would take him to pull off the spell flawlessly before moving on. He was supposed to have gone up when Fred and Thomas did, but he purposefully kept moving backwards in the queue, too busy having conversations with the people around him who had questions about his dad. Penelope McFadden and April especially had lots of questions. It seemed like they fancied James’ dad more than they fancied James.

“Anyone would think  he  was the chosen one,” Felix said, coming up to the two girls in the queue again.

James’ head whirred around, being close enough to hear them. “I’m the chosen one’s offspring,” he said cockily. “That makes me chosen adjacent.”

“Come on then,  chosen one, ” Harry smiled, putting a hand on James’ shoulder to steer him toward the wardrobe for his turn. “Show us what you’ve got.”

James was one of the last Gryffindors to go and Cressida was sure she saw a hint of nervousness as he stepped up for his turn. However, once Harry had sent his son a confident wink, James’ grin returned as Ron pulled open the wardrobe door. They all watched as the Boggart transformed into a person. A woman who had wild, curly black hair, manic eyes, and rotten teeth. She let out a burst of high-pitched laughter that shook the room as she looked around at them.

“Oh my god,” Hermione gasped from the front. Her hand moved to grasp her own forearm as though it was suddenly in pain.

There was a hush over the crowd as they looked towards Harry, Hermione and Ron at the front.

No one was smiling anymore.

“Who is that?” Cressida whispered.

“Bellatrix LeStrange,” Molly answered in shock.

Harry and Ron were looking at each other, and Cressida saw Harry’s face grow colder than she’d ever seen it.

The Boggart started moving about the room, kicking her skirt up like an over-excited child. “ I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black!”

“Do the spell, James,” Ron said, taking charge. Neither Harry nor Hermione could take their eyes away from the women taking form in front of them.

James faltered. Looking guiltily from his dad back to the Boggart, he lifted his wand with a gulp. “ Riddikulus!”

Bellatrix’s dress swooped up around her until eventually it turned into a massive ball of fabric and exploded with fireworks and rockets going off and sending bright sparks and bangs all around the room. 

James didn’t move. Neither did Harry. Meanwhile, Ron looked at Harry, while Thomas and Fred stared at James. 

Hermione eventually moved forward after a second, putting a hand on James’ shoulder. Cressida couldn’t hear what she had said due to the explosions going off, but it got James to turn around and start moving to the back of the queue.

He paused, lingering beside the two girls.

“You alright, Potter?” Cressida asked.

“I didn’t think it’d be that,” he said. “Truth is, Whimbrel hadn’t done Boggarts with our class yet, he kept putting it off.” James looked at the two of them then. “Bet yours isn’t as bad as mine,” he tried joking. “No avoiding the meaning behind that one.”

The fireworks had stopped. The Boggart was forced back into the wardrobe by Ron.

Cressida looked back to James, a firm resolution on her face.

Without saying anything to either of them, she stepped to the front and nodded to Harry. “Open it.”

“Remember,” Harry said. “It’s not real. It’s just mimicking your own brain like a bad dream.”

Cressida gripped her wand tighter in her hand. Harry pulled open the door and the Boggart billowed out, transforming. Scraggly blonde hair, grey piercing eyes, and a black cloud surrounding the body standing in front of her.

She looked back over her shoulder.

Molly was chewing her nails again. She’d chewed them so much by this point that they had started to bleed.

Arabella was smiling like she was enjoying a show at the Theatre.

James’ brow was narrowed, staring between the real Cressida and the fake one like he couldn’t understand what it meant.

Cressida returned to facing her Boggart. The cloud had started to take shape quicker this time. Legs, torso, shoulders.

She cast the spell before it made it to the head, causing the black cloud to turn into a giant candy floss that fake-her started eating as it happily wandered back into the wardrobe with the encouragement of Hermione.

“Bloody hell,” Ron muttered, looking as the wardrobe door latched shut. 

Hermione lightly swatted Ron’s forearm.

Cressida forced a smile as she moved back to Molly’s side. “I think I freaked out your Uncle Ron.”

James reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her from walking away from him. “What was that?” He whispered, his eyes fixed on her.

“Still think yours is worse?” She asked.

He shook his head slightly. "But- you- why is it you? And what was that cloud?"

Hermione came up to them then, looking like she didn’t want to intrude but had to. “The workshop is nearly over, I’m afraid. Molly if you want your go, you’ve got to go next. You’re the last one.”

Molly heaved a sigh, locking eyes with Cressida. Cressida reached out her hand and Molly gratefully took it in hers. “I’ll do it,” she said, looking up at Hermione and dropping Cressida's hand. “But I want to do it alone.”

Hermione looked to Harry and Ron at the front.

Harry gave a shrug, leaving it up to Hermione.

“Alright, love,” Hermione said, leading Molly toward the front.

“Right, everyone!” Harry called as Molly stood to one side. “That’s all we’ve got time for but you’ve all done well. Really well. You should be proud of yourselves!”

Harry, Ron and Hermione continued offering their compliments and encouraging smiles as all the Third Years started piling out of the room. 

That was all apart from the group of Slytherins and the trio of boys.

“Knightly,” Fred said, pushing through the crowd leaving to get to her on the other side of the hall. “What was that smoke about?”

“Why is your Boggart you?” Thomas asked next.

“Boys,” Ron warned from nearby. “Leave her be, yeah? She might not want to talk about it.”

Cressida glanced gratefully at Ron as he continued ushering out students.

“Why is Molly doing hers separately?” James asked, his eyes fixed on his cousin now instead. The group of Slytherins all glanced at one another knowingly. “It’s bad, isn’t it? That’s why she didn’t do it in front of everyone?”

“It’s bad,” Felix confirmed.

“War story bad?” Thomas asked.

“Not quite,” Jac admitted.

Once the last person had left the hall, Hermione put a hand on Molly’s shoulder. “Are you ready to try now, Molly?”

Molly glanced guiltily at the trio of boys, then to her friends. “Can you guys wait in the common room for me?”

Margo frowned. “But we already know what it is.”

“It’s a family thing,” Felix said, already pushing the girl out of the hall by her shoulders. “Let Weasley deal with her issues how she wants.”

"Do we have to go as well?" Fred asked, already looking like he'd put up a fight if the answer was yes.

"No," Molly said. "You three should stay... you need to see it and let me explain."

Cressida gave Molly a small nod of encouragement as she and Jac followed Felix out.

James rushed towards them, keeping the door open a crack to poke his head through. He licked his bottom lip thoughtfully before he spoke. "Listen, my Boggart, your Boggart... whatever Molly's Boggart is... they're not real. No one can judge you for them... and no one can question you about it, if you don't want to explain it."

"Right," Cressida said awkwardly. "Thanks, Potter." James nodded, averting his eyes as he turned back towards the room. "And, James." He paused, turning back to the two girls. "Remember that when you see Molly's Boggart, okay?"

James stared at her for a moment, as if searching for an obvious give away on her face. "It's not about the wars, is it?" He asked finally. Jac and Cressida shook their heads. "It's about our family, isn't it?" Both girls nodded. James sighed, seeming to accept the answer as though he'd expected it. Without saying anything else, he let the door fall shut as he disappeared back into the Great Hall with his family.

Cressida stared at the big doors in silence, wondering how the people inside the room would react to Molly’s Boggart.

“Aren’t you coming?” Felix asked. He, Jac and Margo had already started walking towards the dungeons.

“No,” Cressida said, sitting down on the floor facing the closed doors. “She’s going to need someone who's not her family when she comes out of there.”

The three Slytherins all glanced at each other, pondering for a moment, and then, without saying anything, they joined Cressida on the floor.

Chapter 64: Third Year: Us vs Them

Notes:

TW- some mildly homophobic insinuations in this chapter towards the end. If that upsets you, you can skip the fight. It's not meant to offend anyone but it is relevant to the story.

Also,
'Minging' is welsh/ english slang for disgusting for those who don't know the term.

Saturday 9th June 2018

 

No more had been said about the visit from Harry, Ron and Hermione since it had happened. They’d stayed long enough to have dinner at the teacher’s table and then they returned to their homes and their important meetings.

Molly never told them how her family reacted to her Boggart, but considering James, Fred and Thomas never acted any differently or brought it up again since either, Cressida assumed all must have been well. She didn’t exactly want to pry. It wasn’t her business.

To her relief, neither boy asked her about her Boggart either, which she knew had something to do with Molly, or possibly James. She was incredibly graceful for that.

In fact, the day after the workshop visit, it was like everything continued on as though it never happened. Like it was a tiny blip in their routine at Hogwarts and then it simply resumed.

Cressida liked it that way. She didn’t like to dwell.

Besides, exams were closer than ever so she had to focus on them as much as she could, which brought back up her side mission she had yet to complete in between her other duties.

“You still haven’t told us your results from last year,” Cressida said to Felix as they all sat at the breakfast table together. Jac was currently down on the Quidditch pitch probably being yelled at by Faro about the upcoming game.

“Not this again,” Felix complained. “Why do you  care  what I got?”

“Because your our friend,” Molly said. “And we want to compare.”

“Merlin, am I glad you’re not boys then,” Felix quipped.

“Just tell us already, Finnigan,” Margo said impatiently. “She’ll leave you alone then.”

“No,” Felix said stubbornly. “They’re my results and they’re my business. I don’t see why I should have to tell anyone about them.”

“You don’t have to,” Cressida said. “But I’m going to find out somehow. There’s a reason you’re keeping it a secret.”

He turned to Cressida. “Isn’t it time you head down to do your little interviews?”

Cressida finished her last spoonful of cereal. “Don’t think I’m letting it go that easily,” she said getting to her feet.

“You wouldn’t be you if you let it go,” Felix replied breezily going back to his breakfast.

“We’ll meet you in the stands once we’re done here,” Molly said as Cressida turned to leave.

Cressida made her way through the grounds towards the tents, preparing her notes and parchment ready for the onslaught of words that barely made sense to her when she saw Arabella Chauncey lingering outside the Slytherin tent.

“What are you doing here?” Cressida asked when she saw the Ravenclaw girl. “We agreed you would do Gryffindor’s interview.”

“I changed my mind,” Arabella replied.

“You can’t just  change your mind ,” Cressida snapped. “Jac’s waiting for me in there.”

“Aw, how unfortunate,” Arabella pouted mockingly. “It’s a shame journalism doesn’t care about feelings. I’m doing the Slytherin interviews, Veronica already agreed.”

Cressida bit the inside of her cheek trying not to let Arabella get a rise out of her like last time. “Can I at least see Jac before the game?”

“Nope, sorry,” Arabella said, pulling open the tent. “But I’ll tell her you say hi.”

Cressida glared at her as Arabella sauntered inside the tent, leaving her on the outside. “Bitch,” she muttered as she started making her way towards the Gryffindor tent instead. 

Once she pulled open the flap and stepped inside, Fred was the first to come up to her. “Knightly, what are you doing here? What about Redwick?”

“Chauncey got there first,” Cressida answered. “Unless I pulled her back out by her hair there was nothing I could do.”

James was beside her next. “Is she going to try and pull something?”

“Who knows,” Cressida sighed. “I’m going to get your team’s interview done then rush back over there before they go on to the pitch to make sure Jac’s nerves aren’t getting the better of her. Speaking of nerves, how’s Wood doing?”

“Only puked once this morning so seventy percent better than last game,” Fred answered.

“Oh,” James said, craning his neck to peer at the other end of the tent. “Nope. There he goes again. We’re down to fifty percent.”

“Knightly!” Aslow called. “Let’s get this interview done, I’ve got to hype the team up. Our games against Slytherin are always the most important of the season.”

“Why’s that?” Cressida asked. The two boys beside her took a step back.

“Well, if we beat Slytherin everyone loves us even more and we get to throw a massive rager party,” Aslow continued obliviously. 

“Mhm, and you do remember I’m a Slytherin, right?” Cressida asked snippily.

“Yeah, but I don’t hold that against you. You’re in good with Wood and Potter, that’s good enough for me,” Aslow said turning away again. “Come on. Let’s hop to it.”

Cressida took a deep breath. James put a hand on her shoulder. “You good, Knightly?”

“Couldn’t be better,” Cressida replied haughtily. “Anyway, I’m off to do an interview with a prick who hates my entire house, so I’ll see you before the game.”

“Good luck,” Fred called unsurely.

“You too,” Cressida called as she stormed after Aslow.

 

*

 

It became clear as soon as Cressida sat in the stands and the game started that Aslow hadn’t been lying when he said Gryffindor’s matches against Slytherin were the most important. It was like everyone spectating had bet one hundred galleons on that match based on how energised and enthusiastic everyone was. Gryffindor’s supporters obviously took up the majority, with numerous banners and lion heads taking up the stands surrounding the pitch. Slytherin’s supporters seemed contained to only the Slytherin stand, and they weren’t nearly as loud and overbearing as the other three houses in support of the opposing team.

It didn’t bode well for Jac’s confidence when she walked onto the pitch and saw this display.

Cressida prayed she wouldn’t focus too much on it though. She knew Faro had been training the Slytherin team nearly to death, and although Gryffindor were good, Cressida knew Slytherin had a chance at beating them.

Fred hadn’t sat by them at this game. He claimed his house would  ‘take his head’  if they saw him cosying up in the Slytherin stands. Cressida understood this, but it still felt odd to not have him and Felix swapping notes and sharing sweets beside them.

Albus and Scorpius sat in front of the group of Third Year Slytherins and Albus looked like someone had cursed him to vomit slugs with how uneasy he looked.

“Are you alright, Albus?” Molly had asked just after the game had started.

Albus sank a bit lower on his bench. “Yeah, just nervous about who’s going to win is all.”

“Why’re you nervous about that?” Cressida asked.

“Because no matter what, it won’t end well for our house,” Scorpius answered looking over his shoulder at them. “If we win, the other three houses will be furious, but if we lose…”

“Oh,” Felix frowned. “Yeah, I can see your point now.”

After that, the three remaining Slytherins were slightly on edge about the game and it only got worse from there.

“Redwick’s not looking too keen,” Felix pointed out forty-five minutes into the game. Jac had already missed hitting two Bludgers and then accidentally sent one at her own team member.

“She’s panicking,” Cressida muttered knowingly. Gryffindor had scored four more times than Slytherin. If they didn’t close the gap soon they wouldn’t be able to win, and after what Scorpius had said, Cressida wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Cressida glanced across at the Ravenclaw stands where Arabella had a pleasant smile spread across her face. 

“Faro and Aslow are neck and neck for the Quaffle now!” The commentator called. “Kick his ass into the mud, Aslow-”

“Miss Jordan!” McGonagall’s voice came over the speaker. 

“Sorry, Head Mistress.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why McGonagall trusted Georgia Jordan to be the commentator. She’s only a Second year.”

“Not to mention she’s incredibly biased,” Felix complained. “And considering she’s a fucking Hufflepuff I don’t see why she hates  us  so much.”

“Her dad was a Gryffindor and commentator,” Albus answered. “Taught her everything he knew.”

“Score to Slytherin!” Georgia called. “But they need three more to even the playing field… it’s not looking good Slytherin. Not good at all!”

Faro had sent a rude gesture towards the commentator box in frustration and received a red card from Hooch.

This called for a five-minute time-out.

Cressida wasted no time in abandoning her stand and rushing down to the edge of the pitch. Apparently, Fred had the same idea, as the two came to a stop in the exact same place.

“Knightly, what’s up with Redwick? She’s losing it out there,” Fred had whispered urgently, cautious to be seen talking to her.

“I know, I was hoping to talk to her in the time out,” Cressida answered hurriedly. 

Fred rummaged around in his pocket. “Give her this,” he said holding out a grubby old coin for Cressida to take. “It’s our lucky galleon, I found it the day of Wood’s first match. He swears by it, kisses it before every game.”

“You want Jac to kiss a minging coin?”

“Do you want her to start scoring goals or not?”

“Okay, fine,” Cressida relented, pocketing the coin. “But you realise this might close the gap for your team’s victory?”

Fred shrugged. “Jac deserves the same amount of luck as Wood and Potter.”

The two broke away after that, pretending like they hadn’t even acknowledged each other, and Cressida sought out Jac while Fred looked for his counterparts. 

Cressida quickly found Jac was with her team being yelled at by Faro as they took a water break.

Cressida snuck around the edges and hid behind a bench.

“Psst!”  She called. “Jac!”

It was no use. Faro’s yelling was too loud. Cressida picked up a clod of dirt and threw it towards the team. It accidentally hit Faro in the side of the head and his lecture immediately stopped and his face grew redder by the second.

“Oh shit,” Cressida ducked even further behind the bench trying to conceal herself.

A second later, Jac was climbing under the bench with her. “I take it the dirt was meant to hit me.”

“Where’s Faro gone?”

“Called us a bunch of imbeciles and stormed off,” Jac answered. “What do you need me for?”

“Take this, it’s off Fred,” Cressida said quickly slipping the coin into Jac’s hands. “It’s supposed to be lucky.”

“Pray it works then because we’re getting our asses handed to us,” Jac complained, putting the coin safely into her glove ready for the game to start again. “I think Chauncey got Faro all worked up just before the game and he’s taking it out on the rest of us.”

“Are  you  okay out there?” Cressida stressed.

Jac looked down guiltily. “Faro wants me to aim Bludgers at Potter for the whole game… I can’t bring myself to do it. That’s why I keep messing up.”

“Do it,” Cressida said. 

“Cressida, I could knock him off his broom-”

“Trust me,” Cressida insisted. “Aim for Potter. He’ll be okay.”

Jac winced as the whistle blew for the game to resume. “As long as you’re sure,” she said as the two girls clambered out from behind the bench.

Cressida raced ahead, practically skidding to a halt as the Gryffindor team started mounting their brooms again. “Wood!” She called, pulling him back before he flew off. "Wood, listen! Jac’s targeting Potter, you've got to watch his back.”

“What about the Snitch?!” He asked as he started taking off. 

“Which is more important!?”

Thomas didn’t answer.

“Let’s go, Wood!” Aslow called as Madam Hooch prepared to blow the whistle again.

Thomas winced as he took off to join his team.

Cressida could do nothing more but return to her seat and watch as the game progressed.

 

*

 

Another hour passed and Slytherin had slowly closed the gap. 

Every time James had the Quaffle to try and score the goal, Jac aimed a Bludger at him and threw him off his path. Wood seemed in constant conflict over whether or not to stay high above the game searching for the snitch or to go down and warn James like Cressida had asked him to.

“Slytherin score! That brings them to sixty versus Gryffindor’s eighty!” Georgia Jordan announced.

“They could have this as long as Wood doesn’t get the Snitch,” Molly said anxiously.

“Mind, Redwick’s violating Potter a bit,” Felix mused. “Did he do something to piss her off?”

“She won’t hurt my brother on purpose, will she?” Albus asked turning around to face them. 

“Your brother’s safe, Albie,” Cressida told him surely. “Jac knows what she’s doing.”

“The Snitch has been sighted! Potter in position of the Quaffle!” Georgia announced.

Everyone practically jumped out of their seats and hung over the barrier to watch.

Potter glanced back over his shoulder as Wood and Slytherin’s seeker both dived for the Snitch. 

“Come on, Jac,” Cressida muttered.

Jac readied her bat as James flew past her, a guilt-ridden expression plastered on her face.

“Redwick’s aiming a Bludger at Potter! Will he get a score in before-”

The Bludger was sent flying before Georgia could finish her sentence. That didn’t stop James from continuing on his way to the goal. Apparently, he was going to attempt to score the goal even if it killed him.

Wood hurriedly broke away from diving for the Snitch and flew to send Potter off cause before he got himself a concussion.

Slytherin’s seeker grasped the Snitch in his hand before Wood could reroute to do it himself.

“SLYTHERIN’S SEEKER HAS THE SNITCH. SLYTHERIN WINS!”

The Slytherin stands burst into celebration while the rest of the school politely and begrudgingly clapped.

“Why the fuck did Wood surrender the Snitch?” Molly asked baffled. “He would never  do that.”

“Saving Potter must have been more important,” Cressida reasoned as they all prepared to leave the stands. She made a hasty exit before the trio of boys could corner her.

 

*

 

Slytherin had thrown a party in celebration of the win, and although Cressida was thrilled and her friends were currently thoroughly enjoying said party, after an hour of the celebration, Cressida had snuck off to the secret room with a bottle of fire whiskey stored in her bag and that’s where she had remained well until midnight.

By now, the bottle was half empty, and her notes for the newspaper article were nearly finished without the help of Molly or Felix. 

Someone cleared their throat and Cressida’s eyes snapped up to see Fred’s head poking up through the staircase.

Cressida gave him a guilty smile. “I was wondering when you’d come and find me.”

Fred said nothing as he walked into the room and flopped down onto a beanbag beside her. He lifted the bottle of fire whiskey from the floor and took a swig.

“Wood’s not a happy bunny right now,” Fred said after a moment. “James barricaded the bathroom so he couldn’t drown himself in the shower.”

“Is he blaming himself for losing the game?” 

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Fred nodded.

“Oh. Sorry,” she said uselessly. She threw him the coin. “Jac said thanks for the luck by the way.”

“And it’s the only luck she’s going to get from us now,” Fred said, pocketing the coin. “To be honest, I didn’t even believe in the sodding coin until your lot started winning.”

“They’re not mad at her, are they?” Cressida asked nervously.

“Nah,” Fred said, passing her the bottle. “Their egos are just a bit bruised, that’s all. They’ll offer her their congratulations in the morning once they’ve gotten over it.”

“It’s my fault they lost,” Cressida replied, taking a swig of the bottle. “Faro was on Jac’s case about targeting Potter. I told her to go through with it. I still thought you guys would have won though.”

Fred shrugged. “It’s a tough call to make when you have friends on both sides.” He looked towards Cressida then. “James would have done the same thing if he’d known. You know much he loves to sacrifice himself.”

“Yeah,” Cressida laughed, passing Fred the bottle to finish it off. “Just like his dad by the sounds of it.”

There was a beat of silence then. “Aren’t you supposed to be at a party?” Fred asked curiously.

“Didn’t feel like it,” Cressida admitted.

“Want to come and hide a mandrake in the Ravenclaw dorms?” He offered.

Cressida grinned. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

 

 

Thursday 21st June 2018

 

Exams were thankfully nearly over, and Cressida was relieved to find she knew what she was doing for the most part.

She’s done exceptionally well in Care of Magical Creatures as all they had to do was mount and ride a hippogriff for fifteen minutes without being thrown off. Naturally, Cressida had chosen Beebe and had completed the task without a hitch. James had tried to be cocky and picked Nightshade and lasted fourteen minutes before the stubborn hippogriff had had enough. Hagrid would give him a good mark regardless, claiming that picking Nightshade in the first place was a good show of trusting the animals in front of them when common sense dictated against it.

Defence Against the Dark Arts hadn’t been based on Boggarts after all and was instead about werewolves which Cressida felt she knew enough about to complete the basic knowledge aspect but she thought her comments about them not being killing machines when the essay called for personal opinion might mark her down knowing Whimbrel.

History of Magic had been rather straightforward, and by the end of it (and because she listened to Molly’s lectures over Professor Binns’ boring ones) she felt rather good about her knowledge of the Medieval Witch Trials.

Charms had been relatively easy too, as all they had to do was the seize and pull charm and then write down the theory for the general counter curse within the hour.

Transfiguration had been much harder than the previous two years as McGonagall wanted them to write out the process for becoming an Animagi with a big stress on all the laws surrounding becoming one, and then they had to perform the owl into opera glasses spell.

When Margo had attempted this part of the spell her opera glasses, although looking like they should have, still managed to fly away and so her grade wasn’t looking as good as she’d hoped. She should have known as much, however, as she had used Divination to tell how she was going to do on her exams and her answer was 'extremely well'.

She was still refusing to admit she was shit at Divination too.

The only exams left were Herbology, which Cressida wasn’t particularly bothered about. Muggle Studies wouldn’t be a problem considering she’d been ahead of the class in that without even having to pick up a book. And Astronomy, which she knew she’d fail regardless, and so most of her stress was now gone as the year was drawing to a close in the following weeks.

She’s also received a letter back from her mother at breakfast that morning and she’d squirrelled it away to read it private after it had arrived.

‘Cress,

I know this letter is long overdue but I was so glad to hear from you, even though the contents of the previous letter were less than enjoyable. I know I say it a lot but I can’t believe how fast you’re growing up.

It’s been quiet since you left after Christmas but Dayle is good at keeping me company while you’re gone. He even asked if he could write to you too to see how you’re doing but I wasn’t sure how to explain the owls to him, sorry. I think you two really hit it off and he keeps going on about all the fun things we can do when you come home for summer.

Hope your exams are going well and you’re staying out of trouble.

All my love,

Mum x’

The thought of Dayle wanting more contact with Cressida was an odd concept to her. None of her mother’s other boyfriends had even acknowledged her existence for the most part, but Cressida was starting to realise her mother had been right. Dayle was one of ‘the good ones’ that both of them had convinced themselves didn’t exist. Cressida just hoped he stuck around for the duration and they’d never have to see another Gareth in their lifetime. It was what her mum deserved.

This thought kept her mind occupied for the majority of the day right up until Cressida sat herself down on a wall overlooking the grounds with an Astronomy textbook she had no intention of reading in her lap. 

It was a rather pleasant day, Cressida thought to herself, and a lot of people were strolling around in the warm weather in the bare bones of their uniforms. So pleasant in fact, she wished she had something else to do other than revision.

“Alright, Knightly?” James’ voice came as he and the other two boys rounded the corner. She smiled grateful for their interruption this time. “What’re you doing sitting here on your lonesome?”

“Pretending to revise,” she replied, blowing a bubble with her gum. “What’re you three up to?”

“Lunch with Hagrid,” Fred answered.

“You can come along if you want,” Thomas offered. “He said you were welcome any time.”

“Especially after how well you did on his exam,” James chimed in. “He was well impressed with you, he told us so during our last lunch. I wanted to take some of the credit for teaching you everything you knew, but I figured you could use the praise.”

“How kind of you,” Cressida quipped, shutting her book. “You sure he won’t mind?”

“Scout’s honour,” James said, holding a hand to his chest.

“Alright then,” Cressida agreed, getting to her feet.

“Brilliant,” Thomas beamed as the four of them continued on their way through the grounds. “Just a warning though, you’ll want to soak his rock cakes in the tea for a few minutes before trying to eat them.”

“If you don’t you’ll end up losing a tooth,” Fred added. “And we found that out the hard way.”

After a short walk, James was pulling open the wooden door to Hagrid’s hut and the group stepped inside. Cressida took a moment to glance around as the trio of boys rushed over to Hagrid’s side. There was only one room inside the hut, and it was incredibly cramped and full of odd knick-knacks. Trophies, old brooms, newspaper articles, and photos lined the walls and shelves. Amongst the keep-safes were birds hung up and de-fathered ready to be cooked or used for animal food.

Around the stone fireplace was an array of letters and kid’s drawings stuck to the stone. Cressida saw James’ name signed at the bottom of a large majority of them, and one particular drawing depicted four children dressed in red standing beside what was supposed to resemble Hagrid and his hut. Cressida saw the name was signed by Molly Weasley II, age seven.

There was an old dog bed by the fireplace that looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time, with a small and badly embroidered pillow in it. Peering closer, Cressida realised it read  ‘FANG .’

“Cressida!” Hagrid’s voice boomed bringing her attention to him sitting at the rickety dining table in the corner of the room. “This is a nice surprise. What’re you doin' here?”

“Fancied trying some of your famous rock cakes,” Cressida smiled making her way over to them.

“Well then, say no more,” Hagrid beamed, getting to his feet and plodding through the room. “Sit yerself down and I’ll pop the kettle on.”

The door opened a second time and Molly walked into the room. “Sorry I’m late, Hagrid. Margo was-” she paused when she saw Cressida sat at the table as though she hadn't considered Cressida ever being in this situation. “What’re you doing here?”

“We invited her,” James answered. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Molly moved to sit with them at the table, the momentary confusion dispersing immediately. “No, not at all.”

“James, could you come and give us a hand?” Hagrid called, struggling to carry all the large mugs and plates of rock cakes.

All three boys clambered out of their seats to go assist the large man. “I saw your drawing by the way,” Cressida said to Molly. “It’s very cute.”

Molly rolled her eyes with a small smile. “We used to send letters to Hagrid all the time when we were little. Uncle Harry told us that Hagrid was the best part about Hogwarts if he could only keep a secret.”

“Here ye are,” Hagrid said, interrupting their conversation by plonking an array of mugs in front of them on the table. James followed behind with the rock cakes and Thomas with the kettle. “I was just tellin’ James I saw Albus and that Malfoy kid wandering around this morning. Odd little pair, ain’t they?”

“They’re good friends,” Molly said, taking over pouring everyone a cup of tea while Fred dished out the rock cakes.

“Does yer dad know about it?” Hagrid asked James, lifting his cup to his mouth.

“No,” James answered, dipping his rock cake into his drink. “And I’m not going to be the one to tell him. He’d flip if he knew Albus had befriended a Malfoy.”

“He’s not that bad,” Cressida chimed in, following suit and dunking her rock cake into her tea before risking taking a bite. “I mean, if Albie thinks he’s worth talking to, there must be something you’re not seeing.”

James gave a small grumble as he took a bite out of his rock cake. “Still. I’d rather he had stuck to hanging around with Rose.”

“Rose was in here the other day with Neville’s young one, now you mention it,” Hagrid said then. “Lovely pair of girls. They mentioned Malfoy’s kid too… reckon he’s having a tough time of it all.”

“It’s those rumours about his dad,” Molly sighed. “People have been making fun of him for it all year.”

“Tough bit of luck, that is,” Hagrid said sympathetically. “I mean, the kid’s a spit of Malfoy. It’d be impossible for You-Know-Who to be his dad… mind, if any family would, it’d be them. Lucius probably made a deal before he got sent to Azkaban. Horrid man.”

“Or worse, Bellatrix,” Fred said. “She’d easily sell out her own family to please You-Know-Who.”

“Thankfully, she never had any children,” Thomas said, refilling everyone’s cup.

“There was a rumour about that not long ago,” Hagrid mused. “Some people from the inner circle reckoned she was pregnant towards the end of the Second War. Nothin’ ever came of it though. Probably just more Death Eater nonsense or Pure-Blood propaganda while they fumbled for somethin’ new to believe in. Mundungo Fletcher tried to sell the story for a cheap penny but Hermione shut him down and that was that.” There was a beat of silence as they thought about the implications of what Hagrid had said. “Anyway,” he said abruptly, changing the tone. “How’re yer exams going? Nearly finished now, ain’t you?”

“Just three exams left,” Molly answered, glad to be talking about something she was more comfortable with. “Some of us are doing better than others.”

“Don’t get me started on exams,” Thomas groaned. “Between Quidditch practice, pranks, and detentions, I hardly got any time to revise this year.”

“Well, if you cut down on the pranks, that would lessen your amount of detentions, giving you time to revise,” Molly said primly, sipping her tea.

“Yes, we are well aware of that,” Fred cut in. “But seeing as we’re not total swots, we prefer having a bit of fun over revising.”

“Which is why neither of you three gets top marks despite the fact you’re smarter than almost everyone in our year,” Molly countered.

Hagrid could see the four cousins getting into a heated debate on the best way to spend their time and got to his feet. “I’ll boil the kettle again,” he said, departing towards the fireplace.

 

*

 

The group had remained at Hagrid’s for well over an hour. The three boys did most of the talking, but Cressida didn’t mind that. She’d begun to rather enjoy listening to their dramatic re-telling of stories.

The most gripping part of the conversation had been to do with the Quidditch World Cup that their family had attended when a bunch of Death Eaters attacked. Neither boy was phased about telling the otherwise gruesome anecdote and the main takeaway from it had been that their Aunt Hermione had managed to snog a famous Quidditch player called Krum and that was how Harry Potter had met Winky.

“The next World Cup is this year!” James had pointed out once they’d finished the story. “Hopefully our experience is a bit smoother than my dad's was.”

“I’m going with my dad,” Thomas said soaking a third rock cake in his tea. “The Quidditch World cup is bigger than Christmas to him. He practically counts down the four years in between each one.”

“Mum’s getting free tickets because she’s on the Holyhead Harpies,” James went on excitedly.

“Hang on,” Fred cut in thoughtfully. “If we don’t need an extra ticket for Wood that means there’s one up for grabs.”

All eyes turned to Cressida, including Hagrid’s. “You want me to go?” She asked surprised. “But I don’t know much about Quidditch.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” James embellished. “You’re the Quidditch article writer!”

“Yeah but Molly and Felix help with most of it-”

“You’re coming,” Molly said firmly, sipping her tea.

“I am?” Cressida asked.

“Great!” Fred grinned, taking that as her answer.

“I’ll write to mum and tell her to keep the next ticket back for you,” James continued. “It’s in the summer so you can stay at the Burrow for a few days as well.”

"Margo's supposed to be going away this summer so we don't need an extra ticket for her either. We can bring Jac along too," Molly added on.

“Glad we had a choice in the matter,” Cressida sighed, accepting defeat.

“Can’t say no to them, can ye?” Hagrid laughed, lifting his cup to his mouth. “Just look at their faces.”

Thomas, James and Fred leaned together aiming cheesy smiles towards Cressida until she rolled her eyes and turned away. 

Fred’s watch suddenly started beeping and their attention snapped towards it.

“That’ll be my queue to go,” Fred said clambering to his feet.

“Where’ve you got to go?” Thomas asked.

“Date with Redwick,” Fred grinned with a wink as he approached the door. “Duty calls, men. I’ll see you in the common room later.”

“Merlin, ye aren’t dating already, are ye?” Hagrid asked, his beady eyes growing wider.

“We’re fourteen now, Hagrid,” Molly said starting to tidy away the plates and cups.

“Well, some of us are,” Cressida shot at James jokingly.

Hagrid leaned back in his chair. “Bloody hell. I can remember when I got the owl Ginny had popped out James…. where does the time go, ay? Guess I’m becoming an old man now.”

James got to his feet, clapping Hagrid affectionately on his large shoulder. “You’re not old, Hagrid. You just have more people to spend your days with now.”

“Right ye are, Jamsie,” Hagrid said with a small sniff. “Anyway, I s'ppose you lot are to be heading out as well now. Probably have better things to be doin’ than wasting such a lovely afternoon down ‘ere with me.”

“Same time next week?” Thomas asked as they all got to their feet.

“If yer up for it,” Hagrid nodded following them to the door. “And Cressida can come back with you any time o’course.”

“We’ll be here,” James smiled as they left his hut and started heading back up towards the castle.

As they walked up, Molly reached into her bag and started pulling out her notes and scanning over them, wasting no time to get a final bit of revision in.

“Christ, Mol, don’t you ever stop?” Cressida chided her.

“My smarts didn’t appear out of nowhere, they take hard work and dedication,” Molly replied. “I’m worried my results might have slipped this year.”

“I’m not worried,” James said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“When are you ever?” Molly muttered. “Unlike me, everything comes naturally to you if you could only focus for five seconds.”

James shrugged, taking no notice of Molly. “I reckon we’ll have this Muggle Studies exam in the bag, don’t you, Knightly?” He said as they re-entered the castle.

“You’re a natural at everything he’s thrown at us so far,” Thomas was saying to her beside James. “I think you know more than him and he’s the professor.”

“Well, being an actual Muggle helps,” Cressida replied.

Molly gave a discontent grumble. “I don’t think the exams going to be as easy as you think. Did you see that cloth hiding something bulky under it in our last lesson? Professor Sikander clearly got something up his sleeve. The internet is a broad subject, I’ve read a bunch of Muggle books on it.”

“You should give them to Granddad Arthur when you’re finished,” James mused. “He'd be over the moon with them.”

“It’d make a nice change from all the duck-themed objects,” Thomas nodded along.

Just as the group rounded the corner, two smaller bodies ran into them, causing a ruckus. When Cressida eventually realised who it was, she saw Rose Granger-Weasley and Lana Longbottom had been the cause of it.

“Jamsie!” Rose was saying, grabbing his arm and pulling him forward. “Jamsie, we’ve been running all over the place looking for you!”

“What’s the issue, Rose?” Molly asked, prying the younger girl off James.

“It’s Albus,” Lana said instead, wringing her hands. “We think he’s in trouble.”

Both cousins wasted no time following behind the two girls. Thomas and Cressida glanced at each other then followed suit too.

“What do you think he’s gotten himself into now?” Thomas whispered. “Shall I fetch Freddie? He’s good at dealing with this sort of thing.”

Cressida shook her head, keeping an eye out for what they were about to walk into. “I don’t want to disturb his date with Jac unless we have to.”

They eventually made it down to the viaduct courtyard where they saw a small crowd of people gathered. In the centre were Scorpius and Albus being held there by two older boys. In front of them, stuck to the wall with a terrible-smelling goo, was Michael McLaggen.

“What did you do?” Molly and James asked at the same time, turning to Albus.

“It was my fault-” Scorpius cut in, struggling against the older boy retraining him.

“Yeah, I bet it was!” James glared at him.

The crowd parted and Arabella and Declan Chauncey stepped forward, lazy smiles on their faces as though they were enjoying a day at the races. “Looks like having trouble making friends runs in the family,” Arabella jabbed.

James’ glare worsened. 

“Just tell us what happened, Chauncey,” Cressida snapped.

“Gladly,” Arabella smiled, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she turned to face the two First Years. “McLaggen here was simply asking what the two of them were up to because they were looking shifty-”

“We were not looking shifty!” Albus corrected her. “We were just playing Gobstones.”

“They had their heads ducked together whispering about something!” Michael called out.

“So whispering automatically means they’re up to something now, does it?” Rose quipped.

“It does if you’re from their… calibre,” Declan said.

“Their calibre?” Molly repeated. “What’s the supposed to mean?”

“Well, little Albus has been caught sneaking around and looking suspicious a few times over the last year, and  he’s  a Malfoy,” Arabella said, gesturing to Scorpius who hung his head in embarrassment. “Surely that should be enough proof to not trust them.”

“Are you insinuating my brother is untrustworthy?” James asked, striding forward.

“Are you insisting that he isn’t?” Arabella asked unphased by James’ tone. 

“I bet they’re hiding something,” Declan continued. “I mean, why else would the two of them always be together whispering in the shadows?”

Albus and Scorpius sent each other a grimaced look.

“I have my theory and it’s not to do with Malfoy’s dear old daddy for once,” Michael mocked quietly. “Also, if someone could get me out of this crap, I’d be very grateful.”

Nobody moved to help McLaggen. All eyes remained on Arabella and Declan facing the group.

“Make them stop, James,” Rose begged, tugging on his arm. “Please, they didn’t do anything. McLaggen started it!”

“Face it, Potter,” Arabella smiled, ignoring the younger girl. “Your brother is even more of a Slytherin scumbag than your precious Knightly.” Molly had moved forward in an instant, aiming her wand at the Ravenclaw girl. Arabella glanced down at the threat then back up at Molly was an easy laugh. “Is that meant to scare me, Weasley?”

James’ jaw clenched but his voice remained completely calm. “Let my brother go and we’ll carry on with our days, how about that?”

“What’s wrong?” Arabella asked with mock sympathy. “Can’t handle a family member not being as popular and loved as you? You should be used to it after Molly.”

“At least Weasley had the decency to stay out of everyone’s way,” Declan said under his breath.

James’ face grew dark. “Last chance. Let them go and we’ll walk away,” he offered once again despite the rising atmosphere. “No one has to get hurt.”

Arabella quirked a perfectly trimmed eyebrow. “Not one for confrontation, Potter?”

“Potter knows better than to try and fight us,” Declan said surely. “It’s a shame his baby brother doesn’t have the same common sense-”

James had reached up and clocked Declan in the face before he had finished his sentence. “Have it your way,” James said, recoiling his now bloodied hand. 

The crowd all jumped back in surprise at the motion as they watched what happened next. Arabella wasted no time reaching for her wand and Cressida's shoulder barged her, causing her wand to go skittering across the cobblestones.

The Ravenclaw girl rounded on her with a venomous glare. “How  dare  you touch me, you wretched little mud-”

Arabella was on the floor mere seconds after Cressida’s fist had collided with her nose. “I warned you about coming after my friends, Chauncey,” Cressida said, towering over her. “If you were smarter you might have listened.”

Arabella touched where blood was spurting from her nose. “You broke my nose!”

“You deserved it,” Rose said promptly, folding her arms.

“Oh, Merlin,” Lana whimpered, gripping the sides of her hair. “My dad isn’t going to like this.”

“What the fuck, Knightly?!” Declan cursed, going forward to defend his sister. 

Thomas moved in front of Cressida, blocking Declan’s path. Declan reached for his wand and James rounded on him.  “Expelliarmus!”

Declan’s wand flew out of his hand instantly. 

“Nice spell,” Cressida complimented him.

“My dad’s speciality,” James replied, not moving his eyes off Declan.

“Kick their asses, Chauncey!” Michael called from inside his goo trap.

Albus rolled his eyes, still trying to fight off the older boy holding him in place. “I feel like this got slightly out of hand.”

“You don’t say,” Scorpius quipped from beside him.

That sent off a chain of events. Molly quickly rounded up the two First Year girls and tried to get them out of the way, despite Rose being adamant about her joining in the fight that had broken out. Declan and James went after each other, with Thomas jumping on Declan’s back to try and pry the older boy off.

Arabella quickly fled the scene, leaving a trail of blood as she disappeared back into the castle.

The two boys holding back Albus and Scorpius abandoned their posts and joined in the fight trying to get Wood and Potter off Chauncey.

Cressida took a step back, assessing what needed to be done while the crowd around her scattered or joined in the rough-housing.

“That’s it, Chauncey! Come on, you can’t lose to a bunch of Third Years!” McLaggen was calling.

Cressida turned and aimed a silencing spell at him then moved towards Scorpius and Albus, who had immediately huddled together once being released. “Are you two okay?”

Scorpius nodded but Cressida noticed he had tear stains on his cheeks. Clearly, they’d arrived too late, and she was beginning to wonder what had been said beforehand.

“You’re dead, Potter!” Declan cursed, shoving James against the brick wall while Thomas held off the other two boys alone.

Cressida whipped around in a panic to see Declan lifting James off the ground by the scruff of his shirt. In an instant, Albus had picked up a large branch from the nearby shrubbery and started running towards Declan with it above his head. “Get off my brother!”

“Immobulus!” 

The branch fell limp at Albus’ feet and all eyes turned towards Longbottom walking onto the scene. Lana quickly hid behind Molly and Rose with another small whimper.

“Unhand Potter please,” Longbottom said, ignoring everyone else and heading straight for the two boys. With a clenched jaw, Declan indelicately dropped James back down to his feet. Cressida saw James wiping a speck of blood from a new cut on his lip and she found herself staring at it, a strange drop in her stomach at the thought of him being hurt. “Now,” Longbottom said turning towards the crowd of on-lookers. “Can someone tell me what happened here?”

McLaggen tried to talk but was prohibited momentarily by the silencing spell until Longbottom undid it. “It was Potter and Malfoy! They started it all!” 

Eyes once again turned to the two First Year boys standing side by side.

“Okay,” Longbottom said, his frown giving away he was deep in thought as he looked around at the crowd. “If you would all follow me to McGonagall’s. I believe she is the best person to deal with this,” he said turning and starting to lead the way. As he passed by Molly and the two girls, he offered a smile to Lana. “Good afternoon, sweetie. I bet you’re glad you weren’t caught up in this mess, ay?”

“Yeah,” Lana laughed weakly. “Imagine that, dad.”

James and Declan were the first to follow behind Longbottom, sending each other deadly glares as they did so. Thomas gave one last hefty punch to the stomach of the older boy who had seemingly given him a bruise to the cheek then ran after James.

Cressida took to walking at the back of the line alongside Scorpius and Albus, who were still sending each other glances out of the corners of their eyes but saying nothing outright.

Only once they were in the safety of the castle and away from any onlookers did Cressida interrupt their glances. “What did McLaggen say to make you curse him?”

Scorpius and Albus immediately stiffened up, this time openly staring at each other as though having a silent conversation. After a moment, Scorpius broke it off and strode forward, offering no other comment. Cressida reached out and lightly grasped Albus’ arm to stop him from doing the same.

The young boy’s eyes turned to Cressida begrudgingly. “McLaggen made a gay comment at us,” he said, lowering his gaze again. “Accused us of being… you know. Asked if that’s why we’re always together. He probably meant it as a joke or trying to show off for his pathetic friends, but Scorpius got upset and so I… I just cursed him. I didn’t even try not to get caught like you said.”

Cressida stopped them in the hallway and wrapped her other arm around the younger boy in a hug. Albus seemed thrown off by it at first, but then he gripped onto her even tighter, burying his face in her shoulder. “You did what you thought was right,” she told him.

She heard a small sniff from him. “Don’t tell James what happened. I don’t want him to go after McLaggen and he  will . I know he will. He can’t help himself but try and be the hero.”

Cressida stepped out of the hug, giving a small nod to his request. Silently, both of them turned and caught up with the rest of the group heading towards McGonagall’s office for their punishment.

Chapter 65: Third Year: Do You Care?

Monday 25th June 2018

 

All of them had been given a week’s detention for the fight by McGonagall, but as Cressida promised, no one knew the reason Albus had cursed McLaggen in the first place and the younger boy never mentioned it again since.

What didn’t help the matter was the fact the fight was the main story in this week’s edition of the newspaper, with picture evidence of Arabella’s broken nose.

“Jesus, she’s milking this a bit, isn’t she?” Felix asked as he passed the newspaper along the line to Jac.

“Did we expect anything less?” Molly grumbled buttering her toast.

Margo remained unusually quiet, knowing she had done nothing to stop the story from getting printed, and also hadn’t offered her opinion on the matter since finding out about it.

“I do feel bad for Albus and Scorpius though,” Jac said once she was done reading the article. “I mean, McLaggen must have said something really bad for Albie to just curse him like that.”

“Probably about Malfoy’s family again,” Felix mused.

Jac discarded the newspaper and took to staring at her cereal. “I wish I had been there to help.”

“We didn’t want to ruin your date with Fred,” Cressida said.

“And you wouldn’t have been able to do anything even if you were there,” Molly told her. “Cressida and James pretty much had it handled in all honesty.”

“I’d say,” Margo muttered under her breath.

Cressida turned her grey eyes on Margo knowingly. “Something to say about it, Smithers?”

Margo kept her eyes firmly on her poached eggs. “It’s just that… well, did you really have to break her nose, Cressida?”

“Are you saying she didn’t deserve it?” Felix asked, quirking an eyebrow

“No, I’m sure she said some horrible things as usual,” Margo said, sinking in her chair slightly. “But it’s just words, isn’t it? Did you really have to resort to physical violence with her?”

“I warned her last year what would happen if she came after any of us again,” Cressida reasoned, eating her eggs. “I didn’t see you complaining about it then.”

“But Malfoy and Albus aren’t anything to do with us,” Margo tried.

“Albus is still my cousin, Margo,” Molly said pointedly. “I don’t want him to have to put up with the same bullshit we did.”

“If anything it’s worse for them two,” Felix huffed. “You should hear what some of the other students are saying about them.”

“Looks like someone’s saying something to them now,” Margo pointed out. The group all turned to see Scorpius and Albus walking out of the hall with a small crowd following them, clearly pestering them with questions.

Cressida got to her feet without a second thought and strode after the two boys. Her group of friends quickly followed behind.

“Hey!” Cressida called, cutting through the crowd to get to the two boys before they joined the staircase. “Is there a reason you lot are stalking two twelve-year-olds?”

Michael McLaggen revealed himself within the crowd. “We were just chatting to them, Knightly. Is that not allowed now?”

Cressida glared at the smug bastard. “What exactly are you chatting to them about?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your concern,” McLaggen countered.

“It is my concern if you’re being a prick,” Cressida smiled falsely at him. “Now beat it before you join Chauncey in the broken nose club.”

“You don’t scare me, Knightly,” McLaggen replied, trying for a laugh with his friends beside him.

“She should,” James said loudly coming up behind the group of Slytherins with Fred and Thomas.

“She’s got a killer right hook,” Thomas chimed in. 

“Take our word for it,” Fred said.

McLaggen looked between Cressida and the trio of Gryffindors looming behind her. “Yeah, whatever. I was just messing with them anyway.”

“Well from now on, if you want to mess with anyone you can mess with me,” Cressida said, glaring up at the older boy.

McLaggen lingered for a little bit debating on saying anything further but ultimately decided against it and shoved past them to join the staircase along with his friends. 

Cressida turned to Albus and Scorpius just in time for them to mouth a quick thank you to her and then scurry off in the opposite direction.

None of the remaining group knew what to say for the moment after that, and instead, all glanced around at one another. Eventually, Molly took action and stepped onto the staircase. “Come on, we have a Muggle Studies exam to get to.”

James and Thomas were quick to join Cressida in following Molly up the staircase, leaving their other friends behind.

“Thanks,” James whispered, leaning down to her height as she put a stick of gum in her mouth ready for the oncoming exam. “For having Albus’ back like that. I owe you one.”

“Don’t owe me anything, Potter,” Cressida replied, blowing a bubble. 

“No,” James insisted, putting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing it gently. “I really do. He trusts you more than me with this kind of stuff. You’ve really helped him this year.”

Cressida glanced at his hand on her shoulder and then met his eyes. “I’m not the princess of Slytherin for nothing,” she joked lightly. “I have to take care of my loyal subjects.”

James smiled slightly then, still looking down at her. “You still need to get that crown, then you’ll really look the part.”

“Would you two stop whispering and pay attention?!” Molly’s voice came then.

James and Cressida’s attention snapped towards her to see she and Thomas had stepped off the staircase and were waiting impatiently for them to catch up before the staircase changed direction.

 

 

Sunday 1st July 2018

 

Her Muggle Studies exam had been to simply turn on a computer, open a word document and turn it off again, which she passed with flying colours. The hardest part about it was the fact the computers were from the nineties and took ages to boost up regardless of if the students knew what they were doing or not.

Her other two final exams had gone exactly how she had expected them to, and now all of them were done, Cressida and her friends took to wasting the remaining few weeks at Hogwarts leisuring and doing whatever they fancied.

This was alright for most of them. For Jac, however, this caused some small problems.

With no more exam stress and a lot of free time, that meant she and Fred had more opportunities to hang out alone, and Cressida had the joy of hearing about every single time this occurred.

“As much as I’d like to offer my opinion on the matter, Jac, I’m not the best person to ask,” Cressida whispered to her as they made their way through the dark halls after curfew had ended. They’d been in the secret room listening to CDs for the past few hours and hadn’t realised the time. They really needed to invest in a clock for that room.

“Yeah but I can’t ask Molly about this, it’s her cousin and  you’re  my best friend,” Jac replied.

“But I don’t know anything about boys.”

“Sure you do,” Jac went on. “You helped with the Hogsmeade trip.”

“And even after that you still can’t decide if you like him.”

“I  do  like him,” Jac admitted. “But now I have a different problem.”

“Which is?”

“Well, he was talking about this end-of-year party they’re apparently throwing in the Gryffindor common room and one thing lead to another and he asked me to go.”

“Right, so what exactly is the problem?”

“After I agreed to go with him… he tried to kiss me.”

Cressida paused in the hallway looking at her. “Really?”

“Yep.”

“And what did you do?” She asked, her curiosity taking over. This was different from the usual Fred centric drivel. This was the big leagues, or at least for them. As far as Cressida was aware none of her friends had actually kissed anyone yet, and if Jac was going to be the first, Cressida wanted an insight on how it was supposed to go down. She wanted to be prepared.

Jac winced. “I ran away.”

Cressida fought back a laugh. “You ran away?"

“I ran away,” Jac confirmed as they continued moving. “I just panicked and didn’t know what else to do.”

Cressida didn't know much but she knew kissing involved not running away. So far, Jac was not the big help Cressida thought her best friend would be on the subject. “Well,” Cressida started thoughtfully. “Did you want to kiss him?”

“I think so.”

“Jac, you’ve got to get better at figuring out your feelings,” Cressida pointed out.

“I don’t see you doing any better!” Jac countered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You and Potter,” Jac said. “You two have this weird eye contact thing going on lately.”

“We do not,” Cressida rolled her eyes.

“You do. Even Molly’s noticed it.”

“You two are just saying that because you both have someone to fancy so you think I have to fancy someone too,” Cressida dismissed her.

“So you don’t think James is cute?” 

Cressida didn’t answer straight away. “So what if I do? I don’t fancy him, and anyway, he’s cracking on with April.”

“He is?” Jac asked.

“Yeah. I told him too.”

Jac looked at her as though she was mental. “Why would you do that?!”

“Because then everyone will stop thinking Potter and I fancy each other.”

They ducked under the tapestry and had only taken two steps into the secret passageway before a second wand light was lighting up their faces.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Fred grinned at the two girls. Cressida noticed Jac instantly blush at the sight of him, but Fred remained completely normal.

“Oh for god’s sake. It’s four in the morning. Don’t you lot ever sleep?” Cressida whispered to the trio, pretending as though their previous conversation hadn't even happened for Jac's sake.

“Look who’s talking!” James countered, gesturing back to Cressida.

“I have insomnia, idiot. I survive off coffee and spite,” she replied.

James blinked a few times then turned to his two counterparts. “She’s got me there.”

Cressida rolled her eyes and turned back around, breaking back out into the hall where there was more room for the five of them to stand.

“What are you three doing out here anyway?” Jac asked, seeming to situate herself in the perfect middle ground between Fred and Cressida.

As expected, the trio of Gryffindor boys followed behind Cressida as she made her way through the abandoned halls. “We’re looking for Mrs Norris. What are you doing out here?” Fred threw the question back.

“Sneaking down from the secret room. Why are you looking for Mrs Norris?” Cressida asked over her shoulder. 

“We want to dye her red,” Thomas said with a proud smile.

Cressida raised a judgemental eyebrow. “You want to dye the cat… red? Is that the best you could do?”

James moved forward so he was practically walking in time with Cressida. “What’s wrong with red?”

“Besides the fact that Filch will instantly know it's a Gryffindor that did it- meaning you three- he can just get McGonagall to reverse the spell before anyone sees her,” Cressida told them.

“Well, what do you suggest we do, Knightly?” Fred asked, clearly affronted that she had made their great prank idea seem like a waste of time. By this point, the five of them were all creeping along the corridor in perfect time with one another.

“I don’t know!” Cressida huffed, thinking for a moment. “Why don’t you replace her with a stuffed animal or something? McGonagall can’t reverse a spell that never happened and Filch will be beside himself thinking his precious cat is stuck as a stuffed animal forever.”

It suddenly went very quiet. Cressida turned to see the trio of Gryffindor boys had stopped walking dead in their tracks.

“Knightly, you’re an evil genius!” James said with a dazed look on his face.

Jac turned to look at Cressida. “Was that a compliment?”

Cressida shrugged cluelessness and they both returned to staring at the trio, who were now huddled with their heads together, talking in whispers. “Come on,” she said, ushering Jac forward. “Let’s get out of here before they rope us into this mess.” 

They’d made it back down to the Slytherin common room with minimal interference. They’d only had to hide from Filch once near the first floor, and he had been muttering about the trio of boys  ‘being up to their usual mischief’  so the two girls knew they were safe as long as Filch remained focused on busting them instead.

Once they broke into the common room, Cressida paused when she saw a figure led across the sofas in the alcove, a trail of smoke coming from between his fingers.

“Is that Nott?” Jac whispered, noticing him as well. “What’s he doing out here so late?”

Cressida’s eyes were fixed on him, her mind whizzing with thoughts on how to proceed. “Go on without me.”

Jac’s brow furrowed. “You’re going to talk to him? But I thought you were firmly against talking to him in the public view of others since James found out about him.”

“The common room’s empty, no one will see us. We just have some unfinished business to talk about.”

“Should we be concerned?” Jac asked nervously.

“No,” Cressida told her. “Nothing to get your panties in a twist about. Go and get some sleep.”

Jac’s eyes went between Thane and Cressida before she gave a small nod. “If you need any backup just scream.”

“It’ll be goat-like, now go,” Cressida said, turning her and nudging her towards the dorms.

With one last glance over her shoulder, Jac obliged.

Cressida turned her attention back to Thane, and she took a deep breath before approaching him. He was blowing out another trail of smoke as she stood behind him. 

“I don’t want to run away.”

Thane’s neck craned around to face her with a slightly amused grin. “Come again?”

Cressida moved to sit on the coffee table in front of him. “When someone eventually tries to kiss me… I don’t want to run away.”

“Right…” Thane said, still slightly lost. “And you’re telling me this why?”

Cressida felt the embarrassment creeping up into the back of her throat. Perhaps she should have gone for a more subtle approach. “Your offer. If it still stands I want to go through with it.”

“Yeah?” Thane asked, stubbing his cigarette out into a small metal tin full of ash.

“Yeah,” she said, then frowned. “Well, if it’ll help I want to do it, but if you think it’s stupid or take your offer back or-”

Thane leaned forward and covered Cressida’s mouth with his hand. “Cressida, if you talk this much the next time someone offers to kiss you,  they’re  going to be the ones running away,” he said. “Listen, kissing isn’t a big deal. Everyone does it just for fun. Doesn’t have to mean anything. Doesn’t have to be some grand life accomplishment.”

“It doesn’t?” She tried asking, but it was difficult with a hand clamped over her mouth.

“No,” Thane confirmed. “Besides, people can sense nervousness and that’s never a good thing in this situation. Confidence is key, and the only way to get more confident is to not care. So,” he said, removing his hand but remaining just close enough that she was forced to keep her eyes on him. “Do you care or do you not care?”

Cressida gulped. “I don’t care.”

Thane squinted his eyes. "Is this about Potter?" He asked then. "Has he finally kissed that girl and this is your way of evening the playing field?"

"I don't know," Cressida answered. "And I definitely don't care about that... I just- I think it's time. I'm ready. I don't want to run away."

He smiled and Cressida felt the blush worsen on her cheeks. Thane really was attractive. She thought there were worse people to have a first kiss with.

Thane reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, and just when she thought he was going to start leaning in, he was pulling away again. “You should go to sleep, Cressida.”

“But what about-”

“You care,” Thane said, leaning back on the sofa and lighting up a cigarette. “I can’t take that away from you.”

She frowned, feeling incredibly stupid. “So that’s it?”

Thane shrugged, puffing on his cigarette. “When you’re sure you’re ready come and see me. I’ll still be around.”

Cressida got to her feet and turned her back on him, scoffing. “I’m really starting to think boys aren’t worth all this fucking trouble.”

“Hey, Cressida,” Thane called before she could storm back into her room. Reluctantly, she turned back to face him with a glare. His smile widened slightly. “Whoever you do end up kissing... he's one lucky guy.”

Cressida said nothing more as she walked towards the dorms with her arms wrapped around her stomach, vowing to herself to never speak of this moment to her friends or think about it ever again.

 

Tuesday 10th July 2018

 

Despite exams being over, the students of Hogwarts still had to endure fruitless lessons until the end of term and so Cressida was currently standing in Herbology working on re-potting all of Longbottom’s plants with Molly for the hour when James and Thomas joined them at the table. Jac, as she was most days now, was with Fred somewhere else. Felix had taken to avoiding Cressida in the last week or so in fear of her bugging him about his exam results. He was still being stubborn about not telling them what he got, but Cressida was adamant to ware him down before summer hit.

“This,” James said, passing a folded-up note across the mud-stained table towards the two girls and not bothering with pleasantries. “Is for you.”

“What is it?” Molly asked, not opening it.

“An invitation,” Thomas answered, pulling on some gloves to help with the potting process.

“To?” Cressida asked.

“Our party on Saturday,” James grinned, making no attempt to help like Thomas was.

“I thought Slytherins weren’t allowed inside a Gryffindor party,” Molly pointed out.

“Our party, our guest list,” James shrugged. “And you won’t be in uniform, so if you all do your hair and make-up a bit differently people might not recognise you.”

“Great, in that case, we can’t wait,” Cressida said dryly.

“Was that sarcasm?” Thomas asked.

“What do you think?” Cressida countered.

"Knowing you, I'm going to go with yes," Thomas replied. 

"Bingo!" Cressida called out. "Here's your prize," she joked, passing him an uprooted plant.

“We’ll come on one condition,” Molly continued, patting down fresh soil with her trawl. “Are we all  invited?”

“Yep,” James nodded earnestly. “Their invitations are being delivered with everyone else’s tomorrow.”

“So we got ours delivered special?” Cressida asked.

“You did,” Thomas nodded.

“We knew you two would be the only ones awkward enough to say you’re not coming,” James teased.

Cressida smiled at Molly as she pocketed the invitations in her robes. “They know us so well.”

“Besides,” James went on, lowering his voice. “You have to come. Freddie wants to kiss Jac so we’ve got to play truth or dare at the party.”

“Doesn’t he want to do it romantically?” Molly asked judgementally.

“Jac has a tendency to only function when other people are present around them currently, so that option has gone out of the window for now,” Thomas said.

James looked to Cressida. “Are you in?”

Cressida knew Jac wanted to kiss Fred, she also knew Thomas was right. The only way it would happen currently was if the others got them started so Jac wasn’t nervous. Plus, it would be a funny story and one of them would finally have intel on what it was like to go through with it.

“I’m in,” Cressida nodded.

“Great!” James grinned. “In that case, get your party boots on, girls. You have a big night ahead of you.” With that, James shimmied away comically with Thomas following after him, the uprooted plant still held aloft in his hand.

Cressida’s eyes trailed after James as he came to a stop at a different table. A table containing April and Beatrix, who both perked up at the sight of the boys joining them. April had immediately engrossed James into a conversation with a pearly white smile and James rested his chin on his hands listening to her talk.

“You’re staring,” Molly’s voice said.

Cressida’s eyes snapped around to the ginger witch. “I was not.”

Molly gave a doubtful roll of her eyes. “What exactly is going on with you and my cousin lately?”

“Which cousin?”

“Don’t play stupid, it doesn’t suit you.”

Cressida sighed and took to piling up all the soil they’d spilt on the table to occupy her hands. “You’re talking to James again now, right? Like actually talking about your lives and shit?”

“We have the occasional conversation without ripping each other’s heads off,” Molly answered. “Why?”

“Has he told you about April… whether they’re like Jac and Fred or not?”

“You mean dating?” Molly asked, raising her eyebrow. Cressida gave a small nod. “No. He’s not mentioned that they’re  dating , per se. Just that you said he should go for it-”

“And has he?” She asked a bit too eagerly.

“I don’t know. I don’t really want to hear about what my cousin and his lips get up to around Hogwarts.” Cressida chanced another small glance over to the table containing April and James. They were still talking. Molly sighed, watching Cressida for a moment. “Why are you asking me all these questions and not him?”

“Because that’d be stupid,” Cressida grumbled, turning away again. “And I don’t care either, I’m just curious. Between Jac and Fred, and you and-” Molly flashed Cressida a warning glare and she quickly changed her choice of words. “I’m just wondering if I’m behind or missing something. I mean even Margo fancies someone.”

Cressida and Molly both looked to where Margo was babbling to Jeremiah Vonce while she did all the work and he just sat there. Cressida wasn’t even sure if Jeremiah was listening to a word Margo was saying, considering the boy was too busy staring at Avery Bell’s ass on the next table over.

“You’ll find someone,” Molly comforted her. “Maybe you already have and you just don’t want to admit it-”

“I don’t fancy Potter!” Cressida insisted.

“I was on about Thane Nott,” Molly corrected her with a small smile. “Jac said you were talking to him the other night… did anything happen?”

Cressida put her chin in her hands, staring at nothing in particular as a bad mood started taking over her features at the mention of it. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Ladies,” Felix said, coming up to their table. He passed a rather ill-looking potted cactus to Molly. “For your dorm room, Longbottom was going to throw the wee bugger out and I thought you lot could save his innocent life.”

“Thanks,” Molly said, taking it from him. “I’ll make sure to put it on the opposite side of the room to Margo.”

Felix looked to Cressida, who hadn’t even acknowledged his appearance at the table. “What’s wrong with you? I’ve been here all of two seconds and you’ve not pestered me yet.”

“She’s worrying about what to wear to the party,” Molly lied for her sake.

“Party?” Felix asked. “What party?”

“Your invite is arriving tomorrow,” Cressida grumbled. But now Molly had mentioned it, she really didn’t have anything to wear to the party either. “I’m going to see if Longbottom needs any other jobs done,” she said, climbing out of her seat, leaving Molly and Felix alone to talk.

Chapter 66: Third Year: Truth Or Dare

Notes:

There may be a longer break than usual until I start uploading Fourth Year as I'm way behind schedule due to unforeseen circumstances but I'll get it up as soon as it's finished.

Hope you all enjoyed Third Year and thank you for all your support, comments and kudos! :)

Saturday 14th July 2018

 

The day of the party was upon them and Cressida’s mind was full of thoughts.

What she was going to do at the party. Whether she and her friends were going to be thrown out of said party for being Slytherin. Whether Beatrix, April and the Gryffindor girls would release the trio of boys over to them on their home turf.

What to wear. Whether to attempt some make-up. How to do her hair...

Whether she even wanted to go.

Cressida had learned over the last year that she wasn’t a very big party person, considering at every party they had thrown she’d left early to do something else where there were fewer people.

She sat up with a sigh and threw the blankets off her. It was far too hot for once in the dungeons. Summer was officially here, which only reminded her she was being sent back to Conwell tomorrow. She slightly wished she was already there. None of these problems had to be dealt with while she was in the middle of nowhere in Wales.

There was no need for kissing or dressing up for parties or who was dating who.

Conwell was always the same and would remain the same for a long, long time.

The only difference as of late would be Dayle, but even that didn’t put Cressida off going home. Her mother had written again saying how they were looking forward to her coming home and that they might even do a day trip to Barry Island. She’d never been to Barry Island before. She suspected Dayle had something to do with Alice’s sudden willingness to do everything she’d been promising for the last fourteen years.

That was also the second letter she’d received from her mum in six months beating her usual record by half.

Rasper stretched himself awake on the pillow beside her and clambered his way over the sheets to curl up in Cressida’s lap. She gave her kitten his usual scratches under his chin, still deep in thought.

Her bed curtains were suddenly pulled open and she saw Jac and Molly standing there, one holding a plate of hash browns and another holding a large cardboard box. Both had wide grins on their faces.

“We got your breakfast,” Jac said, passing the plate to her.

“Lunch more like!” Margo called from inside the bathroom. Cressida glanced at the clock. It was only half ten.

Molly dumped the heavy-looking box on the end of Cressida’s bed, startling Rasper slightly. 

“Do I want to know what’s in the box?” Cressida asked, starting on her breakfast.

“Dresses!” Jac said excitedly, ripping open the box with her hands.

“Dresses?” Cressida repeated, shoving a second hash brown in her mouth.

“Victoire heard about the party from Teddy who heard it from Lupin’s portrait who was told about it by James and she sent the package over at breakfast,” Molly explained. “It’s all her and Dom’s old dresses from over the years. She said we can take whatever we want.”

“I won’t be wearing any hand-me-downs to the biggest party of the year, thank you very much,” Margo said, coming out of the bathroom with a towel on her head.

“Victoire’s dresses are sent over from Fleur’s parents in France, I’ll have you know,” Molly said pointedly.

“And they’re probably more expensive than whatever H&M dress you’ve got there,” Jac said, already holding expensive dresses up against her frame.

Margo frowned, looking at the green dress she had hanging up on her bed frame. “I ordered it from the Witch Weekly catalogue. Mum said it was the most sensible choice.”

“It’s lovely, Margo,” Molly said. “But not all of us had the chance or the budget to order from Witch Weekly.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Is this to do with me again? You know I don’t want your charity. I have dresses of my own-”

“They were sent for me,” Molly defended herself quickly.

“Good,” Cressida said. Molly nodded and then moved to start sifting through the box as Jac clambered her way to Cressida’s side.

“Did you really have a dress for tonight?” She whispered, lying beside her on the pillow.

“No,” Cressida admitted quietly. “But I would have managed.”

“Well, now you don’t have to,” Jac smiled, pulling a sequin embellished dress towards her. “Tonight you’re going in French designer, curtsey of the Potter-Weasley clan.”

“Great,” Cressida replied, forcing a smile. She looked towards the box overflowing with fabrics of various colours and materials, the familiar feeling of needing to repay them for everything they’d done for her creeping up the back of her throat once again.

 

*

 

It had taken nearly the whole afternoon, and a lot of complaining from Felix and Cressida, but eventually by 5 o’clock, all five Slytherins were just about ready for the party. Cressida had decided to let Jac try out the eyeshadow palette she’d gotten from Dayle at Christmas on her. A simple champagne-coloured glitter coated her eyes now, with a hint of mascara. That was all she could stomach before she started to panic she looked stupid. Jac had been much more ambitious, with orange and brown-toned eye-shadows and eyeliner on top.

“I still think this is overkill,” Felix said, buttoning up the shirt Molly insisted he wears.

“It’s our first party-” Margo started, using her wand as a curling iron.

“No it’s not,” Cressida pointed out from where she was led on her bed playing with Rasper. “We’ve had a party on Hallowe’en, one after the Quidditch match-”

“Yeah but those don't count,” Molly said, doing the zipper up on her skirt. “Halloween got cut short because you insisted on getting revenge on Arabella.”

“Which was totally deserved,” Jac cut in as she debated on wearing her hair up or down.

“And you disappeared when we threw the Quidditch celebration party,” Molly continued.

“I was bored, and not on the Quidditch team, hence my participation was not required,” Cressida said smartly.

Molly turned to her with a pleading look. “Can you just pretend to enjoy the company of others for one night?”

Felix flopped down on the bed beside Cressida with a grin. “If the trio of boys had thrown and invited us to their party last year, you would have done everything short of barricading us in this room to prevent us from going.”

“Yes, well,” Molly said haughtily turning towards the mirror. “Things have changed since then. They’re far less annoying now.”

“Do my ears deceive me?” Cressida teased. “Molly Weasley II admitting her cousins aren’t complete asshats? You really must be in the party mood.”

“You two aren’t helping,” Molly lectured them both.

Felix and Cressida high-fived each other.

“Cressie, do I go with the blue cardigan or the black one?” Jac asked, holding both options up against her beige dress.

“Neither,” Cressida told her. “You don’t need a cardigan.”

Jac looked in the mirror worriedly. “But my shoulders-”

“Are lovely. Show some skin, Redwick,” Felix complimented her. “I promise your mum won’t find out about it and reprimand you.”

“Speaking of outfit accessories,” Margo started, sitting in the chair like a statue in fear of crinkling her dress. “What’re you wearing, Cressida?”

Cressida gestured to the black flowy dress she had picked out of the box as she led on her bed not caring about creasing it more than it already was. “This.”

“It’s a size too big,” Molly said.

“Everything’s a size too big,” Cressida replied.

“She’s travel sized for our convince,” Felix teased, patting her head.

“I think it looks nice,” Jac said, deciding on tying her hair up on top of her head. “Makes you look classy.”

“Yes, because Cressida radiates  class ,” Margo quipped harshly.

“Careful someone doesn’t spill something on your dress when you’re not looking, Margo,” Cressida warned vaguely. “I imagine you’d had to have to leave the party to change.”

“Okay,” Molly sighed, checking the clock. “We have ten minutes to get there. Do your final touches now- Finnigan, you're crinkling your shirt!”

Molly hoisted Felix off the bed against his will and started fussing over the shirt and doing up the top button despite his complaints.

Cressida moved off the bed to stand beside Jac and both girls watched the pair in the reflection of the mirror as they added lipgloss. 

“Nobody’s going to notice if my top button isn’t done up, Weasley,” Felix grumbled as he glared down at her.

“I’m going to notice,” she argued, doing it up for a second time after he kept undoing it.

“Oh, in that case then let me change into a tux if you’re paying that much attention to my appearance,” he said dryly.

Molly kept her eyes firmly on his shirt collar as she straightened it out. “I just want us all to look nice for the party.”

“Yeah, Felix. You’ll seriously bring down our social status if you don’t have the top button done up. Everyone knows that,” Jac teased.

Felix sent her a rude gesture over Molly’s head. “Shove your lipstick up your nose.”

“It’s on our to-do list,” Cressida smiled back.

“We’re going to be late,” Margo sing-songed, already walking towards the door.

Jac and Cressida linked arms following behind Felix and Molly as they left the dorm room. “How long until Margo storms out of the party complaining?” Jac whispered to Cressida as they walked.

“I give it five minutes considering it’s a Gryffindor party,” Cressida smiled back.

As they passed through the common room, she spotted Thane Nott leaning against the bookcase. He glanced up and caught her eye as she walked past, gaining a small smile as his eyes moved down to her dress.

Cressida purposefully kept her eyes away from him, but straightened out her shoulders subconsciously, knowing he was watching.

“Chop chop people!” Molly hurried them along, looking over her shoulder at the two girls falling behind. When she turned back around she caught Felix going to undo his top button and swatted his hand away.

When they had made it to the sixth floor, Jac suddenly grasped Cressida’s arm. “Shit, I forgot I promised Fred I’d bring some music for the party.”

“You’re telling us this now?!” Molly rounded on her.

“It’s fine, you three go ahead. Jac and I will grab the CDs and come by in a few minutes,” Cressida said.

“A good guest wouldn’t be late to an event,” Margo said pointedly.

“It’s called being fashionably late,” Cressida said as she and Jac already started retracting their steps to head to the secret room. “All the classy people are doing it.”

“You have five minutes to get there!” Molly called as the two girls turned the corner.

Jac and Cressida practically ran the rest of the way until they ducked behind the tapestry and started climbing the spiral staircase.

“I was thinking some eighties hits and then some early noughties songs would fit the vibe of the party from what Fred told me,” Jac was saying as they went.

“I can just imagine Wood and Potter singing a duet of  Fergalicious ,” Cressida said as they came to the top of the stairs, then she froze, mouth agape. 

Jac came up behind her, confused why Cressida had stopped at the top of the staircase. “What’s wrong?” She asked. Cressida pointed to the cage that was now placed in the middle of the room. Jac looked at it and grew wide-eyed. “Is that-?”

“They actually stole Mrs Norris,” Cressida mumbled. She didn’t know whether they were incredibly stupid or the smartest people she knew.

“How did they manage to do it?” Jac questioned, circling the cage while Mrs Norris hissed angrily at them.

“I think it’s best we don’t know,” Cressida answered her truthfully. She knew it couldn’t have been easy. Mrs Norris never left Filch’s side, and undoubtedly they would have replaced her with a stuffed toy like she had suggested. At the time she hadn’t considered they would actually do it, but she should have known better. “Grab your CDs and let's get out of here.”

Jac obliged and both girls ran back out of the room with Mrs Norris hissing angrily after them.

They had arrived at the party in Gryffindor tower to already find it in full swing and full of people.  ‘All the Small Things’  was blasting from somewhere within the common room, elevating the rowdy mood.

April and Beatrix had been the first to recognise the girls entering in through the portrait hole and both of them rolled their eyes and disappeared elsewhere. They looked much prettier in their party outfits than Cressida did, she thought fleetingly.

“What a warm welcome,” Cressida muttered, tugging the hem of her dress down a bit more self-consciously.

“I’m going to find Fred and give him the CDs,” Jac said, already taking her leave before Cressida could object to being left alone.

Once Jac was gone, Cressida chewed the inside of her cheek and glanced around. She couldn’t see Molly and Felix either.

“Hey, Cressida!” She spun around to find Jeremiah Vonce standing there with two cups in his hand. “Drink?” Cressida smiled politely and took it from him, grateful for something to occupy her hands. “So,” Jeremiah went on, shouting slightly louder than he needed to be heard over the noise of the party. “Fancy a dance-”

“Alright, Knightly?” James had come up behind Cressida, stealing her attention away from Vonce instantly. “Glad you finally made it!”

“Fashionably late like a lady,” Cressida quipped, sipping her drink.

Vonce downed his drink and turned away without another comment, sending a glare at James as he went.

“Why do I recognise that dress?” James asked then, glancing it up and down.

“It’s Victoire’s,” Cressida answered him. “Molly made me wear it.”

“It looks nice on you,” James said.

“You think?” She asked bashfully. “I wasn’t sure if I looked stupid.”

“Nah, you look amazing,” James said, and then as if he suddenly thought better of it, he continued. “The trainers take away the effect slightly but you won’t find me complaining,” he teased. Cressida looked down at them with a small wince. She didn’t have any other shoes with her apart from her school ones and she’d had to make do. “Come on,” he said, lacing an arm around her shoulder to lead her through the party. “We’ve set up a nice spot over here by the stairwell.”

Jac must have taken over the music choice by this point because  ‘3’  by Britney Spears started blasting through the party. James pulled her towards the staircase where the group of Slytherins sat opposite Thomas on an array of cushions and bean bags, numerous bottles of fire whiskey and sweets between them as their hoard for the night.

“KNIGHTLY!” Thomas greeted her excitedly, throwing his arms up in the air.

“Christ, how many has he had?” Felix laughed.

“Too many,” Fred smiled, appearing on the scene and passing Thomas a new cup. “We’re using this party as an experiment to find his limit for future reference.”

“Fred, that’s highly irresponsible,” Molly told him.

“Shut up and drink up,” Fred said, forcing a drink into her hands as well. “Tonight you can’t complain about us being pratts. It’s our party.”

“Cheers to that!” Felix said, happily taking a drink Fred had offered him and downing it in one.

When Fred tried to offer a cup to Margo she scoffed and got to her feet. “I’m going to find Vonce, he said he’d be here somewhere,” she said, leaving the group where they sat.

“Who invited Vonce anyway?” James asked curiously.

All of them gave a clueless shrug.

‘Saturday Night  by Whigfield came on and everyone yelled in celebration, having fond memories of it from the Christmas party at the Burrow.

“Redwick, you beauty!” Fred called as they all got to their feet.

Jac appeared, a wide smile and a cup in her hand. “My new life goal is to be a DJ if it’s always as well received as this,” she said as they all came together in the middle of the common room to start dancing.

 

*

 

Two hours and several cups of fire whiskey later, Cressida was definitely starting to feel that same pleasant buzz and looseness of her limbs that she had on the rooftop on her birthday.

For once this year, she’d actually enjoyed a party. She’d been dancing to very good song choices from Jac so far. The highlight had been when Felix, having drunk more than anyone and still somehow able to walk in a straight line, started doing the Irish jig to the  ‘Belle of Belfast City’  while everyone clapped him on.

After about four drinks in Fred, Thomas and James performed a dance routine to  ‘Ice Ice Baby’  by Vanilla Ice, taking the attention of the whole common room as they danced badly with matching pairs of sunglasses on. Where they had gotten the sunglasses from was anyone’s guess. They just appeared as if they had planned it perfectly. 

Molly had hidden her face at the sight and refused to uncover her eyes until they were done.

Cressida wasn’t surprised to see a hoard of Gryffindor girls trying to edge closer to the boys as they showed off. April was at the forefront, cheering on James loudly, and he seemed to be soaking in the attention like a sponge. Soon enough after that, everyone had joined in the dancing, crowding around the three Gryffindor boys so much that Cressida could barely even see them anymore.

“You think this is what they get up to even when there’s not a party?” Felix asked sipping on his drink.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Jac replied, sifting through her CDs trying to decide which one to load up next.

“Are they done yet?” Molly asked, her hand still clamped over her eyes tightly.

“Not a fan of their performance?” Felix asked amused.

Molly parted her fingers just enough to glare at Felix. “I’ve seen this routine far too many times than I’d like to admit growing up. Ginny and Uncle Fred were the ones that taught it to them.”

“You’re joking?” Jac laughed.

“They performed it every Christmas,” Molly grumbled.

“Please tell me you have it on video,” Cressida begged.

“Victoire and Teddy are the current owners of every copy. They were threatening to sell them for ten sickles at one point whenever the boys acted up until they started thinking they could make a profit from it,” Molly said.

Their eyes turned back to the boys dancing only to find the crowd had parted as Thomas, far more of a lightweight than his two friends, had started doing the worm across the floor.

Cressida quickly decided it was time for a refill of her drink after that, having emptied her designated bottle of fire whiskey over ten minutes ago.

Just as she started emptying a fresh bottle of amber liquid into her cup, spilling a little with her now slightly hazy vision, she felt someone come up and stand beside her.

“I know what you’re here for,” April started before Cressida had even thought to stop pouring and face her.

“I’m here for the party,” Cressida said, slightly confused.

April started pouring her own drink to look busy, but she didn’t seem as intoxicated as almost everyone else. “You’re here to make a move on James, which I suppose is fair game.”

Cressida let out a loud laugh. “You’re joking right?”

“Look,” April said tightly. “I know you two have this weird thing going on-”

“Fucking hell, there is no  thing !” Cressida cut her off. “Why does everyone assume there’s a thing!?”

“Oh,” April said, surprised. “Well, good. I’m glad there’s nothing because now I don’t have to feel bad about what’s been happening.”

Cressida’s vision suddenly cleared as she stared at the other girl. “Oh? And what’s been happening?”

“James didn’t tell you?”

Cressida sipped her drink. “Not a thing.”

“As you know, we’ve been hanging out and … well, we’ve just gotten really close, if you know what I mean. As close as you can practically get,” April hinted. Cressida gripped her cup a little too tight in her hand. It appeared as though he had taken her suggestion of getting to know April better, which could only mean he’d kissed her by now as well, based on April’s Cheshire cat smile as she was talking. “But I think there’s something holding him back still. I thought it might have been you but if you say there’s nothing there then I just might be imagining it.”

Cressida forced a strained smile as she continued to sip her drink and gave a vague nod. 

April picked up a handful of crisps as she turned to Cressida again. “Right, well…. now I’ve cleared the air, I guess I should get back to Beatrix.”

“April, wait!” Cressida called before she could disappear. “You and James aren’t  together  or anything though, right?”

A small look of disappointment flickered across her features. “No. Not yet anyway.” She perked up then. “But I’m meeting him later tonight once the party’s calmed down a bit. Hopefully, that’ll change things.”

Cressida forced out another smile and once April turned her back she downed her drink. Her nice and fuzzy feeling was starting to turn into a headache.

“Cressida.”

She jumped and turned to see Jeremiah Vonce had snuck up on her as she had been talking to April. 

“I was wondering if you wanted that dance now?” He asked.

Cressida immediately took to refilling her cup. “I’m not really a big dancer.”

“But you’ve been dancing with Redwick and the Gryffindor boys all night.”

Cressida faltered slightly. “Yeah, but now I’m just a bit tired. Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Jeremiah said, hiding disappointment. He leant back against the table beside her, lingering awkwardly. “So I’ve been meaning to confess something to you.”

“Oh yeah?” Cressida asked, not paying much attention as she scanned the crisp selection on the table. “What’s that?”

“I sent you that letter on Valentine’s day this year,” Jeremiah admitted. Cressida froze mid-way through picking up a few mini cheddars.

“Um, I had no idea,” she said, reluctantly turning back to him. “Sorry, I didn’t even think it could have been you,” she said as she started drinking to hide the wince on her face. 

“Guess I should have given more hints as to who it was,” Jeremiah shrugged.

“Mhm,” Cressida murmured, swallowing. Her eyes scanned the crowd for someone,  anyone , to come and save her from this conversation. Where was James when she needed him?

“Too late now, I suppose,” Jeremiah went on. “Unless…”

“Margo has a thing for you,” Cressida said in a fit of panic. Alcohol really wasn’t helping with her current thought process.

“Okay, and?” Jeremiah asked. 

“It wouldn't be fair to her.”

“Oh… right,” Jeremiah said disappointed again. He looked back up at her. “Does she have to know-?”

“Goodbye, Vonce,” Cressida said forcefully.

Jeremiah took that as his sign to leave and continued through the party with a discontent grumble. Cressida put her cup down and immediately went in search of her friends.

She eventually found James wandering through the party, seemingly looking for her as well.

“Where the fuck have you been?!” She yelled at him.

“Looking for you!” He replied, grabbing her hand and pulling her after him. “Here, take this shot. It’s time to play truth or dare. Everyone’s waiting,” he said, grabbing a random bottle from one of the coffee tables and placing it in her free hand.

“Potter, I’m boarding on falling over my own feet if I take another shot,” Cressida warned him, already stumbling a bit trying to keep up with him.

“Thomas hit that stage three shots ago and he’s yet to fall over, you’ll be fine,” he told her surely.

“Fine, but you’re doing one with me,” she insisted.

James looked back over his shoulder with a smirk. “You trying to get me drunk, Knightly?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she told him, taking her shot and then pushing the bottle into his chest.

James completed the shot still with a smirk on his face and then continued pulling her through the dancing crowd to their sitting area near the staircase.

“Who’s up for a game?!” James announced their arrival to the group. “The most secret-spilling, venturesome game there is. Truth or dare!”

Margo instantly scowled. “Molly and I have to go somewhere else. We’re too smart for your dumb games,” Margo snapped. “Right, Molly?”

Molly sighed and looked at Cressida apologetically. “I suppose,” she said, getting to her feet from her comfy-looking beanbag. “Have fun playing, though."

Margo poked her chin out and walked away.

“I’ll let you know how it goes,” Cressida comforted Molly, alluding to the kissing dare they had set up. With a grateful smile, Molly turned and walked after Margo.

“Okay,” Fred said, refilling everyone’s cups merrily. “Who’s up first?”

“I’ll go,” Felix said, slurring slightly. “I pick truth.” 

“What were your exam scores last year?” Cressida asked without hesitation.

“I change it to dare.”

“I dare you to tell us what your exam results were last year,” Jac joined in.

Felix grabbed the bottle and got to his feet with a stumble. “That’s it! I’m no’ playing!”

Fred pulled him back down to the floor. “Just sit, they won’t bother you anymore about these stupid results, right girls?”

Jac and Cressida leant their heads together, sending Felix wide grins. “We make no promises.”

“ We’ll  come up with a dare for Finnigan so it’s fair,” James decided. He, Fred and Thomas ducked their heads together, whispering for a moment and then resurfaced. “We dare Finnigan to stand on the table and proclaim you like to dress up as a woman and go by the name Sheila Pumpernickel.”

Thomas let out a goofy laugh with glazed-over eyes. “Pumpernickel…”

Felix heaved a heavy sigh and then took a swig from the bottle of fire whiskey. “You’re all evil, I hope you’s know that,” he said, clumsily getting to his feet.

“Show ‘em what you’re made of, Sheila,” Cressida teased as Felix climbed up onto the nearest table.

Luckily for Felix, the party was so loud that hardly anyone paid attention to his declaration and so, Felix completed his dare with most of his dignity still intact.

“Okay, my turn,” Felix said as he flopped back into his spot. “I dare Wood to run through the common room with his shirt tied around his head like a hat.”

Fred and James both burst out laughing. “There’s no way, Wood will-”

While they were denying Thomas was capable of such a thing, the smaller boy had jumped to his feet, stripping his top off with reckless abandon and started running through the party waving it above his head like a lasso.

James and Fred’s faces both dropped as they watched it happen. 

“At least now we know a bottle half a bottle of fire whiskey is his limit of common sense,” Fred said, slightly entranced by the action.

Once Thomas had returned, deciding he rather liked his shirt better as a hat, he fell back into his beanbag with a wide grin. “Freddie’s turn!” He declared. “Jamsie, you know what to do!”

Fred turned his eyes to James as he sipped from his cup. “What’s he talking about, pre-tell?”

James failed to hide his growing grin. “We dare you to kiss Redwick.”

Fred and Jac looked at each other for a moment and then both shrugged and leaned in, kissing each other on the lips as though it was no big deal.

“Well,” Cressida said with mild surprise and slight jealousy at how natural it seemed. “That was slightly underwhelming.”

Fred settled back with his arm draped around Jac’s shoulder. “We kissed earlier, dummies. Molly cornered me yesterday and told me to do it more  romantically  and so that’s what I did.”

“Yes, the corner of a party to  Mambo no.5 ,” Jac teased. “So romantic.”

“I didn’t hear you complaining,” Fred countered.

“We’re entering gross territory and I’d like to be able to look Redwick in the eye in the near future, so let’s please move on,” Felix interrupted them, lying face down on the floor by this point.

“Yes, let's,” Fred agreed. He turned his attention to James with a cunning smile. “I dare James to kiss Knightly.”

James glared at him instantly. “You should have been in Slytherin, Weasley, you traitorous little-”

“You’re not going to forfeit are you, Potter?” Thomas asked, swaying slightly in his spot. “You said forfeiting was for cowards.”

“No, I’m not forfeiting,” he said, casting a glance towards Cressida. “But Knightly might not want to-”

“’Course she will!” Felix interjected loudly. “Knightly ain’t scared of nothing, never mind a pathetic kiss.”

Cressida sipped what was left of her drink and felt rather confident at Felix’s exclamation on her behalf. He was right after all. She  wasn’t  scared of a pathetic kiss, despite what Thane thought. She wasn't going to run away.

“I’ll do it,” Cressida said without a second thought.

“You will?” Fred asked, his brows narrowed in shock.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Cressida shrugged, putting on a good façade of ease and throwing her empty cup on the ground with a smile. Being more than a bottle deep helped massively with her ‘not caring’  problem of kissing, as well as causing her logical thinking to go out the window. Like Thane said, confidence was key. If she backed down everyone would think she was a coward.

“It’s not?” James asked, his eyes growing wide.

“It’s just a game,” Cressida answered him. “Right?”

James swallowed hard, his eyes scanning her face as if looking for any trace of a joke. “Right.”

“Good,” Thomas grinned, hugging the bottle as he slouched halfway down the beanbag. “Pucker up then.”

James did nothing but stare at Cressida as she used her hand to turn his head towards her in the circle and reach up and kiss him on the lips. 

She’d planned on only pecking him for a mere second but she was sure she felt herself stay there for two seconds, maybe three, and it actually felt as though James had moved forward as well... or maybe she had imagined it.

When she moved away again, James remained frozen in place and blinking hard.

“What’s wrong, Potter?” Felix laughed. “You’re acting like that was your first kiss.”

James turned red and Cressida had a halting realization. Fred and Thomas glanced knowingly at each other. Thomas, sensing the awkwardness, tipped the whole bottle up to his lips and started chugging.

"Was it your first kiss?” Jac asked curiously.

Cressida felt panic rising in the back of her throat through the haze of alcohol.

“No!” James' voice came out in a funny high pitch. He cleared his throat pointedly and attempted to regain his cool composure again. “No, of course, it wasn’t my first kiss.”

Cressida’s eyes were fixed on James and he stared back.

It was like a bucket of cold water had suddenly been dumped on her head.

She’d ruined it. She shouldn’t have done that.  Why  had she done that?

Cursing to herself, Cressida clambered to her feet and left the game.

 

*

 

It appeared as though forty minutes of hiding in a tiny stairwell talking to a portrait of a dead werewolf professor did wonders for sobering up.

Cressida was sat on the floor with her head between her knees, continually cursing at herself.

“Why did I do that?!” She asked for the seventeenth time. “I’m so fucking stupid. I didn’t even think. He’s never going to talk to me again.”

“He will talk to you again, Cressida,” Lupin comforted her from his armchair where he appeared to be reading a copy of  ‘Romeo and Juliet’ . “I can assure you of that.”

“Oh yeah?” She asked doubtfully. “How can you be so sure? Did you ever do something this monumentally stupid?”

“Yes,” Lupin huffed a laugh. “Many times. Just like you will do many more stupid things in the future that will outweigh this one.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Cressida grumbled, lifting her head.

“I’m not here to help. I’m here to tell you the truth,” Lupin said. He looked down at her with a bit of sympathy. “Miss Knightly, are you aware that I have heard James Sirius Potter talk about you more than anything else in these castle walls?”

“No,” Cressida said slowly.

“That boy is convinced you hung the moon. He will forgive you for making a drunken mistake… but who knows. Maybe it wasn’t a mistake.”

“How is this  not  a mistake?” Cressida groaned, putting her head in her hands again. “I kissed him. I fucking  kissed  him like some stupid-"

“There must have been a reason you kissed him,” Lupin interrupted her. “Some part of you must have felt comfortable enough with him to share that moment.”

“It was just a game,” Cressida said surely. “I was trying not to care. I  didn’t  care… why didn’t I care?!”

Lupin shrugged helplessly, going back to his reading. “I can’t answer that for you. But I do think you should be talking to James right now instead of me.”

“That’s the last thing I want to do right now,” Cressida said, picking at the grout between the floorboards. “I’m just going to go back to my dorm room. I won’t have to see him again until September now if I’m lucky.”

“Cressida,” Lupin said softly as she got to her feet. “Just consider talking to James for me. Avoiding him may make the situation worse.”

Cressida didn’t offer a reply as she turned and started walking down the staircase.

She’d barely walked more than four steps away from Lupin’s portrait before she saw someone clambering up the narrow stairwell towards her.

James slowed down when he saw her and they met halfway up the stairs in silence as if waiting for the other one to say something.

“I thought I might find you up here,” James spoke first, gesturing to Lupin’s portrait up ahead. “I searched everywhere else first though, just in case.”

“Why?” Cressida asked, looking down at the floor.

“You ran away before I could talk to you,” James shrugged.

“Sorry about that,” she said uselessly. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to meet his eyes. “I’m sorry I was your first kiss too. I just assumed with everything April had been saying-”

“I already told you, that wasn’t my first kiss,” James said putting his hands into his pockets. 

“So you and April have-?”

“Um, not April, exactly,” he answered disjointedly. “But I’ve kissed definitely. So don’t panic about being my first or anything if that’s the issue.”

Cressida’s grey eyes stared at him. He was clearly lying. He was such a bad liar.

“Really?” Cressida asked, glancing away again. “Because it was mine.”

James’ mouth fell open. “Really?! Merlin, Knightly, I never would have guessed. You were so…  confident !”

Cressida shrugged, blushing slightly. “I wanted to get it over with. If I had known it was yours too, I wouldn’t have though.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m glad you did it, now it’s over with for the both of us, eh?” James said comfortingly. The guilt-ridden cloud hanging over her since she’d done it dispersed as they stood there and Cressida suddenly had the thought that there wasn’t a better person to share her first kiss with than James Sirius Potter. 

James leant one shoulder against the wall as he faced her, clearly working up the courage to say something else. “Was it… you know, was it what you expected?”

Cressida looked at him. “Well, I didn’t expect it to be during a game of truth or dare, so no. Not really.”

James nodded. “Me neither.” He moved up a step, casting sideways glances at her. “We could- I mean, not that it’s a big deal because I’ve done this before and all-”

“’Course,” Cressida agreed for his sake.

“But we could do it properly,” he said, his eyes fixed on her then. “Without people watching or a stupid game.”

Cressida’s neck was burning red. “You’d kiss me again? But… why?”

He shrugged, a lopsided smile coming onto his lips that she'd begun to recognize well. “You deserve a decent first kiss.”

He moved up another step so they were equal heights when facing each other. His green eyes seemed to search every inch of her face as they stood there in the stairwell and Cressida let them. It was interesting having him this close without the threat of an argument looming over them. Everything felt so still.

At that moment, she was just glad he had come to find her, and also despised him for it.

Cressida was silent for a while, just staring at him.  She half expected him to turn and run in the other direction, and she would hardly blame him if he did. What if it was another joke and he was going to say the punchline any moment now?

But the way he was looking at her wasn’t in a joking way. If anything, he was dead serious.

“Okay,” she decided, wanting to see what would happen next for her own cruel curiosity.

“Really?” He asked surprised, his breath tickling her cheek.

Cressida wanted to make sure he would go through with it, that he  wanted  to go through with it. Properly this time. “Are you taking it back already?”

“No, no-!” He panicked, then he paused when he saw Cressida fighting back a grin. “You’re really messing with me now?”

Cressida smiled, relief coursing through her. “It’s what I do best.”

He lightly shoved her arm and then he grinned up as his eyes trailed down to her glossed lips. 

She suddenly wished she was still drunk for this. This time she had no excuse for what they were about to do. No justification. This would be intentional. No games. No jokes. No onlookers.

Just them.

Slowly, he reached up and moved her hair out of the way then cupped her face gently. She heard him gulp before he started leaning down. Her eyes fluttered shut as she allowed James to pull her forward. Just as she felt James brush against her lips the door to the stairwell was yanked open.

“Potter, you in here!?” Fred called up. “April said she’d supposed to be meeting you!”

Cressida pulled back instantly, turning her face away from his with a curse. How could she have forgotten about April?!

James’ eyes darted from her to Fred at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily, due to the curve, he was just out of sight of them. “Busy a second!” He called back hurriedly.

When he turned his eyes back on Cressida, he winced. There was space between them again, and it felt very apparent.

“I should get going,” Cressida said, moving forward. She no longer wanted to be in the stairwell with him. She didn’t want to think about what had nearly happened. It was stupid. So,  so  stupid.

“Cressida, wait,” he said, reaching out to her.

“It’s fine,” Cressida forced a smile, pretending like she hadn’t heard him use her real name for the first time and somehow make it sound like a declaration all on its own. “It was just a stupid kiss anyway. April’s waiting for you.”

She turned and left before James could say something to make her stay.

 

Sunday 14th July 2018

 

Cressida didn’t sleep. She couldn’t. Every time she closed her eyes all she could see was James and she was back in that sodding stairwell.

She should have walked away. She should have left as soon as they’d said their peace with one another. What was she thinking, going to kiss him a second time?

That was it, she had vowed to herself multiple times since that incident, she was never drinking again. Clearly, it wasn’t good for her logical thinking. 

Luckily none of the others had asked Cressida about what had happened once she left the game. They were all too busy sharing a puking schedule over the toilet until the early hours of the morning, having not disappeared to sober up like Cressida had.

At around eight in the morning, Cressida couldn’t take it anymore. She got out of her bed and walked out of the room without informing the other four still locked in the bathroom.

Just before Cressida could sneak into the secret passageway she was interrupted. “YOU!” Filch bellowed hobbling his way over to her, a stuffed cat gripped in his hand. “Where’s my cat?! Where’s my lovely Mrs Norris!?”

“I don’t know,” Cressida lied. “Maybe she just ran off?”

“I know you had something to do with it! You and those foul boys always messing with me and my cat!” Filch continued ranting, waving the stuffed cat in her face. “I’ll tell McGonagall about this! I’ll get you all expelled!”

“I’m sure she’ll show up soon,” Cressida said. “Have you tried asking McGonagall or maybe Hagrid?”

Filch grumbled with a hateful sneer. “I  will  find my cat and I’ll find out exactly who took her away from me, just you wait,” he declared as he turned back around and started trudging through the dungeon hall.

She was sure if teachers could curse at students, Filch would have done so at that moment as he rounded the corner.

Once Filch was a safe distance away, Cressida pulled open the tapestry and ducked under it. To her surprise, she found James already standing there. He was still dressed in his clothes from the party.

They really had to stop meeting like this.

“I was just coming to-”

“Yeah,” Cressida said. “Me too.”

James rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at her pyjamas. “Do you own a pair that don’t have sheep on? I’m just curious.”

Cressida folded her arms over her chest. “We both know we’re not here to discuss my choice in pyjamas.”

“Just trying to defuse the tension,” James replied, rolling on the balls of his feet.

“Where’s Freddie and Thomas?” Cressida asked.

“I found them slumped together on the sofa in the common room this morning. Fred looked like he had angled Wood towards a sick bucket at some point in the night and they fell asleep that way,” James explained. “How’s your lot doing?”

“Molly made a puking schedule,” Cressida said. “I don’t think it’s working as well as she’d hoped.”

James nodded, averting his eyes to the space beyond Cressida’s shoulder as they stood in silence for a moment. “We’re okay, right?” He asked suddenly. “I couldn’t get on that train today without knowing we were okay.”

Cressida looked up at him for a moment, a funny tugging in the pits of her stomach. “Yeah. We’re okay.” James smiled finally. “We can just pretend it never happened.”

His smile went away again. “Oh. Um, yeah, if that's what you want to do.”

Cressida nodded. “Great. How did your talk with April go?”

James shoved his hands into his pockets. “I told her I just wanted to be friends.”

“How did she take it?”

“She threw a cup of juice at me.” 

Cressida screwed her mouth to the side to avoid smiling at her imagination of it. “Sorry it didn’t work out.”

“It is what it is,” James shrugged nonchalantly. 

They both lingered in front of each other, trying not to catch the other's eyes. The memories form the night before were still too fresh to risk such a thing.

“I should probably head back to my friends,” Cressida said, not wanting to be in the stairwell with Potter too long. “It’ll take us twice as long to pack with Molly in the state she’s in.”

“Yeah,” James nodded. “I should get back too.”

They both turned away from each other.

“Cressida,” James called all of a sudden. She turned back around to find he was coming back down the steps towards her. He leaned down and pecked her on the cheek before she could even react. When he pulled back, he smiled down at her. “Have a good summer, yeah?”

Cressida stared up at him, redness taking over her whole body. “Yeah. You too.”

James gave a definitive nod and then turned and kept walking this time. 

Cressida remained in the secret passageway alone, her hand reaching up and touching her cheek.

 

*

 

Cressida’s prediction of it taking twice as long to pack had been correct, and the group had totally missed breakfast, not that they would have been able to stomach it anyway.

In fact, if it hadn’t been for Cressida being determined to do anything to keep her mind and hands busy since her meeting with James in the passageway, she doubted they would have been done in time to board the train.

She’d done her and Jac’s trunk in record time and took extra care to fold Molly’s clothes just the way she liked. Margo’s trunk had been mainly guesswork, not sure whether the other girl would even appreciate Cressida trying to help her while her head was stuck in the toilet bowl.

The last one to do had been Felix, but Cressida refused to venture into his dorm room to get the trunk in case Jeremiah Vonce was in there. That was a conversation she defiantly didn’t want to repeat this morning.

Thankfully, by that point, her friends had sufficiently thrown up as much as they possibly could and were now walking about the dorm room. Molly had overtaken her usual duty of checking everyone’s cases and then took it upon herself to go and do Felix’s with Margo at her side, claiming she wanted to say goodbye to Vonce before the summer.

Jac and Felix were assigned the yearly job of rounding up all of Felix’s possessions from their alcove in the common room to ensure nothing got left behind.

Cressida took the opportunity while everyone was gone to take the photo of her dad out from under her cushion and take a good look at it.

She hadn’t looked at it as much in the last few months of the school year. She hadn’t felt the need to, especially once the letter about Dayle and her mum having actual plans for the summer this year arrived.

She knew she needed to ask her mum about it, and she would, but maybe she didn’t need to imagine his side of the family or what it would have been like if he hadn’t run away.

The man in the picture wasn’t there. Dayle was, and according to her mum, he was going to be around for a very long time.

Just as Cressida placed her letters and the photo safely in her trunk, the dorm room door burst open and Felix and Jac strode in. Rasper’s head perked up at the disruption.

“What’s the matter?” Cressida asked, noticing the look on Felix's face.

“Finnigan insisted we had to come in here before Molly notices we’re missing,” Jac said. “I think he’s lost his mind.”

“I’ve not lost my mind,” Felix rebuked. “And if you two would shut up and listen for five minutes, you’d find out why I’ve brought you in here.”

“You realise we need to head down to the train in two seconds. Molly won’t want us to be late,” Jac pointed out.

“Sit and listen,” Felix insisted.

Jac and Cressida sat on the edge of the bed facing him expectantly.

“We’re listening,” Cressida said.

“Here,” Felix said pulling out two pieces of parchment that hadn’t been taken care of very well.

“What are they?” Jac asked as Felix handed them to the girls.

“My exam results,” Felix said. “You two were pestering me so much I knew you’d find out eventually, so I figured I’d just tell you now and we never speak of it again.”

Cressida opened up the parchment and she and Jac started reading.

“Felix…” Cressida said after she’d finished reading. “You’re one mark below Molly in  everything .”

“Yup,” Felix nodded distantly.

Jac peered up at him. “You’re secretly smart?!”

“It would seem that way,” Felix said.

“Why did you keep it a secret?” Cressida questioned.

Felix shrugged, taking back his results. “People would start expecting me to know everything and constantly get good grades if they knew. This way, if I did bad one year, no one would notice.”

“Does Molly know?!” Jac asked then.

“Merlin, no!” Felix said instantly. “Do you know how hard it is to constantly stay one mark below her so one of the teachers doesn't slip up and she doesn’t catch on? There’ll be no living with her once she figures out I’m not as dull as dishwater.”

Molly’s head popped into the dorm room as if summoned. “What are you three doing? Slughorn’s rounding us all up o go!”

“We’re coming now,” Felix said, walking forward with his hands in his pockets. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

“My knickers are none of your concern, thank you!” Molly frowned, following behind Felix.

Cressida and Jac glanced at each other and then grabbed their trunks to head out as well. Rasper jumped from the trunk and perched himself on Cressida’s shoulder as they left.

Once they were all corralled in the entrance hall waiting to head down to the train, Cressida took to looking around the crowd for any sign of the trio of Gryffindors before getting on the train. They were apparently nowhere to be seen. Filch’s presence, however, was very apparent as he refused to leave McGonagall’s side while she tried dealing with all the students.

“I’m telling you Mrs Norris does not just  wander off! ” Filch was complaining still. “Your horrible students done something to her, I know it! Interrogate them! Force it out of them any way you can-”

“Argus, I am not about to start an interrogation on my students before they head home for the summer all because your cat appears to be missing,” McGonagall said, trying to weave through the crowd.

“But what about this?” Filch said, waving the stuffed cat in her face. “This is a sign. A threat of some kind!”

The doors burst open and Hagrid strode in, a small furry object concealed in his large arms. “There ye are, Argus!” Hagrid said, making his way over to the two teachers. “Found yer cat wondering the grounds early this morning. You better keep a better eye on her next time.”

Argus snatched Mrs Norris back off the large man without a thank you and started cradling the disgruntled-looking cat like a baby. 

McGonagall rolled her eyes and lead Hagrid away by the arm to discuss other matters.

“Oh, Mrs Norris, I was so worried! Did those nasty students do something to you? We’ll make them pay, my sweet. I’ll find out who took you from me, have no doubt about that-” Filch cooed to the cat as he turned and left. As he passed by, Mrs Norris’ beady red eyes glared at Cressida over Filch’s shoulder.

 

*

 

The train ride back to King’s Cross Station was pleasant. Most of the Slytherins spent a large majority of the ride catching up on their sleep or talking lazily about their plans for the summer.

They’d all agreed they were going to watch the Quidditch World Cup together, apart from Margo who was apparently going to France with her dad’s new family for the whole summer, so at least they all had something to look forward to.

Cressida led her head against the windowpane watching the Scottish hills pass by until they eventually turned into business buildings and the familiar surroundings of London, and before she knew it the train was pulling to a stop.

Her friends wasted no time getting their trunks down from the overhead compartments and starting to pile out. Cressida took her time, feeling in no great rush, and besides, Rasper had to be coaxed out from under the seats with a piece of pumpkin pasty for five minutes after her friends had already left the carriage.

Finally, with Rasper safely secured in her hobo bag, Cressida started to get off the train. Just as she headed for the exit, the carriage door slid shut in front of her and wouldn’t budge open.

“Hiya, Knightly.”

Cressida spun around to see Arabella and Declan coming up the aisle behind her. Rasper poked his head out of the bag to hiss at them.

“What are you doing?” Cressida asked, rolling her eyes.

“Just giving you a friendly warning,” Arabella continued, twirling her wand in her fingers. 

“Arabella, it’s summer. What could you possibly warn me about?”

“Come September you’re going to pay for what you did to me and my brother. You made us look stupid and stood up for that little git just because he’s Potter’s baby brother even though everyone knows he started it. That’s what I’m warning you about,” Arabella sneered.

“I’m quaking in my hand-me-down boots,” Cressida said dryly. “Can I go now?”

Declan moved forward, shoulder-barging her as he went. “You won’t always have Potter and his friends behind you, Knightly. Remember that.” 

“I should hope not,” Cressida said, watching as Declan slid open the compartment door. “I’m a big girl. I can handle my own fights. Ask your sister, she should know.”

Arabella scoffed and joined her brother at the exit. “Have a good summer, Knightly,” she said falsely.

“I plan to,” Cressida replied stonily.

Both siblings turned and left after that, and Cressida waited a second before walking out as well.

Once on the platform, she looked around and spotted the Potter/Weasley clan all crowded together. She caught James’ eyes and the two shared a small smile at one another. Fred and Thomas were still slumped together, looking incredibly pale and worse for wear. Apparently, they hadn’t gotten over their hangovers as efficiently as the Slytherin group had.

“Cress!” Alice called, running through the crowd. Cressida turned and found her mother wasted no time wrapping her arms around her. “I’ve missed you so much! Come on, we’ve got to get going,” Alice said, helping Cressida with her trunk as they started making their way back through the crowd. “Dayle’s waiting for us in the car.”

“Dayle’s here?” She asked surprised.

Alice smiled down at her daughter. “He refused to let me leave on my own. He said he wants to hear all about your fancy school- apart from the magic bit, but you get the idea. Said he didn’t want to make you repeat it all after the journey back to Conwell.”

Cressida matched her mother’s smile and the two of them ran through the barrier hand in hand.

Chapter 67: Summer 2018: Part 1

Notes:

I can't believe I've hit 10,000 hits!
Thank you all so so much, when I posted the first chapter I doubted I've even reach a 1000 so this is incredible!

Anyway, this summer is a long one so the I've tried to condense it down into two rather large parts, hope that's okay :)

Tuesday 24th July 2018

 

As far as summers went, Cressida was sure this one was the most content one she’d had in a long time.

Dayle, much to Cressida’s surprise, had lived up to his promise of wanting to get to know her better. They’d sit together in the living room along with Alice watching crappy TV and discussing what little pointless celebrity drama they'd heard about. He would make cups of tea with enough sugar to please Felix’s sweet tooth. He would go out and buy dinner for all of them and cook it himself. He never overstayed his welcome and actually left when Alice was at work saying that Cressida’s time alone was just as important.

They’d go out for ice cream. They sing and dance around the living room. They’d laugh. Alice would  laugh .

Sometimes, when it was a particularly good evening and they’d been laughing and joking around and had crashed on the couch together with lazy smiles on their faces, Cressida could imagine they were a real family. That Dayle was the missing part they needed to make everything better.

She’d barely picked up the photo of her dad since leaving Hogwarts.

“What you saying, slugger?” Dayle said, coming into the living room and stretching his arms above his head. It was midday, and he’d just woken up, but Cressida didn’t mind. She’d only been sitting on the sofa watching TV with Rasper anyway. “Bacon butties for breakfast today?”

“Sure,” Cressida nodded. Rasper jumped down from where he was led and trotted after Dayle as he went into the kitchen. “Has mum left yet?”

“At about six this morning!” Dayle shouted from where he had started cooking. “Made a right ruckus and all. I’m surprised you didn’t hear it. I’ll head back home and sort some stuff out once I’ve made sure you’re fed.”

Cressida got up from the couch and leaned in the kitchen doorway. “You don’t have to go, you know,” she said watching him crack the eggs with one hand. “I don’t mind you staying here without mum around.”

Dayle turned, plucking a cigarette from the packet on the counter and sticking it between his lips. “High praise from someone as picky as you.”

“I’m not picky,” Cressida rebuked.

Dayle opened the fridge and threw a bit of ham onto the floor for Rasper to occupy himself with. “Are too. I noticed you don’t hang about with kids from around here. I reckon we’re all below you now you’ve got this fancy education over us.”

Cressida moved to sit on a dining room chair. “I hang out with people from around here.”

“Oh yeah?” Dayle questioned, puffing on his cigarette with a smile. “Who?”

Cressida faltered for a moment. “Callie Powell.”

Dayle sat on the chair facing her. “She  is  below you. Girl’s already a town bicycle at the age of sixteen from what I hear.”

“Alright then. Albie and his mates.”

Dayle flicked the ash off his cigarette. “I’ve seen those boys loitering down the garage a few times. That Albie kid is apparently doing up his old man’s motorbike.”

“It’s nicked,” Cressida said.

“I’m aware,” Dayle laughed, getting up to flip the bacon over. “His dad couldn’t afford a tricycle, never mind a Kawasaki.” 

“Speaking of the garage, when are you going to take me down there again?” Cressida asked. “You promised you’d show me how to change a tire this time.”

Dayle started plating up their breakfast. “Soon. It’s been too busy for me to keep an eye on you down there at the moment. A lot of people go drag racing this time of year. Ruins the suspension and clutch, even worse if they don’t use their breaks in time. But it means big bucks for the likes of me so who am I to complain about their stupidity.”

“But you’re going there today, right?” Cressida asked as Dayle retook his seat and they started eating together.

“Yeah,” Dayle said, taking a large bite out of his buttie. “Suppose so, considering it’s my job.”

“Well, maybe I can meet you there when you’re finished and we can get ice cream again,” Cressida offered.

Dayle looked up at her thoughtfully. He put his buttie down and wiped his greasy fingers in his boxers. “Tell you what. You come meet me at five when I’ve finished and we’ll swing by and get a Chinese to surprise your mum with, yeah?”

Cressida smiled, taking a bite out of her buttie. “Sounds good.”

“Good,” Dayle nodded, finishing his breakfast with one last swallow. “I better get going then. Got a lot of errands to run before I even attempt to make it into work.”

“Like what?” Cressida asked, watching him lift Rasper out of his work boots and sling them under his arm.

“Never you mind,” Dayle smiled, tapping the side of his nose. “Adult errands aren’t for little girls to know about.”

Cressida folded her arms over her chest. “I’m not a little girl. I’m fourteen.”

“I’m well aware,” Dayle said heading towards Alice’s bedroom to get ready. “And a nosey fourteen-year-old at that.”

When Cressida turned back to her breakfast she found Rasper perched opposite her on the table, a piece of bacon hanging from his mouth.

 

*

 

Five o’clock seemed to take ages to come. Cressida had spent most of it in the flat, apart from the ten minutes she went out to get some gum from the corner shop.

Once she had returned to waste another hour doing nothing before heading to meet Dayle, she found Callie sitting on the dilapidated sofa outside the block of flats. She had two backpacks at her feet.

“Going somewhere?” Cressida asked conversationally as she approached the older girl.

“I’m running away,” Callie said in reply. “Well, not really. My mum’s decided we’re moving and I’m  not  going with them.”

“Oh,” Cressida said surprised. “When did this happen?”

“When you were gone. A lot changes when you’re gone for nine months of the year,” Callie shrugged. She moved up to make enough room for Cressida to sit beside her on the waterlogged sofa. “Mum reckons Conwell isn’t what it used to be when she was a kid. I reckon she’s having an affair and is uprooting us to run off and be with the latest one under my dad’s nose.”

“Where does this one live?” Cressida asked, taking the seat.

“Bristol,” Callie huffed. “But it won’t last long. They never last long. She’ll be with him a few months or a year, get bored, and we’ll be right back here where we started with dad.”

Cressida was inclined to agree. This had happened a total of three times that Cressida could recall. Mrs Powell had a habit of putting her own interests in men above her kid’s stability. That probably explained why Callie was the way she was with the boys their age around the village.

“Do you reckon your dad will take her back this time?” Cressida asked tentatively. “I mean, he said the last time was the last time, right?”

Callie shrugged, staring at nothing in particular in front of them. “Yeah, but he’s just as bad. He’s knocking off that woman who works in the charity shop. Not been home in a month or so from what I’ve counted. Mum keeps telling the boys he’s on a business trip.”

“He’s a bin man,” Cressida pointed out.

“Exactly,” Callie said. “Luckily for my mother, my brothers are thick as shit… that, or they just don’t care anymore. Sometimes I wonder why  I  still care.”

The two girls sat in silence for a moment then.

“When are they leaving?” Cressida asked, breaking it.

“End of the summer.”

“Where are you going to go... if you don't go with them after all, I mean?”

Callie’s eyes turned to her two bags at her feet. “Dunno really. Might try and shack up with a boy if he’ll take me in. If I get pregnant in time he won’t have a choice, but I don’t want to be stuck with a kid just yet…” Callie sighed, leaning her head back to stare at the cloud-filled sky. “I’ll probably end up going to Bristol though. This is just me showing mum I’m not happy about it.”

“Could you stay with your dad here?” She asked.

Callie let out a humourless laugh. “I’d practically be living on my own if I did that. Besides, dad’s never been very good with us. Never even wanted us in the first place according to mum. It’s probably better that I do go. Let my parents do their usual cycle, try and watch out for my brothers… you know how it goes.”

“Yeah,” Cressida said dismally. “Still shit though.”

Callie turned her attention back to Cressida then. “You seem to be doing alright lately. That new boyfriend of your mum's is fit.”

“He’s nice too. He’s not shouted at me yet, not once. Not even when Rasper ripped up his work trousers.”

Callie smiled then, almost enviously. “You think he’ll stick around?”

“I hope so,” Cressida admitted. “Mum seems better with him.”

“Yeah, well, if this bloke ever leaves your mum send him over to mine,” Callie joked darkly. “I could use a bit of that in my life.”

“Do you have the time?” Cressida asked then to change the topic quickly.

Callie checked her phone. “Just turned quarter past four. Got somewhere to be?”

“Meeting Dayle,” Cressida said getting to her feet. “We’re getting a Chinese. If you want I can leave some leftovers outside your door.”

“Yeah,” Callie said gratefully. “Yeah, that’d be great. Cheers.”

Cressida nodded goodbye and started heading over to the garage.

It was a thirty-minute walk to the garage on the outskirts of the village, but if she took the shortcut through the abandoned quarry, she could get there in twenty-five. It was a rather nice walk, Cressida often thought whenever she wandered this far out. The quarry was a good hangout for the local kids. Even now there were fresh scorch marks where some of them had made a fire the night previously and empty beer cans.

There was an upturned bike there this time too. It was Butchy’s old one. She recognised his graffiti tag sprayed on the side of it. At some point over the last year, Albie had apparently decided normal bikes weren’t cool enough for his gang anymore and promptly made all the boys abandon theirs wherever they saw fit.

At least Butchy’s was still intact for the most part, for when Albie ultimately changed his mind and made them all find their bikes again. It was a pattern, and Cressida knew it well. None of Albie’s grand plans lasted more than a few months maximum. This motorbike phenomenon was the latest grand plan.

Cressida broke through the trees and started down the small dirt path to come to the hill overlooking the garage. It was a little off the main road heading into the village, at the forefront of an industrial estate that held nothing else but storage warehouses and a phone repair shop.

From her view on the hill, she could see the wire gate entrance to the garage, and to her relief, she saw Dayle leaning there against a tower of tractor tires. He must have finished early, she assumed, as it was barely quarter to five yet. But just as she started venturing down the small hill towards him she saw that Dayle hadn’t been waiting for her early after all.

A loud and obnoxiously shiny Corsa had pulled up, and Albie had gotten out of it along with three of his more suspicious gang members. The Corsa quickly sped off again, with a loud bang which Dayle had taught Cressida meant it had a worn-out engine.

Albie, pulling his grey hood up over his face, swaggered over to Dayle, who stood upright at their arrival. Cressida watched by the edge of the fence as Dayle and Albie slapped hands, a form of handshake that Cressida recognised well. It was a Conwell speciality. Babies would recognise that inconspicuous handshake around here.

Then both parties split apart, with Dayle going back into the gates of the garage, and Albie leading his three friends up the hill towards where Cressida was lurking.

She remained perfectly still and poised. Her eyes were firmly on the gates of the garage where Dayle had been moments ago.

The penny had dropped.

She should have known it would sooner or later.

“Little Knightly,” Albie greeted as he came up towards her, snapping her out of her thoughts. “What you doin’ standing about up here?”

His accent had gotten significantly worse while Cressida had been gone, she thought. No longer pure Welsh, now with a strong hint of a chav trying slightly too hard.

Cressida nodded her head to the small bag in Albie’s hands. “What’d he sell you?”

Albie slipped the baggie into his hoodie pocket. “Bit of spliff. We’re gonna go up the quarry and smoke it, wanna come?”

“Free of charge if you give one of us a blowie,” one of the entourage laughed, nudging the other boys.

Cressida glared at him, and Albie spun around. “Piss off, Mickey. What did I tell you about being a prick?”

“Was just jokin’ about,” he grumbled, clearly annoyed Albie didn’t find it as funny as he did. “Besides, that’s how you got one off that girl from Cardiff-”

“Yeah well Knightly ain’t a girl from Cardiff, is she?” Albie snapped at him.

The two other boys glanced towards Albie with amused grins.

Mikey looked sheepishly towards Cressida, whose glare had not wavered yet. “Oh, so  you’re  that Knightly bird? Sorry, I didn’t know… I thought you’d be… older or somethin’.”

“You’ve heard about me then?” Cressida asked coldly.

“Just some basic stuff,” Albie answered instead, lowering his voice as he faced her. “He’s new to the crew. Wasn’t around for when you were our go-to for this sort of thing.”

“Well,” Cressida said, folding her arms over her chest. “Looks like you hardly need me anymore if you’ve got yourself a new dealer with better stuff.”

Albie shrugged. “You know how it is, Little Knightly. Supply and demand and you ain’t here to supply it no more.”

Cressida’s eyes went back to the garage below. Five o’clock had hit and the workers were heading out in a long line of sweat and oil-stained jumpsuits.

She looked back to Albie. “How long’s he been dealing for you?”

“Dayle?” Albie asked, rubbing his shaved head thoughtfully. “’Bout a month or two.”

“Why’s it matter to you?” One of the boys, Callum Murphey, asked suspiciously. “You going to dob us in or somethin’?”

“No,” Cressida said firmly. “He’s knocking off my mum.”

“Ah shit,” Albie muttered. “I didn’t know, Knightly, sorry-”

“Don’t be,” Cressida cut him off, pushing herself up off the fence and starting to walk down the hill. “Like you said, supply and demand.”

“Knightly!” Albie called before she got too far away. She glanced back over her shoulder. “If you need backup, you know where to find us, yeah?” He offered. “He gives you or your mum any shit like Gareth did, we’re there.”

Mickey stepped closer to Albie. “But what about our spliff?” He whispered.

Albie shoved him as he turned around and continued up the hill. “We can find other dealers you fucking idiot.”

Cressida watched the four boys disappear into the tree line and then turned around to go and meet Dayle.

He was perched against the tiers like he had been ten minutes ago. His blue jumpsuit rolled down to his waist to reveal an equally grimy white t-shirt underneath. He gave an easy smile when he saw Cressida come to stand in front of him.

“How’s it going, slugger? Still want that Chinese?”

There was a heavy weight on Cressida’s chest as she looked at him. Maybe disappointment. Possibly annoyance. More than anything she knew she had been right. There was always a catch. She knew it had been too good to be true.

Alice could never find out about this.

When Cressida didn’t answer, Dayle’s smile wavered. “You alright there, kiddo?”

“How long have you been dealing?” She asked, straight to the point.

Dayle glanced around as the last of his co-workers came out of the gate. “You spoke to Albie then?”

“Of course, I fucking spoke to Albie. I know everything that goes on in this miserable village,” Cressida snapped.

Dayle outstretched his arm. “Look, let’s just go back to the flat and talk about this, yeah?”

“No, I’m quite happy discussing it here, thank you,” Cressida said stubbornly.

Dayle rubbed his hand over his face with a sigh. “Can we at least sit then?” He asked, gesturing to a half-rotted bench on the side of the road. “Do you trust me enough to just hear me out?”

Cressida’s jaw clenched. Dayle was looking at her desperately. The same Dayle who she had been singing in the living room forty-eight hours ago with.

Silently, she moved and sat down on the bench.

Dayle followed suit with a heavy sigh.

There was a long drawn-out moment of silence.

“Your mum can never know.”

“You bet your ass she’s not going to know,” Cressida replied. 

Dayle nodded guiltily, his head hung low. “I didn’t want you to find out like this, you know-”

“You didn’t want me to find out at all.”

“Okay, now I understand why your mum said you were hard to argue with,” Dayle said, looking at her. Cressida glared at him. He didn’t glare back. “I don’t  want  to argue with you, Cress. I want us to be okay. Me, you and your mum.”

Cressida turned away again, the feeling in her chest tightening even more. “Have you lied about anything else?”

“No. Nothing,” Dayle said. “And I didn’t technically lie about this. I never use the stuff, and it’s all completely safe. It just brings in some extra change so I can afford to treat you and your mum to nice stuff now and again. It doesn’t do any harm.”

Cressida looked away again, staring at the scuffed-up toes of her knock-off trainers. “You promise it’s safe?”

“Swear on my life,” Dayle said earnestly.

“And you don’t use it yourself, right?”

“Haven’t touched the stuff in about a year for myself.”

“Alright then,” Cressida said. “I won’t tell anyone.”

Dayle relaxed back on the bench. “Thank fucking god-”

“On one condition,” Cressida continued. Dayle looked at her again. “You let me help.”

“Piss off.”

“No, I’m serious,” Cressida persisted. “I used to sell them cigarettes before going to boarding school. It used to bring in loads of pocket money but then I ran out of supply. Let me help with just one or two deals while I’m home for the summer. I want money of my own again. Plus, I know Albie’s hangouts better than you. I can do it more discreetly than you can here… bit stupid, by the way, to do it outside of your workplace.”

Dayle stared at her for a long moment. “You used to sell them cigs at eleven?” He asked finally. 

Cressida gave a curt nod. “Nicked them from mum’s old boyfriend at the time. He was an ass.”

Dayle nodded in comprehension. “Fair play.”

“So how about it, we got a deal?”

Dayle gnawed on his lip thoughtfully. “If it’s money you want, Cress, I can-”

“Do we have a deal?” Cressida pressed.

Dayle sighed, staring down at her. “Fine. One or two deals and that’s it. Your mum never finds out about it?”

“Deal,” Cressida smiled, shaking his hand.

They both sat back on the bench then, watching a car drive past, clearly lost inside the industrial estate.

“So… how about this Chinese then?” Dayle asked, breaking the silence.

“Sounds good to me.”

 

 

Thursday 9th August 2018

 

‘Alright, Knightly,

How’s your summer going so far?

As was to be expected, I’m not getting a big birthday party this year, so unfortunately that means no massive cake either, no matter how much we all begged Grandma Molly.

I’ll still have a small one, with just the family- which is still quite a lot- but it just means you lot can’t come which sucks, but that’s okay because the World Cup is quickly approaching and we’re all mega excited!

Granddad Arthur has already dusted off the big tent ready for the event and we’ve all got our Quidditch jerseys out. It’s Scotland Vs Germany so you can imagine how hyped up Wood and his dad are. I don’t think Thomas has gotten off his broom since we broke up for summer. He’s claiming he’d be letting his side down if he wasn’t up to date on all the latest moves. He was even asleep on it the other day!

Anyway, just wanted to write and keep you updated on us all. I wasn’t sure if Molly already told you all this or not. She seems to be writing a lot of letters this summer but won’t tell any of us who they’re for. So is Albus, come to think of it… I reckon he’s keeping in touch with Malfoy’s kid, so it’s safer I don’t pester him about it.

Mum, dad and the family say hi. Especially Teddy. I secretly think you’re his favourite out of all of my friends, he’s always bringing you up in conversation to me. I think he’s trying to catch me out on something but I’m not sure what. He and Fred keep giggling behind my back this summer too. It’s starting to get annoying.

Hope you’re not getting in much trouble back home and aren’t missing us too much, haha.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Burrow!

 

Yours chaotically,

James Sirius Potter.’

 

“How many times are you going to read that letter, Cress?” Alice asked, putting her scrambled eggs in front of her at the table.

Cressida folded the letter back up and put it in her jeans pocket. She’d read it over a few times since it arrived on the first of August. Not for any reason in particular. She just got bored and it always seemed to be in her pocket and it killed a few minutes each time she pulled it out. It was the only letter she’d had all summer. Jac had gone for the more normal method of texting with the rest of the twenty-first century.

“Is it from your school boyfriend?” Dayle asked teasingly sitting opposite her.

“He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just going on about the Quidd-” she stopped herself, realising what she was about to say. “This sports thing from our boarding school. There’s a big event happening to do with it. We’re all going to watch.”

“Oh yeah, what sport is that?” Dayle asked, scooping up his eggs.

“Lacrosse,” Cressida lied.

Alice took her seat beside Dayle with only a cup of coffee. “You’re going all the way over there to watch lacrosse? Do you even like lacrosse?”

Cressida fed a bit of her eggs to Rasper, who was perched on the vacant chair beside her. “I’m going for them not me… plus, I’m hoping they do hotdogs at the event.”

“When are you leaving again?” Dayle asked.

“Day after tomorrow,” Cressida answered. The summer had practically flown by.

“Hmm, well as long as you think it’s worth it,” Alice said, sipping on her coffee. She got to her feet, abandoning the mug in the sink as she passed. “I’m off to work. Does anyone need anything from the shops on my way home?”

“Bacon for tomorrow, love,” Dayle said, finishing off the last of his breakfast. “And we’re getting low on brown sauce.”

“I’ll add it to the list,” Alice called as she left the kitchen.

Once they heard the bedroom door click shut, Dayle and Cressida ducked their heads low over the kitchen table.

“You all ready for the drop today?” Dayle whispered.

Cressida nodded. She’d already done two handovers since finding out about Dayle’s business on the side, and they’d both gone off without a hitch. She’d met Albie alone in the Quarry after Dayle had insisted the garage was within running distance if anything went wrong.

The second time Cressida had done it on her terms. She’d met Albie down by the tunnel going through the underpass a short walk from the flat. He’d annoyingly brought Mikey along to that deal but Cressida blocked him out for the most part.

If anything this system seemed to please everyone. Albie liked not having to trust an adult. Dayle liked not putting himself at risk at work. Cressida liked the money she was getting. Not only that, Dayle was more than happy to give her a packet of cigs to sell whenever she could to get some extra change here and there.

It was foolproof and Alice was none the wiser.

“It’s hidden in the sofa cushion right?”

They momentarily paused while Alice moved from the bedroom to the bathroom.

“Yeah, same place as always,” Dayle confirmed, and then he paused, looking at her worriedly. “Cress, are you sure you want to keep going through with this?”

“I have my eye on a new pair of trainers. Those vans ones… if I do one more job, and get my share, I nearly have enough to buy them brand new.”

Dayle still looked unconvinced. “What if something goes wrong?”

“I have your number ready to be dialled,” she said, pulling her old phone out of her pocket and sliding it across the table. “But nothing is going to go wrong, just like nothing went wrong at the last two meet-ups. Trust me.”

The front door opened. “Bye!” Alice called, leaving the flat completely.

Dayle and Cressida looked at each other as the flat went silent around them.

“I’m not happy about this, you know,” Dayle said for the fifth time.

“Okay. I’ll stop when you stop,” Cressida said stubbornly.

Dayle folded his arms over his chest. “I have my reasons for doing this, and it doesn’t include buying shoes.”

“Oh yeah?” Cressida asked intrigued, picking at her now cold breakfast. “What’s that?”

Dayle heaved a heavy sigh. “Well, child support for one.” Cressida’s eyes moved up to stare at Dayle. “The rest goes on you and your mum.”

She swallowed, feeling as though static had taken over any other thought she'd previously had. He had a kid. “You have a kid?”

“A daughter,” Dayle nodded distantly. “Doesn’t like me very much. I made a few mistakes while she was growing up. I’m trying to make up for that now… you’d like her actually. She’s a bit like you. Stubborn and that.”

Cressida looked down at her breakfast but had suddenly lost her appetite. “What’s her name?”

“Lucy,” Dayle said. “She’d be seventeen next month.”

Cressida nodded non-committally. “I’m going to get dressed. Got to be ready for the drop off this afternoon,” she said getting up from the table.

“Cress,” Dayle said just as she made it to the kitchen doorway. “Ring me if anything goes wrong, you promise?”

“Yeah,” she said, heading for her bedroom with Rasper trotting at her ankles.

 

*

 

Cressida had been waiting at the designated meet-up place for nearly two hours and Albie was nowhere to be seen. He was supposed to be there at seven o’clock, it was now nearing nine.

That wasn’t like him.

Not only that, two hours sitting on a curb alone with her thoughts was a dangerous game at the best of times, never mind after finding out Dayle had a secret daughter. Cressida knew she shouldn’t have been bothered by this discovery. She definitely shouldn’t have been more bothered by that than the drug dealing discovery, but she was.

She couldn’t help but wonder why Dayle hadn’t mentioned her all summer. Why he spent every day at the flat and not off with his daughter. Whether he was seeing Lucy when he had told Cressida and Alice he was at work.

Cressida couldn’t help but imagine Lucy sitting at her house wondering where her dad was like she often did about her own dad.

Maybe her dad was someone else’s Dayle.

Maybe Dayle pretended Cressida was Lucy. He had said they were similar.

Maybe it was all a lie after all.

No, Cressida thought dejectedly. No, Dayle liked her. Dayle was sticking around for her and Alice. She was sure of it.

If anything, it proved at least he was trying to be a good dad in his own messed up way to Lucy. He was paying child support. That was more than some people bothered to do.

She looked up to try and distract herself from her own thoughts. 

The curb she resided on was on the main strip through town full of odd shops and a few takeaways. The majority of the shops were shut now or starting to. She was slightly regretting not getting a Gregg’s before it closed for the day. She was starving by now. She was supposed to be home an hour ago at the latest. Maybe they had leftover Chinese she could eat when she eventually made it home.

Rasper’s head poked out of the hobo bag where the kitten had been sound asleep for the last half hour. He gave a groggy meow and Cressida reached down to scratch him between the ears. “Not long now, buddy. Albie will come.”

One of the only shops with their lights still on was the old gold pawn shop that was older than the village itself. Alice had taken some jewellery there once upon a time. Apparently, it had belonged to Cressida’s Grandmother and when she died Alice got it in the will. It was a disappointment when half of it turned out to be fake gold.

There was an array of fine jewellery in the grubby window that was definitely not fake. Some of it reminded her of the rings Valentina had on her hands back in Hogwarts, but these diamonds and golden bands weren’t half as shiny or well-kept as hers had been. Cressida got to her feet, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder to bring Rasper across the street with her for a better look.

She would have killed to own any of these necklaces or earrings on show in impressive cases. She reached up a hand and felt her unpierced earlobes. Maybe one day she’d be able to get them pierced or have enough courage to stick a needle through them herself.

Rasper outstretched a paw, tapping against the glass just below where Cressida was looking. Her eyes darted down to find an impressive gold watch with a lion head engraving on the watch face. Cressida thought it would be something James would like immediately. 

She glanced at the price. ‘£150’

That would take all the money she’d saved from the deals on Dayle’s behalf and her cigarette selling this summer, and she’d still wouldn’t be able to buy it for that much.

“Oi, Knightly!”

She spun around to find Albie, Butchy and Mikey staggering across the street towards her. “Sorry we’re a bit late, got caught up in something,” Albie said, slurring his words massively. Butchy seemed to be holding up both boys in order for them to walk.

“You were supposed to be here two hours ago,” she told the three boys annoyed.

“We was at a party,” Mikey elaborated just as drunk as Albie. “Hell of a rager. It started in the field and we ended up at… at… who’s house we at?”

“Yeah we came to get you,” Albie said enthusiastically, ignoring Mikey’s rambling. “You love parties!”

“I hate parties,” Cressida told him flatly.

“But you’ll love this one, just- just, come on, yeah?” Albie said reaching out and trying to drag her along.

Cressida pulled her arm out of Albie’s reach. “Can we just do the deal so I can go home?”

“Drugs!” Albie said loudly, throwing his arms up into the air. Butchy glanced around to make sure no one had heard. “Good business for spliff at parties, you’d make double money for half the work.”

“Double money?” Cressida asked.

“Drunk people are stupid and want to be stupider,” Butchy shrugged, stopping Albie from tripping over the curb like a toddler. “Plus, Albie’s already taken God knows what. He won’t be doing spliff tonight on top.”

“That’s what you think,” Albie giggled to himself, probably thinking he had said it a lot quieter than he did and was inconspicuous.

Cressida considered this for a moment. She glanced down at Rasper, poking his head out the top of her hobo bag curiously, then turned and stared at the watch in the window.

“Where’s the party?” She asked.

 

Friday 10th August 2018

 

A Conwell party was a very different vibe from a Hogwarts party. For instance, there was no common room set up with a designated drinks table, people playing fun games, and fairy lights scattered around. There was no pop or cheerful music playing in the background while people mingled. There were no rules.

No, at a Conwell party the music had so much bass it practically shook whatever poor house had been assigned for the gathering. People couldn’t hear themselves think, and it was made more disorientating by the flashing lights they had going off at rapid speed as though they were at a rave rather than a council house, meaning you couldn’t see who you were talking to even if you  could  hear them. Every room was occupied by a large number of people getting up to numerous, mostly illegal, activities. No one there seemed to be over eighteen, and those that were seemed to be the boyfriend of some random girl at the party, or a friend of a friend who had just turned up. Cressida knew to stay clear of those people if she wanted to avoid getting into any altercations.

One room had every surface in it taken up by couples making out, Cressida quickly left that room as soon as she’d seen it. One room was set up purely for dancing, and terrible dancing at that, from what she had seen. The garden had an old pop-up table used for a game of beer pong, except if someone lost they had to remove an item of clothing as well as drink, not that they even seemed to care. Some girls had apparently planned ahead for the crude game and wore extra layers to mess with the boys. Another room was designated purely for doing drugs of almost every kind and then staring at the ceiling for the remainder of the night while their drool ran down their chins.

Cressida was extremely out of her depth no matter what room she had the stomach to venture into. That was, until Albie, in all his down-and-out wisdom, shoved a bottle of cheap vodka into her hands and pulled her into what used to be the main sitting room. It was practically destroyed, Cressida noticed straight away. There were holes in the wall. Staines covered every surface, the wooden floor was scuffed and oddly sticky. There was even graffiti on the ceiling, though she wasn’t sure exactly why they had decided to do it there of all places. The furniture in the room was as basic as you could get, an old wooden table, some rickety dining chairs, a scuffed-up sofa in worse condition than the one that had been dumped outside her flat, and a TV with the screen smashed in. There wasn’t even a light bulb on the ceiling light, nor did it have a shade.

“Who’s house is this?” Cressida had asked, yelling to be heard over the music. The two massive speakers were in the hallway adjacent to the living room to get optimal noise throughout the whole building.

“Mine!” Albie replied, lacing an arm around her shoulders to shout in her ear. Cressida stared at him through the flashing lights. She knew Albie’s house had been rough. She’d heard about it from the other boys, but this was as rough as it could get. Surely his dad couldn’t let them live like this. 

“Where’s your dad?!”

“In the nick!” Albie shouted back. “About a month ago! Social workers forgot I existed apparently cus’ they hadn’t been 'round to check. Well, fuck ‘em, I say!” He spread his arms out to the room, a bottle raised in his hand. “FUCK ‘EM ALL!”

The whole room chorused it back and cheered their drinks. Albie gestured for Cressida to join in, and hastily she lifted the bottle to her lips and took a swig, not wanting to seem like a buzzkill.

Butchy came up to them then, whispering something- or rather said in a normal volume that couldn’t be heard as more than a whisper- in Albie’s ear that made his face contort into a frown and storm off.

“What was that about?” Cressida asked.

“Crashers,” Butchy replied with a shrug. “You sold any yet?”

“Don’t know where to start,” Cressida admitted.

“Come on,” Butchy said, nodding his head to a different room. “You might want to get that in you now. People respond better to dumb blondes trying to sell them stuff.” Cressida glared at Butchy, but he held up a hand to stop whatever rant was about to come. “Trust me. You want money, you’ll play the part. Down the vodka and loosen up. I’ve got your back.”

Cressida took a moment to question her morals and then thought of the watch again. Silently, she started gulping the vodka, fighting the urge to immediately throw it back up and followed Butchy through the rest of the party.

She didn’t remember much after that.

 

*

 

Cressida woke up on her bathroom floor, a sticky substance and terrible smell covering the front of her clothes. She lifted her groggy head and felt like her brain had been taken out of her head, shaken about, and put back in wrong. Apparently, Conwell hangovers were worse than Hogwarts ones as well.

She crawled her way over to the toilet bowl and rested her head against the cold porcelain. Glancing down through heavy eyelids, she soon realised it was sick down her front, although, she wasn’t entirely sure if it was hers or not.

There was a knock on the bathroom door and Alice poked her head in.

Cressida struggled to lift her head to face her mum as she approached with a glass of water.

“Dirty stop out,” Alice joked lightly, sinking down to the bathroom floor opposite her.

“When did I-” she paused to heave. “When did I get back?”

“Butchy rang the buzzer about an hour ago. Dayle went down and carried you up the stairs,” Alice said, pushing Cressida’s hair out of her face. “What on earth possessed you to go to a party?”

Cressida led her head against her mum’s shoulders, glad for the comfort. “I’m sorry,” she grumbled. “I had to.”

“You could have at least texted us, Cress,” Alice said then. “I was beginning to get worried.”

“I didn’t think,” she said pathetically. She didn’t have a good excuse. She couldn’t tell Alice the real reason she felt like she had to go to that party. Why she had to get drunk.

“It’s alright, hun,” Alice said, stroking Cressida’s hair. “We’ve all been there. At least I’m here to help you through your first hangover, ay?”

Cressida winced, wrapping her arms around her mum. She didn’t have the heart to tell Alice this wasn’t the first time. That her first hangover had been the day after her birthday, spent heaving over a toilet with Jac after spending a night on the rooftop with her friends.

No, for Alice’s sake, this was the first time Cressida had ever touched alcohol, and she was there to comfort her daughter through it like any good mum would.

“Come on,” Alice said, hoisting Cressida to her feet unsteadily. “Let’s get you in bed with a sick bowl.”

Once Alice had helped Cressida get changed out of her grimy clothes and put in bed, she didn’t stir or open her eyes again until she felt a persistent jabbing in the side of her head.

Cracking one eye open with great difficulty, Cressida saw Rasper crouched down in front of her face, meowing impatiently. Glancing over, she realised Alice had shut her bedroom door after sending her to bed, meaning Rasper couldn’t get out to his food. Poor thing was probably starving after missing dinner the night before.

Groaning selfishly to herself at having to move, she begrudgingly clambered out of bed just enough to pull open the door and watch Rasper dart through the small crack. Then she immediately led back down on her bed, using her blankets to block out some of the sunlight seeping through her curtains.

At least she hadn’t thrown up again since being sent to bed, she thought gladly.

There was a small knock on her bedroom door and Cressida was forced to resurface from under her blankets once more.

“How you feeling?” Alice asked, coming into the bedroom with a plate of toast and another glass of water.

“Crappy,” Cressida grumbled in reply.

Alice set down the toast and glass on her cluttered bedside table. “Well, have this and you should be fine by tomorrow if you’re lucky. I’m off to work now, Dayle’s in the living room to keep an eye on you while I’m gone.”

Cressida glanced at the toast and had to fight the urge to start heaving again. “Thanks,” she said regardless.

“Oh, and this arrived when you were gone, hun,” Alice said, placing a letter on her side table before heading to the door. “Love you, Cress. See you later.”

“Love you too,” Cressida called groggily as her bedroom door clicked shut once more.

She took a moment to unscramble her thoughts and pushed the plate of toast as far away from her as she could, then she reached over and grabbed the letter.

Once she had ripped it open she realised it was from James. She recognised his handwriting instantly from re-reading his first letter so many times. He wrote like his hands couldn’t keep up with his mind, and so a lot of the words were squished together and a bit hard to read at times.

The first half had been more babble about the summer since his birthday but then her eyes widened slightly as she kept reading.

‘Anyway, Wood’s freaking out and Mum and Dad reckon we should get there a day early up set up the tent, so we’ll be popping by to get you tomorrow at lunchtime around 12ish.

Sorry for the short notice. If that’s a problem write back tonight so I can warn mum and dad and avoid Wood trying to kill me for ruining his plans.

Otherwise, see you tomorrow, Knightly. Try not to be too excited to see my beautiful face a day sooner!’

“Shit,” Cressida cursed, getting out of her bed. She checked the time on her phone and realised it was five-past eleven. “Shit!”

She ran out of her room, grabbing anything she needed to pack on her way, trying desperately to ignore her brain attempting to come out of her ears.

“Whoa!” Dayle said once Cressida rushed into the living room. “What’s the rush? Your mum said you were half dead just now.”

“They’re coming a day early!” Cressida called back from the kitchen where she was sifting through the medical cabinet.

“Who is?” Dayle asked, following behind her.

“Them!” Cressida emphasised, spilling a box of plasters everywhere. “My friends. They’re coming a day early!”

“Okay, okay, take a second to calm down,” Dayle said, pulling her away from the mess she had accidentally caused. “What time are they coming?”

“Twelve!” Cressida said disparagingly.

“Right, get this in you,” Dayle said, opening a kitchen drawer and pulling out the paracetamol box for her to take. “Best get a shift on and get in the shower then. You smell like a Russian hooker.”

Cressida swallowed the painkiller without water and then when she looked at Dayle again, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach for a very different reason. “Dayle,” she said then, realising a grave mistake. “I think I lost your drugs… I- I don’t have the money on me and if I did it would be in my jeans which mum took this morning and I-”

“You mean this money?” Dayle asked, pulling a wad of notes out of his pocket.

Cressida’s eyes widened as she stared at it. “I sold it all?”

Dayle ran a thumb over the notes. “Butchy gave it to me when I went down to get you this morning. Said you doubled the price anytime someone tried to haggle you. You should be proud. Made a hefty profit.”

Cressida smiled as Dayle handed her the whole wad of cash. “So I did good?”

Dayle lightly nudged her chin to the side. “You did fab, kid. I’m almost annoyed you’re going to be gone again in a few weeks. We’d be rich if you stuck around. Now go shower, I wasn’t joking about the smell.”

Cressida turned and quickly went to go get cleaned up.

Once she had practically scrubbed her skin raw in the shower, packed her backpack as quickly as she could, making sure to pack as many clean clothes as she could possibly find, and grabbed Rasper inside her hobo bag, she went back out into the living room.

Dayle was sitting on the sofa watching the music channel. “You heading off now?” He asked, looking over the back of the sofa at her.

“What’s the time?” She asked, panting slightly. It was incredibly hard to move at great speeds with a hangover without consequences.

“Twenty-past.”

Cressida frowned, another realisation dawning on her. “Mum won’t know I’ve gone.”

Dayle got up and met her in the hallway. “I’ll fill her in when she gets home from work. She’ll understand.”

Cressida nodded, looking down. “Well, see you in a few days then.”

Dayle patted her on the shoulder. “See you, kid. Stay safe.”

Cressida smiled, heading towards the door. “I always do.”

Cressida made it down the three flights and stairs and stood outside her block of flats, taking a deep breath. The ‘No Balls’ sign remained as it always had been but soon a wizard would pop in to take Cressida to the Burrow. To take her to her friends. To Jac, and James.

It was nearing half past eleven. She had time if she was fast.

She lifted Rasper out of the hobo bag onto her shoulder. “Hold on, bud. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

She took off running, fighting the urge to stop and puke on the side of the road. Rasper’s claws dug into her shoulder so he didn’t go flying backwards.

Ten minutes later Cressida was running down the main strip of town, perhaps the quickest she had ever got there. She took a small stop, leaning against a lamppost to take a breather, and against her will, throw up the rest of the previous night. Rasper jumped down from her shoulder and into the hobo bag with an irritable meow in protest to what had just happened.

Cressida forced her hair out of her face and crossed the road into the old pawn shop.

Naturally, it was empty, with an old, rather dignified by Conwell’s standards man sitting behind the glass counter.

He looked up and offered a tired smile when the door jingled, alerting him to Cressida’s appearance in the shop. “Hello, young lady. How can I-”

“That lion watch in the window,” she said, still struggling to catch her breath. “I want to buy it.”

The man glanced from her to the window display, clear doubt spreading across his wrinkled features. “Are you sure? It’s quite expensive.”

Cressida stepped up to the counter, placing the wad of cash and everything she had earned over the summer down on it. “Please,” she said taking another rest by using the counter to keep her up. “It’s for a friend.”

The man nodded, getting up with a bit of difficulty and hobbling over to the window display, using a small key to slide it open and grab the watch from within it. “Ah, the Anne Klein logo dial watch,” the old man said, going back behind the counter. “Bit scuffed up and the straps been replaced but still works like new. One hundred and fifty.”

Cressida gestured to the money now scattered on the countertop.

The man glanced down at it begrudgingly, and then once he had wetted this thumb, started counting through it all.

Cressida watched him with great impatience, watching the grandfather clock in the corner of the shop ticking by. Twenty to twelve.

“Miss, there is only One hundred and ten here,” the man said. “I’m sorry but that’s not enough.”

Cressida cursed and started digging around in her pockets, turning them inside out. Finally, from her jacket pocket, she pulled out £10. “HA!” She said, adding it to the pile gladly.

The man frowned again. “That’s still twenty less than required.”

Cressida ran a hand over her face. “Oh come on, no one else is going to buy that old watch. I really need it. Can’t I give you the next twenty when I come back home in a few days?”

“I don’t take credit.”

Cressida desperately started going through her pockets again. All she could pull out that time was a single penny and a pack of gum. Then, at the very bottom of her leather jacket’s inside pocket, she pulled out a single cigarette.

She opened the gum and placed one in her mouth before adding it back to the pile. “What if I throw all that in as well?”

“I’ll take one forty for it. No less,” the man said stubbornly.

Cressida sighed. “You realise I could just come back later and take the stupid thing, right? Or get someone else to do this place over? I spent all summer saving up this money and I’m doing it the proper way. Doesn’t that count for something?”

The man looked vaguely like he had just sucked on a lemon. 

“I’ll give it to you if you hand over the jacket,” he bargained.

“This jacket?” Cressida asked, fiddling with the buttons protectively.

The man gave a curt nod. The grandfather clock continued ticking by. Quarter to twelve.

“Deal,” Cressida said, shrugging off the jacket and placing it on the counter beside the money.

The man smiled as he placed the lid on the box the watch was displayed in and handed it to her. “Pleasure doing business with you, miss.”

Cressida placed the watch in her bag and practically ran out of the shop, but to her annoyance she saw Albie and Butchy crossing the street in front of her and the two boys called her over.

“I really can’t stop-” she started saying but the two boys, mainly Albie, were having none of it.”

“Just wanted to say cheers for a good night and check how your hangover is doing,” Albie said. “Surprised you lasted as long as you did, mind.”

“Yeah, great, I really need to go-” Cressida tried again, but the café situated next to the pawn shop opened and Mitch and Lee Powell stepped out. Cressida instantly noticed the new black eye Mitch Powell was sporting as the two brothers paused slightly, staring at the three of them before turning away again.

“What happened to his eye?” She asked.

“You don’t fucking remember?” Albie laughed.

Cressida shook her head.

Butchy smiled, looking over to Mitch and Lee hurrying along the street once they spotted Cressida. “Mitch and Lee showed up at the party. Got drunk. Saw you wandering around. Tried their luck.”

“What do you mean?” Cressida asked confused.

“Mitch tried to get a feel, you know,” Albie said, gesturing to his backside. “Well, if he did. As soon as you noticed he was behind you, you spun around and decked him before he even laid a finger on you.” 

“Lee did a runner once he saw I was with you,” Butchy went on. “Left his brother on the floor for ten minutes before risking coming back to get him.”

“Oh,” Cressida said, glad her instincts were still up to scratch even when she was blackout drunk. “Well, anyway. I need to shoot off. I’ll see you guys later-”

“You heading back to the flat?” Albie asked.

“Yeah.”

“Want a lift?” Albie grinned, gesturing to his motorbike parked across the street. It hardly looked safe, but at least it was fast. 

Cressida sent an apologetic glance to Rasper poking his head out the top of the bag and nodded at Albie.

Approximately ten fear-induced minutes later, Albie’s motorbike dropped Cressida off on the corner of her street per her request. She didn’t want to arrive to meet whoever had turned up to pick her up on the back of some random motorbike and have to explain what she had been doing.

She could hear the clacking and the revving of the barely functioning bike returning to the main street as she ran the rest of the way to the ‘No Balls’ sign.

Luckily, just as it came into sight, so did two wizards she recognised well.

Harry Potter and James Sirius Potter stood on the patch of grass under the sign, looking around for any sign of Cressida.

When James turned his head and saw her approaching up the pavement he let out a smile and gave her a wave. She could see him saying  ‘alright Knightly’  even though she couldn’t hear it. Harry turned next, offering a small wave of his hand as well as she got closer.

“Sorry we’re a bit late,” Harry said once Cressida was standing in front of them. “Bit of an altercation back at the Burrow.”

“Lily-Luna nicked Fred’s Quidditch jersey and refused to give it back because it’s more comfortable than hers,” James elaborated. “What they don’t know is  I  stole Fred’s jersey ages ago and the one she has is actually my old one.”

“You never told me that,” Harry said, looking down at his son.

“You didn’t ask,” James shrugged.

Harry looked like he didn’t have a counterargument and looked back to Cressida. “Are you ready then?”

Cressida gave a nod and Harry smiled in response. He put a hand on Cressida and James’ shoulders and apparated them out of Conwell.

The sensation of her lungs being pulled out through her belly button caused her to lose her breath and then she was dropped into the kitchen of the Burrow alongside James.

“Sorry about the rough landing,” Harry apologised, being the only one stood up. “It’s always hard to concentrate with James laughing in my ear.”

Oh, Cressida thought.  That’s  what that noise was.

James reached out a hand to help Cressida to her feet. “I can’t help it, it’s just so fun.”

“How could you find that fun?” Cressida asked, bracing her other hand on the table beside her, hoping her vision would stop spinning soon.

“It’s like a roller-coaster inside your organs,” James grinned at her. They were still holding hands from where he had helped her up.

Cressida glanced down at it then up at James again, her vision suddenly clear again. Seemingly, he had noticed too.

“There you are!” Ginny said, storming into the kitchen. James and Cressida immediately snatched their hands back to their sides and took a step away from one another. “Harry, never leave me to break up a fight between our children again! It’s like World War III in there!”

Harry laughed under his breath, crossing to the room to peck Ginny on the cheek. “I’ll get Ron and we’ll handle it now. Has anyone cast a curse yet?”

“Lily-Luna came close until Fred took her training wand and refused to give it back. Apparently, Roxanne is keeping a tally of the most creative insults,” Ginny said, resting her head against Harry’s shoulder.

“Where’s everyone else?” Harry asked.

“Cheering them on and betting. This family, I swear to Merlin,” Ginny sighed, lifting her head again. She spotted Cressida standing in the kitchen and offered her a smile. “Alright, hun? Fancy a cup of tea? Harry’s crap at apparition, makes the stomach go queasy. I said to get Hermione to do it but she’s wrapped up doing preparations for the tournament.”

“What’s she doing?” James asked, taking a bite of an apple from the fruit bowl.

“Informing the Prime Minister what’s happening on our end to avoid Muggle confusion,” Ginny said. “Good luck getting any sense out of her, I say. I bet she’s never even heard of Quidditch.”

There was a loud bang and a scream from the other room and the two adults turned towards it.

“We should probably-” Harry started.

“Yep,” Ginny agreed, already setting off with Harry in toe towards the commotion.

James and Cressida were left alone in the kitchen and they both immediately looked at one another. She thought about the watch stored safely in her bag. Now would be a good time to give it to him when there was no one else around. She didn’t want it to be a big deal anyway. It was for James and for James only.

But just when Cressida went to reach into her bag, James opened his mouth.

“So… um,” James started, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve been thinking-”

“Don’t do it too hard,” Cressida said, leaning back against the dining table and shoving her hands into her pockets as though they had been heading there all along. “We wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

James’ green eyes bore into her, despite her trying to avoid meeting them. “It’s about what happened before summer.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah… well, like I said, I’ve been thinking and-”

“What’s up, bitches!?” Fred called, throwing the back door open and striding in. Thomas followed behind him, gliding in elegantly on his broom.

“I’m going to kill him. I’m  actually  going to kill him,” James muttered under his breath, turning towards the interruption. “What are you two doing here?”

“Jeez, someone’s groggy from apparition,” Fred laughed, ruffling James’ hair as the two boys came to meet them at the dining table. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be fighting my little sister?” James asked pointedly.

Fred shrugged. “She thinks I’m upstairs in our room. She’s been banging on the locked door for the last five minutes. Wood flew up and I snuck out the window. Perfect plan, I say.”

“Yes, your timing is impeccable too,” James grumbled sarcastically.

“How’s your summer been, Knightly?” Thomas asked, stretching an arm out to reach the fruit bowl. James purposefully pushed it further away so he couldn’t reach within an inch.

“It’s been good,” Cressida replied, pushing the fruit bowl back toward Thomas despite James’ childish huff. 

“New stepdad is still treating you good then?” Fred asked, taking an apple for himself as well.

“As good as can be expected,” Cressida shrugged. “So,” she went on, changing the subject. “When are we leaving for this tournament thing?”

“First thing tomorrow morning,” Thomas said. “Dad’s already over there helping set up with the others-”

Angelina walked into the kitchen and stopped in her tracks when she saw Fred standing there eating an apple. George followed closely behind, grinning when he saw his son. “Oh for god’s sake, Fred. Lily’s up there yelling at you through the door, the least you could do is actually be in there!” Angelina said.

“I came down to say hi to Cressida!” Fred defended himself.

“Go right back up into that room and finish your argument with Lily so we can all move on with our day,” Angelina lectured him.

“Do you want me to let her win?” Fred asked dejectedly.

“If we want to hear the end of this, yes,” George said.

Angelina sighed then turned her eyes on Cressida. “Hiya, Cressida. How’s your summer been?”

“Good thanks,” Cressida replied.

“Marvellous.” She turned her dark eyes back on Fred. “Upstairs. Now.”

Fred let out a groan and turned to Thomas, hopping on the back of his broom. “Fine, but if she starts throwing things, I’m going to throw them back this time.”

“That seems fair,” George conceded.

Just as Thomas and Fred started flying out the back door, George used his wand to summon the apple Fred had been eating into his own hand and magically shut the door behind the two boys, drowning out Fred’s complaint. 

When Angelina folded her arms and turned to her husband, George simply smiled back and took a large bite out of the apple. “You’re just as bad as the kids.”

“It’s bad to argue on a full stomach,” George countered jokingly, reaching down to kiss Angelina on the cheek.

There were more voices coming and soon the kitchen door was being pushed open a second time, this time with Grandmother Molly at the forefront. “I’m just saying, it makes more sense for us to borrow Andromeda's tent. I don’t think we can all fit in ours this year-” the ageing woman paused when she saw Cressida standing there. “Cressida, darling, how are you?” Molly asked, rushing over with open arms and hugging her.

“Um, fine thanks. Sorry for tagging along if you’re short on room.”

“Oh, nonsense,” Molly said waving a hand through the air with a smile. “You’re always welcome.”

“Cressida,” Arthur nodded to her behind Molly. “Any new advancements on that electric car we spoke about?”

“They sent it to space, last I heard,” Cressida answered.

“Space?” Arthur said awestruck. “Merlin, that’s mighty impressive. Whatever will they think to do next, these muggles, eh?”

Molly rolled her eyes. “Arthur, focus.  You  aren’t sending a car into space any time soon.”

“No… no ‘course not, Molly,” Arthur said deep in thought until he suddenly snapped out of it and looked at everyone in the kitchen. “Now then, shall we get some dinner going? Who’s up for cottage pie?”

“Me!” Hugo said, running into the kitchen next, followed by Snuffles.

Rasper’s head popped out of the bag at the familiar scent of the dog, and the kitten quickly started clambering for a way out. Cressida gave him a hand, lowering the cat to the floor to go off and play with the shabby dog.

Albus opened the backdoor unsuspectingly and was nearly run over as Snuffles and Rasper took to darting out of it. Once he had readjusted himself, he looked towards his family. “Are you all aware Wood is currently shoving Fred face-first into the bedroom window?”

“Yes,” they all chorused back.

“Just checking,” Albus said unphased. He nodded toward Cressida. “Cressida.”

“Albie,” Cressida nodded back.

Roxanne came running into the kitchen next. “Teddy and Victoire are back!”

“Oh, Jac’s here as well then,” George said.

“We best go say hello,” Molly said, wiping her hands on her apron from fiddling with the food cooking on the stove. “Arthur, you come along too. I know what you’re like for my roast potatoes and we need them all for dinner, so no picking.”

Arthur made a small frown as he followed his wife and family out of the kitchen. “Yes, dear.”

As Arthur left he sent a longing glance towards the stove. 

George waited until he was the last adult in the room then nudged James with his elbow. “Store Arthur a roastie in a napkin for later, will you? One of the crunchy ones.”

“On it,” James nodded, already taking a napkin from the duck-shaped napkin holder and making his way to the stove.

George finished off his apple and then walked out of the kitchen himself.

Cressida remained by the dining table, watching as James carefully used a fork to skewer a roast potato and store it in a napkin. Cressida’s hand lingered over the watch in her bag once more, wondering whether it was worth the risk to pull it out.

Then she heard the familiar laugh of Teddy approaching along with Jac and she knew she wouldn’t get a quiet moment for the rest of the day.

Chapter 68: Summer 2018: Part 2

Summary:

As promised, it's time for the Quidditch World Cup and the last chapter until Fourth Year is finished. Enjoy :)

Saturday 11th August 2018

 

5 am.

It was 5 am and Jacqueline Redwick was staring in Cressida’s face.

This was not unusual. Numerous times over the last three years, Cressida had been awoken by Jac’s face looking over hers.

What was unusual about this instance, however, was the fact it was joined by four other faces.

James, Thomas, Fred and Molly II.

“Wow, Molly wasn’t kidding. When you’re out, you’re  really  out,” Thomas said.

Cressida forced one eye open purely to glare at them. “You all have five seconds to move back before I start attacking you like a rabid dog.”

“Jac was right about the cranky thing too,” Fred muttered.

Cressida sat up and they all jumped back in fear. All apart from James, who pushed a plate of pancakes under her nose. “Eat up, cranky pants. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

“I hate you,” Cressida said.

James forced a forkful of pancake into her mouth and patted her head. “’Course you do. We’ll be back in fifteen minutes and you better be ready to go or you’re going in your pyjamas.”

“And I doubt the whole wizarding world would appreciate you wandering around in your Little Mermaid shorts,” Thomas chimed in.

“Or maybe they would,” Fred added on teasingly. When she glared at him, he shrugged. “What? They have Flounder on them. That’s adorable.”

“Get out,” Molly said flatly.

“On it,” Thomas agreed, rounding up the other two boys and forcing them towards the door.

“Make sure she eats!” James called, trying to avoid the ushering of Thomas. “She’ll get queasy before lunch if she doesn’t eat-”

Jac shut the door in his face and turned to face Cressida. “You better start on those pancakes.”

Cressida begrudgingly ate another fork full.

Fifteen minutes later on the dot, Cressida was being hoisted out of her temporary bedroom and carted downstairs into the kitchen where, despite Cressida not thinking it was possible, it was more chaotic than normal.

The adults all seemed preoccupied with arguing about several things. Which tents to pack and how to pack them. Who was carrying what. Whether they needed an extra tub full of sandwiches. Whether they’d need seventeen umbrellas or seventeen sun hats. 

While the adults were discussing what to do before actually making it to the event, the kids were left to their own devices for the most part.

The majority of the younger Potter/Weasley children were swapping chocolate frog cards centred around Quidditch stars. Meanwhile, Dominique and Louis were ironing out everyone’s Quidditch jerseys with their wands.

“Cool! I got Aunt Ginny!” Hugo called out excitedly, holding up the card.

“I wanted that one!” Roxanne complained trying to snatch it from him.

“Have one of mine, I’ve got four,” Rose said. “Who wants to trade a Wood for a Krum?”

“Me!” Hugo and Roxanne yelled at the same time.

Teddy morphed himself into Krum and started stomping around the table causing all the cousins to burst out laughing.

Albus rolled his eyes, taking some parchment paper and a quill-pen and walked out into the garden.

Cressida’s eyes followed him out.

“There he goes again. Writing,” James said coming up beside her. 

“You’re not going to go on another Malfoy-induced rant are you?” Cressida asked.

“No,” James sighed, looking away again. “I’ve given up on trying to keep them apart for whatever stupid reason. Let him be friends with the tainted Slytherin.”

Cressida smiled up at him. “He must take after you then.”

James laughed, shoving her sideways. “Shut up-”

They paused when they noticed Lily-Luna had appeared in front of them, wearing a Quidditch jersey three sizes too big for her tiny frame. She was staring up at Cressida, practically shaking like a bottle of pop. 

“Something we can help you with?” James asked pointedly.

“My brother fancies you, you know,” she said to Cressida.

“LILY!” James shrieked.

Lily-Luna kept her eyes on Cressida, a defiant smile plastered on her freckled face. “He said you’re pretty! I heard him!” Lily-Luna continued, jumping out of James’ grasp.

“Just sod off!” James cursed, resorting to throwing his shoe at his younger sister as she ran away with loud giggles.

“Everything’s packed!” Arthur called out, interrupting them. “Let’s start walking to the portkey to head off!”

Everyone in the kitchen started bustling and moving out after Molly and Arthur. Lily-Luna was the first out the door where James couldn't catch her.

“Ignore her,” James said, turning back to Cressida. “She’s just messing around.”

“So you don’t think I’m pretty?” Cressida teased.

James rolled his eyes, steering Cressida through the house by her shoulders. “Now isn’t the time for you to bully me.”

“Think of it as payback for this morning,” Cressida smiled as they walked out the back door along with the rest of the family.

 

*

 

The family had all crowded around something called a portkey and then, similar to apparition, they were teleported to a massive field somewhere in Holyhead that had once been completely empty bar a few odd caravans that got moved on periodically by the police. 

However, for this occasion, the whole field was filled with tents of every size, shape and colour, with witches and wizards wandering around, setting up, partying, or surveying their neighbour's set up if it was undoubtedly more impressive than their own.

In front of each of the tents was a small sign with names scrawled on them in various handwriting. Some plots with a sign still remained empty, and some had people pop into existence in them as the group passed by.

“Do you reckon this is what Glastonbury looks like?” Jac whispered to Cressida as they meandered through the field seemingly aimlessly. “My brother went once. Said it was nothing but tents.”

Cressida’s eyes fell on a plot that had three Pegasus tied to a post outside of the grand-looking tent. A French wizard stepped out drinking a tiny coffee and waved to the group as they walked by. 

“Somehow I doubt Glastonbury has them,” she replied, her eyes firmly fixed on the majestic creatures.

“Depends on how many drugs you take,” Teddy chimed in behind the two girls. 

The family continued walking until, when it felt as though they were about to walk out of the field completely, Arthur abruptly stopped.

“There we are!” He exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips. “I told you I wasn’t lost.”

Molly didn’t look convinced but shrugged the heavy backpack off her shoulders and onto the patch of grass with a groan that showed her age.

There was a wooden sign hammered into the ground that muddy grass labelled ‘WOTTER.’

“Who are the Wotters?” Jac asked.

“Us,” Bill said merrily.

“Dad said Weasley and Potter too quickly together when he signed us up and they must have gotten mixed up,” Ginny whispered to the girls.

"Arthur refused to let Hermione help us get set up," Fleur went on. "Said he didn't want special treatment for our names and such."

“Well, don’t just stand there,” Molly lectured them, interrupting their conversation. “Help us unpack!” Jac and Cressida went to move forward and lift one of the bags until Molly stopped them. “No, no, not you two! You’re our guests, don’t be silly!”

“Why don’t you two go off and see if you can find Wood?” George suggested, using his wand to do all the heavy lifting. “You can’t miss him. He’ll probably be frothing at the mouth by now.”

“Finnigan should be here somewhere by now as well,” Molly II said, passing bits and bobs back and forth between Percy and Albus. 

Beside the two girls, it took both Fred and James to lift one of the backpacks, and even then it looked like the two boys were struggling. “Can we go and find Thomas as well, dad?” James asked.

Harry and Ginny both turned towards them. “Do you promise not to cause trouble while you’re gone?” Harry asked.

James and Fred gave their best innocent smiles. “Go on then,” Ginny grinned. The two boys dropped the bag immediately and the contents spilt out all over the grass.

“Sorry!” The two boys chorused uselessly as they had already started running away.

Arthur leaned down towards Molly II, who was shaking her head at the two boys' hasty departure. “Keep an eye on them, will you?”

Molly II sighed, scooping the contents back into the bag. “Don’t I always?”

Once Hugo and Rose had stepped in to help finish sorting out the spilt bag, the three girls set off into the crowd of tents again.

“How do you know Felix is already here?” Jac asked as they walked.

“He said so in his letter. Gave me exact times and coordinates to his tent plot,” Molly said, pulling out a neatly folded letter and opening it up. When Cressida glanced over her shoulder, she saw it even had an illustration with a giant X on his hand-drawn map.

“So that’s who you were writing to all summer?” She questioned, glancing out at the tents again, trying to compare them to the map.

Molly’s eyes snapped up. “How did you-” she sighed, looking away again. “I’m going to kill James. What did he tell you?”

“Nothing much,” Cressida shrugged, watching two wizards rolling out their own lawn, equipped with a picket fence and a pink flamingo outside of their tent. “Just that you’d been writing to someone a lot this summer.”

“I never got any letters from you this summer, come to think of it,” Jac said.

Cressida gained a smug grin. “Neither did I.”

A group of seven witches and wizards passed the girls, all wearing variations of  Dirndl and Lederhosen, eating sausages they had cooked on a nearby BBQ.

Molly was the only one of them that saw nothing peculiar about the odd groups that kept passing them in this manner. “Yeah, well, Felix was all the way over in Ireland and I had to keep him updated on today, didn’t I?”

Jac laughed, shaking her head at the ginger witch. “You Wotters are all the same. Absolutely useless when it comes to crushes.”

The crowd was incredibly dense in this section and incredibly loud. Bazookas were going off, horns were blaring, and even fireworks were firing in the middle of the morning. A gargle of Scottish men had painted their faces and bare bulbous stomachs in their national colours and was dancing around in a circle. 

The three girls linked arms as they continued venturing through, hoping not to get dragged into the early celebrations.

“Speaking of crushes,” Cressida said. “How’s Weasley? I’ve not seen you talking to him much since being at the Burrow.”

Jac stared at the grass in front of their feet. “I told him not to in front of his family. I don’t want them to get the wrong idea or anything-”

“That you’re going to sneak into their room for a quick canoodle?”

The three girls spun around to see Felix standing there, a cheeky grin on his face, and a green kilt on his bottom half.

“Finnigan!” Cressida smiled, embracing the sandy-haired boy in a hug. “I like the skirt.”

“I got a matching one for you, ready and waiting,” Felix shot back. He looked at the other two girls. “What’s this about you giving Weasley the cold shoulder? Was I close?”

Jac blushed. “I’m staying in their house. We could be getting up to anything, and my mum says I shouldn’t have a sleepover with a boy I’m…  seeing … until I’m-”

“Married or older than eighteen,” Molly finished for her. “We’re all aware of your mother’s viewpoint on boys and their nefarious ways.”

“What’s the deal with the rest of them?” Felix asked then. “Any developments in the girl area for Potter or Wood?”

“Why do you care?” Jac asked curiously.

“Just wondering,” Felix replied. “Don’t want to be left out of the loop and whatnot.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “Fred is still apparently the hottest boy in Hogwarts but is taken. James is…  James  and Thomas’ sexuality is Quidditch, leaving everyone with slim pickings,” she told the group.

Felix grinned, jabbing his thumbs into his chest. “My time to shine!” 

“Oh, are you actually going to talk to a girl outside of our group this year then?” Cressida shot out.

Felix frowned and quickly turned the focus off himself by turning to Jac. “Have you even told your mum about dear Fredrick yet?”

“No,” Jac said glumly. “She’d send me away to a nunnery.”

Felix lanced an arm around Jac and started moving her forward through the crowd. “Have you considered that it’s time you found new parents?”

Molly didn’t move forward, and so neither did Cressida. 

“He barely even acknowledged me,” Molly said, watching Jac and Felix walk ahead. “I’ve been writing to him all summer and I didn’t even get a  hello .”

Cressida glanced sideways at her. “So there’s been no… advancements through the letters then? No hint he might like you back?”

Molly’s shoulders sagged. “Clearly not.”

Cressida thought back to what Felix had revealed at the end of the school year. How he had always been one mark behind Molly on purpose so she still thought she was the smartest. Surely, that was a sign of some kind. Some gesture that meant Felix at least thought about her in some way.

When Cressida went to tell Molly this, however, the ginger witch started walking forward again. “Whatever. I’m over him anyway. A stupid waste of time, having crushes. It’s all hormonal nonsense.”

Cressida sighed, reaching out and grasping Molly’s hand in her own. “I couldn’t agree more. Maybe if Shari sends Jac off to a nunnery, we should go with her. No boy stress that way.”

Molly scoffed. “ Please . You wouldn’t last two days without my cousin’s attention.”

 

*

 

After doing a huge loop of the field, and seeing far more oddities than Cressida could count, the group of four had returned to their Wotter tent plot just after noon to find the crowd had doubled in size.

Seamus and Dean were now sitting outside in camping chairs, drinking beer with George, Harry and Ron.

Arthur was entertaining the younger children with a sock puppet show, seemingly retelling a World Cup event from the past.

The two boys had obviously found Thomas Wood, and as he had been all summer, he hovered nearby on his broom while engaging in conversation. Behind them, Oliver Wood had cornered Angelina, Percy and Bill in a conversation about the upcoming match with great enthusiasm.

Oliver Wood, as it turned out, was also the Head of Magical Games and Sports as well as being a raving Quidditch fanatic, or so Cressida overheard.

“Had to retire playing Quidditch professionally,” Wood had complained to Angelina. “Said it was getting to my head too much.”

“No, they said the Bludgers were hitting your head too much. You always refused to move out of the way of them if it meant you could get a score in,” Percy contradicted.

“And I did score nine out of ten times!” Wood insisted. “Well, anyway, now I do this. Still play Quidditch and coach teams as much as possible when this doesn’t take up my time though.”

Fleur and Molly were spreading out the variety of sandwiches, potato salad, coleslaw and crisps on a pop-up table.

Hermione seemed to be incredibly stressed as she rambled something or other to Ginny to the side of everyone. She had a long list of parchment in her hand, with so many post-its coming off the page, that it was hard to tell what the original purpose of the list had been.

Victoire sat in the long grass nearby, braiding Rose and Dominique’s hair, while Louis stood next to her changing random strands to match the colours of the team they were supporting. Teddy’s hair was already bright blue, but he had painted a giant white X across his face, for extra reassurance that they were in support of Scotland.

Lily-Luna had seemingly taken a similar approach to Thomas and was now zooming around on a broom, under the watchful eye of Molly in case she flew too far away.

Albus sat even further away from everyone, staring out at the field of tents with his knees hugged to his chest, looking deep in thought. Cressida noticed he had a letter scrunched tightly in his left hand, and the writing was too refined to belong to him. 

Just when Cressida debated coming up with an excuse to go over to the smaller Potter, her attention was stolen by something else.

“Cressida, Jac!” Victoire shouted. “Want your hair done ready for tomorrow?”

“I do!” Jac said excitedly, running off and joining the girl’s in the grass waiting to be braided.

“Are you going to risk having it done?” Cressida asked Molly.

“Not sodding likely,” Molly replied. “If I let Louis turn my hair blue, I doubt he’d return it to normal before starting Hogwarts. He always held a grudge I didn’t go to Beauxbatons with them. Said I would have been better off going there.”

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t listen to him,” Felix said offhandedly. Molly turned her blue eyes on him. “We wouldn’t want you to be some stuffed-up French prissy, now would we?”

Molly looked away again, disappointed. “Yes. Well. I’m going to help Aunt Hermione. She looks like she needs some tea.”

With that, Molly walked off.

Cressida turned to Felix and swatted his arm. “ Ow . What was that for?” He complained, rubbing his new sore spot.

“Trust me when I say you deserve it.”

Felix’s brows narrowed. “You girls are fucking mental sometimes, has anyone ever told you that?”

“Finnigan!” They both turned to see Fred and Thomas beckoning him over. “Come and make your bet on tomorrow!”

“What bet’s that?” Felix asked, walking toward them with Cressida in toe.

“Who’s going to win,” Thomas said. 

“Germany or Scotland,” Fred elaborated. “Bet is five sickles, you have to guess the closest to the final score. Winner gets all.”

“It’s obviously going to be Scotland,” James said confidently, lounging back in the grass.

“And you’re sure of that, are you?” Felix asked curiously.

“’Course I am. It’s the team we’re supporting, isn’t it?” James said smugly. “Plus, Germany have been getting through by the hem of their jerseys. Up against Scotland- who are ruthlessly competitive, not to mention double to size of the German players- they don’t stand a chance.”

“What did you bet?” Cressida asked.

“180-150, Scotland lead,” James answered.

“Aright then,” Cressida said. “I bet the opposite. Germany will win 180-150.”

James glared at her, but a smile crept onto his lips despite it as Fred noted it down on a piece of parchment. 

“Your five sickles payment, please,” Thomas said cheerily, holding out a tin that already had a fair amount of change in it.

“It’s in my bag,” Cressida said, turning and heading into the tent.

When she stepped inside, she expected it to be a small bog-standard tent as it appeared on the outside, but she soon discovered the inside resembled something as large as her flat back in Conwell, equipped with a kitchenette, a living area, and four separate bedrooms.

It was empty, which in itself was a shock. It was incredibly cosy inside the tent. There was even a fireplace burning logs in the corner.

“You did that on purpose,” James’ voice came as he stepped into the tent behind her.

“It’s like the sodding Tardis in here,” she said, spinning around to face him and ignoring his comment.

“What’s that?”

“Bigger on the inside.” 

“Right,” James said, slightly confused. “Well, anyway, you won’t be so smug tomorrow when I’m waving your five sickles in your face after I win.”

Cressida rolled her eyes, searching around for where her bag had been placed. “I don’t care about winning the bet. I just wanted to contradict you.”

“Why?” James asked following behind her.

“Funny, innit.”

James had no counterargument and instead started searching for her bag alongside her. He found it first, pulling it out from under a coffee table and holding it out at arm's length for her.

Cressida took it and rummaged around for some loose change in the bottom of her bag when her hands fell on the familiar box. They were alone again, she suddenly realised.

She glanced up at James, who was entertaining himself by pushing a hanging lantern with the tip of his finger. 

“James,” she said, getting his attention. He turned his green eyes on her instantly. She had to look away as she pulled the box out and held it toward him. “Here. It’s for your birthday or whatever.”

James tentatively reached out and took the box, opening it carefully and staring down at it in silence.

“Well,” Cressida prompted him, feeling like the silence was killing her. “If you don’t want it, I can just flog it to someone else or-”

His eyes turned to her again. “What did this cost you?”

Cressida’s stomach flipped in embarrassment. “Nothing much-”

“Knightly.”

She forced her grey eyes to meet his. “Just some pocket money… I'd been saving up anyway.”

James sighed, looking down as he got the watch out of its box and held it in his hand. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“You shouldn’t have knitted me a stupid jumper and made Hippogriffs fly around me, yet here we are,” she shot back.

He looked back at her again, his smile returned even though he was still trying to hide it. “Thank you. I love it… or whatever.”

Cressida matched his smile as he stepped forward and pulled her in for a hug. Her head was at his chest height now and his hug completely encased her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and allowed the hug to last longer than she probably should have.

This wasn’t like a hug she would get from Molly or Jac or even Felix. This one lingered.

It was so quiet in the tent she could hear his heart beating against her cheek, and it was beating fast.

“Potter,” Cressida said then, still not moving out of the hug.

“Yeah?” 

“Can I borrow five sickles? I’ve only got knuts on me.”

James laughed then, and it forced her to as well as it thumped against her head.

“I’ll cover you this time,” James said, finally stepping out of the hug. Cressida felt slightly colder now he wasn’t as close, not that she’d ever voice that, or even start to untangle what it meant. “But you owe me a Butterbeer at the tournament tomorrow.”

“Deal,” Cressida agreed, forcing her brain to focus on much more appropriate things than James hugging her.

 

 

Sunday 12th August 2018

 

The previous night had only been the lead-up to the main event of the tournament.

After Molly had insisted they all eat their weight in sandwiches, they headed back out into the sea of tents to find entertainment for the rest of the evening.

One tent, obviously larger than all the others, contained a travelling circus and so that took up two hours, and Cressida had to admit the wizarding circus was far cooler than the muggle equivalent. So much so, that she and Felix made a pact that if they couldn’t figure out what they wanted to do with their futures, they would run off and join the wizarding circus together. 

One strip of tents had been set up as a bunch of stalls, selling assorted foods, mainly of the German and Scottish variety. Despite having filled up on sandwiches, they all managed to find just enough room to try some bratwurst. It wasn’t a hotdog, but Cressida was pleased with it all the same. Thomas and Teddy had even dared to try some haggis, which led to them promptly excusing themselves to spit it out behind a nearby bush.

After all that, as well as stopping to chat with numerous wizarding families, and one family who was camping out in a van that took Arthur’s attention for over half an hour until Molly dragged him away, they had eventually returned to their tents late into the evening, and once they had all been provided with a hot chocolate, they were carted off to their sleeping bags ready for the big day.

Cressida’s eyes had not closed for more than five seconds before Teddy burst into the compartment the girls were sleeping in, mimicking a very loud and annoying cockerel.

Dominique had gotten her wand and aimed it at him without a second thought, and Teddy darted back out of the room with a joyous laugh, continuing on to the next compartment and repeating the same process.

“I hate that he’s such a morning person,” Rose said, sitting up in her sleeping bag.

“Try dealing with him  every  morning,” Victoire grumbled from deep within hers.

Dominique got up, looking nothing less than perfect even with bed head. “Who wants coffee?”

“Me!” Roxanne and Lily-Luna both shouted.

Dominique laughed, stepping over the numerous bodies still stirring awake. “Nice try. The last thing you two need is caffeine.”

Cressida rolled over to find Jac cracking an eye open begrudgingly. “They’re going to be hell today,” she grumbled.

“Yep,” Cressida agreed.

Jac heaved a sigh, forcing herself to sit up. “How long do you reckon we have before-”

The compartment was pulled open again, and two heads popped in.

“Rise and shine, girls!” James bellowed, which was met by various pillows and shoes thrown at him by his cousins.

“Here,” Fred said, throwing two objects into Jac and Cressida’s vicinity. “These are for you two. Our treat.”

With that, and a hefty shooing from Molly II, the two boys disappeared again.

“What did they give you?” Rose asked, crawling her way over to them.

Cressida held up the object to find it was a Quidditch jersey, but not the ones they wore at Hogwarts, Cressida realised. It read ‘POTTER 07’.

Similarly, Jac’s read ‘WEASLEY 13’.

“See!” Lily-Luna said loudly, nudging Roxanne towards the jerseys. “Told you they fancied them!”

“Hey,” Roxanne said suddenly. “That’s  my  jersey!”

“No it’s not,” Victoire said. “Yours has that paint stain on the back and is shorter.”

“Nah-uh,” Roxanne insisted. “Mum got me a bigger one for Christmas-”

“Here’s yours,” Molly II said, throwing up a wadded jersey over to her. “Now get changed before the boys poke their heads back in.”

Jac and Cressida looked at one another as all the other girls around them shuffled to start getting ready.

“Are we seriously going to wear these in public?” Cressida asked.

Jac smiled, starting to get changed as well. “I think it’s cute.”

Cressida sighed, staring down at the embellished letters in her hands. Felix was going to have a field day with this.

 

*

 

After half an hour, and a massive fight over a bathroom schedule, all of the Wotters had been rounded up ready to head down to the actual main event.

Cressida lingered at the back of the family line as much as possible, hoping no one would draw attention to her wearing James’ jersey, but it didn’t escape her notice that Ginny had already caught a glimpse of it and hadn’t stopped smiling in her direction since.

Cressida folded her arms over her chest subconsciously as she moved forward to join James and Fred in the line while Jac was getting her blue braids touched up by Victoire last minute.

“Your mum thinks we’re dating,” she told him as they started moving forward, following Arthur’s lead.

“Our whole family thinks you’re dating,” Fred contradicted which was met with a hefty shove by James.

“Well, tell them we’re not,” Cressida insisted. “I don’t want them to assume things.”

Fred’s brow narrowed. “You’ve been chatting to Redwick, haven’t you-?”

“I keep  telling  them we’re not dating,” James spoke over him as they walked. Cressida’s eyes trailed down to his wrist. He was wearing the watch, and it looked even shinier than when she had given it to him. “You’re just my friend, right?”

“Right,” Cressida agreed, looking forward again. “Just as long as we’re on the same page.”

James nodded conclusively and the three walked in silence for a bit. Fred kept glancing between the two of them, an amused smile on his face.

“Really convincing, you two,” Fred said after a moment. “Keep this up at Hogwarts and no one will suspect a thing-”

Cressida rolled her eyes and stormed away from them completely. Up ahead, she fell in line with Molly II.

“Your cousins are being idiots,” Cressida said by way of greeting.

“You say that as if it’s a surprise,” Molly replied.

The two girls walked side by side along a dirt path through a forest bordering the field they were staying in following their family, who were following the family in front of them, and they were following the family in front of them, causing one long line of every witch and wizard who had turned up to the event to meander through the woods like ants heading for their hill until, after about twenty minutes and a small detour where whoever was leading the line went astray momentarily, they broke out into a second field.

This field wasn’t filled with tents and stalls like the first one, however. This one was filled with a massive arena doused in greens and golds and blues. It was bigger than any football stadium Cressida had ever seen. How the Muggles didn’t know this was here was anyone’s guess. The noise emitting from it alone was enough to be heard two counties over.

“Jesus,” Cressida muttered, seeing them for the first time the true extremity of the event. “How many people are here?”

“It’s not called the  World Cup  for no reason,” Teddy laughed, coming up beside the two girls. “People from all over come to this thing. That’s why Hermione is pulling her hair out.”

“It’s not an easy thing to keep under wraps from the Muggles, you see,” Victoire said, linked onto Teddy’s arm. “Tons of really complicated spells and some slight bribing from whatever Muggles are in the know about us, sort of thing.”

“Right,” Cressida nodded, still slightly in awe of the whole affair.

They came closer to the arena and they spotted what appeared to be the wizarding version of security looming, using their wands to check people’s clothing and bags at random. Ginny pointed them out as they kept moving.

“Looks like they’ve upped the security again,” she said to her dad.

Arthur gained a grave expression. “Yes, well. The less said about the reasons why the better. Luckily, nothing bad has happened since that event.”

“Because there’s none of them left,” Bill chimed in.

“And we’re thankful for it,” Molly said conclusively. She rummaged around in her bag. “Now, who what’s a drink or a sherbet lemon before we head in?”

Hugo, Roxanne and Rose took her up on the offer.

Moments later, and after some strange looks from some of the security as the family passed by who Cressida heard whisper 'Is that Harry Potter?', they entered the stadium where over a hundred thousand witches and wizards of all shapes, sizes and nationalities were taking their seats in the stands, which themselves rose up higher than three houses in separate levels surrounding the oblong field.

Everything was shrouded in bright lights and flashing cannons sending advertisements up into the air around them changing languages every ten seconds to accommodate everyone.

‘BUTTER THEM UP. GET THEM A BUTTERBEER.’

‘PUMMLIN’S PUNKPIN PASTIES. THE BEST AROUND.’

‘FRANKIE’S FRANKFURTERS. SUPPORTING GERMANY SINCE 1979’

‘TIME TO GET FRISKY. DRINK SCOTTISH FIRE WHISKEY.’

As the family rose up through the levels, Cressida could get a better look at the field itself, and it put the Hogwarts pitch to shame. At either end of the field stood three goal hoops, fifty feet high, and opposite them was a large blackboard with periodic writing supporting each of the teams and giving the rundown of the scores so far this season.

James had been right. Germany had only made it to the final by the hem of their jerseys, based on their previous game scores.

The people who had been running the stalls the previous night had now taken to wandering around with their stalls strapped to the front of them, selling odd ends, programmes and souvenirs.

“Four omnioculars please,” Molly II had asked, pausing briefly to complete the transaction with a glad sales wizard.

“What are they for?” Jac asked, looking at the odd dials and buttons that encased the object.

“Binoculars that you can slow down and re-watch the game on,” Molly explained handing a pair each to Jac and Cressida. “You’ll miss half of what happens otherwise.”

“Not if you pay attention you won’t,” Fred said cockily behind the three girls.

“We’ll watch it in real-time as true Quidditch fans should!” James said, puffing out his chest. Just then, a top hat James had bought from a different stall had just popped a dancing bratwurst out the top, undermining his statement massively.

The party kept climbing, and climbing, and climbing until they had broken out onto the top box overlooking the stadium below them.

“You’re not scared of heights are you?” Teddy teased, shaking Cressida by the shoulders making her lose her balance slightly.

“Don’t be daft,” Cressida scoffed, waving him off, but even she had to admit, this was a bit higher than her comfort zone.

The group all came to a standstill abruptly and Cressida peered around Teddy to find the cause.

Up ahead, she saw Arthur and Harry had stopped to talk to a man who wore a dignified all-black suit with pure white hair.

“Malfoy,” James muttered.

“Should’ve known he’d be lurking up here as well,” Fred said.

Cressida turned her attention back to the adults talking. Draco was saying something to Harry, a small sneer on his face.

Harry had seemingly replied with something witty, as Arthur offered up an awkward chuckle, trying to move the party along.

They started moving again. As they passed, Cressida saw Scorpius standing beside his father as he found their seats. His eyes stared back at the group, searching.

Turning around, Cressida sought out Albus. The young Potter boy had slowed down considerably, the letter from the day before tightly grasped in his hand. 

The two boys were now staring at each other.

“Albus, you’re holding us up!” Roxanne had said, nudging him to keep moving.

Albus snapped out of his staring and moved forward again, his head bowed low.

Scorpius had stopped looking now too, following behind his father.

Cressida’s eyes scanned the people sitting with the Malfoy’s. A man had made a comment to Draco as they took their seats, a cheeky grin she vaguely remembered seeing somewhere before. Her eyes trailed further along the row of seats and beside the man who had spoken to Draco, she could make out the tip of an open book in someone’s lap.

Draco had turned and said something, gaining the attention of the people who sat with them. The person with the book sat forward to listen. 

Thane Nott.

Beside him sat Valentina Zabini.

His eyes caught Cressida and his smile mirrored his dad’s.

She hurried along with the rest of the group, averting her eyes.

Finally, they reached their seats at the very top to find Thomas, Oliver, Felix, Dean and Seamus already sitting and waiting. This was the first time Thomas wasn’t sat on a broom, and he had a Scottish flag draped over him like a cape.

“You took your time getting here!” Felix said, scooting over to sit with the three girls instead of his family. “Are you wearing their jerseys for fuck’s sake?” He laughed, turning both girls around by their shoulders for a better look.

“We wanted to fit in,” Jac said, shoving him off and pulling Cressida down into the seats with her.

“We got caught up in the crowd,” Molly II said, passing Felix something as she took her seat as well. “Here.”

“Omnioculars. Nice.” Felix grinned, holding them up to his eyes.

“Take your seats, everyone!” Molly and Arthur called out. “It’s about to start!”

“Who’s commentating this year?” George leant over and asked Oliver.

Oliver gained a mad grin, his eyes not moving from the pitch below. “You’ll see.”

“AND WELCOME TO THE 2018 WIZARDING QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP!”

A series of loud cheers, celebrations and fireworks went off.

“Is that Lee Jordan?!” Ginny asked, amused.

“The one and only. Best commentator Hogwarts ever had,” Oliver grinned. “He was on holiday in Haiti. I demanded he come and do the games. Wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

"I bet his wife was thrilled when you showed up then," George teased.

The blackboard showing the game scores were wiped clean and now read SCOTLAND: ZERO. GERMANY: ZERO.

“Before we can get on with the ever-anticipated game, allow me to introduce… the German team’s mascots!” Lee bellowed over the stadium.

Cressida used her omnioculars to peer down and watch as over fifty Hippogriffs came out onto the pitch, all wearing red, black and yellow plumes on their heads. On their backs stood people doing acrobatics, even as the beasts started flying up into the air, doing a very good impression of what Cressida imagined synchronised swimming would look like, but with horses.

“And the Scottish mascots!”

Cressida imagined something big and burly about to strut its way onto the pitch any second and start making a loud ruckus, what happened instead was a long line of unicorns tentatively trotting their way into the middle of the pitch, bringing an odd sense of calm as they all lined up to do their part.

“Unicorns?” Jac questioned, equally as confused as Cressida based on the look on her face.

“Scotland’s national animal,” Thomas said, leaning towards them. 

“Surprising, isn’t it?” Fred grinned, watching the unicorns be paraded around below them.

After the mascots had been shown and taken away again, Cressida’s eyes trailed down a few rows in front. 

Thane’s book was still open in his lap, but his neck was craned slightly so he could glance over his shoulder and catch Cressida looking, even as Lee Jordan went about introducing the German players one by one with great showmanship.

“Who are you staring at?” James asked, bumping her shoulder to try and get in her eyeline.

“Malfoy,” Cressida lied, trying to focus as the Scottish team were introduced. “Wondered if Scorpius is okay.”

“Oh,” James said, settling back in his seat. “I’m sure he’s fine.” He glanced down the row of seats towards his brother. He was sat staring at his hands in his lap. “Reckon they wanted to talk to each other or something?”

“Probably,” Cressida replied. “It must suck… not being able to even say hi to one another.”

There was a sharp whistle blown from on the middle of the pitch, the man who blew it was the size of an ant without the help of the omnioculars, and the balls were released into play.

“And they’re off!” Lee Jordan yelled, watching as blurs of black and blue shot off around the stadium.

 

*

 

The World Cup ate Hogwarts Quidditch up and spat it back out again. Cressida had never seen anything like it, and better yet, her bet to snub James had paid off.

Germany had won 180-170. 

It hadn’t been exact, but considering no one else had even bet on Germany winning, Cressida hit the jackpot.

“Your winnings, Knightly,” Fred had said bowing dramatically as he extended the prize pot towards her once they were back at their tent.

“Thank you kindly,” she laughed, taking it. She fished out five sickles and threw them to James. “Fair’s fair.”

“You got lucky,” James had replied, pocketing the coin with a grin.

“Hey, Knightly! Fancy buying some of that fine Scottish fire whiskey they’re carting around?” Felix hinted.

“Yeah,” she said sarcastically. “Let me just make myself look eighteen and I’ll get right on that.”

“I’ll get it for you,” Teddy offered. “For a handler’s fee, of course.”

Cressida passed him the tin. “Buy whatever you want. My treat.”

Felix rushed over and pulled Cressida forward to plant a firm kiss on the top of her head and then nuggie her hair. “Knightly, you are a Godsend!”

She shoved Felix away, trying to smooth her knotted hair back down. 

“None for me,” Thomas paled at the mere thought. “Not after last time.”

“Hold your nose and you’ll be fine,” James said, lacing an arm around the smaller boy. “Trust me.”

“Trusting you is what got me into that mess in the first place,” Thomas pointed out. “ Just drink as much as you want, Woody. We’re seeing what our limit is for next time, Tommo. Everything will be fiiiiine ,” he went on in a dramatic impression of James.

“And now you know your limit,” Fred smiled. “You’re welcome.”

The others quickly engaged in conversation about what Teddy could potentially bring back and how, exactly, they were going to keep it a secret from the adults surrounding them.

Cressida didn’t care what was brought back, or whether it remained a secret, she just wanted her friends to have a good time, but there was one friend in particular who was not having a good time.

Cressida snuck away and poked her head into the abandoned tent. It was empty all apart from Albus, who sat curled up in front of the fireplace. “How’s it going?”

Albus sniffed, not turning to face her as Cressida sat beside him. “He wrote me a letter… said we could sneak off and hang out after the game was finished.”

Cressida’s eyes fell on the letter currently burning in the fire in front of them. “So why don’t you?”

“Fed up of sneaking around,” Albus said bluntly. “He’s my best friend for Merlin’s sake. I should be able to parade him around like James does with you.”

Cressida thought for a moment. “So why don’t you?” Albus had that signature look on his face like Cressida had said something ludicrous. “Next summer invite Scorpius over with the rest of us. Don’t tell your family which friend you’re inviting, just bring him. See how they react.”

“I couldn’t do that,” Albus said glumly. “I don’t want to put him in that situation-”

“Albie, your family are the most welcoming people I’ve ever met. By the looks of it, their issue is with Scorpius’ dad. Not him,” Cressida said. “Just try your luck. Anything’s got to be better than sitting here burning his letters.”

Albus sighed, staring at the flames.

“Sometimes I wish you were around all the time,” he admitted quietly. “You always make everything seem so much simpler. You’d be a good older sister.”

Cressida tried not to show her smile too obviously, or how much the sentiment had touched her. “Thanks.”

The two of them watched the last of the letter burn into embers silently.

“Knightly!” Teddy boomed, bursting into the tent, followed by an onslaught of teenagers. Albus quickly rose to his feet and slinked off into one of the adjoining rooms.

“Your crown, m’lady!” James laughed, pulling a matching Bratwurst hat onto her head. “Courtesy of your winnings.”

Chapter 69: Fourth Year: Renegades Arrival

Notes:

Merry Christmas everyone!

Saturday 1st September 2018

 

Cressida had returned home from the World Cup and the rest of her summer continued as normal. It was almost hard to believe only three weeks ago she had been watching unicorns prance around a stadium when she was forced to watch a bunch of drunk teenagers arguing with each other over who drank the last can of dark fruits at a party.

She’d only managed to carry out two more deals for Dayle before the summer was up. One was on the street with Albie and one, unfortunately for Cressida, was at another party. This time, however, she refused to touch an ounce of alcohol and instead discovered she was very good at pretending to be drunk when the moment called for it.

She hadn’t made even a quarter of what she’d spent on the watch for James back, but she didn’t mind that. What little cash she had made back, she stashed safely under her mattress to add to when she came home for Christmas.

However, when she had lifted the mattress to hide her profit, the photo of her dad flew out from under it. She hadn’t thought once about it all summer if she was honest. She hardly thought it was necessary when she had Dayle around.

She held the photo of her dad in her hands for a while, getting one last good look and then, making sure her mum was in the kitchen with Dayle cooking breakfast, she stuck the photo back under her pillow. She didn't need to take it back to Hogwarts with her this time. There was no use staring at a picture of a ghost she didn't know.

Maybe she would never know about him.

Maybe she didn’t want to anymore.

Not when she had Dayle around to fill his place.

After that, she walked back out into the flat. Her trunk lay by the front door, waiting to be hulled down and into the back of Dayle’s car to head to King’s Cross Station.

From the kitchen, she could faintly hear Dayle and Alice singing badly along to  Chasing Cars  by the  Snow Patrol .

She watched them for a moment. She thought she’d never get used to Alice looking like this. She looked younger again, the lines around her eyes didn’t seem as deep.

“Rather depressing for a sing-along, isn’t it?” Cressida asked, interrupting them.

“It’s my favourite song,” Alice replied, her arms lazily wrapped around Dayle as he did the dishes.

Dayle turned with a piece of toast hanging in his mouth. “ ’Ere, take these,” he said throwing her the keys. “Load up the car. We’ll leave in ten.”

Cressida caught them in one hand and left the kitchen to follow her orders.

Out in the stairwell, she saw Mrs Powell’s door wide open, various cardboard boxes piled up around it. As she stood there, two moving men were carrying up an ugly yellow armchair together.

“Excuse us, love,” one of them said.

Cressida flattened herself against the wall to let them pass, watching in confusion as they put the chair into the flat. Peering closer, Cressida saw it was completely emptied out.

She turned, grabbed her trunk with one hand, and descended the stairs before the movers came up with any more.

Once she broke out of the flats, she saw the moving van parked outside. Rasper poked his head out of the top of the hobo bag in curiosity.

“You must be my new neighbour.”

Cressida spun around and found a someone just over her age lounging across the water-logged sofa with a backpack at his feet. A skinny and scrawny boy, with a big puffy coat and a shaved head. He also had a cut in his eyebrow that she couldn't tell if it was a put there on purpose or not.

“Who are you?” She asked.

“It’s Kirk,” he answered simply. He spoke with a slight lisp.

“What happened to the Powells?”

Kirk shrugged. “Didn’t know ‘em personally. The man who lived here did a house swap with my mum. Wanted it done as soon as possible by all accounts and here I am.”

“But he had a family,” Cressida said, narrowing her eyebrows. Callie and her brothers had left less than forty-eight hours ago. She had watched them drive off from the living room window. “What happens when they come back from Bristol?”

“I don’t think that constitutes as my problem,” Kirk said carelessly.

“Constitutes?” Cressida repeated. “That’s a big word for someone from around here.”

“From Merthyr.”

“That’s unlucky.”

“Is a bit, in-nit,” Kirk laughed. “So… you got a name?”

“Cressida,” she said. “Knightly.”

“Odd name.”

“And Kirk is so traditional,” she shot back.

“Toushay,” he smiled. Cressida thought there was something familiar about his demeanour and easy grin. “So, Cressida Knightly, fancy giving me the grand tour of this shit-tip considering we’re going to be neighbourly and such?”

Alice and Dayle had left the flat block heading towards the car. They didn’t stop to interrupt Cressida’s conversation, although, Alice did give an inquisitive look as she passed.

“Can’t,” she said, turning her attention back to Kirk. “I’m leaving.”

“And here I was thinking I’d made a friend,” he joked. "Shame."

Cressida didn’t want to smile, but she did. “You remind me of someone from my boarding school,” she admitted.

Kirk smirked spreading his arms out across the back of the sofa. “Why’s that?”

“He’s a prick too,” Cressida answered turning her back on him.

Kirk sat up promptly as she started walking away. “When you coming back?” 

Cressida didn’t give him an answer, only smiled over her shoulder as she got in the back seat of Dayle’s car to head to King’s Cross Station.

 

*

 

They’d driven all the way to London, and the whole time Cressida watched her mum and Dayle laughing and singing along to the radio and sending each other glances when they thought the other wasn’t looking.

Love, she realised as she watched them.

They were in love.

She had seen it in Teddy and Victoire. She had seen it in Ginny and Harry. She had seen it in Arthur and Molly. The Burrow was practically shrouded in the stuff, and now her mum had it too.

Her mother was in love, and it was amazing.

Cressida was made to say her goodbyes to Dayle by the car as he couldn’t walk into the station with them. She wanted him too though. She wanted him to know about it all- the wizards, the magic, her friends. It felt natural for him to know, but Alice refused.

“S’alright, Cress,” Dayle had comforted her. “I’ll write to you, yeah? It’ll be like you never left.”

Cressida had accepted that was as much as she was going to get and left him at the car willingly. At least she could look forward to getting regular letters now. Her mum had never been good at keeping in touch while she was gone.

“Don’t see why he couldn’t at least come inside the station with us,” Cressida complained as she and her mother made their way through the busy crowd heading for the platform

“He won’t understand, Cress,” Alice whispered, cautious of the crowd. “He- he just won’t. He’s normal. It’ll scare him off- ”

Cressida frowned. “He likes us. Finding out I’m a witch wouldn't change his opinion of me-”

“Yes, it will,” her mother said urgently. “We can’t… I can’t risk it. He can’t leave.”

“What? Are you going to hold him hostage?”

“Now isn’t the time for jokes,” Alice said. “I  like  him, Cress. I really do. He’s good to me and he’s amazing with you and he’d never put us in danger.” Alice froze. The sign for platform 9 3/4 came into view through the hustle and bustle of the station. “We can’t screw this up, Cress,” she whispered, her eyes dazed over. “He can’t leave.”

Cressida stared up at her, a small twinge of hurt in her chest. A slight bitterness at the thought of Alice not thinking Dayle would still accept her even if she was a witch. “You think he’d leave if he knew the truth about me?”

Alice didn’t answer.

Cressida gulped, her face hardening. “Is that why my real dad left?” 

Alice blinked. She didn’t look back. She didn’t answer. 

Cressida took a shaky breath in, refusing to let it look like that simple silence in retaliation to her question had affected her. She started pushing her trolley forward.

“Do you want me to come through with you?” Alice called weakly, unmoving.

“I’ve got it from here,” Cressida replied, gearing up to run through alone for the first time.

“Cress!” 

She paused, turning around.

“I love you,” Alice said.

A beat of silence.

“I love you too.”

Cressida ran through the barrier alone.

Once she hit the other side she felt the familiar buzz of the magic surrounding the world she was estranged from for the summer. Magic always had a way of making her feel better. More put together.

Rasper’s head poked out the top of the hobo bag and gave a scratchy meow. Cressida followed the kitten’s eye line and saw Jac thundering towards her behind a trolley. She practically jumped on Cressida as soon as she was close enough and engulfed her in a hug.

Shari followed behind, poised and pristine as always, watching the affectionate interaction with measured calmness.

Once the two girls broke apart, Shari stepped forward. “Cressida. I trust your summer was well?”

“Yes, thank you,” Cressida replied.

Shari glanced around. “And your mother? Is she here?”

Cressida sent a glance to Jac. The other girls looked back expectantly. “Um, she’s on the other side. I convinced her I could get on the train fine on my own.”

Jac looked back at Shari. “Can I get on by myself, mum?”

Shari’s dark eyes moved from Cressida to Jac. “You are fourteen now, Jacqueline-” Jac huffed, already sensing the disappointment before her mother finished her sentence. Shari noticed this and sent one last glance to Cressida, as though somehow, this was her fault. “I will allow it.” Jac raised her brow in shock. “But if I hear of any funny business or hear you are not the first one and off that train, I will drag you back to Bristol by the earlobe, do you understand me?”

Jac nodded her head. “Yes, mum.”

Shari stood straight backed. “Well then, let’s not skip out on the formalities before I leave you.”

Jac and Shari stepped forward into a very quick and brief hug before returning to their stances facing each other, and then with a final nod goodbye, Shari left the two girls alone.

“Your mum still hates me then?” Cressida asked once Shari was out of ear range.

“She just hasn’t had the chance to know you.”

“Then she’d  really  hate me,” Cressida said, trying to poke fun but the underlying truth in it was very apparent. Cressida Knightly was not the type of girl mothers loved. It appeared as though sometimes even her own mother struggled, deep down.

“Come on,” Jac said, cheering up. “Our lot will be coming through soon. We can go wait for them.”

Cressida nodded, following Jac’s lead as she headed over to a pillar and leaned against it.

Ten minutes later, Jac and Cressida heard the tell-tale signs of the yearly loud arrival of the Potter/Weasley clan, but when they ran through the barrier in a long line, the girl’s faces dropped.

“Fred had a growth spurt!” Jac gasped as Fred towered over all the rest of his cousins far more noticeably since the last time they saw him in the summer.

James spotted the girls and sent a wink in their direction. “Morning, ladies!”

Cressida turned away to avoid looking at him. “His voice got lower.”

“How?” Jac asked, ducking her head low to Cressida’s. “We saw them just under a month ago, why are they suddenly…  different ?”

Cressida shrugged, struggling not to notice the differences for herself.

They all seemed to be at that annoying age where their bodies were uncomfortably starting to change and the beginnings of acne started to appear on their prepubescent faces. She hadn’t noticed it as much on herself back in Conwell, but now surrounded by a sea of growing teenagers, the signs were unmistakable.

Annoyingly, only Fred Weasley II seemed immune to this humiliating part of life as he was still tall without being lanky and his face remained covered in delicate brown freckles rather than the red spots everyone else was brandishing.

Cressida took slight joy that for once, even James Sirius Potter was struggling with this problem along with the rest of those returning for a fourth year. She felt like this would have been a touchy subject between the trio of Gryffindors over the last month as both James and Thomas occasionally glanced at Fred’s unblemished face with jealousy.

However, she knew she wasn’t free of the curse of oncoming teenhood herself as she had a rather unpleasant and very visible blemish on the tip of her nose and her hips were significantly wider than she remembered them being previously. She just hoped nobody noticed her  changes. She’d taken extra care to try and hide them while getting ready that morning.

One small mercy though, at least her uniform finally looked like it fit her this year.

Cressida turned her focus back to the boys. Fred’s trolley occupied Barnabas the owl this time, as James’ trolley was mainly occupied by a large covered object.

“What do we suppose that is?” Jac asked, noticing it as well.

“I dread to think,” Cressida replied, but her mind was already whizzing with what could possibly be hiding under the cloth. She doubted it was on Hogwarts’ list of acceptable items.

Molly came through at the back of the line, her nose already in a book. She glanced up briefly to see where her friends were, and then with a quick goodbye to her father, she came over to them.

Her eyes did not go back to the book, which was an advanced potions textbook, but instead lingered on Cressida. “Has everyone hit puberty in the last week apart from me?!”

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other and then back to Molly. Behind her, Felix came running through the barrier with Seamus.

“Nope. Felix looks exactly the same,” Jac smiled.

Molly glanced over her shoulder as Felix started coming over to them. “Brilliant,” she said sarcastically, averting her eyes again. “I’m going to find Margo. Let her get France out of her system before you three do something to piss her off.”

With that, Molly went back to her book and strolled off just as Felix joined them. He watched Molly leave with a frown. “You two wouldn’t know if I’ve done anything to annoy Girl-Weasley, would you?”

“Calling her Girl-Weasley is probably a bad start,” Cressida pointed out.

“Also, you didn’t hit puberty,” Jac added. 

Felix nodded distantly. “Makes perfect sense.” He looked at Jac curiously. “No over-bearing mother this year?”

“Nope,” Jac said as the three of them started making their way through the platform. “Cressida worked her delinquent magic and my mother let me join her.”

The train whistle blew and everyone started saying their final goodbyes and loading onto the carriages.

Molly poked her head out a window as the group passed below. “You three. In here.”

“What? No welcoming hello this year?” Felix asked lightly.

Molly gave no other comment before disappearing back into the carriage and shutting the window firmly.

Felix looked confused again. “Seriously.  What  did I do? Normally, I know when I’ve been an idiot.”

Jac and Cressida looked at each other again.

“Uh-oh,” Fred grinned as he, Thomas and James came up to them on the platform. “The wonder-twins are doing their psychic look. Who’s in trouble?”

“Is it Finnigan?” Thomas asked, munching on a pumpkin pasty. “It’s normally Finnigan.”

“It’s not me,” Felix said surely.

“It’s you,” Cressida and Jac said in unison.

“ What did I do?! ” Felix asked desperately.

“You look like you’ve been busy over the summer since we left,” Cressida said, gesturing to the covered object and moving on from the Felix/Molly fiasco. 

“We have indeed,” Fred boasted, puffing his chest out proudly.

“Go on then,” Jac said. “Fill us in.”

“Well, for starters, we’re calling ourselves the Renegades now!” Thomas told them excitedly.

“Our title is yet to be determined,” James corrected him. He didn’t seem as enthralled to boast about their summer activities just yet. He kept his attention mostly on keeping the cloth covering every inch of the object.

Fred rolled his eyes and lowered his head toward them. “James is worried if we name ourselves we’ll become jinxed.” 

“Jinxed?” Jac questioned.

“The Marauders gave themselves a name and all died tragically,” Thomas explained. “James thinks if we do that, we’re setting ourselves up for the same fate.”

“I’m not risking it!” James insisted. “We can copy the Marauders in antics and tomfoolery without naming ourselves.”

“It’s called having a brand,” Fred argued. “The Marauders were legendary. We’ll end up going down in Hogwarts history as  Three Random Guys  if we don’t name ourselves.”

“Every year you lot get stupider than the last,” Molly shook her head, appearing out the window again. “Get in here now before the train leaves without you.”

“Based on your sour face, Weasley, you'd probably love for it to leave us behind,” Felix said jokingly.

Molly’s face did not break into a smile as she slammed the window shut once more.

Felix huffed. “Who wants to take bets on her chopping my head off in my sleep tonight because at the moment that seems like a very high possibility.”

Fred clapped Felix on the back as they started moving forward. “It’s been nice knowing you, Finnigan.”

“I’m honestly amazed you lasted this long,” Thomas admitted.

The group followed behind Felix, all speculating exactly what he had done to annoy Molly without even being around her for four weeks. Fred’s suggestion was him simply opening his mouth.

Cressida held James back. She noticed he had his watch on still. It caused a warm feeling in the pits of her stomach.

“Something you wanted, Knightly?” He asked, smirking at her.

Her eyes snapped up to meet his. “What’s under the cloth?”

James leant closer. “You really want to know?”

Cressida nodded, leaning in as well.

James’ face was inches from her own. He lingered there purposefully before speaking again. “Five sickles and I’ll tell you.”

He broke away and got on the train before Cressida could even process what he had said.

“Bastard,” she cursed, storming after him and fighting back a tint of redness creeping onto her cheeks.

 

*

 

For the seven-hour train ride, Cressida’s thoughts were occupied by what James had hidden under that cloth. So much so that she didn’t complain when Margo refused to speak about anything other than France. She hadn’t even broken her concentration to point out Margo was now talking with a phoney French accent.

Besides, Felix had wasted no time making fun of it, and rightfully so. It sounded as though she was mimicking Victoire very badly.

Normally, the boys would have come to her, or at least Molly, but after four hours it became evident that wasn’t going to happen this year. Cressida added it to the list of things that had seemingly changed so far this year.

And so, she and Jac ventured out into the long line of carriages in search of the trio.

After poking their heads into multiple carriages and being either greeted happily by someone they recognised, or glared at by people they didn’t know, they eventually found Thomas talking to the trolley witch and then rushing off to the very last carriage of the train.

Cressida and Jac wasted no time following after him but when they’d reached the compartment he’d snuck into, the door was already firmly shut and the blinds pulled down.

Cressida lifted her hand to knock but just as she did the next compartment door opened and April stepped out with Beatrix. Both girls had been laughing, but when they saw the two Slytherin girls standing there their smiles dropped.

Beatrix wrapped an arm around April, sending a small glare at them, whereas April’s eyes started welling up and the two girls promptly turned their backs and left after that.

Cressida had yet to knock.

“What was that about?” Jac asked.

Cressida lowered her hand. “She was seeing Potter before the summer… kind of. Guess she's still upset about it.”

“Yeah, but why is she acting as though  you’ve  done something terrible?”

Cressida gulped guiltily. “This was stupid, let’s just go back.”

Jac raced after Cressida as she started heading back towards their friends. “Why? You wanted to know what was under the-”

“We’ll find out once we’re back at Hogwarts anyway,” Cressida said hurriedly. “I can wait another ten minutes.”

Jac still looked confused, but she knew better than to try and change Cressida’s mind once she had decided on something.

Back in the compartment, Margo was still rambling about France. “And the  wine- ” she was saying over-dramatically.

“ You  tried wine?” Felix asked doubtfully.

“It’s sophisticated to try wine,” Margo countered snobbishly. “You have it with cheese, and you swill it around in your mouth and then spit it out.”

“So you didn’t actually drink the wine?” Felix pointed out.

“Well, no, but-”

“Waste of time then if you ask me,” Felix continued, lounging back on the sofa. His knee bumped Molly’s and Cressida noticed the ginger witch blush and try to scuffle away a bit. “May as well have licked an overripe grape and had the same effect.”

Margo folded her arms across her chest. “ You  wouldn’t understand. Not all of us want to drown ourselves in any ounce of alcohol we can find.”

“I’m Irish. If I didn’t drink properly I’d be a disgrace to my country, and you Brits are normally just as bad. Just because you’ve decided to be French for the next few months doesn’t change that. Right?” He asked turning to Jac and Cressida as they sat opposite him.

“Well,” Jac started. “Felix is right. We do have a drinking problem as a country.”

Margo huffed and positioned herself toward the window. “Some of us have self-control.”

“And some of us like to have fun,” Cressida chimed in.

Margo decided against responding and instead firmly stared out at the reflections whizzing past them.

Twenty minutes later, the whistle blew and everybody watched as they rolled into the station. Rasper clambered out from under the seat where he had been napping and manoeuvred his way into his usual position in Cressida’s bag ready to leave.

“Are any of your lot starting this year, Molly?” Felix asked, watching as she started collecting their trunks from the overhead compartments.

“No. Next year a few of them will be old enough though,” she answered, passing him his trunk.

Cressida watched them curiously. They were tip-toeing around each other now. Felix was scared of making her even madder without meaning to.

“You going to join the Quidditch team this year, Mol?” Jac asked as she picked up her broom. “Faro’s gone so there’s an opening.”

Molly paused, staring at the broom in Jac’s hands thoughtfully. “Maybe-”

“But what about the Chatterbox?!” Margo interrupted. She had pulled a horrid green beret on over her short black hair. Cressida fought back making a comment about it.

“I can do two things at once, Margo,” Molly said.

The group of Slytherins all loaded off the train along with the rest of the school.

“How are ye?!” Hagrid’s voice boomed as he plodded along the platform to round up the newest First Years. “Just saw James and that lot running to get a carriage. Somethin’ about a meeting with McGonagall. Any idea what they’re up to?”

“Not a clue,” Molly answered truthfully.

“Ah,” Hagrid mused as he continued on his way. “Well, that’ll be interestin’ no doubt.”

Cressida looked ahead to the carriages waiting to start heading up to the school. Some of them had already taken off at a fast pace. James, Fred and Thomas were likely already halfway to the castle by now. Her hope of catching them before the feast dwindled away.

She glanced around the platform.

Albus and Rose had just stepped off the train.

“Potter!” Cressida called. The two Second Years made their way over to the group of Slytherins. They looked like they were struggling to carry their heavy trunks. “What’s your brother got under that cloth?”

Albus shrugged. “Don’t ask us.”

“I’ve been bugging them about it all summer since the World Cup,” Rose said then. “Them lot, Dad and Uncle Harry disappeared for a few days and when they came back they had that thing. Kept it locked in their room at the Burrow ever since. I don’t even think mum knows about it.”

“So it’s illegal then?” Jac asked intrigued.

“Probably,” Rose and Albus nodded.

“Why aren’t you shitting yourself about this then?” Cressida asked Molly.

Molly shrugged. “McGonagall will handle it. I’ve given up trying to stop them from being idiots.”

“Took you long enough,” Felix teased.

Another batch of students stepped off the train, amongst them Scorpius Malfoy. He seemed to be accompanied by Valentina Zabini, Thane Nott, and Goyle this year. No doubt something set up by their families, based on how sullen the youngest boy looked.

“Scorpius!” Albus called, running over to him immediately.

Scorpius broke away from the group of older Slytherins and instantly looked more like himself as he ran to meet Albus and Rose halfway, embracing the two of them in a hug.

The older Slytherins all watched the interaction in silence, then glanced at one another as though none of them would even consider showing such affection for the other.

Thane was the first to move, stepping around the three Second Years now chatting happily to one another and heading towards the carriages. As he passed the group of Fourth Years, he bowed his head at Cressida. Valentina rolled her eyes as she followed along beside him.

Molly turned her attention to Cressida. “What was that about?”

Cressida readjusted her hobo bag on her shoulders and set off toward the awaiting carriages, playing dumb to it. “What was what about?”

 

*

 

McGonagall had been late to the sorting ceremony.

They had watched for nearly thirty minutes as Professor Longbottom wrung his hands, nervously glancing at the empty podium as though he feared he’d have to step in for McGonagall’s absence.

Everyone looked incredibly confused about the delay, all apart from the newest First Years, who didn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary, and instead huddled at the back of the hall admiring their new surroundings with the same awe-stricken look Cressida remembered having.

After four years, she became desensitized to the wonders of Hogwarts. She missed being amazed by almost everything. She barely even reacted to the ghosts floating between the tables as they ate now or when a portrait randomly yelled at her while wandering the corridors.

Finally, McGonagall entered through the doors and the hall fell silent as they listened to her heels clicking against the stone floor as she headed toward her podium at the front. Neville relaxed back into his chair with a breath of relief.

Cressida’s eyes narrowed. “They’re still missing.”

“Who?” Jac asked.

“The boys,” she said, nodding her head to three empty spaces on the bench at the opposite end of the hall. “They’re not back.”

Molly leaned over to have a look for herself. “Maybe McGonagall is going to finish dealing with them after the feast.”

“Or maybe she finally expelled them,” Margo said nonchalantly. The four Slytherins all rounded on her. “It’s not like they wouldn’t deserve it. For all we know they could have brought something dangerous into the castle right under our noses.”

They returned to staring at the empty seats across the hall. “Don’t be ridiculous. She can’t expel them,” Jac said. “I’m pretty sure she’d sooner retire than expel her three favourite students.”

Margo fiddled with the beret on top of her head. “Believe what you want but they can’t get away with murder forever.”

“Oh,  do  shut up, Margo,” Felix huffed as McGonagall called the first name up to the sorting hat.

 

*

 

After the ceremony and the feast had finished, the students were all carted off to their common room as usual. This year, Slytherin had two new prefects. Hudson Mulch and Valentina Zabini.

Cressida was sure Valentina was the type to give her friends freebies and scrutinise others. Hopefully, Cressida was the former in Valentina’s eyes but she highly doubted it.

Her theory was confirmed once Cressida, Jac and Felix tried to leave the common room half an hour before curfew.

“Don’t even think about it,” Valentina said, appearing at the entrance out of nowhere.

“We’ll be back before curfew,” Cressida tried.

“Do I look that stupid? I know who I’m dealing with,” Valentina said. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. McGonagall told all Head students to keep everyone in their common rooms until further notice.”

“Why?” Felix asked.

Valentina’s dark eyes flashed at him. “She didn’t give a reason. Only mentioned something about the sixth-floor corridor.”

“What’s happening on the sixth-floor corridor?” Jac asked.

Valentina rolled her eyes. “That’s no concern of yours. It’s my first day. I’d appreciate it if McGonagall thought I could actually do this job, and having you three sneaking out isn’t going to help that.”

Cressida glanced sideways. Thane and Goyle were lurking by the bookcases. Thane was watching their conversation with mild interest.

“Okay fine,” Cressida said, turning her attention back to Valentina. “We’ll stay put.”

“We will?” Felix whispered.

“Yep,” Cressida confirmed.

Valentina looked doubtful. “You lying?”

Cressida shrugged, hoping for an innocent smile. “Think of it as an olive branch.”

Her eyes hardened. “I don’t want an olive branch. I don’t need more friends.”

“Not friends,” Cressida corrected. “Allies. Slytherins have to stick together, right?”

Valentina considered this. “I see what Thane means about you now.” She moved away swiftly. “I still don’t like you but I respect what you’re trying to do. It’d probably work on someone more naïve.”

The three Fourth Years watched Valentina walk over to Thane and Goyle, and then the three of them headed off somewhere more secluded in the common room.

“An olive branch?” Felix asked curiously.

“She’s a prefect now. We need her on our side,” Cressida explained.

“For what?” Jac asked.

Cressida shrugged, moving back to their usual alcove. “I don’t know yet but she’ll come in handy for something.”

Chapter 70: Fourth Year: What Happened On The Sixth Floor

Monday 3rd September 2018

People had been allowed back out by Sunday to explore the castle and immediately Jac and Felix wanted to head up to the sixth floor to figure out what was going on.

“There’s no point,” Cressida had told them as they sat in their usual alcove Sunday morning. Molly and Margo decided to stay at breakfast a little longer, having no desire to figure out what was going on. Cressida had snuck out the night prior on her own despite her promise to Valentina. When she had arrived, she found Filch camped out on a chair with a lantern lighting up his old wrinkled face, Mrs Norris asleep dutifully at his feet. “It’s being guarded.”

“Why?” Felix had asked.

“Well, if I knew that I would have told you, wouldn’t I?” Cressida replied.

“Is it to do with the trio of boys?” Jac asked next.

“Probably,” she answered. “They weren’t at breakfast this morning either.”

“You don’t think McGonagall really expelled them, do you?” Felix asked nervously.

Cressida hesitated. “No,” she said surely after a moment. “No. McGonagall wouldn’t expel them. And anyway, they wouldn’t have left without saying goodbye somehow.”

Jac and Felix looked at each other silently. They didn’t look so sure anymore.

*

When Monday rolled around, Cressida’s eyes didn’t move away from the Gryffindor table for the entirety of breakfast. Their usual seats were empty yet again.

They couldn’t be gone, she kept telling herself.

They can’t be gone.

Without saying anything to her friends, she got up and crossed the hall, coming to a stop behind Rose Granger-Weasley. She had previously been chatting with a bunch of girls from her year. “Have you seen your cousins?”

Rose spun around with an easy smile. She didn’t seem worried in the slightest. “Not since getting off the train, why? Are they up to something?”

Cressida looked towards McGonagall sitting at the teacher's table. She was discussing something with Professor Flitwick. “God, I hope so.”

She left the hall after that, searching every secret hiding hole and passageway she knew of.

Nothing.

Eventually, her friends found her on the Grand Staircase, preparing to barge her way into their common room and find them for herself.

“First lesson is starting,” Molly said as the staircase now moved Cressida in the opposite direction to where she wanted to go. “If they’re still in the castle, they’ll show up.”

Cressida ducked her head closer to Molly’s. “And what if they don’t?”

Molly stared back for a moment. “I’ll go straight to McGonagall with you. She’s the last person who saw them.”

Cressida nodded and the group stepped off the staircase heading towards their Charms classroom.

She practically raced around the corner to see if they were there.

Again, nothing.

Her shoulders deflated. Jac and Felix looked increasingly worried now.

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Margo huffed. “They aren’t going to be dead! Stop acting like them not being here is some terrible thing. I, for one, am glad of the peace and quiet.”

Cressida rounded on her, anger flashing dangerously in her eyes. Felix put a hand on her shoulder, a small restraint to hold her back.

Flitwick opened his classroom door in his usual cheery manner. “Morning, students. Are we excited to learn?”

Margo quickly ducked into his classroom with a small squeak of acknowledgement. Cressida’s glare followed after her.

“Hmm, yes, well, perhaps some light spell work will brighten everyone’s moods, yes?” Flitwick tried, sensing the tension.

Molly and Jac followed Flitwick into his classroom along with the rest of the students turning up for the lesson.

Felix remained stood with Cressida. “We’ll find them,” he said, although he didn’t sound entirely convinced. “They’re bound to be somewhere.”

Cressida nodded but offered no other comment.

Rubbing the back of his neck anxiously, Felix walked into the classroom.

She remained standing by the door. Students were still showing up. There were still two minutes left until they’d be late. Maybe-

Her ears prickled.

She'd know that laughter anywhere.

Cressida stormed up the corridor and found the trio of boys before they had even rounded the corner. “Merlin, Knightly, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” James laughed, which was abruptly cut short by her punching his arm. “ Ow , what was that for?”

“Where have you wankers been for the last three days?!” She yelled at them.

The trio of boys glanced at each other. “About,” Fred answered.

“About?” Cressida repeated with a scoff.

“We had stuff to sort out,” Thomas elaborated.

“Well, that’s just great. We all thought-” she stopped herself, glaring at the three of them. “Just don’t do it again.”

Fred’s smirk grew. “Were you worried something terrible had happened to us, Knightly?” He teased lightly.

“Something terrible will happen to you if you don’t let me know you’re pulling a disappearing act next time!” She warned them.

Fred laced an arm around Cressida’s shoulders as they started moving back toward their designated classroom. “We promise we’ll inform you of our antics next time."

“But we really wanted it to be a surprise, you see,” Thomas went on, walking beside her. “We didn’t think you’d even notice us being gone.”

“What were you doing that took up so much time anyway?” Cressida asked, moving the conversation along. She didn’t want to admit the best part of her first weekend at Hogwarts had been spent worrying about the three idiots and their whereabouts.

James checked his wristwatch. They were right on time. Not a second late. “Now, that would ruin the surprise,” he said pulling open the door for them with a smile. “After you.”

Cressida sent him a scrutinising look as she entered the classroom flanked by the three boys.

*

The first day of lessons was always slightly more draining as the students forced their brains to abandon the summer mindset and start whirring into action again, and so because of this, the group of Slytherins were all slumped in their usual alcove after a heavy roast dinner in the Grand Hall.

After the discovery that the trio of boys had in fact not been expelled, their day continued on as normal from there, with only a small sigh of relief from the rest of the group once they saw the boys in question walk into Charms.

By second lesson, in which the trio of boys were making numerous wormwood puns at Thomas’ expense loudly in Herbology, the group soon forgot the boys had even been absent for the last two days.

“Anyone up for wizard chess?” Margo tried, breaking the comfortable silence the Slytherins had been enjoying beforehand.

It was met with a grumble of disdain.

“Could always look over our book list ready for lessons tomorrow-” Molly offered. She was quickly shut down with a simple look from everyone involved.

“Fancy listening to music?” Jac said then. “Nish got me some good CDs he scavenged from the charity shop he was working at over the summer.”

“Anyone we’d know?” Felix asked.

Jac thought for a moment. “How do you feel about The Cranberries?”

“Aren’t they that Irish band?” Cressida asked recognising the name.

“Are they any good?” Margo asked haughtily.

“They’re Irish, they must be,” Felix conceded “Stick ‘em on.”

Jac looked very reluctant to move from her slouched position. “The CD player was left in the secret room before the summer.”

Cressida forced herself to sit up, disrupting Rasper who had been dozing on her lap. “I’ll go get it and meet you lot in our room.”

“Want company?” Molly offered, stretching her arms above her head.

“It’ll only take a second,” Cressida said. “I’ll be back before Felix says something to piss off Margo.”

Felix and Margo looked at each other as Cressida left the group.

Cressida used the secret passageway to get to the secret room quicker, not wanting to stop and get distracted on her way. The first day back in lessons was always the worst day for the staircase to act up or for Peeves to be wandering around looking for an easy target.

She broke onto the sixth floor, double checking Filch had entirely vacated the area, then headed towards her favourite place in Hogwarts.

As she walked along the corridor, she looked for any signs as to why it had been blocked off for the last two days. By now she had started to consider the fact this and the boy’s disappearance were intertwined, but she couldn’t be entirely sure without any evidence. So far, there was nothing alluding to any tampering with the old and dusty corridor.

She reached the spot that held the stairs leading to her secret lookout point but found a new portrait had been added to the wall beside the tapestry.

Maybe that was what had been changed, she thought, but she couldn’t understand what that had to do with the boy’s idea of a surprise.

The frame was empty, only showing a murky-coloured backing. She walked slowly forwards looking for a name plaque. There wasn’t one.

Cressida turned back to the tapestry and poked it with her hand. It shook slightly, alluding to the fact there was hollow space behind it. Relieved that her staircase still existed, she tried tugging on the pieces of heavy cloth to get it to move but it was like the edges were glued to the wall.

She stepped back, staring at it thoughtfully.

Maybe the portrait wasn’t all that changed. Maybe the secret room had been filled in or moved. She knew rooms had randomly moved in the past. The store closet on the fifth floor one day showed up on the second floor. It had thrown Filch off immensely as he went in for a mop and bucket and came out with a Quidditch polishing kit.

She produced her wand from out of her hair. “Alohomora!”

Nothing happened.

“You need a password,” a voice said from within the empty portrait beside her.

Cressida turned to search for the owner of the voice. A young wizard no older than fifteen strolled into the frame twirling his wand in his hand. There was something insanely familiar about his face, but the long black hair covering his features made it harder to tell where Cressida recognised him from.

“Who are you?” She asked.

The wizard moved his hair out of his face with a flick of his head. “Sirius Black.”

“Harry’s godfather,” she realized. “James has told me about you.”

Sirius smiled fondly. “Who do you think put me here?” He said. “Somehow Mini Prongs II convinced McGonagall to let me have a portrait. James and his family searched Grimmauld Place for this old thing I had painted before I ran away from my home and now here I am.”

Cressida nodded along with his explanation. That sounded like something James would do. It would also explain why they had been so preoccupied for the last few days. “Why can’t I get up the stairs?” She asked, focusing her attention on the tapestry again.

“Crafty wizards, that lot,” Sirius laughed. “James put a locking spell on the tapestry so only I can let people up. Moony’s kid gave him the idea apparently. You need to tell me the password before the tapestry will unstick itself.”

Cressida huffed impatiently. “But I don’t know the password.”

“Then I can’t let you in,” Sirius barked with laughter amused by the younger witch.

“But it’s my secret place!” Cressida complained. “The only reason James even knew about it was because of me!”

“Talk to James and get the password. That’s the only way I can let you in,” Sirius said firmly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have other portraits to visit.” He grinned before disappearing from the frame again.

Cressida kicked the bottom of the tapestry. Stupid Potter.

She turned, looking up the hallway. By pure luck, Rose had just rounded the corner, chatting with Lana Longbottom. Cressida smiled, approaching the smaller girl.

*

Rose was much easier to convince to give up the common room password than Cressida first thought. All it took was the fact she needed it to confront the three boys for something and Rose had handed it over gladly.

“Good luck,” Rose said as she and Lana continued on their way. “Let me know if you end up punching one of them!”

Cressida had whispered the password and slipped into the Gryffindor common room unnoticed. She had learned by now to abandon her green branded robe when entering any common room other than her own. It was always safer that way.

She glanced around the hectic common room. The trio were nowhere to be seen.

Knowing better than to remain stood out in the open, she started climbing the stairwell that led to their room.

“Ah, Cressida!” Remus’ portrait called out as she passed him on his landing. He had previously been reading a book before she passed. “Looking for the boys, I suppose. What have they done now to provoke your visitation this time?”

“Set up a new portrait for our hiding place that won’t let me in without a password.”

“Oh,” Lupin said amused. “What poor portrait have they commissioned for the job?”

“Sirius Black's’.”

Lupin’s face fell. Cressida paused, watching the portrait with a narrowed brow. He seemed to avert his eyes, clearing his throat. “Excuse me,” he said, abandoning his book on his armchair. “I have other matters to attend to.”

With that, Lupin quickly shuffled out of his portrait, his face looking grave.

Three footsteps approached her then from above and seconds later the trio of boys came to a stop in front of her.

“How did you get the common room password?” Thomas asked first. “It’s the first week, even we don’t really know it yet.”

“Funny you should mention passwords,” Cressida replied, folding her arms over her chest.

James took a deep breath in. “Ah. So you found our surprise then?”

“I wouldn’t call it a surprise. More of a hindrance,” Cressida said.

“We did it to help you,” Fred explained. “Without a portrait, anyone could find our hideout.”

“ My hideout,” Cressida corrected him. “I found it first. It’s mine. Therefore, I should have been involved in setting up a sodding password for the place.”

James stepped forward, offering her a grin. “If it helps, the password is something you’ll remember easily.”

“What is it?” She asked.

Thomas produced a long list on a scroll. “We thought it’d be fun to turn it into a game-”

“Are you serious?!” Cressida chided the group of boys.

“No, he’s Sirius,” James said without missing a beat.

Sirius appeared in Lupin’s picture frame and gave a smug wave as if the pun had summoned him instantaneously.

“We’ve upgraded to the original version of the joke,” Fred said proudly.

Sirius glanced around the numerous shelves and prodded the open book left on the armchair. He sniffed the air. “Who’s portrait is this?” He asked, moving forward in the frame.

James smiled knowingly. “Lupin’s.”

Sirius’ face went slack, his eyes widening significantly. “Moony? He’s here?”

The three boys nodded back. Sirius left promptly after that, as though he had very important business to attend to. Cressida wondered if it was the same thing Remus had rushed off to sort out.

She turned her attention back to the three boys. “How do I get the password for the room?”

Thomas rummaged around in his robes. “Here’s your first clue.”

“Clue?” Cressida asked, taking the piece of paper. It read; ‘Don’t let this be a disaster. Find me with the original prankster’ . “What the hell does this even mean?”

“It’s a riddle, Knightly,” James said, moving forward down the steps. “If it simply told you the answer, it’d be no fun.”

She looked up at him looming over her on the step above. “Do I look like I enjoy games?”

“Yes,” Fred answered. He and Thomas passed her and continued down the stairwell. “Have fun figuring it out.”

“Let us know when you’ve finished,” Thomas said as they disappeared out of sight.

James remained in front of Cressida. His smug grin unwavering. She was vaguely reminded of the last time they were in this stairwell alone and it caused the hairs on the back of her neck to prickle. “This was your stupid idea, wasn’t it?”

“You know me, Knightly,” he said, moving down another step, closer again. She physically had to crane her neck upwards to keep eye contact now. “Always up for a good game.”

“And if I don’t feel like playing?” She asked.

“You will,” James said surely. “You can’t help yourself.”

They stayed there for a moment. James smiled down at her and Cressida couldn’t help but smile back. Then, just when Cressida felt herself get the urge to move the slightest bit forward, James swooped past her and disappeared down the stairs with a wink.

She remained on the step, hoping her cheeks hadn't started to blush.

“Well,” Cressida jumped to see Sirius had returned to Remus’ portrait. “Looks like Mini Prongs has better game than his dear old granddad.” Sirius sat back in the armchair and propped his feet up on a pile of books. “He must get that from me.”

Cressida rolled her eyes and left the stairwell.

Friday 7th September 2018

“ Don’t let this be a disaster. Find me with the original prankster, ” Molly mused, looking over the piece of parchment again over breakfast. She placed it back down on the table, thinking hard. “How many of these do you reckon there are?”

They’d all pulled together to try and decipher the code the day Cressida had received it. It had been of the up-most importance for that day unless you were Margo. Forty-eight hours later, Felix had also dropped out of trying to figure it out after discovering it used more brain power than he was willing to give.

Molly seemed more determined to crack the code than anyone, and Cressida was more than happy to let her. The boys never said she couldn’t get help.

Cressida shrugged as she ate her cereal. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Margo poured herself some juice. “Must we discuss this at breakfast?”

“Is there something more gripping you’d rather talk about?” Jac asked, taking the juice to pour her own.

“Yes, actually,” Margo said. “Has anyone heard from Veronica when the first meeting for the Chatterbox will be?”

“Maybe we’re focusing on the wrong part of the riddle,” Molly said then, ignoring what Margo had said completely.

Felix looked delighted at Margo’s sour expression and decided to engage in the scavenger hunt once again. “Who do you suppose the original prankster is?”

Molly shrugged, clearly wrecking her brain. “There have been tons over the years. Teddy, Uncle George and Fred-”

“Would they be in on this?” Cressida asked.

Molly read the clue again. “There’s a high possibility…”

“I’ll write to them tonight and see what they say,” Cressida said finishing off her breakfast.

Molly didn’t look convinced, her eyes staring at nothingness in front of her as she continued to think. She’d hardly touched her breakfast. “But what makes them original ?”

Cressida thought for a moment.

“Well,” Jac spoke up. “George did create a business out of pranks… that’s original.”

“And Teddy taught the three boys everything they know,” Cressida added.

“It must be them then,” Felix conceded.

“Great!” Margo said snippily. “Can we move on to a more sophisticated conversation now?”

“What, like you sucking on grapes in France for the third time this week?” Felix shot out.

Margo opened her mouth to retort when Molly abruptly got to her feet interrupting the oncoming argument knowingly. “Let’s go to Defence Against The Dark Arts, shall we?”

Margo’s mouth clamped shut as she glared at Felix and stood up with the rest of them. Felix smiled at the smaller girl as they all left the Great Hall together.

Cressida let Felix and Jac walk ahead slightly talking about the upcoming Quidditch tryouts, meanwhile, Margo veered off to the side as though she was pretending not to be with the group.

She pulled Molly backwards. “How’s the Felix situation going?”

Molly’s face pinched. “What situation?” Cressida sent her a look. Molly huffed and faced forward again. “There is no situation. It was a misjudgement on my part. A foolish thought, really.”

“You still like him, Mol.”

“So what if I did?” She asked dejectedly. “It doesn’t matter now. I’m too busy to be thinking that way about one of our best friends.”

“Busy doing what?”

Molly faltered. “This, for one!” She said then, gesturing to the clue. “And other things-”

“You should tell him,” Cressida interrupted.

“Are you mad?”

“Felix is as dense as they come. Unless you tell him, you’ll never know how he feels.” Molly considered this, stealing a glance at Felix up ahead as he mimicked being strangled by the giant squid to Jac. “He’s sweeter to you than the rest of us, you know-”

Molly scoffed. “Is not.”

Cressida debated telling Molly about how Felix had been lying about how smart he really was. How he made sure to always be one mark behind her so she would be the best of them all.

“Fine, suit yourself,” she said instead as they came to their designated classroom. “But if you don’t try, you’ll never know.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Felix asked, pausing in the doorway to wait for them before going in.

“Shoes,” they both lied instantaneously.

“Good grief, I need some guy friends,” Felix rolled his eyes, walking in with them.

“I hear the Gryffin-gang are in search of a fourth member,” Cressida jabbed.

“On second thought, I’m rather content where I am,” Felix replied as they both took their seats.

Whimbrel was stood at the front of the class showing some students his latest scar from apparently fighting the Whomping Willow on the school grounds. “My bloody Hinkypunk took refuge inside that stupid tree. Had to try and get it back, didn’t I-” Cressida overheard the mad professor saying.

Cressida started getting her things out of her bag when Arabella took her usual seat beside her, bringing a coldness to the table. It didn’t escape the two Slytherins' notice that she now wore a pearl necklace along with her uniform.

“Chauncey,” Felix greeted her. “I see you neutered a batch of pixies and are now wearing their bollocks around your neck.”

Arabella sent him a tight smile. “Your humour is as classy as always, Finnigan. Just because you could never afford pearls such as these doesn’t mean I shouldn’t show them off.”

Felix mocked her words under his breath and turned away again.

Arabella side eyed Cressida. “I see someone got bigger over the summer.”

“My dick got bigger too,” she replied coolly.

“Funny,” Arabella said dryly.

“I thought so.”

Arabella pulled a face similar to Margo's and looked to the front. Cressida thought that considering Arabella had vowed to make the next year of her life hell, this was a very tame start.

Cressida continued staring at Whimbrel as he seemingly searched for his missing wand before starting the lesson.

“Ah, there it is, ye wee buggers!” Whimbrel exclaimed, finding his wand had been locked in his Cornish Pixie cage hanging behind his desk.

As Whimbrel reached his hand in to retrieve it a pixie flew down and scooped it up, blowing raspberries at the professor as all the tiny creatures took joy in playing keep-away with the wand.

“Horrid creatures,” Arabella said irritably, watching the professor fighting with them as well. “Can’t stand the foul things.”

Cressida and Felix looked at each other, gaining a small smile as the same idea took over their minds.

Felix produced his wand from under the table.

“Alohomora.”

The latch on the cage clicked open.

Chapter 71: Fourth Year: The Story Of Moony And Padfooot

Sunday 9th September 2018

 

Cressida had no luck in her theory of Teddy and George being involved in the clue fiasco. A response letter had arrived early that morning, saying neither party had any idea what the trio of boys had pulled but they wanted to be updated on it regularly as it was, as George put it,  ‘a stroke of genius.’

That put them back to square one.

Molly looked stumped, and so, Cressida had left the alcove an hour before curfew that evening to go searching for her own answers, sensing sitting around with Molly wouldn’t equate to much at this precise moment in time.

She had tried just forcing the tapestry to move again with no luck and was slightly grateful that Sirius was absent from his frame. She had no doubt he would stand there mocking her if he was.

She had even tried pulling the edge of the tapestry open just enough for Rasper to sneak in through, but as the stubborn cat sat looking at the minuscule gap she had struggled to accomplish, he simply turned and disappeared elsewhere in the castle.

“This is ridiculous,” Cressida cursed, slumping down against the wall opposite. She felt that until they found the answer to their ridiculous riddle she’d never get her room back.

“Dickheads,” she cursed them quietly to herself, glaring at the empty portrait.

There was a squeaking sound from above her and Cressida glanced up. Peeves was looming, unscrewing the chandelier with a jovial giggle.

“Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey,” the poltergeist was muttering to himself in between sniggers.

She managed to dart out of the way just as the chandelier came crashing to the floor. She hid around the corner as people came to investigate the noise, not wanting to get the blame or be questioned on why she was lurking in the hall. Luckily, Longbottom was the first on the scene, spotting Peeves as he floated away blowing raspberries as he went.

Neville looked slightly defeated as he debated whether to clean up the chandelier or chase after Peeves first. There was another crash further up the next hall, giving away Peeves had unscrewed yet another light fixture.

“ Psst .” Longbottom looked sideways. Remus was suddenly in Sirius’ frame. “Gum up his nose, Neville. Does wonders.”

“Oh,” Neville said gratefully. “Thanks, Professor Lupin.”

“Please, call me Remus. One Professor to another,” he said as Longbottom quickly ran after Peeves before a third chandelier came crashing down, evidently leaving the chandelier for Filch to clean up later.

Cressida remained hidden around the corner, watching Lupin. An idea started forming in the back of her mind. Maybe  he  knew the password. One of the three boys was bound to have slipped up and said it around him as they passed by his frame.

Just as Cressida was about to approach him, Sirius strolled into the frame beside Remus. Cressida returned to peering around the corner, hidden out of sight. 

“ Professor Moony, ” Sirius mocked. He looked so much younger than Lupin, more full of life even in portrait form. “Peter was right about you being a teacher then. Who’d have-”

“Don’t mention him,” Remus said firmly, not turning to face Sirius.

Sirius’ face fell. “Oh right… yeah, sorry. I’m still stuck in 1975. None of it has happened for me, it’s all the same as it was-”

“Count yourself lucky then.”

“Oh, come on, Moony. Don’t be cold with me, I can’t help it,” Sirius pleaded.

Remus ran a hand over his tired and scarred face. “I know, Pads. It’s just… it’s been a long time. Longer than you realise.”

“I know,” Sirius said sympathetically. It looked like the younger boy was debating whether to reach out and touch Remus on the shoulder or not. In the end, he decided against it, going back to his cheerful mood. “Well, go on then. Fill me in on what else happened to us all. You’ve hardly told me anything.”

Remus stared straight ahead with a sigh. “Well, for starters, I got married.”

Sirius’ head immediately shot up, his gaze fully on Remus. “You…” he stammered. “Did we- I mean was that allowed?”

“No,” Remus said before Sirius could even fathom the thought. “I married Nymphadora-”

“MY BABY COUSIN?!” Sirius bellowed, his gaze turning to a glare as he started pacing the frame. “Merlin, Moony, do you have a bloody type-”

“Sirius-” Remus warned.

“Tell me, was my body even cold before you jumped another Black’s bones?”

“ Sirius !”

Sirius paused, turning back to face Lupin with a childish pout.

Remus sighed again. “You fell through the veil defending Harry. I lost you  again . I couldn’t- I had to-” He stopped, looking as though he’d like nothing more than to sink into his usual armchair.

“Well,” Sirius said, his tone level again. He lifted his blue eyes to meet Remus’ hazel ones. “Did  I  ever marry?”

“No,” Remus said flatly. “You lived in a cave with a Hippogriff for a few months though.”

“Oh, very funny,” Sirius snorted.

Remus started walking out of the frame. “I wasn’t joking.”

Sirius followed after him with a perplexed expression.

Cressida remained stood there for a moment, thinking over the interaction between the two portraits. Were Remus and Sirius  involved ?

“What’re you doing?”

Cressida spun around to find James standing there. “Nothing.”

“Trying to force your way into the room, were you?”

“No,” she lied. She turned her eyes back to the now blank portrait. “What’s the deal between Remus and Sirius?”

“They were a part of the Marauders and in the Order together. Fought both wars together. They were the best of the best when it came to pranks, even Fred and George looked up to them. Sirius died before Remus did though.”

“So they were… close, then?”

“As close as you could get according to my dad’s stories,” James nodded. “They even lived together for a little bit while the second war was going on.”

“Right,” Cressida said, unsure of whether James was picking up on what Cressida was asking.

He gestured to the smashed chandelier still lying on the floor. “What happened here?”

“Peeves.”

“Ah,” James grinned, looking down at her. “Any closer to figuring out the first clue?”

“No,” Cressida frowned. “Can’t you just tell me so I can get in there again? I won’t tell the others you told me.”

James smiled, leaning one shoulder against the wall. “Do you really think I’m that easily persuaded by you, Knightly?”

Cressida tried not to notice how close he was to her as he lent against the wall, how he smelt of wood and grass from Quidditch practice. “I was kind of hoping so, yes.”

“Nice try,” James said. He moved away from her and Cressida involuntarily frowned. “But pranking is more important than whatever you’re trying to do.”

Cressida scoffed, her eyes following James as he moved further up the corridor. “ I’m  not trying to do anything.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m not!” She insisted, storming after him.

James paused, facing her again. “Figure out the clue, Knightly. It’s staring you in the face.”

With that, James tapped the side of his nose and carried on through the hall. Cressida glared at him as he went, annoyed she was no closer to figuring it out.

She huffed and stared around at her surroundings, trying to make sense of James’ pathetic excuse of a hint.

‘Staring you in the face.’

Her eyes fell on the empty frame again.

“They were the best of the best when it came to pranks.”

Finally, with some semblance of a plan in mind, Cressida ran back down to the dungeons.

 

*

 

She burst into the alcove to find Molly and Jac sitting together doing homework. She didn’t even bother asking where the reaming two of their group were.

“I know what the first clue is!” Cressida said, running up to them.

Molly looked up from her homework. “Do tell.”

“Who are James, Fred, and Thomas obsessed with the most out of everyone?”

Jac thought hard for a moment. “Their family.”

“Which part of the family specifically?” She asked, her smile growing madly.

Molly was struggling to keep up. “Uncle Harry and the people he knew at Hogwarts-”

“Exactly!”

“Who are you two on about?” Jac asked, confused. “We’ve established it’s not their family hiding the next clue-”

“Because they’re dead!” Cressida exclaimed. “It’s not the living pranksters we should be looking at. It’s the dead ones. The  original  ones!”

Molly’s mind suddenly felt as though a light bulb had exploded in it. “The Marauders!”

“The Marauders!” Cressida grinned.

Molly jumped up then. “Lupin’s portrait!”

“Or Sirius’!” Cressida added on. 

“What are we waiting for?!” Jac said, abandoning her homework without a second thought and getting to her feet.

Just as the three girls were about to run out of the common room Valentina was blocking their path. “It’s five minutes to curfew. You three aren’t going anywhere,” she said sternly.

Cressida frowned. Valentina was apparently going to be a real thorn in their sides with her strict rules on curfew.

“We’re going out looking for our friend,” Jac tried. “He’s not back yet.”

Valentina’s lips quirked up into a smile. Cressida noticed she had a tiny diamond stuck to each canine tooth now. That was perhaps the richest and most pointless thing she had ever seen someone do. “Then you better pray he walks through that door in the next two minutes, otherwise, he’ll cost us all house points.”

Molly and Jac looked to Cressida to do something.

Cressida waited, trying to think at rapid speed when the entrance opened and Felix wondered in eating a box of Bertie Bott’s.

“Oh look, there’s your friend now,” Valentina said, noticing him as well. “Guess there’s no need for you to go out now, is there?”

Molly and Jac accepted defeat, leaving to meet Felix back in their usual alcove.

Cressida remained standing in front of Valentina. Neither girl seemed willing to back down.

Someone cleared their throats and both girls turned to see Thane standing in between them. “Just so you’re aware, your big dick contest is distracting the other lowly Slytherins,” he whispered. 

“Stay out of this, Nott,” Valentina rolled her eyes and moved away, leaving Thane to stand with Cressida.

“Congratulations, your talent of making girls walk away at the sight of you has finally come in handy,” Cressida jabbed.

“I don’t see you complaining whenever I appear,” he smirked.

Cressida folded her arms over her chest. “I didn’t need your help.”

“Trust me, Valentina is not someone you want to go against. She’s been the Slytherin  it girl  long before you joined us.”

Cressida glared at the older boy. “Why are you friends with her? I thought you were above having friends?”

Thane shrugged. “She’s not so bad once you get to know her. Plus, she’s not too hard on the eyes and her dad’s loaded-”

A book was suddenly hurled at Thane’s head and Cressida spun around to see Valentina standing by the bookcases behind them. “I heard that,” she glowered at him.

Thane looked unphased as he picked up the book and started flicking through the pages. “Oh, one of my favourites. Good choice, Zabini.”

With that Thane turned, his head now stuck in a book and disappeared elsewhere in the common room alone.

Cressida looked at the unguarded exit of the common room again and chanced looking over her shoulder at Valentina. The older girl was staring back at her, her fingers elegantly turning the pages of a book she clearly wasn’t reading.

Accepting defeat as well, she moved towards the alcove where her friends were waiting.

 

 

Wednesday 12th September 2018

 

They hadn’t had a chance to visit the portraits again since Cressida’s theory developed. Molly had told them they had to do their Herbology homework all Monday afternoon ready for Longbottom. Apparently, according to Molly, they  ‘weren’t unlocking their full academic potential.’

Margo had offered that if they spent more time focusing on their upcoming workload instead of a silly scavenger hunt they wouldn’t need to waste an entire afternoon doing homework to make up for it.

Felix had moved the conversation along by asking Molly what potions required Bubotuber puss. Cressida silently wondered whether he already knew or not.

Whenever they’d tried to stop by any time after that, the portraits had either been blank or Valentina had been looming near the common room exit, acting as a personal curfew alarm clock to the group of Slytherins.

Either way, Cressida’s theory had yet to be proven correct.

“It  must  be them,” Jac said surely as they headed to their potions classroom. “Why else would they have gone to all the trouble to put Sirius’ frame up?”

“To keep us out and commandeer it for themselves,” Felix offered. 

“If they were trying to keep us out, why would they have given us clues to the password?” Molly pointed out.

“I don’t see why  you  care so much,” Margo said haughtily to Molly. “It’s not like you ever hung out in that ridiculous storeroom anyway.”

Molly opened the classroom door as they walked in. “I like solving things, Margo.”

“And we like to use that room to get away from you,” Felix mumbled.

Cressida elbowed him in the side, hoping Margo hadn’t heard him. However, when Margo sent the group a glare and then stormed off ahead, she knew her hope had been misplaced.

“Go apologise,” Molly told Felix.

Felix looked like he was about to refuse, but with a firm look from Molly, Felix huffed and went off in search of Margo. Jac followed behind him, clearly wanting to witness the apology first-hand and tease Finnigan about it afterwards.

Cressida hung back with Molly. “Why  are  you so invested in helping us with the clues?” She asked curiously.

Molly shrugged. “I know my cousins… if anyone’s going to be able to decipher their idiotic thought process, it should be me.”

“So you’re not just looking for a distraction from something?” Cressida asked.

Molly refused to face the smaller girl. “Don’t be absurd.”

Slughorn called for the class to gather around as he started his lesson. “Today we will be going over the method of the ageing potion,” Slughorn told the class. “Now this is a potion that can have great complications if gone wrong so listen closely-”

Cressida tuned out the old professor and turned to the disturbance beside her. James had been jabbing her in the side with his wand for the last five seconds.

“What?” She snapped.

“Which one of us are you pairing up with this year?” Thomas whispered.

“What?” 

“Well, normally you pick one of us to partner up with,” Fred said. “So which one is it this time?”

Cressida looked between the three of them. “Which one of you has the book?”

“Hang on,” Molly chimed in, leaning over to look at them. “ I  need that book this year.”

“Why do you need it?” Fred asked. “I thought you considered it cheating?”

“Yeah, well I got an A on my potions exam last year,” she huffed. “I’m not leaving anything up to chance this year.”

“Miss Weasley!” Slughorn called. They all turned to the front where Slughorn had paused in his teaching and now the whole class was staring at them. A little way over, Cressida saw Jac and Felix trying to suppress a laugh. “Something you’d like to share with the class?”

Molly turned bright pink. “Um-”

Thomas stepped forward. “I was just asking if I could be her partner this year, sir.”

Slughorn smiled. “Oh, very good. Carry on then. I must say, I am pleased you’re pairing up with the opposite house of your own accord now.” He looked at his blackboard full of ingredients, patting his bulbous stomach pleased. “And Whimbrel called me over-ambitious. Well, that’ll show him.”

Slughorn carried on with his teaching and the group huddled together once more.

“Thanks for the save,” Molly said somewhat reluctantly once it became clear Slughorn wasn’t looking at them anymore. Thomas smiled contently at the remark.

“So who has the book?” Cressida asked.

“I have an idea,” James cut in.

“Oh god,” Molly said, turning away again.

James gained his authoritative stance that he had nearly perfected now. “We shall  all  work together.”

“That’s your grand plan?” Fred asked, amused.

James nodded. “We’ll share custody of the book this year. That way everyone’s happy and we all get a good grade-”

“I’m not happy,” Molly chimed in.

“You’re never happy,” Fred jabbed. Molly sent him a glare.

“What about Jac?” Cressida asked, feeling as though she was being left out.

“She’s got Finnigan,” Thomas pointed out.

“And Margo?” Molly asked pointedly. All four of them looked at her. Molly huffed and returned to looking at Slughorn rambling on. “I know  you  don’t like her but she’s still my friend.”

“Look,” James said, gesturing to the other end of the classroom. “She’s cosying up to Vonce anyway.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “Oh  great , now I have to hear about that interaction all afternoon.”

“So,” James said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “You in or out, girls?”

Cressida turned to the ginger witch. “What do you reckon?”

Molly considered it for a moment. “Fine.” All the boys gained smug smiles. “But  no  messing around-”

“Yeah, whatever you say, Mol,” Fred said dismissively.

Slughorn had instructed the class to start collecting their ingredients and find a table.

Fred and Thomas immediately set off toward the shelves and Molly followed closely behind lecturing them on being careful. Cressida and James went in search of a table big enough to contain the five of them.

Unfortunately, the biggest was situated next to the table Beatrix and April had chosen to work at. Both Gryffindor girls were glaring at Cressida and James stood together.

He noticed and sent them a smile and a small wave. April gathered her things promptly and chose a different table. James lowered his hand slowly.

“She’s still mad at you then?” Cressida asked, feeling a tad guilty about it on his behalf.

“Guess so,” James said, leaning back against the table. “But Beatrix and April were speaking to Fred the other night and they seemed fine with him.”

“It’s because you dumped her.”

"April and I weren't technically dating," he told her.

“She thought you were… or going to be,” Cressida said. James hummed thoughtfully. “What exactly did you say to her when you, you know, did it? Did you give a reason?”

“Just said I wanted to be friends,” James answered.

“So you didn’t mention anyone else?”

James turned to Cressida. “Who else would I have mentioned?”

Cressida opened her mouth and then promptly shut it again when she saw the other three returning to the table. Fred had his arms overflowing with ingredients, threatening to start dropping jars at second now.

“No, no, don’t rush to help me,” he said sarcastically. “I’ll just stand here while you two make goo-goo eyes at each other.”

James started taking the ingredients off his hands one by one with a scoff. “Nobody’s making goo-goo eyes at anyone, you prick.”

Molly caught Cressida’s eyes, and she quickly looked away again.

“Freddy’s just mad his girlfriend isn’t involved in this little activity,” Thomas teased.

“One, Redwick won’t let me call her my girlfriend just yet,” Fred said pointedly. “And two, I’m confident enough in myself that I don’t have to worry about her being paired up with another guy.”

“What if she was paired up with someone other than Finnigan?” James asked.

“What’s wrong with Finnigan?” Molly asked, already turning to the required page in the notebook under the table.

“He’s Finnigan,” Fred said. “He’s like an extension of you lot, he’d never put the moves on any of you.”

Molly put the book flat on the table with slightly more force than she meant to. “Of course,” she said tightly. “Obviously, that would be ludicrous.”

Cressida looked at the ingredient list to hopefully change the topic of conversation. “Who has the bat tongue?” She asked. “I’ll start dicing it.”

“Here.” James passed her the bat tongue. Their fingers brushed as she took it from him. 

“Thanks,” she said, trying to ignore the way it made her skin tingle.

“No problem, Nightingale,” James said breezily.

Cressida frowned at him.

“We’re trying out nicknames,” Thomas explained, measuring out another set of ingredients.

“Don’t,” she said. “Don’t do that.”

“Noted,” James said, trying to hide disappointment.

Fred laughed. “Told you it was stupid.”

“Oh but giving ourselves a name isn’t?!” James asked abashed.

“No,  that  was stupid too,” Molly said. “Believe me.”

The others evolved into arguing where the line of what they considered cool ventured over into the line of stupidity. Cressida glanced over to April’s new table as she continued dicing silently, a small twinge of guilt in her stomach still.

 

*

 

It wasn’t until after last lesson that she got to talk with the trio of boys again, and this time, she was determined to know whether or not her theory had been correct. Molly had ventured towards the girl’s bathroom in search of Margo leaving Cressida to walk to the dungeons alone.

She did not head in the direction of the dungeons, however.

Instead, she took the Grand Staircase and headed upwards.

It hadn’t taken long for her to scout out Thomas and James within the crowded halls of the castle and follow them all the way up to the hallway full of portraits. Cressida always hated this hallway, it was too loud and distracting.

She peered around the corner to see if James and Thomas had walked far enough ahead for them to not spot her, but to her annoyance, they were gone.

She’d only looked away for a second. How could they have possibly-

“Did you want something, Knightly?” James asked, appearing behind her.

Cressida spun around surprised. “How the fuck did you-” She stopped, her eyes honing in on an ugly piece of fabric hastily wrapped under Thomas’ arm. The same piece of fabric she had seen a few times with the trio of boys last year. “Why do you carry that around with you?”

Thomas shoved the fabric into his book bag. 

“Top secret Gryffindor information,” James conceded.

“Is it your safety blankie?” She teased in a baby voice.

“Ha, ha,” James said falsely. “How’s your search for the clue coming along, Knightly?” 

“I figured it out,” Cressida said confidently.

“Oh yeah?” James asked with a smile. “Go on then, tell us.”

“Sirius or Remus. They’re the original pranksters.”

“Not quite,” Thomas said.

“But they have to be!” Cressida insisted. “They’re a part of that Marauders group you’re obsessed with!”

James looked over his shoulder at her. “We wouldn’t make it  that  obvious, Knightly. Give us some credit.” He checked his watch and then turned to Thomas. “Ten minutes before our Quidditch meeting. We better start heading down.”

“Oh no you don’t-” Cressida said storming behind them but it hardly mattered as there seemed to be a disturbance a few meters ahead that stopped the two boys instead. All of the portraits were shuffling.

The three of them moved forward to see what the commotion was about.

A figure was running through the different frames towards them.

“Mini Prongs!” Sirius shouted, coming up to them by invading every portrait hung on the wall. He stepped over an Irish wolfhound that had been sleeping and its medieval owner shook his fist as Sirius moved through his frame. “I need answers!”

“Join the club,” Cressida huffed.

James paused, facing the portrait of the African Savannah. Sirius was shooing away an overly interested giraffe. “Answers about what?”

“My life,” Sirius panted. “ Our  life, what happened to us all.”

“Hasn’t Lupin told you all of it?” Thomas asked.

Sirius shook his head, his mane-like black hair falling in his face. “Stubborn bastard won’t tell me a thing, just that it all went wrong. He says I’m better off  not  knowing. I know I died, and obviously, he died, and I know that Peter did something bad but… how bad could it be really? I mean, we were all best mates. Maybe it was a misunderstanding.” 

Both boys looked knowingly at each other, and then James turned to Cressida. “We’ll see you later, Knightly.”

Cressida frowned at the dismissal. “But-”

It was no use. James and Thomas had whispered something to Sirius and then continued on through the corridor at a fast pace. They didn’t even pause to say hi to Rose as she passed by them. Sirius lingered in his frame for long enough to have to shoo the giraffe away once more, and then he too started leaving, his face in a thoughtful frown.

“What was that about?” Rose asked, coming to a stop beside Cressida.

“Sirius wanted James to tell him what happened while he was alive.”

Rose’s face fell slightly. “Oh. Better him than me.”

“It was bad then?” Cressida asked.

Rose gave a grave nod. “Bad isn’t the word for it. Even Shakespeare would have a hard time coming up with their level of tragedy,” she said, continuing on as well.

 

*

 

Cressida eventually returned to the common room to find her friends playing an elaborate game of wizard chess.

“No luck with the portraits again?” Jac asked as Cressida slumped on the sofa beside her.

“I’m still convinced it’s them,” Cressida replied. “But the boys aren’t giving anything away.”

Margo moved her chess piece and won the game with a celebratory  “whoop!”  while Felix cursed at it irritably. He had been one move away from winning it for himself.

The rest of the evening continued on at that pace, which meant no further progress unless it was to do with wizard chess.

By around two in the morning, Cressida still had yet to sleep.

Her theory on the Marauders having the clue wouldn’t leave her mind. She had to be sure the boys weren’t lying to her to throw her off its scent. And so, waiting long past curfew to avoid the inevitable hindrance from Valentina, Cressida slipped Rasper through Jac’s bed curtains to wake her up, and the two of them snuck up to the sixth floor hoping that for the first time in three days, at least one of them would be in a frame.

“What makes you think we’re going to get better answers in the middle of the night?” Jac whispered as they crept through the halls.

“There will be no interruptions this way.”

Rasper went ahead around the corner. The two girls waited and when Rasper’s head poked back around to check their whereabouts, they knew the coast was clear.

“I’m fairly certain the Gryffin-gang will still be looming this late at night,” Jac said as they rounded the corner to where the secret hideout was situated.

There were voices coming from up ahead. Cressida put her wand light out and they continued creeping forward.

She held her hand out to stop Jac just before they reached Sirius’ portrait. The voices were coming from inside it.

“They told me everything, Moony,” Sirius was saying. It sounded like he was mid-argument. “How could you keep that from me?! I deserved to know!”

“I didn’t want to upset you, Sirius,” Remus’ voice came. He sounded exhausted.

“You couldn’t have kept it from me forever.”

“I would have told you eventually. I just wanted you to remain like this for a little longer,” Remus insisted. 

“Clueless, you mean?”

“Yes,” Remus shot back. “You didn’t have to go to James for answers on it all. He’s only heard it from Harry anyway-”

“Don’t get me started on Harry and Mini Prongs!” Sirius said fiercely. “James had a kid, Moony! With Lily Evans! And I missed it! McDonald owes me twenty galleons for saying they’d eventually get together-”

“Don’t make light of it, Sirius. I know this must be killing you,” Remus said softly.

The two girls glanced at each other, unsure whether they were intruding or not.

There was a sniff. Cressida looked back toward the portrait.

“He looks like him… James. Same goofy smile and all,” Sirius was saying now. “It’s like I’m looking at him. Like nothing’s changed. It’s like we’re not…”

“Dead?” Remus finished for him. Sirius’ composure was slipping. “You should have seen Harry. He looked even more like James but he had Lily’s eyes. This James doesn’t have Lily’s eyes. They’re the same colour but… but they’re not Lily’s.”

Cressida watched as Sirius led his head on Remus’ shoulder. “They told me everything that happened, Moony,” Sirius wept. “That it was all for nothing. That they,  we,  all died. And  Pete !” He exclaimed then furiously. “Merlin, I should’ve known that little rat would be the downfall of us all- I just… I just don’t understand why he did it. He loved James more than any of us… it doesn’t make sense.”

Remus tapped Sirius on the back comfortingly. “You’re lucky your memories are before it all, Padfoot. It’s better hearing about it than living it.”

Sirius lifted his eyes to Remus. “I should have been there for Prongs’ kid-”

Remus cupped Sirius’ face. “You  were , Sirius. James would be so proud of what you did while you were alive.”

Cressida peered closed only to discover Sirius was crying and Remus was carefully wiping away the tears with his thumbs. She wondered then what Remus Lupin and Sirius Black had been like when they were younger- or rather when they were both young. Sirius’ portrait hadn’t lived through the tragedy Remus’ had. They didn’t share the same memories past a certain point and yet it didn’t seem to matter. Sirius looked at Remus as though he hung the moon and Remus looked at Sirius as though he’d do it all again just to see him once more. How could even a portrait express and harness that much love and loss?

“Not one of us got a happy ending,” Sirius was saying now.

“Harry did in the end. That’s all that matters,” Remus replied soothingly. “And now look at us. We get to watch his son grow up and pull pranks even we couldn’t think up. We get to exist alongside each other-”

Sirius broke away from Remus. “It shouldn’t have ended like this.”

“This is far better than the reality of what happened. I would take any version of you over nothing.”

“This version of me is useless!” Sirius snapped. “This is the version that cowered before my mother! That ran away! You grew up, Moony. You fought the war-”

“And a part of me will forever wish I hadn’t,” Remus replied coldly. “I made a lot of mistakes.”

Sirius folded his arms across his chest then, fully embodying his younger age. “Like marrying my baby cousin, you mean?”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Oh, let it  go , Sirius-”

That was when Cressida decided to leave them to it before she had to witness them go into a full lover’s quarrel.

She nudged Jac and the two of them crept back the way they came.

“That was… a lot,” Jac said once they were in the safety of a secret passageway.

“They’re often like that I’ve noticed,” Cressida replied, perching Rasper on her shoulder. “I suppose that’s what happens when you have a history with someone.”

“We didn’t get any answers.”

“No,” Cressida sighed. Her theory was starting to fall apart in her own mind. James and Thomas had told her that Sirius and Remus didn’t have the answer. That they weren’t  quite right .

But then, she thought suddenly, they weren’t the only two members of the Marauders.

“It’s James,” Cressida said, more to herself than anything else.

“This was all his idea, I know-”

“No. Not our James.  Their  James.”

Jac shook her head, trying to keep up with Cressida. “But he doesn’t have a portrait.”

Cressida broke out of the passageway and didn’t stop to explain to Jac before running back to their common room.

Chapter 72: Fourth year: Part Of The Team

Thursday 13th September 2018

 

Cressida had woken Molly up and dragged her onto her bed with the curtains pulled shut with Jac first thing in the morning.

“We know who has the next clue,” Cressida said.

Molly’s interest was piqued. “Who?!”

“James Potter,” Jac said. “The First.”

Molly thought for a moment. “But there’s nothing in the castle with him on. He doesn’t have a portrait-”

“That’s where we’re stuck too,” Cressida admitted. “We thought you might know something we don’t.”

Molly sat back on her knees, her brow furrowed in deep concentration. “There are newspaper articles from during the first war in the library-”

The door clicked open and Felix walked in. He poked his head through the bed curtains to find the three girls. “Having a mother’s meeting, are we?”

“You’re here early,” Jac said as Felix sat beside them on the bed.

“Vonce was snoring, couldn’t sleep.”

“They think James Potter has the next clue,” Molly filled him in. Felix opened his mouth. “The first James.” Felix’s mouth closed again, his question clearly answered.

“But we can’t figure out if he has anything in the castle we can go to,” Jac huffed.

There was a beat of silence.

“Doesn’t James’ granddad have a plaque in the trophy room?” Felix asked nonchalantly. They all stared at him. “He was Quidditch captain, right? They all get a plaque and a team picture.”

Molly stared at him as though she was amazed she hadn’t thought of that herself. “Felix, since when do you remember anything helpful?”

Felix shrugged, shoving his hands in his pyjama pockets. “I do when it suits me.”

“Well, come on then,” Molly said hurriedly. “Let’s go.”

She grabbed her uniform and disappeared into the bathroom.

Once the four of them had hastily gotten ready by the orders of Molly, Margo finally stirred in her bed.

“What are you lot doing, it’s barely breakfast time?” She asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“No time to explain,” Molly said hurriedly opening the door to leave. “We’ll meet you in lessons!”

Margo frowned and rolled back over in her bed. The remaining three followed Molly out.

The four Slytherins completely skipped breakfast and instead ran up to the Third Floor, checking all the doors for the one they were looking for.

Eventually, Felix came to a stop and read the plaque attached to the wall beside the door.  “Trophy Room. No smudging.”

Cressida pushed the door open slowly, leading the group inside.

They entered a large room with shelves covered with cups and trophies and walls covered with plates, shields and medals. Some of the cups were moving and floating, while some produced red sparks and smoke at random intervals.

“Wow!” Jac gasped looking around the impressive room.

Felix was looking at a particular cluster of trophies and tapped the glass they were concealed behind curiously. Cressida left him to it and walked forward in search of what they were looking for.

Molly gestured to a trophy case up ahead. “Quidditch cups and whatnot we’ve won over the years.”

“Wood’s dad won this one,” Jac noticed as she pointed to a cup mixed in on the shelf. “In fact, he won most of these by the looks.”

“Jesus, Mol, half your family is on these,” Cressida said, reading all the names.

Felix had joined them now, staring into the cabinet and reading the names. “Her family is all over this place. There wasn’t a Weasley or a Potter that hasn’t done something great for-” He caught himself guiltily.

“Gryffindor?” Molly finished for him irritably. “No point denying it just because I’m here. I know my family have all been winning trophies for Gryffindor for decades.” 

“Sorry,” Felix said uselessly.

“Look!” Jac said then. “Your dad is on here too.” She moved sideways to reveal a cabinet full of names of Prefects and Head Boys and Girls. If anything this made Molly’s mood worse. She moved forward and stared at her dad’s name on the list of Gryffindor Prefects silently.

Felix and Jac stood on either side of her staring at it as well.

Cressida moved back to the Quidditch trophy cabinet. There, she saw a plaque that read  ‘James Potter. Gryffindor Chaser and Captain ’. There was an old red jersey hung up behind it in the cabinet. The name ‘POTTER’ and underneath it read ‘1972-1978’.

Jac came and stood beside her. “What’s that?”

“What?” Cressida asked.

“That label hanging from the collar,” she pointed out.

Felix and Molly came over to investigate. “That shouldn’t be there,” she said.

Felix produced his wand.  “Alohomora!”

The glass clicked open and Cressida reached her hand in, being careful to not bring the display crashing down around them. The label fell away from the shirt in her hand.

The group crowded around it as Cressida turned it over. The familiar scrawl of James Sirius Potter covered the back of the paper.

‘For the second act, you need to locate the contrary cat.’

“It’s a second clue,” Molly said.

“They really went all out on this rhyming theme,” Felix muttered.

Cressida pocketed the next clue and shut the cabinet. She moved out of the room and ventured back into the halls of Hogwarts. The group of Slytherins followed dutifully behind her.

“Where to now?” Jac asked, rushing to keep up with Cressida.

Cressida rounded the corner to their Charms classroom. The trio of boys were waiting outside the class, leaning back against the stone wall in conversation.

James looked up, spotting them first with a grin. “Alright, knightly?”

She stormed up to him, pulling out the first clue and placing it in his hand. “We figured it out. It’s your sodding name.”

“Congratulations,” he said, crumbling the clue up and discarding it somewhere in his robes. 

Thomas produced a piece of parchment and ticked something off with his quill. “It was originally going to be Peeves but we couldn’t get him to agree to give it to you without the threat of him ruining it for his own amusement.”

“Well, we figured it out anyway, so now what happens?” Cressida asked.

“Only five more to go,” Fred smiled as Flitwick pulled the door open.

The three Gryffindors slinked inside the classroom while the Slytherins remained stood there.

“We’re going to be doing this until Christmas, aren’t we?” Jac complained.

“If we’re lucky Knightly just beat the answers out of them and save us all the time,” Felix said, stepping into the class along with Jac.

Cressida turned to Molly. “Figure out the next clue after class?” 

Molly nodded. “Obviously.”

 

 

Sunday 16th September 2018

 

It hadn’t taken a genius to decipher the second clue, but Molly felt proud of it nonetheless. It had taken just over a day of thinking before the answer came to them. The three girls and Felix had been sitting in the common room long after curfew with a pot of tea between them as they stared at the tiny bit of parchment containing the clue.

“Could be Mrs Norris,” Felix had suggested.

“They’re not stupid enough to try and attach something to Filch’s cat,” Molly insisted.

They all froze in place then, worried they’d heard a noise. Once Felix nodded, a sign they could continue without being caught, the conversation carried on. Cressida had to admit, not having the secret room to conspire in was getting annoying now. They couldn’t do it in their room for fear of Margo throwing a fit if she saw them, so the common room was the next best option, but that had the risk of Valentina trotting out on her high horse to give them all a detention.

“I don’t see why not,” Jac continued with their speculating. “They did steal her at the end of last year, I bet they could attach a note to her no problem.”

Molly and Felix looked at her perplexed. “ That’s  where Mrs Norris went for a week?” Molly asked.

“They eventually gave her back no harm done,” Cressida defended them.

“Filch nearly beat me with the stuffed cat because he saw me walking near his office one evening,” Felix told them. “Thought I had something to do with it-” He had flung himself backwards abruptly as Rasper pounced on his slippers. “Stupid cats in this castle are going to be the end of me, I’m telling you!”

Molly reached down and pried the cat off of Felix’s shins to stop him from complaining. Rasper gave a signature raspy meow at being held and hindered from attacking Felix- which had become his favourite pastime over the last four years.

“Cressida,” Molly said slowly, staring at Rasper as he continued to meow in protest. “James is familiar with your cat right?”

“I guess,” Cressida answered, still staring at the parchment deep in thought.

“And he wanders about the castle by himself when you’re not watching him, yes?”

Cressida looked up then, curiously. “Suppose so.”

Molly set her eyes on Cressida. “Where does he go, exactly?”

Cressida didn’t have an answer.

Their next quest for the third clue became clear as day.

 

*

 

Cressida sauntered up to the Gryffindor table at breakfast, interrupting Fred who had been re-telling a story from over Christmas.

“Oi, Oi, Knightly,” James had said, gesturing for Fred to stop. “To what do we owe the pleasure?” 

Cressida placed the second clue down on the table in front of them. “Rasper led us to a tiny gap in the wall near your tower. We found the third clue stuffed inside it.” 

The third clue had been just as cryptic as the last two. It had read,  ‘Without further ado, an unlikely accomplice has the next clue.’  Cressida doubted this one would be solved as quickly as the previous one.

Thomas checked something off his list. 

“How did you know Rasper would go there?” She asked.

“He sneaks into our common room through it sometimes,” Thomas said, pocketing the list again.

“We tell Winky to leave ham there for him to have a midnight snack,” Fred admitted.

“He goes to you three when he’s not with us?” Cressida asked, surprised.

“Told you we were growing on him,” James grinned.

“Or he likes free ham,” Cressida said, rolling her eyes and turning away.

James abruptly got to his feet to stop her from walking away. “Hang about. Isn’t it Slytherin’s tryouts today?”

Cressida looked back over her shoulder. “Yeah, why do you ask?”

James lowered himself back into his seat. Thomas and Fred tried to sneakily glance over to the Slytherin table at the other end of the hall. “Just… if any of your lot are trying out,” James said carefully. “Tell them good luck.”

Cressida narrowed her brow and followed the boy’s eye line to her usual table. All of her friends were absent that morning but Scorpius and Albus were sat in their usual spots. This morning, Scorpius seemed to be the one doing all the talking while Albus sat there staring at his pancakes in thoughtful silence.

“Is Molly risking it this year?” Fred asked then, bringing Cressida’s attention back to them.

“I doubt it,” Cressida admitted. “She’s probably going to use the excuse of the newspaper to get out of it again.”

“When’s that going out?” Thomas asked curiously. “I miss Finnigan’s silly drawings.”

Cressida shrugged. When Margo tried asking Veronica about it a few days ago the older girl simply huffed and walked away. “Veronica hasn’t called a meeting.”

“But you’re still covering the tryouts and games like normal right?” James asked. “It’ll be weird if you don’t.”

“Why would it be weird?” Cressida asked.

James shuffled as his two friends turned their eyes on him. “Just that, well, we got used to having you around before a game and all-”

“And Jamsie likes it when you talk him up,” Fred chimed in, smiling mischievously at Cressida. 

Cressida turned again ignoring Fred’s antics. She noticed Albus and Scorpius were absent from the table as well now. “I’ll talk to Molly,” she said to the Gryffindors over her shoulder. “She’ll know what’s going on with the newspaper before anyone else around here.”

“Our tryouts are tomorrow afternoon, in case you were interested in coming along to it,” Thomas offered. “Rose is trying out.”

Cressida nodded as she started leaving. “I’ll see if I can make it.”

She headed down to the dungeons in search of her friends only to find the common room empty of their presence. She peered her head into their dorm room and found Margo sitting on her bed. She had her Divination homework spread out in front of her.

“You’re a Sagittarius, right?” She had asked at the sight of Cressida. “Trelawney wants us to outline the basic personality types of all the star signs.”

“Yeah,” Cressida answered quickly. “Where’re the others?”

 “Hell if I know,” Margo said, not looking up from her parchment. “What’s Jac’s star sign?”

“Taraus.” Cressida lingered in the doorway thinking for a moment about where her friends could have disappeared to.

“James is a Leo, in case you were wondering,” Margo said then unexpectedly.

“So?”

Margo looked up finally. “Leo’s are very compatible with Sagittarius’ according to the book.” Cressida simply stared back at the other girl, offering no comment. “Jac’s going to have a hard bit of luck though. Taraus isn’t compatible with Aquarius, which is what Fred is.”

“Right,” Cressida said then, being very grateful she had the foresight to drop Divination before she had to learn about this nonsense. “Well, good luck with your divine powers and all.”

“Thanks,” Margo said, going back to her work and not picking up on Cressida’s sarcasm.

Cressida quickly left the room again, checking once more that her friends weren’t lurking in the common room, before heading elsewhere in the castle.

She’d made it up to the ground floor of the castle before she found Felix coming down the grand staircase toward her.

They both asked the same question as they met at the bottom. “Have you seen Molly?”

Both of them shook their heads in response, seemingly at an impasse.

“Not in the dorm room?” Felix asked hopefully.

“No,” Cressida said, glancing around in case she appeared in the crowd. “And I’d avoid going in there unless you want Mystic Margo to tell you who you’re compatible with.”

“Oh, fuck, I forgot about that stupid essay Trelawney set,” Felix huffed. “Do you reckon she’d let me cheat off her?”

Cressida started moving, wondering if Molly might have gone out onto the grounds for some fresh air. “If you want a decent mark I’d cheat off Jac instead.”

Felix followed along beside her. “Great, now all we have to do is find her. She’s M.I.A along with Weasley”

Cressida paused as they broke out onto the paths. The Quidditch stands loomed in the distance. “You don’t think she’d-”

Felix laughed before she even asked the question. “Molly’d sooner chop off her own foot than subject herself to that.”

Cressida started heading towards the pitch. “Don’t be so sure.”

The two Slytherins neared the changing room tents and found a familiar figure pacing in front of them. It was Albus, the look of deep contemplation and a thousand thoughts rushing through his head plastered on his face as it often was.

“I don’t suppose we can turn around and not get involved this time?” Felix whispered, spotting him as well but Cressida had already started walking towards the younger boy regardless. Felix huffed, reluctantly following behind her still. “If this ends in more family drama, I’m going to start charging for counselling services.”

Cressida shoved Felix away as she approached Albus. “What are you doing lurking down here?” She asked him.

Albus spun around at the interruption, gulping nervously. “Trying out.”

“For Quidditch?” Felix asked.

“No, for the ballet,” Albus shot back dryly. “ Yes , Quidditch. I’m meant to be meeting Scorpius on the pitch in five minutes. He wouldn’t shut up about how excited he was at breakfast. His dad bought him a new broom and everything. Offered to buy the whole team brooms if he got a position, in fact. Some weird tradition to ensure team morale according to Scorp. My dad said it’s a bribing tactic. He’d never let me ride a broom bought by Scorpius’ dad.”

Felix made a notion like he agreed with the sentiment and Cressida elbowed him in the stomach. She turned her eyes back on Albus. “Do  you  want to try out?”

Albus’ face entered a new level of contemplation. He was going to have frown lines by the time he was fifteen at this rate. “I’m good at Quidditch. Really good. I used to beat James sometimes-”

“So, what are you waiting for?” Cressida asked.

Albus shrugged, his eyes scanning the Quidditch stands looming ahead of them. “I don’t know. Something to make me move, I suppose.” Cressida suddenly realised this is what James had been referring to at the breakfast table. He couldn’t just come up to his brother himself. He knew it’d make him even more reluctant to go through with it. Especially once he had heard about the broom situation. It would have been a disaster waiting to happen if James had been here for this conversation.

She moved behind the smaller boy and started pushing him forward. “Wait, no! I didn’t mean you!” Albus protested, trying to dig his heels in.

“Too late,” Cressida said relentlessly. “Get your ass on that pitch and make us proud.”

“But-” Scorpius came into view. He was holding two brooms. Cressida stopped pushing Albus forward, letting him stand up by himself. “Thank you for that,” he said after a moment. “I needed it.”

“Happy to help,” Cressida nodded. “And good luck… from all of us.”

Albus glanced back at Cressida, catching the meaning behind the sentiment. With a final nervous gulp, Albus started moving forward of his own accord this time. They both watched as he met up with Scorpius and the two walked onto the pitch together.

“Can I start that betting pool now?” Felix tried. “Potter vs Potter-”

“No,” Cressida said instantly. “Come on, we still need to find Molly.”

The two Slytherins started heading back up to the castle in search of Molly when they found the ginger witch bounding down the path towards them instead. Jac was running behind her, struggling to keep up.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Felix said as she came to a stop in front of them. “Where’ve you been?”

“Sorting out affairs,” Molly answered cryptically. She took off towards the Quidditch pitch again, the three Slytherins now following behind her.

Cressida turned to Jac, trying to make sense of Molly’s off demeanour. “Where were you?”

Jac gave an unhelpful shrug. “I found her coming out of McGonagall's office like this.”

“Are we going to the tryouts?” Felix asked, his face contorted in confusion. 

“We are,” Molly confirmed.

“Why?” Jac asked.

“Cressida has to do her column on the tryouts,” Molly said over her shoulder at them.

“I do?” Cressida asked, running up alongside her as they approached the pitch. “But I haven’t been told to do it this year.”

“She’s got a point. Veronica hasn’t told us to do anything yet-” Jac started.

“Veronica’s not in charge of the newspaper this year,” Molly interrupted her.

“Then who is?” Felix asked.

“I am,” Molly said, grabbing a spare broom from the stands and walking onto the pitch for the tryouts.

The three remaining Slytherins stood in silence as they watched Molly mount her broom and wait for Hooch to blow her whistle.

“That’s confirmed it,” Felix said after a few minutes, watching them take flight. “Weasley’s officially snapped.”

Cressida’s eyes followed Molly as she flew through the air like a natural, taking part in the drills they had been set. Albus and Scorpius followed slightly behind her. They were all smiling, despite being yelled at by the newest Slytherin Captain from down below. “Does anyone have a quill and some parchment?” She asked. “I have a column to write.”

 

Monday 17th September 2018

 

Since the revelation of Molly being in charge of The Chatterbox and also now being the Slytherin team’s newest Chaser, the other four Slytherins had hardly left her alone.

Scorpius and Albus had made the team as well. Albus as the newest Seeker and Scorpius was a Keeper. Apparently, the newest Captain was much more agreeable and actually allowed Second Years on the team, unlike Faro. Nothing more had been said about the alleged broom gifting from Draco Malfoy, however, which Cressida was slightly glad about if only to lower Albus’ blood pressure.

Besides, Cressida could hardly deal with anyone else’s issues when she felt like she had a bubbling-over pot in the shape of Molly Weasley II to deal with herself, and it was clear the rest of her friends shared a similar viewpoint.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Jac had insisted, although, it wasn’t clear which thing she was referring to.

“Cressida has her secrets, why can’t I have mine?” She had replied. She had her homework spread out in front of her.

“Because my secrets don’t involve running a newspaper or joining a sports team,” Cressida shot back.

“Are you sure you can handle all this pressure, Molly?” Margo had asked, sounding genuinely concerned for her friend, which was a rare occurrence.

“It’ll be fine,” Molly insisted. “I devised a homework schedule so we don’t fall behind. Chatterbox meetings will be announced at the beginning of every week. And Quidditch practice will slot in amongst all of that.”

“And what about spending time with us?” Felix asked.

Molly refused to meet his eyes. “We’ll still see each other-”

“In between meetings and doing homework doesn’t count,” Felix said then.

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other.

“Why don’t we head down to watch the Gryffindor tryouts?” Cressida suggested, trying to lighten the mood again. “We could use a break.”

Molly promptly shut her textbook and got to her feet. “Good idea. See-” she said pointedly to Felix. “This counts as hanging out.”

Margo got to her feet with a huff. “I’ll see you guys later then.”

“You’re not coming?” Jac asked as Margo sulked off towards the dorm room.

“Not bloody likely.”

Molly had already reached the exit. “Come on then, we have a Charms essay to peer mark when we get back!”

“Great,” Jac said dryly as the three of them followed her out of the common room.

Cressida and Jac hung back slightly, watching Felix curiously. He was frowning.

“You upset about Molly being too busy for us now?” Cressida asked as they meandered through the halls. She was in no rush to get to the pitch anytime soon, unlike Molly who had stormed ahead.

“No,” Felix scoffed.

Jac quirked her eyebrow knowingly at Cressida. The two girls joined forces, following behind Felix. “You sure sound it,” Jac said.

“Well, I’m not,” he insisted.

“You know, Felix, you could always help Molly with the homework schedule,” Cressida suggested. “I’m sure she’d be grateful for it and it’d free up some of her time to have fun with us.”

“Plus, it could give you two some alone time,” Jac said then.

Felix spun around to face them. “Why would I want alone time with Weasley?”

Cressida shrugged. “You’ve hung out alone with Molly before.”

“Yes,” Felix said slowly. “But why did you say it like that?”

“Like what?” Jac asked innocently.

“Like  that ,” he said pointedly. 

Neither girl answered his question.

“Why don’t you tell Molly how smart you are?” Cressida asked instead.

Felix turned away again, avoiding a First Year that nearly ran into him. “I’m not doing that.”

“Why not?” Jac asked.

“Because she needs it. Or she did need it in First Year when everything kind of sucked for her,” Felix answered. “She  likes  being the smart one that everyone goes to. It gives her a purpose. I can’t take that away from her.” Cressida and Jac paused, staring at him in the middle of the hall. Felix realised and turned back over his shoulder, his brow narrowed. “What?”

Cressida went to open her mouth when she was interrupted.

“Knightly!” James had come down the Grand Staircase, a purposeful look on his face.

Cressida turned to Jac. “Get him to crack,” she whispered. 

“You think he actually likes her back?” Jac grinned back quietly.

“Just keep him talking,” Cressida instructed.

Jac nodded and set off after Felix. Felix, feeling as though he had unknowingly walked into a trap based on the mad grin encasing Jac’s face, tried running away from her by sprinting past Potter up the staircase who was patiently waiting for Cressida.

“What was that about?” James asked, watching the two of them go.

“Can’t tell you,” she replied. “Top-notch Slytherin information.” James pursed his lips, hiding a grin at her using one of his common phrases. “Was there something you wanted?”

James snapped back to the reason he had come in search of her. “Do you want to go somewhere quieter?” He asked, glancing around at the crowds passing them on the staircase.

“I would suggest the secret room but we both know I can’t get in it at the moment.”

James walked down the last step and started leading the way out to the grounds. “Come on, Knightly. We both know you’re enjoying it. It’s giving you something to do.”

Cressida didn’t admit or deny that fact as she followed beside James. He was heading towards the Black Lake. In the distance, Cressida could hear Madam Hooch’s whistleblowing.

“I hear my brother made the team,” James said finally, coming to a stop at the water’s edge. “Rose mentioned it this morning at breakfast.”

“He did,” Cressida said, watching him bend down and pick up a stone.

He skidded it across the water. “Were you there?”

Cressida turned her eyes on the side of his head. “I was... but you  should have been there to watch him from the stands. You’re his brother”

“He likes you better,” James said, but he didn’t sound upset about it. “I would have thrown him off if I’d gone. He’s always hated a fuss.”

It still took Cressida slightly by surprise just how polar opposite the two Potter brothers were. 

James passed her a stone.

She glanced down at it. “What do you expect me to do with this?”

“Skip it,” James said, grabbing a stone for himself and getting three skips on the water’s surface before it sank with a pleasant plop. Cressida wondered whether any of these would land on the giant squid’s head and piss it off.

“I dunno how,” Cressida said, dropping the stone back to the ground. That wasn’t exactly the truth. She’d tried skipping rocks over a duck pond back in Conwell a few summers ago long before Hogwarts. Albie and his gang had appeared shortly after her, but they mainly tried to hit the ducks instead and Cressida never really took to skipping rocks again after that.

“Albus was really good if that’s what you were wondering,” she went on. “Made Seeker. I took notes but Molly said I couldn’t show you until the article went out in the paper.”

“Dad would be proud,” he said, looking out over the water. “Convince him to write home and tell them-”

“Longbottom probably already has,” Cressida said before he could finish. “And if not him then McGonagall.”

James grinned. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He picked the stone up again and forced her to take it.

“I told you, I don’t know how-”

“I’ll show you.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “You don’t need to-”

James had come up behind her and she abruptly shut her mouth.

“Here,” he said, grabbing her hand containing the stone in his. He used his other hand to position her body in front of him.

Cressida’s back hit his chest, her hands and arms tingling at his touch. 

James' hand moved down to her waist, turning her slightly. Her eyes flickered sideways to see he was smiling, looking out at the water. She didn’t have the heart to tell him she could, in fact, skip a stone.

“Ready?” He asked. She could feel his breath on her neck.

She nodded, not being able to find words at that moment.

His hand tightened on hers and a second later, he was forcing her hand to throw the stone.

They watched as it only skipped twice before sinking into the abyss. 

His hands were still on her waist and hand. “Not bad,” he said. 

Cressida didn’t move away. She could still feel his chest on her back, his breathing had picked up.

“I bet you do this with all the girls,” she said then, trying to force some nonchalance back into their interaction. She could see it now, girls swooning and fluttering their eyelashes at Potter as he lined them up to skip a stone. But then again, she wasn’t far off doing that herself at this moment and she was silently cursing herself for it. 

“Nope,” he said casually. “Just you.”

If anything that made it worse. She was very aware of his hand still loosely resting on her waist like it was burning into her skin and embedding his essence there. “And what makes me so special?” She asked.

She could hear the hum in his voice as he prepared to speak. “You’re Knightly.” His hands moved away from her. “And, regardless, everyone should know how to skip a stone.”

She turned to face him properly. He had taken a step back. If he had felt anything, any change in their dynamic, he wasn’t showing it on his face. “Oh. Right.”

“Ron taught Aunt Hermione how to skip stones while they were hunting Horcruxes,” he said then. “She’s really good at it now.”

“Right,” she repeated, feeling at a slight loss for words.

“Do you want me to show you again?”

An offer. Why did he keep offering to do things out of the blue?

“Don’t Fred and Thomas need you somewhere for something pratt-like?” She asked, trying to put some space between them again, wishing violently for the prickling in the pits of her stomach to go away again.

“Nope,” James answered. “Quidditch tryouts. They’re preoccupied for the next hour.”

Cressida stared down at the stones glistening by the water’s edge. “So no interruptions then?”

“None,” he grinned as though he had planned this perfectly.

She chanced looking up at him. “And you want to waste it skipping rocks with me?”

James kicked a stone up into his hand impressively. “Do you have somewhere you’d rather be?”

She thought for a moment. James threw the stone up in the air and caught it, awaiting her answer. “No,” she said truthfully.

James dropped the stone on his foot and tried to play it off as Cressida turned to face the water again. “But if you tell anyone I’m doing this shit, I will deny everything.”

She bent down to pick up a rock, glancing back to see James now had a goofy grin on his face as he watched her.

He messed his hair up as he moved forward, taking Cressida’s hand in his once again. “It’ll be our secret.”

Cressida relaxed back into James this time, letting him manipulate her arm. She got four skips on the water this time.

 

*

 

Cressida raced through the castle toward the Great Hall for dinner. She had gotten rather preoccupied with Potter beforehand, and even after the two of them had grown bored of skipping rocks, they had just sat on the water’s edge talking about random nonsense.

At one point Cressida had mentioned the giant squid and James had vowed to one day get the thing to surface in front of the whole school. She commemorated him on his ambition, knowing it was unlikely to happen.

Then, just as the sun was beginning to go down, they realised how long they had been together and took off toward the castle to not arise any suspicion- not that there was anything to be suspicious of, she kept reminding herself. The whole afternoon had been entirely platonic… but she still felt the need to keep it a secret.

Cressida had reached the doors before James. In fact, she wasn’t sure if he’d even followed behind her because when she looked back for him, he was gone.

Shrugging it off, she walked into the dining hall and sat at her usual table.

“You’re awfully red,” Margo observed as Cressida poured herself some pumpkin juice.

“What were you doing?” Jac asked.

Cressida finished her glass in one gulp. “Wandering around.”

“You missed the tryouts because you were  wandering around ?” Molly asked suspiciously.

“What’s the big deal?” Cressida asked. “You had Jac and Felix there-”

Jac sank down in her seat guiltily. “Actually, those two decided to abandon me as well,” Molly said, cutting up her gammon.

Cressida turned to Jac. “Why didn’t you go?”

“You said to keep Felix talking,” she defended herself. “And he kept running away.”

“He locked himself in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom for twenty minutes knowing Jac wouldn’t go in there after him,” Margo chimed in. “I was the one that found them.”

“Great, so while I was watching the tryouts and doing Cressida’s job, you were all off goofing around-”

“Hey, I didn’t ask to be the victim of a weird interrogation,” Felix said pointedly. “I still don’t know what it was all about anyway. I swear you girls have all lost your minds.”

The doors burst open and the trio of Gryffindors strode into the hall with Fred at the forefront, demanding everyone’s attention. James was with them, but he was too busy focusing on Fred to notice Cressida looking at him.

“Hey, Redwick!” Fred shouted across the Great Hall. The rest of the group looked up to see the boy smirking in their direction accompanied by the other two. “I tried out for the Quidditch team today!”

Molly rolled her eyes knowingly. Thomas and James had started doubling over with laughter. “How did it go?” Jac shouted back, giving in to their antics.

“Oh, it went fabulously!” Thomas laughed.

“You could say he’s a real  keeper!”  James burst out laughing even harder.

Fred’s face fell slightly as he looked at the two boys. “That was supposed to be my line,” he complained which only caused the boys to laugh harder.

From the teacher’s table, Cressida saw McGonagall smiling fondly at the interaction.

“Merlin, Jac. Just agree to be his sodding girlfriend already,” Molly sighed beside them.

Jac was blushing and smiling, amused by the joke. “Yeah… maybe I will,” she admitted. She composed herself and settled back into her seat. “I just want him to keep working for it a little bit longer.”

Felix made a puking motion behind Jac’s back and Cressida threw her bread roll at him.

She glanced back over to the boys as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table to a round of applause from their House. James’ eyes looked up and met Cressida’s. The two of them smiled at each other from across the hall.

 

Chapter 73: Fourth Year: This Just In...

Tuesday 25th September 2018

 

Molly’s first meeting as the leader of the Chatterbox hadn’t gone to plan.

Upon walking into the room, they found that everyone had beaten the Slytherins there, all turning to stare at them as they walked in.

“The meeting wasn’t supposed to start until five,” Molly had said to them.

“Veronica always started at four,” Michael said pointedly. He sat beside Arabella and Declan and it took everything in Cressida not to throw them out of the room altogether.

Molly frowned at him. “Well, Veronica didn’t have Quidditch practice, so now it starts at five.”

It didn’t get much better from there.

No matter what Molly or any of the Slytherins suggested they do to improve the newspaper, the three Ravenclaws had a counterargument for why their idea wouldn’t work.

When Jac suggested they do a raffle, Michael said they had no money to buy a prize.

When Felix said to do a fund-raiser to  get  money, Declan said people aren’t going to waste what little money they get at Hogwarts on a newspaper.

Cressida was inclined to agree with that sentiment, not having any money at all for herself, but she didn’t voice it in fear of seeming like a traitor to their ideas. Plus, she refused to agree with anything that comes out of Declan’s mouth.

Abandoning the raffle idea with disappointment, Molly suggested they do a schedule of all the activities happening around Hogwarts for people to attend.

“And who’s going to write about these clubs?” Arabella asked. “Everyone who’s interested in those things is already going to them.”

“And we haven’t got enough writers on this newspaper to go and cover the clubs every time they happen,” Pier has said, however, he was much kinder about it than the Ravenclaws were being. 

Glancing around the room, it was clear they had lost a few over the years since the newspaper was first put out. Victoire had left, Henry and another girl had aged out of Hogwarts last year, and now Veronica wasn’t here. They were down numbers with nobody to pick up their slack.

“And everyone’s already got a column to write,” Declan said with the underserved ease of someone who thought he was in charge. “Are you planning on doubling our workload to counteract this problem?”

This had stumped Molly.

Once the hour was over it felt like they were worse off than when they started.

Molly had walked straight back down to the dungeons and locked herself in their dorm room without another word for the next two hours.

Felix and the two girls had taken to pacing in the common room, hoping she’d come out eventually.

Margo had tried to venture into the dorm room to get her to come out once they’d hit the first-hour mark. She’d returned five seconds later refusing to try and redeem the situation any more and the other Slytherins hadn’t seen her for the rest of the day either.

“Do you reckon we should try and go in there again?” Jac had asked after another hour had passed.

Cressida sighed. “Best not. She’s either rampaging in there or thinking. We don’t want to interrupt either one of those.”

Felix ran his fingers through his sandy curls agitatedly. “This is ridiculous. I can’t believe they did that to her, those sodding smart-arsed bastards. They just shot down everything she said.”

Jac slumped into a chair. “They did have some good points though. We don’t have any money for the newspaper, and we do need more members to cover everything Molly wants us to.”

Cressida leant back against the stone wall thoughtfully. There had to be some way around it, she just had to  think .

“The truth of it is, they didn’t listen to us because we’re Slytherins and they hate us,” Felix said then, sinking down beside Jac. “I don’t see why Molly doesn’t just fire them from the newspaper altogether, honestly.”

“She can’t,” Cressida said. “They’d claim we were being unfair and getting rid of them because of their house.”

“ They’re  the ones not listening to us just because we’re Slytherin!” Jac pointed out.

“But they’re smart,” Cressida explained. “They know how to twist the system in their favour.”

Her eyes trailed along the common room. Slytherins of all shapes and sizes meandering through, getting books from the bookcase, doing homework together, playing chess and exploding snap. No different to any other common room, other than the fact they were shrouded in greenery. Same shit, different year.

She pushed herself up from the wall. Jac and Felix’s attention snapped to her.

“Where are you off to now?” Felix asked.

Cressida didn’t answer, her sights set on what she needed at that moment. She crossed the common room and came to a stop at a small round table situated by the bookcases where three Slytherins were sat in silence together.

“Any of you three good at writing?”

Thane, Valentina and Goyle lifted their eyes to Cressida standing in front of them. 

“Why’s that?” Thane asked, his interest clearly piqued as he closed his book in front of him.

“The Chatterbox needs more people.”

Valentina continued filing her black painted nails. “Why should we waste our time engaging in a newspaper that we hardly care about?”

“Molly’s in charge this year. Not everyone is willing to listen to her and take us seriously-”

“Shocker,” Thane chimed in dryly.

“The basics of it is, we need more people on the newspaper regardless,” Cressida continued. “So why not let it be a bunch of Slytherins?”

Valentina paused in her manicure. “You want to smoke them out?”

“It’s harder to talk over us if we outnumber them,” Cressida reasoned.

Thane smirked, looking at Goyle beside him. The stocky boy nodded back, an ugly half smile creeping onto his face like it was unnatural for him to do such a gesture. “What says you, Val?” Thane asked then, turning to his third counterpart.

Valentina glanced up at them though her unnaturally long eyelashes. “Can Goyle even write more than three sentences?”

Goyle grabbed a quill that got lost in his oversized hand and started scribbling on a piece of parchment. When he lifted it up to show them, it read;  ‘bitch’ .

Thane grinned, tapping Goyle on the shoulder. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Valentina scoffed and returned to filing her nails. “What’s in it for us?”

“Pretty much nothing,” Cressida admitted. “But you’ll get the satisfaction of shutting the people who look down at us up.”

Valentina offered no other comment but met Thane’s eyes. The two of them looked at each other as though having a silent conversation in their minds. Once it was seemingly done, Thane picked his book up again, returning to his position before Cressida had come over.

“We’ll see you at the next meeting.”

Cressida tried not to show the relief on her face as she nodded at them and then turned to leave.

On her way back to her friends, she spotted Albus sitting alone near the fireplace tending to a small potted plant. She moved toward him instead.

As she got closer, she recognised the plant as the Puffapod, and unlike his brother, he was clipping its leaves with great care not to touch the pods.

“Extra homework?” She asked to ease into the conversation.

Albus didn’t glance up from his handiwork. “I’m helping out Rose. She was hopeless at not getting them to explode. Longbottom said she could take it away and bring it to him tomorrow for her mark.”

“But you’re doing it for her?”

Albus looked up then, his face deadpan. “I had to steal this one because she exploded the first two. It’s safer for everyone if I just do it.”

Cressida sank to the floor beside him. “Your brother was hopeless at it as well.”

Albus scoffed. “He did it on purpose. He’s like a cat to catnip where Puffapods are concerned.”

Cressida watched him for a moment. He had an incredibly fine touch. Better than Jac had in all their Herbology lessons. “You could easily harvest those pods for personal use, you know.”

“I know.”

“Don’t let James figure that out.”

“Do you think I’m that stupid?” Albus sat back on his knees, dusting the leaves and soil from his hands. “Speaking of James; here.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bit of parchment paper.

Cressida took it curiously, only to find it was the next clue.

‘This spell doesn’t require sharpness. Look for me in the darkness.’

She looked back at Albus as he used his wand to hoover up the minute bits of dirt he had spilt on the ornate rug. Cressida sat there in mild shock, looking at the clue and Albus sat in front of her silently. ‘An unlikely accomplice’.

“James made me take it. Said if I didn’t play along, I’d ruin the fun,” Albus admitted. He met her eyes. “Isn’t that why you came over here in the first place?”

Cressida hesitated momentarily. The truth was she had gone over to him to ask if he wanted to join the newspaper, it seemed like his kind of thing. Plus, she liked to check in on him every now and again. “It was just a hunch,” she lied. 

“Don’t know why he wanted me involved in this,” Albus said then. “I don’t even know what you’re looking for.”

She looked down at the parchment in between her fingers again. “Maybe he just wanted you to feel included.”

He considered this for a moment then returned to fussing over his plant. “How many have you found?”

“Three with this one.”

“There should only be two more after this one,” he told her. “I overheard Thomas and Fred talking about it.”

Cressida pocketed the clue and got to her feet. “Thanks.”

Albus got out a textbook and flicked through it until he came to a page on magical plants. “Let me know when you’ve finished it. James doesn’t usually put this much work into something unless it’s worth it, so the prize must be a good one.”

Cressida bit back a remark about how the prize had already been hers to begin with. “Will do.”

She looked over to where she had left her friends to find they were no longer there. With a small bit of hope on how to proceed, she walked towards the dormitories. As she got closer, she heard Felix’s loud voice coming from inside and she was glad Molly seemingly was over her momentary isolation.

However, when she pushed the door open, she was surprised by what she found inside.

Jac and Felix were sitting on the end of Molly’s bed, and the stone wall opposite them had been covered by a white bed sheet. On the white sheet were the two previous clues and random theories written in pen all tied and pinned together with red string.

Molly stood in front of it, cupping her chin thoughtfully as though the answer would just jump out at her any minute now. Rasper was at her feet, chasing and tying himself up in the leftover red yarn.

“ This  is what you’ve been doing for the last two hours?” Cressida asked walking into the room fully.

“Had to do something to take my mind off everything else,” Molly muttered in reply.

“Isn’t it great?” Jac asked, clearly impressed with Molly’s hard work.

Cressida’s eyes trailed over the makeshift investigation bored again. “It’s… something.”

Insane  hadn’t been the right word, but it was in a similar ballpark to what Cressida was thinking.

“Yeah, well, Molly’s going to figure out the next clue before the rest of us do with this and then you’ll be laughing,” Felix chimed in.

Cressida reached into her pocket and pulled out the clue Albus had given her. “I’ve got it here.”

Felix looked toward Molly concerned. “Oh, boy.”

Molly turned and stared at it in silence for a long, drawn-out moment. “Right,” she said tightly. “Well, then this was pointless.” She turned back to her board and tugged on it, causing it to come cascading down to the floor in a pile of pins, string, and parchment. She stepped over it with an odd sense of calm. “I’m going to get some tea. Let me know what the third clue is when I get back.”

The three remaining Slytherins watched her go in silence, and then once the door slammed shut behind her, they all glanced at one another.

“You probably should have kept the next clue to yourself for a day or two,” Jac said then.

“ Gee , you think?” Felix replied sarcastically.

 

 

Tuesday 2nd October 2018

 

They had decided to take a break from deciphering the clues for a few days for the sake of Molly’s sanity. Even once Cressida had admitted to her in the bathroom late into the night that Albus had just given up the clue randomly, Molly still seemed slightly enraged that it had been Cressida to receive it and not her.

Maybe Felix’s mad logic on Molly since First Year had been right. She needed a win. She needed to be the smart one, and by the looks of it, if she wasn’t the one to figure out the scavenger hunt it’d be the end of her.

And so, Cressida kept the fourth clue safely in her pocket at all times so it didn’t go missing. The torn-down clue board still lay in a pile in the corner of their dorm room. When Margo had tried to clean it up, Molly had told her to leave it there and Margo knew better than to mess with one of Molly’s projects, even if it did look more like rubbish at the current moment in time.

Besides, the group wanted to do everything imaginable to ease their moods as the week drew on, knowing that the second meeting of  The Chatterbox  was coming up and that it would likely go as badly as the first one did.

Jac had panicked that if they couldn’t get the others to listen to Molly and do their columns with any sort of coherency then they’d never get the first issue out on time. Cressida had told her not to worry, but she hadn’t told the others about the trick she had up her sleeve. She doubted they’d one hundred per cent be on board with including the likes of Valentina and Thane in this situation, but someone had to do something to try and get the upper hand.

She had done it for Molly’s sake.

“So,” Felix had started the conversation as they made their way down to Potions. “After this lesson, do you want us to come and watch you during practice, Mol?”

Molly didn’t offer a response straight away. It was clear the looming pressure of the meeting this afternoon was weighing down on her. She’d hardly spoken all day.

“If you want to,” Molly said finally. “We’re just doing drills again though. That’s all Barney Lee likes doing for practice apparently.”

“Maybe you can take his place next year too,” Margo said then. They knew she had said it to try and lighten the mood, or make a joke, but based on the stone-like expression that overtook Molly’s features, it hadn’t gone down as well as she had hoped.

Margo shut her mouth and continued walking alongside them in silence after that.

They came to their potions classroom and walked inside.

Slughorn was already instructing them to pair up with their designated groups for the year and continue on with their ageing potions.

The trio of Gryffindors were at their table already, laughing and joking around. Fred had made a white beard grow from his chin and was hobbling around pretending to be an old man.

Cressida broke away from her friends and slinked over to them. At the sight of her, Fred tugged on his beard and it disappeared like a blind being rolled up into nothingness.

“That’s a very stern face, Knightly, something wrong?” Thomas asked.

“Molly’s in a mood,” she whispered to them. “ Please  can you not do anything to make it worse?”

James leant across the table closer to her. “What’s set her off?”

Cressida took her seat beside him with a huff. “She’s running the newspaper this year-”

“We heard about that,” Thomas chimed in. “McGonagall apparently asked her to take over it herself, according to Hagrid. I bet Molly’s really good at running that sort of thing.”

“She’s good at telling everyone else what to do, more like,” Fred joked.

“That’s the problem. The Chaunceys and some of their friends are on the newspaper and they’re shutting down everything Molly or any of us says,” Cressida explained.

James’ brow furrowed. “Those pricks. They don’t deserve to be on the newspaper if they’re going to be like that.”

Cressida checked Molly was still out of earshot. “Well hopefully, it’ll all be resolved at the meeting later tonight.”

James grinned, a knowing glint in his eyes as he looked at Cressida. “What are you planning on pulling, Knightly?”

Molly had appeared at the table and the three Gryffindors snapped into pretending like they had been having a completely different conversation.

“I reckon it’ll be Hufflepuff,” Fred said randomly.

“For what?” Molly asked as she took her seat beside Cressida.

“Who Gryffindor are up against for our first match of the season,” Thomas explained, playing along.

“Oh,” Molly said, her mood deflating even more. “So that means we’re up against Ravenclaw?”

James immediately tried to backpedal. “Well, we don’t know for sure. We could just be talking shit.”

“Yeah,” Thomas agreed, enthusiastically. “Talking shit. That’s all we’re doing.”

Cressida fought the urge to put her head in her hands. They really were useless when put on the spot.

Fred nudged Molly with his elbow. “But even if you are up against Ravenclaw, it’ll give you a chance to put them in their place though, right, Mol?” 

“Yeah, with you as Slytherin’s Chaser they don’t stand a chance,” James said then.

A smile flickered onto Molly’s features. “Yeah,” she said. “I suppose you’re right.” She got out her textbook and turned to the required page. “I’m going to go and round up our ingredients ready to start.”

With that, Molly slid out of her seat again and disappeared to the other end of the classroom. Cressida turned her grey eyes on the three boys to find they had smiles plastered over their faces.

“And you thought we’d make it worse,” Fred said jokingly.

“In fact, I’d wager we made it better,” James agreed.

“You waffled and got lucky,” Cressida told them.

“The ol’ Potter special,” Thomas laughed.

“You weren’t much better,” Cressida pointed out teasingly. “You agreed with everything this pratt said.”

James put an arm around Thomas’ shoulders. “Well, in most instances I’m the mastermind. Wood’s just my apprentice in stupidity.”

“What does that make Fred?” She asked.

“Freddie’s the pretty face,” Thomas said in all seriousness. 

Fred lifted his head as though he was about to argue but then he nodded in agreement. 

Cressida rolled her eyes, getting out her notes ready for the lesson.

James reached into his robes and produced the annotated book, placing it down on the table in front of them. He listed off the first two ingredients and Thomas and Fred took to preparing them. James, in his usual fashion, shuffled closer to Cressida, ignoring any desire to make progress in the lesson himself.

“What have you got planned for the meeting?” He whispered.

Cressida leaned over so she could read the book for herself. “Nothing of your concern,” she replied quietly, comparing the notes in the book to Slughorn’s instructions.

James kept his head bowed low to hers. “Oh, come on. We make a good team. Why not use me?”

Cressida met his eyes at his phrasing. He was grinning, but that didn’t fill her with the confidence of whether he knew how it sounded or not. She could never tell with James lately.

“Use you for what?” She asked, deciding to ignore the innuendo hanging between them.

James' grin grew. “Whatever you need.”

Cressida’s neck bristled. She broke the eye contact, adding the diced bat tongue to the pile of ingredients Thomas and Fred had already started. “As tempting as it sounds, Potter, this is important for Molly. I can’t get distracted.”

“So I’m a distraction for you?” James smirked. Cressida didn’t answer him. He leant back on his stool with a smug expression. “Good to know.”

Molly came up beside him, her arms full of ingredients and apparatus.  “Potter!”

James jumped and fell backwards off the stool at the sudden interruption. “What?! Merlin, Mol! Give a guy a heart attack why don’t you?!” James complained, climbing back into his seat.

Cressida continued grinding up banana peel completely innocently, trying not to grin.

Molly emptied her arms onto the table and then snatched the book from under his nose. “Slughorn could have walked past and seen this book any second!” She whispered fiercely, hiding it under a second book. “You can’t just leave it out in the open like that.”

“Alright, calm down,” James said. “Sluggie’s not seen it yet so we’re in the clear. No big deal.”

“Want to rephrase that, Jamsie?” Fred laughed from across the table. 

“Yeah, how many times have we lost the book because  you’ve  put it down somewhere?” Thomas joined in.

James folded his arms across his chest. “You’ve left it places too, Wood.”

“Under your instruction,” Thomas countered. “As you said, I’m just the apprentice in stupidity.”

“You’re the reining master, as you so humbly put it,” Fred teased.

James was frowning like a petulant child. “You know, I really hate it when you two team up against me. This is like Hallowe’en all over again.”

Thomas and Fred dissolved into laughter at James’ expense.

“Let’s just start brewing this potion so we can get our mark,” Molly instructed them, taking charge. “And don’t forget, at least one of us has to come back tomorrow evening and check on the cauldron to see it’s not gone bad.”

Cressida nudged James under the table to get his attention. She pushed a note towards him. It read; ‘ me and you?’

James read it and looked up at her with a lopsided grin and a small nod of agreement.

Cressida returned to making her way down the ingredients list nonchalantly. “Potter and I can do it.”

Thomas and Fred made wolf whistles at the declaration. Molly rolled her eyes. “Cressida, are you sure-”

Cressida shrugged, ignoring the two boys across the table and James’ eyes on her. “What’s the worst than could happen?”

Molly huffed, clearly unhappy about the decision but in no mood to fight it. “Whatever, as long as you two don’t do anything to mess it up, it’ll have to do.” She checked the annotated book. “Who has the smashed banana?”

“Not us,” Thomas said, checking over the pile of objects he and Fred had compiled.

“I’m doing the skins,” Cressida said.

Molly scanned over the messy table in front of them. Finally, her eyes honed in on a pile of peeled bananas yet to be smashed beside James, but he was too busy staring at Cressida to notice. “James, focus!” Molly lectured him. “The ingredient is right there in front of you!”

James finally refocused on the task at hand. “Oh, right, sorry.” He reached over and grabbed the annotated book, pulling it out into the open, and reading how many he had to smash together.

“Ah, my top students!” Slughorn exclaimed, appearing beside them out of nowhere. James quickly shut the book on the table while Molly glared daggers at him. “How’s the brewing process coming along?” Slughorn asked obliviously

Nobody spoke for a moment, all eyes were on James trying to discreetly move the book out of Slughorn’s eye line.

“Going great, sir,” Cressida jumped in. “We’re just about to start adding it all together.”

“Good, good,” Slughorn said pleased. He tapped his bulbous stomach as he inspected everything they had lined up. “Now, are you doing two cauldrons… because, as you know, it would be unfair for a team of five to work together on just  one  cauldron? Especially, five such as yourselves.”

Fred slinked out of his seat and reappeared, plonking a second heavy cauldron down on the table. “We are now, sir.”

Slughorn smiled again, the wrinkles deepening on his face as he did so. “Excellent. Now, if you follow the instructions carefully I can’t imagine you’d have any problems with the potion. If all goes well, I may even use yours as a demonstration. You lot always seem to miraculously brew my potions perfectly. Must be a family nac.”

The group of five all gave non-committal nods and mummers of agreement.

“Yes, well then,” Slughorn said, scanning the table one last time. “In that case, I shall leave you to it.” Slughorn gave a jolly nod of his head and then stepped away from the table. James let out a breath of relief, his hand moving off the cover of the book. “Oh, but Potter-” Slughorn said, reappearing. James turned to the professor with a strained smile. “I see your book is quite old and torn up. If you should ever need a new one I’m happy to lend you my personal copy. Think of it as a favour.”

Molly’s eye started to twitch.

“Thanks, professor, but I like this one,” James said calmly. “Dad’s a big advocate for using old books instead of new ones.”

Slughorn’s smile grew at the mention of Harry Potter. “Oh, yes. Quite right, too.”

With a pleasant little hum to himself, Slughorn left the table again, and this time he stayed away.

Once it became clear the professor was going to be occupied for the next ten minutes trying to decipher whatever creation Jac and Felix had conjured up, Molly snapped back to life, hitting James over the head with the book in question.

“I. Told. You. To. Be. Careful!”

“I didn’t know he was about to swan over here,” James defended himself, ducking to avoid Molly.

“It’s an amazement we’ve got away with using this book for so long,” Fred said, pummelling the basil leaves together in the grinder. “Even uncle Harry was better at using this book than you and that’s saying something.”

“Uncle Harry was better at a lot of things than James,” Molly pointed out. “Following instructions for one.”

“Hey! At least I have twenty-twenty vision. That means I’m genetically superior to my two pre-successors,” James countered.

“Your dad is the literal hero of the wizarding world,” Thomas reminded him.

James shrank back down slightly. “And if he had my perfect vision, he might have found those Horcruxes even faster.”

Fred clapped him sympathetically on the back before taking off through the classroom for more ingredients to start the second batch. “I’ll be sure to tell him you said that next time we’re all having dinner.”

“Don’t you dare!” James begged running after him.

 

*

 

Once the lesson had finished, Molly looked visibly relieved. Despite being on good terms with her cousins now, she was still subject to getting frustrated when they did the opposite of whatever the task at hand called for in any particular situation. Several times during the brewing process she had to remind them to double-check the right book before adding an ingredient, and she had to remind Thomas not to put his hands near his mouth after handling the ingredients unless he wanted to poison himself.

“It’s like herding sheep,” Molly had sighed to Cressida as they packed away. “I don’t know how you make putting up with them look easy.”

Cressida smiled, glancing over to the trio of boys peering into the two cauldrons of bubbling potion, trying to guess which one they had accidentally dropped Fred’s wand into. 

“And don’t forget!” Slughorn called as the class started to filter out. “Someone must return tomorrow evening to stir and check on your potions! I will leave the classroom unlocked as I have other matters to attend to so I am trusting you to act responsibly. No funny business!”

With this, the old professor sent a sideways glance to the trio of boys, only to find them fishing Fred’s wand out of the left cauldron and dripping potion all over the table top. He shook his head and turned away.

Jac and Felix had appeared at their table. “Ready for practice, Mol?” Jac asked.

“Is Margo coming this time?” Molly asked, putting her bag on her shoulder.

The four Slytherins looked to where Margo was walking out of the classroom behind Jeremiah Vonce.

“I would say she’s once again preoccupied,” Felix said.

“Oh well,” Molly shrugged, moving away from the table. “Cress, are you coming?”

Cressida had nearly packed up when she realised her friends had already gone ahead. Some of her notes were still on the table but she reasoned she could collect them tomorrow when she came back later in the evening. “Coming!”

She slung her hobo bag onto her shoulder and rushed to meet her friends as they left the classroom.

Once they were in the hall, Cressida spotted Thane leaning against the wall opposite with a book in his hand. He looked up at her as she stepped out of the classroom. She silently panicked. “Actually, I forgot my notes in the classroom. I’ll just meet you guys there,” she lied to her friends.

The group suspected nothing out of the ordinary and continued on without her, listening to Felix rambling about having to finish an Ancient Runes essay in the stands while the other two practised.

Cressida lingered in the doorway of the class, trying to avoid looking directly at Nott. Fred and Thomas passed by her on their way out.

“Don’t forget your date with Potter tomorrow,” Fred said teasingly over his shoulder.

“Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do,” Thomas joined in.

Cressida sent them a rude gesture and the two boys continued on with amused looks on their faces.

Once they had rounded the corner, Cressida thought it safe enough to approach Thane.

“What are you doing lurking down here?” She asked.

Thane placed his book in his back pocket. “Waiting for you.”

“Why?”

“Val wanted to know what the game plan for this meeting was?”

“Oh, um-”

They were interrupted by a third party joining their conversation. James had appeared beside Cressida, her notes held out in his hand. “You left these on the table,” he said passing them to her. His attention snapped to Thane with an odd expression on his face. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Potter, this is Thane,” Cressida said reluctantly.

“Nice to meet you,” Thane smiled politely. Cressida suspected Thane was acting like he didn’t already know of Potter for her sake and she was slightly grateful for it.

“You too,” James said, somewhat tightly.

“You know, our dads are familiar with each other,” Thane said then in an oddly cheery tone.

Cressida internally sighed, her gratefulness and hope for an easy interaction fizzling away. She could already tell what was about to come out of his mouth before he said it. 

“Oh really?” James asked.

“Yeah,” Thane nodded with an easy smile. “Theo Nott.”

James' face went as hard as stone. “Right,” he nodded, puffing his chest out slightly. “Still in contact with his old friends, is he?”

Thane was unphased by the accusation. “If you’re referring to Draco Malfoy then yes. He got us tickets to the World Cup, I believe he ran into your lot there.”

Cressida stepped in before it could go any further. “Was there something else you wanted, Potter?”

“No… just, you know-” James started, casting a glare at Thane. “Checking in.”

Cressida steered James down the corridor by the shoulder. “Thanks, but there’s no need. I’m a big girl, I can handle myself.”

“You’re five foot two, there’s nothing big about you-”

Cressida shoved James up the stairwell and turned back towards Thane with a stern face. “Was that necessary?” 

“He likes you,” Thane smiled, ignoring her question.

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Tell Valentina the meeting starts at five. Don’t be late… or early.”

Thane retrieved his book from his back pocket, opening it to a dog-eared page. “I’ll relay the message.” 

Cressida’s eyes followed him as he walked towards the Slytherin common room and disappeared inside it.

She headed in the opposite direction, but when she reached the stairs she saw James standing there with his arms across his chest. “Care to explain yourself?”

Cressida sighed, moving past him on the stairs. “There’s nothing to explain.”

“Knightly, are you aware of his family history?!” He asked, pursuing after her.

“He’s not like them-” James scoffed in disbelief. “Don’t make a big deal out of this, James.”

“Is he your friend or something?”

“Not exactly.”

“ Not exactly , what does  that  mean?!”

Cressida broke out onto the ground floor. “He’s in my house. I talk to him occasionally. That’s all there is.”

“Well, I don’t trust him.”

“You don’t know him.”

“I don’t have to know  him , I know his family,” James pressed. “He’s bad news.”

“Fucking hell, are you even hearing yourself right now?” Cressida asked, spinning around to face him. 

James’ stance softened significantly. “This isn’t about him being a Slytherin before you think that-”

“Could have fooled me.”

“I just don’t think hanging out with someone like him is a good idea.”

“Why’s that?” She challenged.

James faltered, running a hand through his messy hair. “It’s just not. He hangs around with a bad crowd. He could get you in trouble-”

“Oh, you mean more trouble than you do?” Cressida shot out. James’ jaw clenched as he looked at her. Cressida lowered her gaze, regretting her words slightly. “I just need him to help with this newspaper thing-”

“I offered to help you earlier,” James reminded her haughtily. “Tell Nott to back off and I’ll do it.”

Her back went back up again. “Would you have  actually  helped or just caused your usual level of chaos? Because I need this to work for Molly, and although you don’t like to accept it, Potter, not everything can be solved by jokes and distractions.”

“I don’t always make a joke out of everything,” James said. Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “Okay, fine,  most  times I do but if it was important to you or Molly I wouldn’t have.”

“I need Thane for this plan to work, okay? It has to be a Slytherin,” Cressida tried to explain. James’ arms folded over his chest, his opinion on the matter unwavering. “Why are you acting like it’s a big deal?” Cressida asked, turning away again.

“I’m not,” James said defensively, following beside her. “In fact, it’s so  not  a big deal, I won’t bring it up again.”

“Good,” Cressida said.

“Good!” James repeated, breaking away and heading up the Grand Staircase.

Cressida paused and took a deep breath. She debated running after James but when she turned to do so he was already too far gone.

She headed out to watch the Quidditch practice and take her mind off it instead.

 

 

*

 

Once five o’clock hit, the group of Slytherins made their way up to the newspaper meeting to face the disaster waiting to happen.

The mood was made worse by the fact Cressida had hardly spoken since her small spat with James. It was hardly worth stressing over, she kept trying to convince herself. She and James had had far worse arguments than that. But still, arguing with James Sirius Potter always made Cressida feel confused about how to proceed. 

In fact, she’d come to rather hate arguing with him. She liked messing with him and teasing him and taking him down a peg when he deserved it, but she didn’t like arguing with him anymore. Not when it had real stakes.

Stupid Potter,  she cursed him in her head as they made their way through the castle.

It appeared as though the rest of her friend’s moods weren’t much better, but for varying reasons.

Jac hadn’t done well at practice, having nearly gotten hit with the Bludger herself four times despite her claiming she was hitting and dodging them correctly.

Felix hadn’t been able to wrap his head around the essay that needed completing and none of the other girls had been there to offer to help him.

Margo had apparently seen Jeremiah Vonce chatting up Avery Bell and so that sent her into a downward spiral of tears and self-pity.

Molly was about to walk into the meeting unprepared on how to regain control of it.

They were doomed.

“Game faces people,” Felix said, trying to breathe some life into them as they came to a stop outside the designated classroom.

Molly heaved a heavy sigh. “Let’s get this over with.”

They pushed the door open and entered, but what they found wasn’t the group of Ravenclaws waiting to berate and shoot down any idea they had, but some new faces sat at the tables waiting patiently.

Apparently, this threw the three Ravenclaws too, as they were watching the newcomers with narrowed brows and frowns.

“It’s about time you got here,” a voice called out.

Looking toward the front, they found James Sirius Potter sitting and talking causally with Penelope McFadden.

Cressida didn’t know whether to be relieved or annoyed at the sight of him.

“James?” Molly questioned, moving to the front without the rest of the Slytherins. “You hate writing. Why are you-”

“He was worried the newspaper had been cancelled this year because we hadn’t put an article out,” Penelope explained on his behalf. 

“Well, as he can clearly see, it’s not been cancelled so he can go,” Margo said primly, taking her usual seat. When she turned, expecting the next seat over to be empty, she was met with Rose Granger-Weasley offering her a little wave. Beside her sat Lana Longbottom offering a timid smile. Margo sank down in her seat with a huff at the realisation. “Dear God, they’re everywhere now.”

“As much as this pains me to say, Smithers is right,” Arabella called out. “This newspaper is in shambles enough as it is. We don’t need the rest of her family here to dig it further into the ground.”

“I say we give them a chance,” Jacob suggested. “We could always use the extra pairs of hands.”

Michael and Declan glared in his direction. “What  exactly  can they do for us?” Declan asked.

“Well,” Molly said. “Why don’t we discuss it and see how we feel?”

“I’m up for that idea,” Penelope agreed happily.

There was a grumble of dissatisfaction from the Ravenclaws.

Felix, Jac and Cressida took their seats at the desk behind Margo.

“What are you two doing here?” Felix asked, leaning forward to get the two Second Year’s attention.

“Molly mentioned that she needed numbers for the paper during practice with Albie,” Rose said. “And Albie told Scorpius, who told me in the hall, so I told Lana.”

“And we thought we’d come along to help,” Lana continued.

“We’d be really good at it,” Rose went on enthusiastically. “I’m really good at getting gossip out of people and Lana overhears almost everything because she’s so quiet.”

“Can you be quiet now then?” Margo grumbled. “Molly’s trying to talk.”

When Margo turned her back to focus on Molly, Rose pushed her nose up which caused Lana to stifle a laugh.

“Cressida,” Molly said. “Could you come here for a moment?” Cressida got out of her seat again and moved to Molly at the front. “Did you invite James here?” She whispered.

“No,” Cressida said truthfully.

“Keep an eye on him then,” Molly said gravely. “Nothing can go wrong in this meeting.”

Cressida nodded, reluctantly turning and taking the empty seat beside James.

Neither one acknowledged the other, instead keeping their focus purely on Molly. 

Cressida checked the time ticking by on a clock hanging on the wall then glanced back at the door. 

“Looks like your Slytherin hero is late,” James muttered, pointedly checking his watch after a few more minutes had passed.

Cressida turned to glare at him when the door suddenly opened. 

In strutted, Valentina, Thane and Goyle like they already owned the room. 

Everything went silent.

Thane found Cressida amongst the desks and sent her a wink. She felt James stiffen up beside her. She averted her gaze, staring at Molly at the front hoping that having James here wouldn’t derail her plan.

“What are you doing here?” Michael asked them.

“Joining the newspaper,” Valentina said, taking a seat at the furthest table away. Thane and Goyle situated themselves on either side of her. Molly seemed stumped on what to say from the front. Valentina gestured out a hand. “You wanted more people, right?”

“Right,” Molly agreed, somewhat baffled.

“So here we are,” Valentina smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“When you heard we needed people, we didn’t mean you,” Declan said.

Thane lifted his head. “Why not us?” He challenged.

Declan didn’t want to give his reasoning outright and instead deflated in his chair slightly.

“Oh, I see what this is,” Arabella said mirthfully, her eyes scanning the additional Slytherins. “Knightly has gathered her troop of obedient boyfriends and their friends in the hope of scaring us off.”

James was on his feet instantaneously, ready to snap at the remark. Thane hadn’t flinched from his relaxed position. Cressida forced James back down into his seat.

“Cressida didn’t ask them to come,” Molly said, trying to reclaim some decorum in the situation. 

“She asked me,” Thane said. Cressida turned her eyes to him as a warning. If Thane knew she was glaring at him, he didn’t show it. His attention was only on the people in front of him. “I’m a good writer. I know how to put a column together in less than an hour. I’d be a valuable asset to your otherwise struggling newspaper and Cressida knows that. She was helping you all out.”

Cressida’s glare turned into blatant staring.

“What about Potter?” Michael asked.

The attention shifted to James, as did Cressida’s silent stare.

“Yes. What about Potter?” Margo emphasised haughtily.

James glanced at Cressida before answering. “Just thought I’d come along and see if you needed a hand with anything.”

Molly scanned the room. “I think we should be good for numbers now if Valentina and Nott are serious about staying?”

Michael, Arabella and Declan glared at the three Slytherins. Valentina gave them a tight smile. “Deadly.”

Molly nodded. “Right. Well, then there’s no need for you to stick around, James. Thanks for offering though.”

James got to his feet and started leaving the classroom. As he left, he made eye contact with Thane who gave him a little wave. Cressida didn’t have to see the look on Potter’s face to know it wasn’t a happy one.

“Okay, so now we have the extra hands we needed, we can revisit some of our ideas from last week,” Molly said.

“You mean the club updates?” Arabella asked with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “I still think that’s a bad idea.”

“I’d love to know more about the clubs,” Lana called out, her voice barely filling the room. “I’m too nervous to go around asking people to find out when they are, Rose has to do it for me most of the time. Having it in the newspaper would take away a lot of the stress.”

Arabella’s scowl worsened, whereas Molly’s face brightened. “Thank you, Lana. Do you think you could be in charge of it?”

"Oh." Lana sank down slightly but gave a small nod. “I- I can try.”

“I can do fortunes!” Rose called out much more confidently. “I’m really good at them. I once said that mum was pregnant and then two days later she found out about Hugo-”

“That’s just dumb luck,” Declan shot her down.

“And I called that Albus would be in Slytherin way before James or anyone else,” she continued on pointedly. “ And  I knew James would have a Quidditch accident that ended him in the hospital wing.”

“You weren’t even here for that,” Arabella pointed out.

“I had a dream about it,” Rose answered.

This was met with a few hums of speculation throughout the room.

“If she’s so clever, why doesn’t she do a fortune right now?” Michael challenged.

“Do I look like I have tea leaves shoved up my skirt?” Rose countered.

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Margo cut in. “ I’m  the best at Divination here so if anyone should get a fortune-telling column it should be me,” she boasted.

“I vote for wee Weasley,” Felix called out immediately.

“Me too,” Jac agreed.

“Well, that’s sorted then,” Molly decided. “Rose can do weekly fortunes.”

“I can take over Veronica’s old beauty page,” Valentina offered. “The tips in that were never really good anyway.”

“What would you know about beauty tips?” Declan chided.

“I’m sorry, is your grandmother an heiress? Have you ever had to try and salvage snagged tights? How about covering a blemish or bruise with perfect colour-correcting accuracy?” She asked dryly. “I utilize not only wizarding cosmetology but also the muggle methods, which are one of the few things they got right over the centuries.”

Declan shut his mouth with no further comeback.

“What about Nott?” Michael said then. “What could he possibly do? An article on the top ten ways to follow in your father’s tainted footsteps?”

Arabella and Declan gave little sniggers at the remark.

Thane didn’t react apart from the slightest clench in his jawline. “How about I do an article on the top ten ways to fuck your mum?” He asked. The sniggers abruptly stopped. “I hear she’s awful easy these days while your father’s away on business.”

Michael got to his feet. “Don’t you  dare  mention my parents!”

“Can’t take it, McLaggen?” Thane challenged. “You must not take after your mum after all.”

Michael went incredibly red in the face. “You fucker-”

He leapt across the room towards Thane. Goyle simply stood up and blocked his path, causing Michael to come to a rather limp stop in front of the two Slytherins. Valentina remained seated beside Thane, filing her nails with a rather bored sigh.

The rest of the room watched on in silence.

Michael paced in front of Goyle like an agitated pony. “Are you going to let your bodyguard do all the dirty work, Nott?”

“I don’t think this is the best way to proceed,” Molly called out, trying to gain some control of the situation.

“Hush up, Weasley, this is the most interesting meeting we’ve had yet,” Felix replied.

Nott got up and moved in front of Goyle with an unphased demeanour about him. “Go on then. If you’re going to punch me get it over with.”

Michael glared at him but he did not move.

“What are you doing, McLaggen? Hit him already,” Declan said from behind.

Michael shuffled again, gearing up as though he was about to go through with it. Thane didn’t even flinch.

“Oh fuck this,” Michael said, turning and storming out of the room instead. “I didn’t need his stupid newspaper anyway!”

They all watched as the door slammed shut behind him. Thane shrugged, and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it before sitting back down. “Right then,” he said, blowing out the smoke. “Shall we continue?”

Molly’s mouth opened and closed several times from the front. She glanced at Cressida and then back out at the room. “Um... shall we discuss the first issue’s title page?”

Chapter 74: Fourth Year: It's Official

Wednesday 3rd October 2018

 

It appeared as though Cressida’s plan had worked. Arabella and Declan hadn’t piped up with a complaint or contradiction for the rest of the meeting and they’d actually made good headway in getting the first issue’s layout done.

Molly didn’t say it outright but Cressida knew she had been thankful for it.

Which was why, once lessons were done and her friends were preoccupied doing homework together, Cressida tried to break away to do some thanks of her own.

“Don’t forget,” Molly called before Cressida got too far away. “You need to go and stir our potions at seven.”

“Ours is already going off,” Felix complained then. “Jac and I just went and checked on it before dinner.”

Cressida had nearly completely forgotten about her promise to check on the potions this evening and she was silently hoping James would have forgotten as well. She doubted the two of them being in the same room was a good idea after yesterday’s events.

“I won’t forget,” she comforted Molly before continuing on her way.

She crossed the common room and found Thane nestled into an armchair alone, a book in his hand and three more by his side.

He turned a page without looking up. “Come to tell me I took it too far?”

“I came to thank you,” Cressida said. “And that it wasn’t fair what McLaggen said about your dad.”

“I’ve heard worse,” Thane said allusively. “Here, I got a gift for you.” He reached into his pile of books and slid one out, throwing it to Cressida.

“The Tales of Edgar Allen Poe,” she read the title page.

“ The Raven  is my favourite,” Thane said. “Read them over. Let me know what you think.”

Cressida pocketed the book with slight confusion. “Cheers.”

Thane nodded then went back to his book.

Cressida took that as her queue to leave. As she turned the clock chimed seven. It was time to go and check on her potions.

She approached the dungeon classroom slowly, wondering whether she’d find James waiting there for her to confront her some more but as she got closer there was no sign of him.

She poked her head into the room to find the classroom completely abandoned as well.

A small part of her was hoping to see him sitting at the desk.

Shaking off that feeling, she moved to stand in front of the two designated cauldrons bubbling over with the green potion. She supposed they looked how they were supposed to. Without the annotated book she couldn’t be fully sure though.

She had picked up a ladle and started stirring the first potion in the silence of the old classroom when the door opened with a loud creak.

James stood in the doorway.

She met his eyes.

James closed the door behind him and moved to stand in front of the second potion opposite Cressida, his steps the loudest thing in the room.

“You came then?” She asked through the silence when it became clear he wasn't going to speak first.

“I said I would,” James said, matching Cressida’s movement.

They both stirred in silence for a while.

“How did the newspaper meeting go after?” James asked.

“McLaggen quit.”

James looked up over the cauldrons. “He did?”

“Nearly punched Thane in the process too,” Cressida confirmed.

“Lucky bastard,” James muttered looking down again.

“What is your issue with him?” Cressida asked, stopping in her stirring. “This can’t just be about his dad, I know you better than that.”

“I just don’t trust him,” James said.

“Well, you don’t have to trust him-”

“Neither do you,” he shot out.

Cressida turned her glare on him this time. “He’s not  evil , James. He’s actually quite nice.”

James’ jaw clenched, his eyes unmoving from the cauldron in front of him. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“He is!” Cressida insisted. James didn’t offer anything further than a small scoff under his breath. “And he did what I needed him to yesterday at the meeting. Hate it or not, you couldn’t help me with this.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not a fucking Slytherin, James,” she told him bluntly.

“Yeah, well, I still could have tried!” James insisted. “I  did  try. I showed up, on time might I add, only to find myself dismissed once the new partner in crime showed up.”

“I didn’t ask you to go there!” She snapped at him. “In fact, I think I told you to do the opposite!”

“I wanted to help!”

“I didn’t need your help!”

“No. You needed Nott’s help instead!” He yelled back. “You’ve made that perfectly sodding clear now.”

Cressida sighed, running her hands through her knotted hair. “Look, you can pout about this all you want but I don’t see what the big deal is-”

“Jac mentioned his name last year,” James said suddenly. That threw Cressida for a loop slightly. “At the time I just thought it was some random guy, I didn’t realise his last name was Nott of all people.”

Cressida’s brow furrowed. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Because you can’t go around fancying an ex-death eater.”

“Thane isn’t a death-eater, you’re just judging him on his dad,” Cressida reasoned. “And besides, I don’t fancy him.”

“You asked him for help,” James said, folding his arms across his chest.

“That doesn’t mean I have to fancy him!”

James was quiet for a moment then.

“Was he the one that offered to kiss you?”

“What?”

“Last year. You said someone offered to kiss you. Was it him?”

Cressida faltered, being caught by surprise at the question. “So what if it was?”

James threw down his ladle. “Oh, well, that’s great.”

“I  didn’t  kiss him though,” Cressida went on.

“Did you want to?” James asked, crossing the table to face her. “Would you have preferred it to have been him? Was that why it was no big deal to you when we-” James stopped himself. His chest rising and falling as the two of them stared at each other.

“You think that was no big deal to me?” Cressida asked, her voice hitched slightly. “You think I wanted it to be  someone else ?!”

“Well, did you?” He pressed.

“Did  you ?!” She asked in retaliation.

James’ mouth opened but nothing came out. His eyes lowered with a small wince. Cressida felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.

“Cressida, I-”

The door was pulled open once again. This time Beatrix and April walked in, stopping and staring once they saw James and Cressida standing there.

“Sorry,” Beatrix said awkwardly. April was looking everywhere but at James. “We didn’t know you two would be in here.”

“Don’t worry,” Cressida said, glaring at James still. “You weren’t interrupting anything.”

She turned and headed towards the door. She heard April whisper under her breath to Beatrix as she passed by. “Told you he dumped me because of her. Just look at the two of them.”

“It looks like they just broke up,” Beatrix whispered back.

Cressida slammed the door shut behind her.

 

 

Tuesday 9th October 2018

 

“Are you going to talk to him today?” Jac whispered at breakfast.

Cressida hadn’t realised she’d been glaring in the Gryffindor table’s direction since they sat down. It appeared as though April and Beatrix were on talking terms with James again, as they were currently sitting two seats away from him, but the other two boys seemed to be doing all the talking. James hadn’t lifted his attention away from his porridge all morning.

“What?” She asked, turning her eyes on Jac instead who had jabbed her firmly in the arm with a fork to get her attention.

“Potter. Are you going to talk to him today?” Jac whispered, bowing her head low so the others couldn’t hear.

“Who said I wasn’t talking to Potter?” Cressida grumbled, pretending everything was normal between them.

Jac’s eyebrows raised. “Your face. You look like you want to kill him.” Her eyes trailed over to the Gryffindor table where Beatrix had swatted Fred lightly on the arm after telling a joke. “Or someone else, for that matter,” she said, her tone dropping slightly as she watched the interaction. “I thought they weren’t talking to the boys anymore?”

“Something must have changed their minds,” Cressida said through gritted teeth.

Both girls were now glaring in the direction of the red-cladded table.

Felix threw a scone at their heads to break the staring. “Why do you two look so pissed off this morning? Is it that time of the month?”

“No, that’s in a week,” Jac answered deadpan.

Felix fought a grimace and went back to his breakfast. “I regret asking.”

“Don’t make the joke then,” Cressida told him snippily.

“Noted,” Felix agreed without argument. “It won’t happen again.”

The owls arrived overhead dropping various letters and packages to the people sat down. Cressida’s attention went upwards like it did every morning, hoping to see an owl aiming for her, but just like every morning since she came back to Hogwarts, they flew right over her. No letters like she had been promised. She was beginning to suspect Dayle was just as bad at writing to her while she was gone as her mother. She felt silly for getting her hopes up, but a small part of her was still waiting. Holding out hope that Dayle missed her while she was gone. Hoping he’d check in with her because he wanted to.

“You’ve been off since the newspaper meeting,” Molly said, pouring Cressida some fresh tea as her first cup had gone cold. Cressida’s attention snapped away from the owls.

“Yeah, I would have thought you’d have been over with the moon with how your little devious plan took off,” Felix said, pushing his tinned tomatoes away from him on the plate.

“Cressida hardly did anything amazing,” Margo cut in then. “All she did was invite more Slytherins to join the newspaper and nearly start a fistfight.”

“It shut the Chauncey’s up, didn’t it?” Jac pointed out.

“And got McLaggen to quit,” Molly said gratefully.

“McLaggen wasn’t that bad-” Margo started, but then once she saw the look on their faces, abruptly stopped talking and turned her attention to her breakfast. Felix had clearly caught it and was mouthing words to Molly across from him. 

Cressida didn't much care what Margo or Felix had to say on the matter of McLaggen. She had gone back to glaring at the opposite table, and this time, James was staring back.

“Cressida.”

She whipped around to see Thane and Goyle standing behind her.

The four other Slytherins stared silently up at them, clearly surprised and confused by their arrival.

“Yes?” Cressida asked.

Thane produced a stack of parchment from his back pocket. “It’s all proofread and ready for Monday. Val’s is in there as well.”

“I’ll take that, thank you,” Molly said, plucking it out of Thane’s hands instantly. “Yours was the last article we needed for the final draft. I’ll go and put it on the pile now before lessons.”

With that, Molly got up and promptly left the breakfast table. Margo was quick to pack up and leave alongside her, not wanting to be so near to Thane any longer than she had to, especially, with Goyle lurking over his shoulder.

“Your friends don’t trust us, do they?” Thane asked once he saw Margo running off.

Cressida nudged Felix for a response.

“Sure we trust you,” he said over-enthusiastically. “It’s your dads we don’t-”

Cressida elbowed him again, shutting him up this time.

“We should probably get going,” Jac said hurriedly, grabbing Felix’s arm and practically dragging him out of his seat. “See you around, Thane. Goyle,” she nodded as she left with Felix in toe.

Cressida tried to keep her face neutral as the two older boys lingered in front of her still.

Thane gave a thoughtful hum at the interaction that had just taken place. “Well, that went about as well as I expected, wouldn’t you say, Goyle?” Goyle gave a non-committal shrug. “Head up to class, I’ll meet you there,” Thane instructed then. Goyle gestured toward Cressida. Thane smirked, turning his eyes on her. “I think I can handle her by myself.”

Goyle gave a nod, then ducked his head before turning and leaving the hall.

Cressida watched as Thane took the seat beside her on the bench.

“Why doesn’t Goyle talk?” Cressida asked curiously.

“No one knows really,” Thane answered. “We reckon something to do with his grandparents. Either way, he’s still good company. A big softy once you get to know him. Val likes him more than the others.”

Cressida’s eyes remained on Thane as he finished off what was left of the breakfast spread in front of them. “Why are you sitting here?”

“It’s my house table too.”

“Yes, but you don’t sit with us.”

“Do you not want me to sit next to you?” Thane asked, biting into some toast. Cressida didn’t respond. “Besides,” he continued, slurping on some tea. “It’s driving your Gryffindor boy mad over there.”

Cressida’s eyes shot sideways and found James glaring furiously in their direction, his knife and fork digging into the table on either side of his plate.

Thane followed her eye line and sent James a smug smile. “I think he’s trying to intimidate me. Look how red he’s turning- where are you going?!”

Cressida had got up and started leaving before Thane could finish talking or cause any more problems. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop him from following after her as she tried to get away from him.

“I know what you’re doing,” she told him as she stormed away.

“What am I doing, exactly?” Thane asked, trailing alongside her as she joined the Grand Staircase.

“Why are you trying to piss Potter off?” She asked, turning to face him.

“I’m not trying,” Thane shrugged. “It’s just so easy-” Cressida had turned her back on him again. “Okay, okay,” Thane relented. “It’s just interesting how he is with you, that’s all. I wanted to test it. Call it morbid curiosity.”

“What are you talking about?” Cressida asked, rolling her eyes.

“He acts like you’re one of them. One of his  crew ,” Thane said, embellishing the last word. “It’s like he’s okay with Slytherins as long as it’s you lot, but Merlin forbid the rest of us get involved in the conversation.”

Cressida looked away guiltily. “It’s complicated. Their family have a lot of history with-”

“Death-eaters?” Thane finished for her. “Believe me, I know. Potter’s been trained to hate our lot and we’ve been trained to avoid his lot. It’s the way of life, Cressida. You can’t change it.”

“I’m not trying to,” Cressida said firmly.

“So you didn’t plead my case to Potter the other day?” Thane asked knowingly. “You didn’t tell him I’m not my father?”

“Well, yeah, I did but-”

“One big happy family, eh, Cressida?” Thane went on. “Is that what you’re hoping for? Slytherins and Gryffindors alike, holding hands and singing come-by-ya?”

“It’s not that far-fetched of an idea,” Cressida told him quietly as they stepped off the stairs. “He just has to get to know you.”

“ You  might be able to win him over with your allusive attitude and grungy look,” Thane said backing away. “But not all of us share the same dream. Some of us like the way things are. It’s called a status quo for a reason.”

Thane turned and rounded the corner leaving Cressida to stand there alone.

Huffing to herself, she made her way to her first lesson.

 

*

 

The day did not get much better from there. Thane’s stunt at breakfast made James’ mood even worse and the Gryffindor boy hardly spoke two words for the whole day of lessons. McGonagall found this very unusual as they were doing the bouquet spell and the only flowers James could produce from his wand were black and wilting.

“Don’t worry, mate,” Thomas had comforted him. “You’ll get it eventually.”

“Yeah, just watch what I do,” Fred said. He confidently produced a bouquet of red and yellow flowers from the tip of his wand with a smile.

“Brilliant,” James said uninterested as he rolled his wand up and down the desk with his finger. “Make two sets so I can get my mark, will you? I’m not in the mood to keep trying.”

“Merlin, Jamsie, what’s got you so down in the dumps today?” Fred shoulder barged him playfully.

James didn’t answer.

Cressida sat silently in her seat beside him, also failing to do the spell with any sort of success.

She chanced looking at him and just when she was about to open her mouth she thought better of it. She doubted talking about it in the presence of the other two boys would do much to help.

Fred leant back in his chair, getting their attention suddenly. “If you’re going to be a mopey bastard, I’m going to have to provide the entertainment today. Watch this.”

They all turned expectantly as Fred produced another set of flowers and threw them into the air like a paper aeroplane.

Cressida could see the line of flight Fred had hoped the flowers would take, however, what Fred hadn’t considered was that Beatrix Swinley sat on the desk right in between theirs and Jac’s. They all watched as the bouquet of flowers plonked itself down in front of Beatrix and she let out an amazed gasp swooping them up into her hands.

“Oh my god!” Beatrix exclaimed, whirring around in her seat to face Fred. “Thanks, Fred. I can’t believe you remembered it was my birthday, this is so sweet!”

Jac stared wide-eyed between Beatrix and Fred as the remainder of the class awed.

Fred sank low into his chair. “Shit.”

“Welcome to the dumps, my friend,” James joked glumly.

“I think that concludes today’s lesson,” McGonagall called out then, watching what had just happened over her spectacles with a frown. “Do try and use this spell with some decorum. It appears some of you will find a way to make even summoning flowers disastrous.”

Without acknowledgement, Jac packed her things and stormed out of the classroom.

Fred turned to Cressida. “She won’t freak out about this, will she?”

“Let's see,” Cressida started. “Is she your girlfriend?”

“Not technically,” Fred answered.

“Did you just  technically  give another girl flowers right in front of her?”

“Yes,” Fred said guiltily.

Cressida sent him a mock smile. “What do you think?”

Fred sighed and gathered his things, running out of the class after Jac.

 

*

 

“I am not talking to him ever again!” Jac exclaimed back in their alcove.

“Finally, something Redwick has said that I can get behind,” Margo commented over her homework.

“The flowers were aiming for you, Jac. Beatrix just got in the way,” Cressida tried to explain for the fourth time.

Felix was lead with his head hanging upside down on the sofa. His shoes were placed on the floor in front of him with Rasper taking up residency in one of them having a pleasant nap. “Didn’t we have this argument all last year? Jac mad at Swinley. Knightly mad at Cattermole and vice versa. Frankly, I’m fed up with all this relationship bullshit.”

Jac had started pacing in front of them. “I’d like to see how you handle it when you eventually get into this situation.”

Felix sat right side up again. “For that to happen a girl would actually have to express interest in me and so far, that seems about as probable as the abominable snowman rampaging through here in the height of summer.”

Molly huffed as she continued reading her book. “Girls have been interested in you, Felix, you just lack the capacity to notice.”

“Oh yeah?” Felix scoffed. “Which girls, exactly? I want names and dates.”

Molly abruptly looked up from her book, realising what she’d done. Jac paused in her pacing as she stared at Molly along with Cressida.

“Just, girls,” she lied, turning back to her book. “I heard them talking about it in the bathroom.”

Margo frowned. “No girls talk about Felix in the bathroom-”

“Yes they do,” Jac jumped to Molly’s defence. “They just don’t tell you because they know you don’t like him.”

Margo looked doubtful and went to continue arguing until Cressida cut her off. “How about I go find Fred and sort all this out so we can go back to sodding normal? Is everyone on board with that plan?”

They all gave nods of agreement.

“Are you going to fix you and Potter while you’re there?” Felix asked.

Cressida turned towards the exit. “There is nothing wrong with me and Potter!”

Just before the exit, Cressida saw Thane leaning against the stone wall with a book open in his hand. However, his attention had turned to her at her outburst as she approached.

“Not one word,” she snapped at him as she passed.

She briefly saw him hold his hands up in surrender as she stormed out of the common room.

Once she was in the halls of Hogwarts she set about her search for the trio of boys.

After looking through every secret passageway and near the lake, she eventually found the three of them near Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, and to her surprise, they were talking to Penelope McFadden.

“Come on,” Fred was saying. “Just tell me if she’s in there or not.”

“I’ve already told you, Beatrix is near the potting shed,” Penelope answered. “And boys aren’t allowed in here.”

“We’re not looking for Swinley,” Thomas said then.

“Then who are you looking for?” Penelope asked.

“Redwick!” Fred said impatiently.

“But I thought you sent the flowers to Beatrix earlier?” Penelope asked.

“I did, but I need to talk to Redwick,” Fred went on.

Penelope stared at them for a moment. “But why?”

Cressida got the impression they’d been going around in circles like this for a while before she arrived.

Thomas had spotted her lingering nearby and alerted Fred. “Knightly, thank Merlin!” He said relieved, beckoning her over. “Do you know where Redwick is?”

“Well, I know she’s not in that bathroom,” Cressida answered.

“I did tell him that,” Penelope defended herself.

Fred rubbed his eyes irritably. “No, you kept talking about Swinley.”

“Yes, she’s not here either. She’s at the potting shed!” Penelope told him firmly.

Cressida turned to Penelope, feeling herself getting caught in the revolving door as well. “Thanks for your help, I can take it from here.”

“Oh, okay,” Penelope agreed. “I heard about your relationship with Nott this morning, by the way,” she said to Cressida. “I didn’t expect you to go for someone like him, being so quiet and all, but we all agree you two suit each other in a weird, mysterious kind of way.”

The three boys now stared at her in silence. “What are you talking about?” Cressida asked.

“You and Nott are together,” Penelope said surely. “You’re really lucky too, he came fifth in the  Hot or Not  competition last year despite his reputation and all. I heard he even has a six-pack from one of the older girls.”

“ I  have a six-pack,” James grumbled with a frown.

“It’s more of a two-pack, mate,” Fred chimed in.

“I’m still growing!” James insisted irritably.

Cressida focused on Penelope again. “What on earth makes you think I’m dating Thane?”

“He sat with you at breakfast,” Penelope said, her belief in the matter unwavering. “And he showed up at the newspaper meeting because you asked him to.”

“Right, so naturally I’m snogging his face off,” Cressida quipped.

“Naturally,” Fred said, trying to hide his amusement with little restraint.

Cressida sent him a glare.

“Wait, so is Knightly really dating Nott?” Thomas asked, looking between them all. “I thought James was just being dramatic.”

James sent him a rude gesture.

Cressida ran her fingers through her hair irritably. “I’m not,” she told them firmly.

“You can’t be Nott, you’re Knightly,” Fred said, letting his amusement become full frontal now.

Penelope looked incredibly lost. “So who is she dating?”

James, for once, remained serious. “Well, apparently, it’s not Nott.”

“Who’s there?” Fred laughed. James shoved him out of the conversation.

“Right,” Penelope said, backing away. “I’ll tell the girls you’re not with him anymore.”

Cressida sighed. “We didn’t-!”

It was no use, the bathroom door shut with Penelope inside. She swore whatever happening inside that bathroom was the root of all evil in the world.

She turned to the three boys. Fred was the only one smiling. James had his arms folded across his chest, doing everything to avoid looking directly at Cressida, and Thomas still looked utterly confused.

“I don’t know why you’re finding this so funny,” she said to Fred. “Jac’s threatening to never talk to you again.”

Fred put his hands into his pockets. “Yeah, she will. She wouldn’t have let you come and find me if she was really done talking to me. Plus, I have a plan.”

“What plan?” Thomas asked. “We never came up with a plan.”

“I suggested grovelling,” James chimed in.

“That's more your style, Jamsie,” Fred said as he started leading the way through the corridor.

“What’s this plan then?” Cressida asked, following behind him.

“Get Redwick to exit her common room in twenty minutes and not a minute sooner,” Fred said mystically.

“If I’m being involved in this plan, shouldn’t I at least know what it is?” Cressida tried.

“Nope,” Fred smiled, he grabbed Thomas by the shoulder and started directing them in a different direction. “Remember twenty minutes. Don’t be late.”

“Wait, why are you leaving me behind?” James asked.

“Your misery will tamper with my plan,” Fred told him as he and Thomas got further away. “Cheer up and then you can join in.”

James and Cressida were left alone in a silent hallway.

James scuffed the toe of his shoes against the stone floor. “Condolences on your break-up.”

Cressida side-eyed him. “You  know  we weren’t together.”

James shrugged his shoulders. “Sure looked like it this morning at breakfast.”

“And I see April wasted no time trying to get back in your good graces after she thought  we’d  broken up,” Cressida snapped back.

James' brow furrowed. “We broke up?”

“You know what I mean- when she saw us arguing in the potions classroom.”

“Oh, that,” James said, looking down. “Are we still arguing about that?”

“It would appear so,” Cressida sighed. “Among other things now.”

James huffed. “Nott was antagonising me on purpose this morning, you know that, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if he started the dating rumour just to get at me.”

“He wouldn’t do that-”

“Yes he would,” James said adamantly.

“Why would that get at you anyway?” Cressida asked.

James blanched. “Well… because- because he knows you’re too good for him and no friend of mine can go around dating an ex death-eater’s son. That’s why.”

Cressida started walking towards the dungeons. “Merlin, if this is how you’re reacting to him just talking to me, I’d hate to see what you would have been like if I  had  kissed him instead of you.”

James strode after her. “You know what- you  can  go on and kiss him if you want, see if I care!”

Cressida spun back around to face him. “In that case, why don’t you just go snog April seeing as she’s clearly not over you!”

“Maybe I will!”

“Fine!” Cressida snapped, storming off again.

“Fine!” James snapped to her back. “At least  then  I might actually get a real kiss.”

She rounded on him with a fierce glare, letting her frustrations at the comment flow through her unsquandered. “You  are  mad I kissed you during truth or dare, I fucking knew it! I knew it would come back to bite me in the ass!”

James said nothing, pressing his lips into a thin line as if trying to swallow the words that had already been let out.

“I realised kissing you during that game last year was a dick move, okay!” She went on, anger still bubbling in her stomach. “It was just a game, I was drunk, I wasn’t thinking. If I could take it back I would but I don’t have a fucking time turner-”

“Knightly,” James tried to cut in.

“-And I’m sorry Thane’s pissed you off but you can’t get mad that there’s potentially another guy in the whole of Hogwarts that can help me out with my problems other than you!” She kept going, not even bothering to consider maybe James had something to contribute to this argument now that she was on a roll.

“Cressida!” He said, grabbing her by the shoulders to stop her ranting.

“What!?” She snapped, glaring up at him.

“I’m not mad you kissed me,” he said. “I’m mad at how it happened!”

Cressida’s body froze as their eyes met. He paused briefly to soften his tone. “I thought it'd be different,” he said quickly, scared he wouldn’t have a chance to get it out before she kept going. His voice broke. “I… we-” he sighed, running a hand through his hair frustrated. “It just wasn’t supposed to happen like that and now Nott’s lurking around you and I-”

“What the fuck are you saying?” Cressida asked, struggling to make sense of what he was trying to tell her. It seemed even he didn’t know what he wanted to say.

“I had a plan- or an idea of it in my head, alright?” James rambled, not even looking at her. “I wanted it to- why does he get-”

He stopped himself, shaking his head at the thoughts he was trying to voice.

She took a step towards him. “Just spit it out, James.”

There was a moment of hesitation. A pause in which the world seemed to stop spinning and it was just the two of them looking at each other, and then suddenly James was leaning down and his mouth was on hers with such a great ferocity that it took Cressida’s breath straight from her lungs.

And then she found herself pushing back, going up on the tips of her toes as though she was reaching for something unattainable, something she couldn’t get enough of a hold on to not let it slip through her fingers completely.

And then James broke away, his forehead resting against hers, his eyes still closed.

“ That’s  how it was supposed to happen,” James’ voice croaked out, barely more than a whisper.

Cressida sank back down, her eyes open and taking in every inch of James’ face. The freckles on his cheeks, the scar above his eyebrow, the tiny patches of acne here and there. It suddenly struck Cressida how lovely James Sirius Potter was when he was this close.

His eyes opened, staring back into hers.

Neither of them said anything.

Neither of them moved.

James moved a strand of hair away from her face, his fingers brushing against her cheek.

Then he stepped back, the space between them flooding in like an ocean. “You should get down to the dungeons,” he said then, his voice normal again as though nothing out of the ordinary had just taken place. “Fred’s probably pulling his hair out by now.”

She watched as he turned and rounded the corner, leaving her standing there alone in the silence of what they had done.

Fuck James Sirius Potter , was Cressida’s only coherent thought.

 

*

 

After taking what felt like an eternity to regain control of her own brain, Cressida finally moved from her spot. She took the secret passageway to reach the dungeons quicker but when she broke out from behind the tapestry her eyes were covered by Thomas’ hands as he started hastily pushing her towards the common room.

“Where have you been!?” He was yelling at her. “Fred is nearly ready and you’re not even in there to pull off your side of the plan!”

“I was busy,” Cressida tried to defend herself amongst the discombobulation. She sniffed the air. “Jesus, did Fred try and drown himself in cologne?”

“There’s no time to be busy, there’s a relationship at stake here!” Thomas said, practically throwing her into the common room once she had said the password.

Cressida watched the wall slide shut behind her as she blinked her eyes back into focus.  ‘Theirs isn’t the only relationship at stake,’  she thought fleetingly.

She turned and found her friends exactly where she left them. With Jac pacing, Felix hanging upside down, and Margo and Molly with their heads stuck in books. Rasper had since moved to the other shoe to continue his nap, however.

Jac paused in her pacing as Cressida approached. “So?” She asked desperately. “Did you talk to Fred?”

“I did,” Cressida confirmed, forcing her brain to focus purely on the matter at hand. Molly and Margo looked up in interest. “And before I take you to him, I want you to know I had nothing to do with whatever idea he concocted in his thick head.”

Molly closed her book. “That’s always a bad sign.”

“We have to be outside the common room in two minutes,” Cressida instructed them.

Felix sat upright and carefully lifted Rasper from his shoe and placed him on a cushion so he could pull his shoes on. “Are we thinking this is a good surprise or a  them  surprise?”

“What constituents a  them  surprise?” Margo asked.

“Detention,” they all answered in sync.

Once Felix had his shoes back on his feet, the five Slytherins stepped out of the common room with anticipation with Jac at the forefront.

“Oh my god,” Jac breathed, her eyes widening like saucepans at the sight.

Even Molly looked amazed as she stared around at what Fred had done.

Every inch, every surface and crevice of the hallway outside the common room was riddled with flowers of all shapes, sizes and colours. Rose petals coated the floor. Lilys hung from the ceiling lights. Azaleas lined the walls.

It was a tunnel of flowers and Cressida realised that’s what the overpowering smell had been. She imaged a swarm of bees to descend on them and start pollinating any moment now.

Margo let out a sneeze and a small grumble. “I have hay fever.”

“Block your nose or you’ll ruin the moment,” Molly told her.

Begrudgingly, Margo pinched her nose with her fingers.

From the stairwell up ahead, Fred stepped out holding a bouquet of flowers in his own hands. Thomas walked behind him, a violin in his hand that played by itself.

“When the fuck did they learn that spell?” Felix whispered.

Students from all over rushed down to see what was happening, hearing the violin from up the stairwell and smelling the flowers from the other end of the castle. Slytherins poked their heads out of the common room to see for themselves what was going on just outside their door.

Jac covered her face with her hands, not knowing how to react to such a show for her sake as Fred approached.

Once Fred came to a stop in front of her, the four other Slytherins took a step back, joining the circle of people that now encased them.

Cressida looked to the other end of the hall where people were piling out of the stairwell. James now stood at the front of the crowd, watching his best friend in equal shock and amazement as the rest of them.

However, a little over from James stood Beatrix with a bunch of girls. Her face was not as joyful as the rest of the onlookers

“You did all this for me?” Jac asked, staring up at Fred and ignoring the crowd watching them.

Fred, for the first time Cressida had ever seen, actually blushed. Or maybe it was the pink flowers distorting the lighting.

“The flowers this morning may not have gone to plan, but these flowers,” he said, glancing around at his handiwork. “Are all yours… if you want them?”

Fred waved his wand and the flowers he was holding sprung to life, floating up in the air above his head to spell out the words  ‘B MY GRLFRI?’

Molly’s eyes honed in on it. “B my Grlfri?”

“I couldn’t bring myself to summon up any more sodding flowers,” Thomas admitted. “And the animation spell is very hard to do with that much accuracy.”

Fred sent Thomas a scrutinising look that he quickly played off as he turned back to Jac. “You get the sentiment behind all this, right?” He asked hopefully.

Jac laughed, her smile spreading from ear to ear. She reached up and kissed Fred with reckless abandon of who was watching. “I’ll be your grlfri just don’t tell my mum.”

The crowd cheered, all bar Beatrix who quickly excused herself along with her group of girls. Penelope was already jotting down notes for the newspaper on parchment as she hurried after her friend.

Cressida and the Slytherins all clapped along. Margo, Molly and Felix rushed up to them to offer their congratulations, and amidst the celebrating, Cressida’s eyes found James again on the opposite end of the corridor. A heavy weight still hanging between them even from this far away.

“I bet they’ll last a year, tops.” Thane had appeared at her side, eating an apple as though he was watching nothing more interesting than the daily news report.

“What if they really like each other?” Cressida asked, watching them. Even still, Fred was hugging Jac as they spoke to the others.

“You’re fourteen,” Valentina said bluntly, appearing on her other side. “First loves never last, no matter how many flowers are thrown around.” She plucked one of the flowers from the wall and dropped it to the floor as she headed back towards the common room with the rest of the Slytherins who had grown bored of the declaration. “Curfew is in fifteen minutes, you lot better be inside by then.”

Cressida gulped and tried to find James again but he was gone.

“What is the meaning of-?!” McGonagall called as she strode down the stairwell and broke through the crowd followed closely by Slughorn and Longbottom. She stopped abruptly when she saw the state of the corridor.

Margo let out a sneeze through the silence.

“Sorry, professor,” Fred called from where he was still standing with Jac. “I had to make a grand gesture!”

McGonagall stood straight-backed, trying not to let her smile show. “Yes, well, I must say this is a rather good execution of the spell I taught you earlier today. Well done, Weasley.” She nudged Neville slightly and cleared her throat.

“Wha- oh yes, okay.” Neville turned to Fred. “Five points to Gryffindor for… for, uh-”

“Thoughtfulness and imagination,” McGonagall offered.

“Thoughtfulness and imagination, yes, exactly,” Longbottom agreed. “Good on you, Fred. I bet your dad would be well proud of this.”

Slughorn gandered out at the sea of flowers, poking them with his wand to see if they’d do anything further. “I suppose we better call Filch to come and clean this lot up, eh, Minerva?” He asked. “We might get bugs otherwise, especially with the damp down here and all.”

“Oh, I can help with that,” Felix said. He produced his wand and once he had done an elaborate flick and a spell Cressida had never heard before, all the flowers fell away from the walls and ceiling and landed on the people still in the corridor like an avalanche of petals.

McGonagall brushed the leaves from within her grey hair, a tight smile on her face as the hall returned to looking rather dark and gloomy without the flowers hanging overhead. “Yes, that was ever so helpful. Thank you, Mr Finnigan.”

Felix, despite looking like he had started sprouting flowers from inside his ears due to his own hap-hazard spell, looked rather proud of himself.

McGonagall turned, hitching up her dress as she and the two other professors took their leave. “I swear one of these days, these kids are going to rebuild this whole castle to their liking and then destroy it again.”

Slughorn wrung his hands as he followed behind. “And on that day do we reward them or punish them?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Neville answered.

Chapter 75: Fourth Year: Friends?

Notes:

Sorry for that late upload I've been away this week and didn't have a chance to upload.
Also, I've had to rewrite a lot of Fourth Year as there was a problem with the save file which meant I lost about four months of in story writing, and then I realised the timing of certain events had to happen at a different time which completely threw the second half of the year out of whack but I'm almost back on track now. However, there may be a few missed weeks here and there as I try and catch up with what I lost.
Sorry for the inconvenience and I hope you enjoy the newest chapter :)

Monday 15th October 2018

 

The writers of  The Chatterbox  were back with a swing, especially now there wasn’t any hostility in the meetings anymore and they actually managed to get some good planning done instead of arguing.

Penelope had insisted they write about Fred’s flower parade and people were commenting how cute they thought it was while the boys heaved or got reprimanded by their girlfriends for not doing something as nice for them. Some people, however, had commented that it was "a waste of talent just for a Slytherin.”

“He should have stuck with that Beatrix girl,” one older Gryffindor girl had said as the group passed unknowingly in the hall. “She’s a much better choice if you ask me.”

“And she would have kept him out of trouble,” the person she was talking to agreed in a hushed voice. “It seems like all those Slytherins do is drag Potter and his family down with them.” 

Jac had heard and immediately looked to the floor in shame. Felix had rounded in the middle of the hall to go after whoever had said it but Molly held him back. “Don’t prove their point,” she whispered to him. “And don’t listen to them. They don’t even know you,” she comforted Jac. It did little to bring her smile back.

Regardless of Molly’s warnings, Cressida got her wand out and aimed a tongue-tying spell in their direction over her shoulder. That should shut them up from gossiping about things they didn’t understand, she reasoned.

Jac never spoke about how it bothered her, but the group refrained from lingering too close to other people in the halls after that. Cressida felt terrible about it on Jac’s behalf.

People were laughing at Felix’s newest drawing going around with a giant pencil and scribbling all over certain pages. Valentina’s page was in fact far better than Veronica’s had been, and she’d included the price and where to get all the products she mentioned. Cressida much preferred the idea of buying an eyeliner from  Boots  instead of magically changing the structure of her hair.

Thane’s column had been about literature over the years, including both famous muggle and wizard authors. He’d included an extract from ‘The Three Brothers’ for his first issue, and Cressida was rather intrigued by the story, but she knew better than to believe such a thing as an invisibility cloak or a resurrection stone would exist. The wizarding world had some extraordinary things, but they were a step too far for her imagination.

Rose’s fortune for the week had been;  ‘Secrets may be the bane of your existence. Consider sharing them with a loved one if you wear green.’

“Bit on the nose with the green thing, isn’t she?” Margo berated her. “She’s basically calling out all Slytherins.”

“Well,” Jac said, buttering her toast. “Do you have any secrets you wish to tell?”

Margo’s mouth clamped shut momentarily. “No. Not to you lot, anyway. You’ll just make fun of me.”

Felix laughed, food in his mouth. “What, have you secretly snogged Vonce or something?”

Margo didn’t answer.

Felix’s laughter stopped. Molly nearly choked on her tea.

“Margo, tell me you didn’t?” Molly asked through her splutters.

“I  told  you he liked me,” Margo said in retaliation. “Not that any of you were willing to believe me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m walking to lessons with him.”

Cressida turned her attention to the doorway where Vonce was lingering against one of the pillars. He was talking to Avery Bell, who was rolling her eyes and walking away. No doubt Vonce had made some sort of off-putting comment to her. She felt sorry for Margo’s sake.

“Margo, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” She asked, turning back to her.

Margo scowled slightly. “Like you’re the relationship expert?”

Cressida’s jaw clenched, her sympathy wearing off quickly. “You know what, knock yourself out.”

“I will,” Margo said snippily, grabbing her bag and storming off.

“So,” Felix said, moving the conversation along after Margo’s dramatic exit. “Any of you lot got secrets you want to divulge? Now seems like the time to do it.”

Molly had frozen mid-chew then gulped loudly avoiding looking directly at Felix. 

Cressida’s eyes subconsciously glanced over to the Gryffindor table. James was absent from it.

Jac was staring at the door where Fred was making his way out with Wood and a few others from the Quidditch team. 

Felix had seemingly picked up on their odd reactions. “Christ, I was joking about the secrets. Unless you actually have something to tell me-”

“No,” they all answered in unison.

“We should get to lessons,” Molly said hurriedly.

“I agree,” Cressida said, already on her feet.

It was a race between the three girls who could get away the quickest.

Unfortunately for Molly, Felix was in her Ancient Runes lesson, and so she was stuck with Felix running after her as she got on the staircase.

Cressida and Jac started trailing down to the grounds for their Care of Magical Creatures lesson instead.

“Okay, I know Molly’s secret but why did you act so strange?” Jac whispered.

Cressida saw James and Fred up ahead as they came towards Hagrid’s hut. “No reason.”

Jac followed her eyes regardless. “Have you still not made up with James?”

James spotted them joining the crowd. The two of them glanced at each other.

“No,” Cressida said tightly. “Everything’s fine.”

“Redwick,” Fred greeted her as the two girls came up to them, bending down to plant a peck on her cheek. She blushed and swatted him away slightly, cautious of other people looking this time. 

James and Cressida abruptly looked away from each other, instead focusing on the front.

She hadn’t spoken to him properly since Jac and Fred became official and it seemed as though for once James was on the same page of remaining silent about what happened. However, that made lessons rather difficult. All throughout Slughorn’s lesson on Monday, Molly was wondering why James and Cressida were doing everything to stay on opposite ends of the table to one another.

They were being civil when in group settings, which now everyone was on good terms with the Gryffindors was a lot more frequently than Cressida had previously realised. Fred and Jac were the main cause of them being forced to be in the same proximity as each other, and each time was more awkward than the last as Jac and Fred were now officially boyfriend and girlfriend and weren’t afraid to flaunt that fact in front of the two of them.

In fact, Cressida was rather sick of romantic things happening when she was stuck in the same place as Potter. Jac and Fred holding hands as they walked anywhere, couples making out in the halls, love letters being exchanged in class. It was constantly like salt being rubbed in a non-existent wound.

A wound they were refusing to acknowledge, it seemed.

A wound that was starting to ruin her friendship with Potter and that simply wouldn’t do. She thought that if for just five minutes, nothing even hinting at romance, or kissing, or boys happened, they’d be able to snap back into their usual bickering and act like the argument and the incident afterwards hadn’t happened.

“Right ‘en,” Hagrid said, stomping over to meet his class. “Who’s excited to learn about the Blast-Ended Skrewt today?”

Cressida sighed a breath of relief. That would do perfectly.

 

*

 

Felix hadn’t given up on his quest to discover the girls’ secrets after lessons. As soon as they’d walked out of Transfiguration he had started bugging Jac on what they were, claiming she was the easiest to break.

Jac had managed to get rid of him by saying if he did her Astronomy essay for her she’d tell him. Molly had nearly ripped her head off, but once Felix had darted away, Jac had assured her that she was going to make something up instead.

“I wish Rose had never done the idiotic fortune thing now,” Molly complained as the three girls continued through the halls. “Just once, can we not be affected by something in that sodding newspaper? I thought, considering I was running it, it wouldn’t happen any more.”

“You should have checked her column,” Jac said.

“I did!” Molly replied. “I didn’t see a problem with it at the time.”

“What? You forgot we’re notorious for wearing green, did you?” Cressida joked.

“Pretty much,” Molly admitted. “I’ve become desensitised to the awful colour after four years.”

“Why don’t you just tell him, Molly? You might feel better once you’ve got it off your chest,” Jac advised. 

“Just because you’re in a new happy relationship doesn’t mean it’ll work out for the rest of us,” Cressida grumbled.

Molly quirked an eyebrow. “Why are you so against love at the minute? Something happened with you, too?”

“No.”

“It’s James,” Jac said, throwing a sweet in her mouth. 

“Well, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out,” Molly countered. Cressida was finding it hard not to be offended. “But why are they arguing this time?”

Both girls looked toward Cressida expectantly.

She huffed and continued moving forward. “You know Felix has a secret as well. Why don’t you bother him about that instead?”

Molly’s mouth dropped open. “What secret?” 

Cressida shrugged in response.

“Do you know what his secret is?” She continued.

“Obviously.”

“So tell me.”

“We can’t,” Jac said.

“You know too?!” Molly asked, rounding on Jac.

Jac shoved more sweets in her mouth nervously. “I was there when he told her.”

“Is there anyone in this sodding friend group who doesn’t have a secret?!” Molly asked snippily.

“Redwick’s an open book at least,” Cressida said.

“Hey, I could have a secret!” She defended herself.

“Like what?” Molly asked.

Jac faltered for a moment. “I don’t know. Cressida usually knows all my secrets even before I do.”

Cressida put a hand on Jac’s shoulder. “Jacqueline, that defeats the point of it being a secret.”

“Oh.”

Molly rolled her eyes at the other girl. “While you work on Jac’s secret lifestyle, I’m going to head down to the dungeons and check on our potion considering you and James won’t do it together anymore and I don’t trust the other two.”

Molly broke away leaving the two girls alone. Jac waited less than two seconds before pestering her again. “Want to tell me what’s going on with you and James?” She asked.

Cressida took a deep breath. After nearly a week of this and Cressida insisting everything was fine between them, she felt like it was time to give up and admit it… but the problem was she didn’t know what exactly she was supposed to admit. “I don’t know anymore,” she sighed.

They rounded the corner and saw Felix running toward them. He stopped and leaned against the wall to get his breath back, which annoyed a portrait whose frame he had knocked slightly off-centre.

“Here’s your essay,” he panted, shoving it into Jac’s hands. “Now tell me Weasley’s secret.”

Cressida and Jac glanced at one another and then back to Felix. “Only if you tell her about yours,” Cressida bargained.

“That wasn’t the deal!” He complained.

Cressida shrugged and continued walking. “It is now.”

Felix pursued after her. “Why do I have to tell Weasley about our little arrangement?”

“Because it’s not an arrangement unless she knows about it,” Cressida countered.

“Plus, it’s hardly fair for you to know hers but not the other way around,” Jac said logically.

“Oh, come on!” Felix continued. “My secret is hardly hurting anyone. She doesn’t have to know. It’ll just ruin how happy she’s been the last three times we’ve gotten our exam results.”

Cressida stopped and stared at him for a moment. She had begun to think everything would be a lot clearer and less confusing if people just said what they meant. “Felix, do you or do you not fancy Molly?”

Felix blushed redder than she had ever seen him. “Jesus, Knightly! Why would you ask such a thing?!”

Cressida shrugged. “You two would make a cute couple. I mean, everyone else around here is throwing kisses around, maybe you should try it as well.”

Jac turned her eyes on Cressida with a narrowed brow.

Felix scoffed, continuing before Jac could questions Cressida's words. “She’d kill me in my sleep,” he dismissed her. "I couldn't kiss Weasley, even if I wanted to-"

"So you want to?!" Jac asked, taking her attention away from Cressida.

Felix glared at them. “I know, without a doubt, Molly Weasley II has higher standards than a sarcastic Irish lad who only has a bunch of girls for friends… she’ll probably end up with someone stuffy like a lawyer or… whatever her dad does.”

Jac hummed thoughtfully, continuing to move through the hall. “Have you ever considered fancying Molly, Finnigan? She’s cute-”

“I’m aware she’s very cute, Redwick, but it’ll be group incest. Molly is a no-entry zone,” Felix insisted. “Trust me.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Felix, how did your dad and Dean get together?”

“They were best friends-” Felix answered before thinking it through. He paused, staring straight ahead as they walked, as though a thousand thoughts suddenly started running through his head all at once. “How could you do this to me?”

“What?”

“You and your meddling!” Felix said, flailing his arms. “How could you ruin Weasley for me?!”

“I didn’t  ruin  her-” Cressida said.

“Yes you did, now I’m thinking about her as an actual girl rather than one of us!”

Jac frowned. “You didn’t think of us as girls before?”

“Not really, no!” Felix squealed. “Oh, fuck, now what am I going to do?!”

“Um… maybe, talk to her and act normal?” Cressida suggested.

“Oh,  sound  advice, Knightly,” Felix said sarcastically as he stormed in a different direction.

“Where are you going?” She called after him.

“To drown myself in my bathroom sink until I come up with a better solution!”

Both girls stood in the middle of the hall, staring in the direction he had stormed off.

“Do you think we said too much?” Jac asked nervously.

“I’m sure we’ll find out by the end of the day,” Cressida said.

Jac hummed in agreement. Then she turned her eyes back on Cressida. “So about you and Potter-”

Cressida walked away before Jac could finish her sentence.

 

*

 

Eventually, Jac had given up questioning Cressida and wandered off somewhere private with Fred. That gave Cressida ample uninterrupted time to try and get into her secret room without the use of a password again, and again, it felt hopeless after about twenty minutes of getting nowhere.

Sirius had been in his frame, seemingly enjoying watching Cressida move back and forth.

“Figured out the password yet?” He taunted her.

She had never felt more anger towards a portrait than now. “Don’t you have another portrait to be annoying?”

Sirius’ smile dropped. “Are you referring to Lupin?” Cressida didn’t reply. “Yeah well, he’s visiting his son so I’m all on my lonesome.”

“Why don’t you visit your brother?”

Sirius stared out at her as though the thought never occurred to him. After a moment, he sniffed and folded his arms over his chest. “He doesn’t want to see me.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he’s my brother.”

Cressida shrugged. “Dying can change someone. Maybe he’s over what happened.”

“You don’t just  get over  what happened to us,” Sirius argued. “Even in death.”

“Have you tried talking to him, at least?” Cressida asked.

Sirius didn’t answer straight away. “You know you’re very blunt and annoying sometimes.”

“It’s a part of my charm, so I’m told,” she shot back.

Sirius huffed out a laugh before shoving his hands in his pockets and wandering out of his frame with a pointed look. 

Cressida knew it was pointless standing here pacing, so she left as well, hoping to wander the grounds a bit before curfew. There was no use doing anything else. Margo was still in a bad mood with them down in the common room. She was firmly avoiding running into the two remaining members of the trio in fear of her and James being thrust together again. Her secret room was off-limits. She basically had nowhere of any significance to go.

Her abundance of free time was becoming a rather big annoyance when she had nothing to do with it apart from walking around on her own or worse- homework.

As she walked out into the crisp October air, she pulled her school jumper down to keep her hands warm, her finger poking through a hole she didn’t realise was there from wear and tear.

Shrugging it off, she continued on.

Under a tree, she spotted Jeremiah Vonce sitting with Beatrix Swinley. She didn’t look thrilled to be sat with him, but Vonce was chatting away regardless. Cressida wondered why Beatrix didn’t just get up and leave him sat there, but then again, that might be classed as rude.

More fool her, Cressida thought.

She kept moving forward. Margo wanted to make her bed, she could lie in it.

She came to the Black Lake and sat down near the water's edge. She reached into her bag and pulled out the book Thane had given her. She hadn’t had a chance to look it over yet, but just from the synopsis, she knew most of the poems concealed inside were likely to be gruesome.

She opened it to a random page.  Tell-tale Heart .

‘TRUE! - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses - not destroyed - not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily — how calmly I can tell you the whole story.’

She read over the words, not seeing much sense in what they were trying to say. “What a lot of crap,” she muttered to herself.

“Alright, Knightly?”

She spun around to find James standing behind her. Her mouth involuntarily dried up, a red flush taking over her cheeks.

It seemed as though their unspoken rule to avoid being alone with each other was over. She silently wondered whether he had come to resume their argument or talk about it . She doubted either one would completely solve their problem. Stopping the argument wouldn’t change what they had done, and it wouldn’t stop it from coming up again in the future. 

He took a seat on the grass beside her and she put the book away.

“Jac and Fred seem to be happy,” he said conventionally. “I’m glad his flower idea didn’t blow up in his face.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t imagine anyone doing that sort of thing for me,” Cressida admitted, off-put by the normality of their conversation. “I think I’d kind of hate it actually.”

“Too showy?” He asked knowingly.

Cressida nodded. “Mum always said if he does it in front of a crowd it’s for them and not you… but I think Fred’s was different. Fred’s was for Jac and he just wanted everyone to know it."

There was a beat of silence between them, the weight they’d become so familiar with over the last few days ever-present yet again, breathing down their necks.

“This one was a little different from our normal arguments, isn’t it?” He asked then.

Cressida sighed, looking at the lights reflecting off the water. “I think so.” 

“Are we going to talk about it?” He asked.

Cressida shrugged, giving no definitive answer.

James turned his green eyes on her, seemingly deciding the answer for himself. “I just panicked that you weren’t going to want me around if Nott was there.”

That wasn’t the thing she expected him to bring up. “That’s fucking stupid-”

“I know,” James agreed urgently. “But going to one another for help is kind of our thing.”

“We have a thing?” Cressida asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Just listen,” James insisted. He didn’t seem as collected and suave as he normally tried to be. “I just didn’t like the idea of you going to Nott and not me… I guess I was… what I’m trying to say is-”

Cressida turned her eyes on him with a striking realisation. “You were jealous?”

James refused to look at her. “Yeah, well, it happens to the best of us.”

Cressida allowed herself a smile. Then she found her eyes trailing down to his mouth. “Is that why you kissed me?” She asked, forcing her eyes away. “To prove a point to Nott?”

James chewed his lip, averting his gaze. “I’m aware my timing was less than perfect… but it would have happened anyway if Fred hadn’t interrupted us back in the stairwell before summer… I just- I just thought once we got it out of the way, we’d be able to move forward. No more lingering thoughts about it. No more  what if .”

Cressida nodded along with his explanation. When he said it like that she could see the logic behind it. However, she wasn’t sure if finally going through with it would make it better or worse. At the moment, she was just grateful to not be arguing with him.

She thought back to Rose’s fortune. ‘ Secrets may be the bane of your existence. Consider sharing them with a loved one if you wear green.’

She picked at the grass stands to occupy her hands.

“I was jealous too, you know.”

James rounded on her. “What?!”

“Last year with April and all those other girls in the castle following behind you with their tongues dragging on the floor.”

James ruffled his hair as he stared at her. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I was your friend and I wanted you to be happy… but not too happy that you ran off just after I had gotten used to your bullshit.”

“I told you that would never happen-”

“I know,” Cressida cut him off, turning to meet his eyes. “And now I’m telling you there’s nothing to worry about with Thane.”

James' shoulders sagged slightly. “That’s not as comforting as I’d hoped it’d be.”

Cressida turned back to the lake. “It’s all I got.”

James nodded, looking out to the lake as well. 

They listened to the water splashing against the mud bank. The owls flying overhead. The hustle and bustle of the castle.

“And I didn’t want it to be someone else,” she said suddenly. She couldn’t avoid the question any longer. Not when she knew the answer and had perhaps known it for a while, deep down in some unfamiliar place. “I was glad it was you… even if it was during a stupid game.”

“Yeah?” James said, clearly surprised by her admission. 

Cressida gave a small nod of confirmation. That she really meant what she said.

The two of them stared at each other in complete silence for a moment then. She was sure her heart thumping inside her chest was loud enough to give her away. To admit something she wasn’t ready to say out loud yet. If James could hear it through the silence, he didn’t give anything away.

“Can I tell you something?” James asked then, his voice quiet. Shy, almost.

Cressida nodded again, scared that whatever was about to come out of his mouth would ruin them for good. That he’d say something he couldn’t take back and that would be an end to their dynamic. That it would forever change whether she wanted it to or not. She wasn’t sure if it already had and she just didn’t know it yet.

James lent closer, checking no one was listening. She didn’t move back, her eyes trailing over all the minuscule details of his face she could only see from this close up. The freckles, the acne, the scar, his eyes.  His beautiful eyes . “You were my first kiss too,” he whispered. “I lied about already having it.” 

Cressida laughed in his face without meaning to, relief filling her whole body. 

James’ brow narrowed. “What’s so funny?!”

“James,” she continued to laugh. “I knew.”

“You  knew ?!” 

“You’re not a very good liar,” she told him, shoving his arm playfully.

James laughed along with her now as he shoved her back lightly. “I’ve been holding that in for months for no reason, you prick! I thought you’d think I was a loser if you found out!”

Cressida’s laughter died down as she and James sat smiling at each other. “I didn’t tell anyone. As far as they’re concerned you had your first kiss way before that night. Your loser status remains null and void.”

“Oh, well, good,” James nodded gratefully.

“Does this mean we’re back to normal now?” Cressida asked hopefully.

James had that funny lopsided smile on his face again as he met her eyes. “Yeah. It was a stupid argument anyway. I mean, who cares about a silly little kiss? We’re still friends, right?”

“Right,” Cressida agreed.

“So no need to worry,” James went on. “Nothing has to change. It’ll just be our little secret.”

After drawing the line in the sand both of them felt more like themselves than they had in a week. They could relax around each other again, knowing they were friends. They knew where they stood. Cressida was glad about that.

Both of them turned their eyes out to the water, relishing in the comfortable silence falling over them like a blanket. 

Without saying anything, James reached his hand over and let it rest on the grass near Cressida’s knee. She glanced down at it, and with her heart thumping that tiny bit faster, she reached out her own hand, touching her pinkie to his. He wasted no time interlocking them.

Friends, she told herself.

Friends held hands all the time. This was fine, she reasoned. 

Plus, his hands were a lot warmer than hers.

 

*

 

An hour later, Cressida entered the Slytherin common room again to find Molly and Jac sitting in the alcove playing exploding snap.

“Where’s Felix and Margo?” She asked sitting down. Rasper crawled out from under the sofa and cuddled into Cressida’s lap.

“Finnigan’s nowhere to be seen and Margo’s gone trailing after Vonce,” Molly answered putting down a card.

“You look flushed,” Jac said, lifting her eyes from the game.

“What?” Cressida paled. Nothing more had happened with Potter in the hour she’d been gone. In fact, they didn’t speak another word to one another. 

Cressida had been the one to leave first, knowing curfew was coming up. She’d removed her hand from his and got to her feet. They nodded goodbye to one another and didn’t acknowledge anything that had happened between them. It was as simple as that. An end to the argument.

She didn’t think there was a reason to look anything less than normal, but once again her beating heart at the simple accusation threatened to give her away when she least wanted it to.

“It’s the cold weather kicking in early this year,” Molly came to her defence. Cressida’s heart rate returned to normal. 

Jac’s eyes honed in on Cressida knowingly. Cressida sent her a pointed look.

Jac’s mouth opened and then their attention was stolen sideways.

“Weasley!”

Felix was strutting up to them through the common room. 

Molly barely had a chance to look up from the game on the table before Felix had lent down and planted a firm kiss on her lips.

Cressida and Jac both audibly gasped, watching in shock as it took place.

A second later, Felix broke away and gave a self-satisfied nod. Molly was sitting in her seat, blinking as though trying to force her brain to catch up with what had just happened.

“Right then,” Felix said coolly. “Now that’s over with, I’ll see you tomorrow for breakfast.”

With that, Felix turned and walked into the boy’s dormitories.

The two girls turned silently to Molly, their mouths still hanging open.

Her face was completely slack. Her body was frozen in position.

“What-” she started, her eyes snapping to the two girls sitting opposite her, “-the  FUCK  was that?!”

“Um-” Jac tried, but it was no use.

Molly had jumped to her feet, storming her way through the common room.

Both girls watched silently as Molly crossed the barrier into the boy’s dormitory. Boys came running out of the hallway shortly after. Screams rang out and then a door slammed open and shut in the distance.

Valentina appeared, staring in that direction with mild interest.

“Aren’t you going to step in?” Cressida asked her.

Valentina shrugged a shoulder before moving on. “I’m curious to see what Weasley's capable of.”

Molly reappeared, dragging Felix behind her by the ear as he begged for mercy in between complaints of pain.

“Where are you taking him?!” Jac asked, watching as Molly didn’t stop on her rampage.

“None of your concern,” Molly answered with the tone of someone who was not to be reasoned with.

“ SAVE ME !” Felix cried out as he was dragged out of the common room.

The wall slid shut behind them.

The two girls remained seated staring at it.

“Well, Felix was partly right,” Cressida said finally. “She would kill him, just not in his sleep.”

Chapter 76: Fourth year: Uncharted Territory

Saturday 20th October 2018

 

Felix had survived. Barely.

Valentina, in an act of mercy, allowed the two Slytherins to go running out of the common room close to curfew to go and ‘find Finnigan’s remains’  as she put it.

They had heard Molly shouting before they found them inside Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. There was a huddle of girls standing outside the disused bathroom looking very put out.

“She just chucked us out like she owns the place,” Beatrix huffed, her arms over her chest.

“And she took a boy in there,” Avery Bell added with a side eye toward the door. 

“It’s only Finnigan,” Penelope countered.

“I don’t care. That bathroom is supposed to be a boy-free space,” Avery complained.

“Scared of cooties, are you?” Cressida mocked them as she passed.

“No,” Avery scoffed. “I’m scared she’s ruining the sacristy of the bathroom.”

“Avery, it’s full of broken toilets and a whiny ghost, there’s nothing sacred about it,” Jac said, pushing the door open.

As Cressida and Jac entered they swiftly had to duck to avoid a vase being chucked in their direction.

“Hey! That’s mine!” April complained, poking her head in the door. “I bought that vase myself, you owe me ten galleons!”

“Who puts a vase in a bathroom?” Jac asked.

“It had flowers in it originally,” Penelope explained, squeezing her head in next to April’s.

There was a dull thud and Cressida looked to see dying red and yellow flowers had been thrown and landed conveniently next to the shattered vase. “Yes, they really added a pop of colour to the place,” she said sarcastically.

Jac used her wand to force the door shut so they had some privacy in the bathroom. “Molly, it’s us!” She called out to the room. “We come in peace.”

There was no response.

The two girls edged further into the bathroom. 

“Lying, no-good, despicable, deceiving, back-handed-!”

“We’re getting close,” Cressida said as the insults got louder towards the stalls.

They found Felix sitting on the cold tile floor, his head leaning back against the wall, looking vaguely like a man going through his fourth divorce settlement.

“Where’s Molly?” Jac asked.

A roll of toilet paper was thrown over the top of one of the locked stalls. It bounced off Felix’s head, not that he gave any reaction to it.

“She’ll be out in a moment when she runs out of supplies again,” he sighed.

“How long have you been sat here?” Cressida asked, shielding herself from a second weaponised loo roll.

“Twenty minutes.” The two girls looked up to see Moaning Myrtle floating near the ceiling, looking more entertained than annoyed for once. “I’m starting to wonder what else she’d going to throw at him before he leaves.”

A bar of soap was hurled from over the stall this time followed by more insults.

Cressida took a deep breath and braced herself as she moved toward the stall, pushing it open.

Molly was mid-throw of a box of tissues when Cressida found her.

“Sorry- thought April or Beatrix were trying to get me to come out again,” Molly said, lowering the tissues. 

“April’s a bit mad about the vase,” Jac chimed in from beside Felix.

Cressida stepped into the stall fully and shut the door behind her, making it so it was just the two of them in there.

She didn’t say anything. Just leaned back against the stall door and waited.

Molly sniffed, wiping her teary eyes with the back of her hand.

“He kissed me,” Molly said eventually.

“We saw,” Cressida replied. “Are you okay?”

Molly slumped down onto the closed toilet seat lid, using the tissues to wipe her eyes. “No.”

“Look, Mol, it was just a kiss. Felix is a stupid boy just like the rest of them. He probably didn’t think it through-”

“I’m not mad about that.”

Cressida blinked in surprise. She was really off her game when it came to kisses having hidden meanings, it seemed. “You’re not?”

Molly’s watery eyes looked up at her again. “He told me everything. He’s smart, Cress. Smarter than me. And he lied to me about it. He didn’t trust me enough to tell me this whole time.”

“That’s not what happened, Weasley!” Felix’s voice called from the other side of the door.

She hurled the box of tissues over the stall door.

“Ooh, bullseye!” Moaning Myrtle laughed from the ceiling.

Molly’s eyes filled up with tears again and she let out a small sob.

Felix’s hand appeared under the door, offering the box of tissues back to her.

Cressida looked between the disembodied hand and the crying girl on the toilet. 

“You know she’s just going to throw them at you again,” Jac said from the other side of the door.

“It’s okay, I deserve it,” Felix’s voice replied.

He fell flat on his side when Molly abruptly opened the stall door a second later.

Cressida fell back in line with Jac, awaiting what was going to happen next. Myrtle floated down and hovered beside the two girls in equal anticipation.

Felix got to his feet and dusted himself off. “What do you want me to apologize for first?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked, her voice level.

“I thought I was helping you out,” Felix shrugged.

“So all those late nights where I spent helping you study and spell-checking your essays and doing notes with you was just a waste of time?” She asked, her brows furrowed.

Felix’s cheek’s blushed. “You always offered and were so good at it and I just liked spending time with you… look, I know I probably should have told you before now but back then you needed a win and I liked giving it to you. Truth be told, after the first couple of months I thought about telling you the truth and doing it all by myself but I just didn’t and I have no good excuse for that because, yes, I did lie to you but it was for a very good cause-”

Felix was cut off by Molly reaching up and kissing him on the cheek.

“ Awwww !”

Cressida threw a loo-roll at the gargle of girls peering in through the bathroom door, intruding on the moment.

Molly kept her eyes on Felix in front of her. “I’m not mad at you, Felix.”

“Oh good, because for a moment there I was worried,” he said sarcastically.

“It’s far less interesting now she’s not injuring him,” Moaning Myrtle complained as she floated back into the drain pipes.

“And just for the record,” Molly started. “If you ever lie to me again, I will bury you in this bathroom.” The threat was slightly undermined by the fact she reached out her hand for Felix to hold.

Felix looked to Cressida in a blind panic, and once she had given the nod of approval, he smiled and took her hand in his.

The door was forced open again and they all turned to see Margo barging her way in. “What the fuck is going on-” She stopped abruptly when she saw Felix and Molly holding hands. Her dark eyes lifted to meet Molly’s and then, without saying anything, she turned and left the bathroom.

“What do you suppose that means?” Jac whispered.

Molly pulled her hand out of Felix’s and ran out of the bathroom. “Margo, wait, let me explain!”

Cressida frowned as she glared at the door and then turned to Felix, who suddenly looked very lost on what to do with himself. “Trust Margo to turn a good thing sour.”

 

*

 

Ever since that moment, they had seen significantly less of Margo, not that Cressida minded. It was rather nice to not have Margo around bringing the mood down or making every conversation relate back to her somehow.

She didn’t even sit with them at breakfast anymore, and instead, sat on the opposite end of the table talking Jeremiah Vonce’s ear off.

The only time Margo ever hung around them for more than two seconds in between lessons was at bedtime, and even then, she made it abundantly clear she did not want to be there, or more so, didn’t want Felix to be there.

Every time Felix made one of his usual jokes or even sat on the end of Molly’s bed, she would scoff or huff or roll her eyes.

In the end, Felix had gotten so irritated with Margo’s voiceless jabs that he had stormed out of the room and refused to come back as long as she was in there.

This made life for Molly rather difficult.

There had been a tap on Cressida bed post at one in the morning, and a second later Molly clambered her way under Cressida’s blankets knowing she’d be awake anyway. Rasper stirred at the extra body on the bed but gave no mind once he realised it was Molly.

“Late-night therapy?” Cressida joked, rolling over to face her.

“It’s my birthday on Tuesday,” she said quietly. “I don’t want them to be fighting on my birthday.”

“Margo’s just being a pratt again-”

“But what if she’s not?” Molly asked. “What if she’s got a point?”

“What point could she possibly have?”

“That this will end badly,” Molly answered sheepishly. “I know she’s got her own issues with Felix anyway… but I like him, and now he likes me and… and I know it’s not perfect or how I imagined it to happen, but it’s going well, don’t you think?”

Cressida thought back to the last few days since their impromptu kiss. They hadn’t exactly spent any more time alone than they did before. They didn’t do anything romantic that Cressida had seen. They talked and joked around and Molly berated him on some of his crude humour at times, but they weren’t different. Not like Fred and Jac had been different after a certain point. Maybe they were still fingering it out. Maybe they needed more time to stop being friends first.

“If you’re happy I’m happy,” Cressida told her. “But if Margo’s filling your head with shit I’ll put her straight myself. It’s none of her business what you and Felix do.”

Molly rolled onto her back and sighed. “She reckons it’ll all go to pot. That Felix is too childish and I’m too… well, she said that I was too good for him.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“That’s what I said,” Molly agreed. “Anyway, we got into a bit of an argument while none of you was around and I think she’s expecting me to choose. She says if I get into a relationship with Felix she won’t be around to pick up the pieces when it falls apart and that me and him won’t ever be able to be friends again after it… it made me wonder if maybe we’ve made a bit of a mistake. That we don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into. I mean, nothing’s really changed yet but I keep waiting around for it to feel different.”

Cressida hummed thoughtfully. “I know how you feel.”

Molly turned her eyes back on Cressida. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing,” Cressida lied, trying to play it off. “Just being sympathetic is all.”

Molly looked doubtful but she didn’t push the conversation further. The two girls lead in silence for a moment, staring up at Cressida’s cloth ceiling.

“Remember our plan to run off and join a nunnery?” Molly asked after a while.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think that will work anymore.”

“No,” Cressida sighed. “Unfortunately not.”

 

 

Monday 22nd October 2018

 

Despite Molly's concern about her changing relationship with Felix and detreating one with Margo, the days continued on until Molly's birthday was looming upon them. Much to her displeasure, the situation never got any better as the day got closer. In fact, it felt like Margo was trying to wedge more of a gap between the new couple more than ever. Cressida and Jac had offered to intervene or do something to get Margo to give Molly and Felix some alone time, but Molly had told them not to get involved. "I can't cope if we're all arguing this week," she had sighed dejectedly. "At least at the moment it's just Margo and Felix, and one of them is bound to give up sooner or later." 

Cressida wasn't sure she completely agreed with that logic, knowing how stubborn both parties were, but she did as Molly asked and her and Jac sat back and observed the car crash as it was happening.

Luckily for them, there was one thing that would prove too much of a distraction or a hinderance for Margo to take all of Molly's attention, even just for one day.

Thomas' birthday. 

There was always some sort of chaos on this day, especially if James and Fred had anything to say about it, and Cressida knew Margo would have nothing to do with it whatsoever, giving them a much needed rest bite.

Cressida and Jac had been up the whole previous night sat on Cressida's bed theorizing about what they would pull this year compared to the last ones.

Sometimes they made their entrance loud and over-dramatic.

Sometimes they were already at breakfast before everyone else, starting the celebration early and offering everyone cake as soon as they walked in the door.

Sometimes Thomas wasn’t even with them when they celebrated.

No matter how they decided to announce the occasion of the birthday, however, being sat at the breakfast table every October 22nd was always a waiting game that the Slytherins had come to enjoy. 

This year, however, they had arrived for breakfast late as Margo insisted they couldn't leave the dorm room until she'd found her favourite star shaped burette and by the time the group of Slytherins arrived, the Gryffindor table was already decked out in exploded party poppers and discarded party hats. Thomas was wearing a balloon crown as he tried to eat his cereal amidst birthday punches on both sides from his housemates. He didn’t seem to mind that much.

Looking towards the teacher’s table, Cressida noticed McGonagall and Longbottom also donned red party hats as they ate their breakfasts.

“Damn, we missed the entrance,” Jac pouted as the Slytherins took their usual seats. “That’s always my favourite part.”

Molly opened up this week's  Chatterbox and started flicking through the articles. “It’s only Fourth Year. You’ve got three more years to witness their birthday entrances.”

After Molly had sufficiently scanned the articles she wanted to, she passed the newspaper on to Cressida. “You barely read a thing,” Margo pointed out. “Did you even read my article?”

“The one about Moaning Myrtle offering love advice to the girls?” Molly asked rhetorically. “Yes, I read plenty of that while I was putting it in the paper in the first place.”

Felix had started buttering his toast. “It’s weird how attached you are to a ghost, you know, Smithers.”

Margo glared at Felix over her pancakes. “It’s not weird. Besides, it’s not like my  real  friends pay me any attention anymore.” She turned her dark eyes on Molly. “Right, Mol?”

Molly sank down in her chair, glancing up guiltily. “I think it’s quite nice that you keep Myrtle company in the bathroom, Margo.”

Margo sent Felix a smug smile. “See? Your  girlfriend  doesn’t think it’s weird.”

With that, Margo grabbed her plate and got up to move down the bench to sit beside Jeremiah Vonce.

Felix looked at Molly. “Why did you take her side?”

Molly went about pouring everyone some tea. “I didn’t take her side.”

“Sounded like it,” Felix sulked. “And you let her pull that stupid stunt about her clip so we'd be late to breakfast as well. Ever since we got together all you do is take Smithers’ side in everything. At least before all this, you used to defend me.”

“Don’t be childish, Felix,” Molly sighed.

“Oh, so I’m childish now?” Felix asked affronted. “Did  Margo  tell you to call me that?”

“Dear God, you’re both as bad as each other!” Molly snapped.

Felix bit into his toast and remained silent from that moment onwards.

Molly poured everyone a second cup of tea that wasn’t needed, just so she had something to do other than look at Felix.

Cressida and Jac sat awkwardly opposite them. It was getting worse and worse by the hour now, it seemed. It was usually Margo setting up a trap for Felix to walk into, or Molly trying to keep everyone happy and by doing so, making everyone madder at each other. Either way, whatever was currently going on between the three of them wasn’t getting any better any time soon unless something changed.

Wishing not to get involved, Cressida entertained herself by reading the newspaper.

Rose’s fortune read:  Hidden feelings express themselves in odd ways. Try to be kind to others this week for good fortune.

Cressida didn’t have the faintest clue what that meant. Rose was weirdly good at being cryptic when it came to her fortunes.

She folded up the newspaper and pushed it along the line to Jac.

Jac didn’t bother to pick it up. “Are we having your usual sleepover tomorrow night, Mol?” She asked to break the awkward silence.

Felix looked up in interest but tried to play it off by pretending to pick an apple from the pile in front of them.

Molly sipped her tea. “I was hoping so but if Margo is against it she’ll just ruin it for all of us.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Felix muttered, biting into his chosen apple.

“It’s a shame we can’t use the secret room,” Jac said then. “That’d be perfect for your birthday sleepover, and Margo doesn’t ever come near it so we’d be clear of that problem.”

Molly hummed thoughtfully. “Have we solved the latest clue yet?”

Cressida shook her head. “I’ve not thought about it much since getting it off Albus.”

“And we don’t have any obvious clues on what it could be either,” Jac admitted. “It’s the most elusive one yet. Darkness is kind of… everywhere.”

Molly shrugged, going back to her breakfast. “We’ll figure it out eventually. Maybe that’s what we can try and do tomorrow.”

“Perfect, Smither’s will definitely go into a fit and leave us alone then,” Felix joked.

Cressida thought it was funny, but Molly’s glare suggested otherwise.

Luckily, Molly’s attention was stolen away by a paper aeroplane persistently poking her in the side of the head.

After Molly tried to swat it away a few times, assuming it had the wrong person, Cressida reached out and grabbed it. “It’s a message,” she said, opening it up. 

“What does it say?” Jac asked, leaning over to get a look for herself.

“All it says is fourth-floor broom closet.”

“Who’s it off?” Molly frowned.

Cressida glanced over to the Gryffindor table. There were three suspiciously empty seats amongst the rest of the table still celebrating in joyful moods.

With a smile on her face, Cressida got up from the breakfast table. The other quickly followed behind.

It took less than ten minutes for the four Slytherins to cram themselves into the small broom closet. The three Gryffindors were already in there, standing in a line waiting for them like it was a business meeting. Thomas still had his balloon crown on though, which took away from their serious stances a bit.

“Happy birthday, Wood,” Cressida said when they entered.

“Thank you kindly, Knightly,” Thomas bowed back.

Felix pushed a fallen broom off his shoulder. “Is there a reason we’re all packed in here like sardines?”

“Yes,” James said authoritatively. “We have business to discuss.”

Fred nudged Thomas, and the smaller boy extended a bundle of parcels and letters towards Molly.

“For your birthday tomorrow,” he said as she took them. “Ours is in there for you too.”

“Thanks,” Molly said gratefully, putting them safely into her bag.

“You made us come all the way up here just to give Molly her presents?” Jac asked.

“Patience, my dear girl,” Fred grinned at her. Felix teasingly made kissing noises beside Jac.

“We have a proposition,” James said, rocking on the balls of his feet enticingly.

“Which is?” Molly asked intrigued.

“A party,” Fred said.

“On Saturday,” James said next.

“For the both of us,” Thomas finished.

The four Slytherins all glanced at each other. Cressida stepped forward as the spokesperson. “And how do you suppose we’ll have a joint party? You’re from two different Houses.”

“Ah, that’s where my genius comes into play, Knightly,” James said then. “Luckily for us, this upcoming Saturday is the Saturday before Hallowe’en. We’ll disguise it as a Hallowe’en party, but really, us lot will know it’s for dear Wood and Weasley’s joint birthday.”

“It’ll be just like old times,” Thomas said excitedly.

The four Slytherins all looked at one another then Cressida looked back to the trio of boys again. “Do we have to dress up in costumes?”

“Another stroke of genius from us,” Fred said. “Costumes aren’t mandatory but-” he pulled out a second parcel from his robes and extended it to the group of Slytherins. “These will be.”

Cressida pulled open the package and found four beautifully decorated masks inside. “It’s going to be a masquerade party,” James said proudly. “That way, no one will know who anyone is apart from us.”

“That  is  genius!” Jac said, trying on a mask over her eyes.

“Where will it be?” Felix asked.

“We figured Gryffindor Tower would be the better option. There’s going to be a party in there anyway, so there’ll already be alcohol and stuff,” Thomas explained.

“Plus, we can easily get Neville on board so he doesn’t come in and stop the party too early,” James said then. “I doubt we’d have the same kind of pull with Slughorn.”

“And if anything goes wrong, we can take the blame instead of you guys,” Fred added.

“One last question,” Molly said. All eyes turned to her. “Can Margo come?”

Felix rolled his eyes out of sight of Molly.

James gave a single nod. “If you want Smithers there she can come. It’s your party too, after all.”

“But she’ll have to find her own mask,” Thomas pointed out guiltily. “We didn’t really count her into the equation when coming up with our plan.”

After a small moment of consideration, Molly nodded. “Okay. We’ll have a joint party this year.”

The three boys rushed forward and buried Molly in a group hug.

“Good to have you back in the fold, Weasley,” James smiled, ruffling up her hair.

“It only took you four years to come back to us!” Thomas joked.

Molly stepped out of the group hug, smoothing down her hair primly. “Yes, well, we’ve all grown up a bit now, haven’t we?”

“Speak for yourself,” Fred contradicted.

 

 

Friday 26th October 2018

 

Molly’s birthday sleepover had been less than celebratory. Margo had decided that this year, as they were turning fifteen, Molly deserved something more mature than a sleepover with sweets and games and exploding snap. And so, on the Tuesday as soon as lessons were done with, Molly was swept away by Margo to go and have a tea party.

Where they were having it, none of them knew. Margo had failed to invite any of the others to join them. 

When Molly tried to question this, before being dragged away, Margo’s revolt had been simple. “None of them have a tea dress available for the occasion.”

“And Weasley just happens to have that, does she?” Felix asked.

“Yes,” Margo said primly. “With matching white gloves.”

Cressida and Felix glanced at each other. Now wasn’t the time to mock the gloves.

“But we were going to race our brooms and sing happy birthday at dinner,” Jac had tried then.

“Sorry,” Margo shrugged insincerely. “Maybe if you had included me in your plans we wouldn’t have overlapped.”

“We did try,” Cressida pointed out. “You just never wanted to listen.”

Margo had no intention of changing her plans and, despite Molly looking back at them over her shoulder with a small frown, she was whisked away by Margo.

This had sent Felix into a foul mood for the rest of the day, especially considering the two girls didn’t return until near curfew which meant whatever plan they had to do with Molly went swiftly out of the window.

Molly had tried to cheer them up by offering to still have the sleepover with them all, but by that point, Felix had decided to bite off his nose to spite his face, as well as Molly’s.

He refused to sleep in the girl’s dorm that night, and the atmosphere in the room itself wasn’t a cheerful one regardless.

Margo hadn’t gone straight to sleep like normal. Instead, she stayed awake reading a book. Cressida knew she was doing this to make sure the three girls didn’t sneak off without her or start having their own private conversations.

Even once Molly and Jac had gone to bed and were snoring, Margo still sat upright pretending to read by wand light.

Cressida sat on her own bed, doing the same over her transfiguration homework.

“If you’re waiting for me to go to sleep, you’re going to be awfully tired tomorrow, Smithers,” Cressida had called out near midnight.

Margo’s glare crossed the room. “Who said I’m waiting for you to go to sleep?”

“Because you’re not as smart as you like to think,” Cressida replied breezily. Margo went back to reading, pretending as though Cressida hadn’t said a thing. “You know, you could’ve ruined Molly’s birthday today. We didn’t get to celebrate with her because of you.”

“Molly still had fun,” Margo said snippily. “I’m sure she’ll tell you that tomorrow.”

Cressida hummed doubtfully. “Why are you doing this Margo?”

“Doing what?” She tried cluelessly.

Cressida closed her homework and shoved it away from her. “You know what. Why can’t you just let Molly be happy?”

Margo didn’t answer, but Cressida saw the slightest clench of the other girl’s jaw. “I think I’m ready for bed now. Goodnight.”

Cressida didn’t say anything as she watched Margo put out her wand light and then close herself behind her bed curtains.

 

*

 

Thankfully, Margo didn’t attend Quidditch practice and since Molly’s birthday that was the only time the girl hadn’t been stuck to Molly like glue. Unfortunately, it didn’t give Felix or Cressida much of a chance to talk to her, however, as Molly was too busy doing laps and flying around on her broom with Jac and the rest of the team.

Felix sat beside Cressida in the stands on the Friday afternoon, pretending to be a train with the steam coming out of his mouth from the cold air.

“Felix,” Cressida said slowly as she watched the team practising. “I have a plan.” Felix stopped his puffing immediately and turned to Cressida with interest. “We don’t invite Margo to the party tomorrow.”

“But Molly’s already told her about it,” Felix pointed out.

Cressida turned to him. “She doesn’t know it’s a joint birthday party. Molly conveniently left that bit out. We’ll just tell her we’re not going anymore.”

Felix looked confused. “But why wouldn’t we be going anymore?”

“Because,” Cressida smiled. “We have Quidditch practice.”

His confusion worsened. “But they don’t have practice tomorrow.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Fucking hell, Finnigan, for someone so secretly smart you still are as dense as shit sometimes. We’re going to lie to her. Tell her we have more practice, which she never wants to come to. There will be Hallowe’en parties happening all over the castle so the rest of the team will be out of her sight and I doubt she’s going to come to Gryffindor tower of her own accord. It’s perfect.”

Felix ran the plan over in his mind for a moment, and then he smiled, clearly thinking it was a good idea. “You think Weasley will go for it?”

The whistle blew signifying the end of practice. The team all landed their brooms in the mud and started heading for the changing rooms to get changes into something warmer. “Only one way to find out.”

Cressida got to her feet and jumped down the stands, lingering by the changing tent just before Molly was about to walk in.

She grabbed the ginger girl’s arm and dragged her sideways as she was mid-conversation with Barney Lee.

“Cressida!” Molly chided her as she was dragged away. “I was discussing tactics for the game in a few weeks' time-” She stopped talking, realising Cressida’s smile well. “What have you done?”

"Nothing yet. That's what we're about to change."

Chapter 77: Fourth year: Masquerade

Saturday 27th October 2018

 

Molly had reluctantly agreed with Cressida’s plan after some convincing from herself and Felix. It was only when Jac met up with them after her shower, saying it was only fair because Margo’d already celebrated with her and they never got the chance, did Molly get fully on board.

Cressida had worried Molly would back out last minute when it came to telling Margo (they all knew she wouldn’t believe it coming out of anyone else’s mouth) but Cressida was glad to see Margo took the bait with minimal complaining.

She and Felix high-fived around the corner once Molly had done it, knowing they were going to pull it off.

The tricky part came on Saturday when, around one o’clock, they all suddenly realised they had nowhere to get dressed for the party. 

“See, I knew this would backfire somehow,” Molly ranted as the four of them sat in the common room at a loss on what to do while Margo had wandered off momentarily to talk to Vonce. “We can’t very well go putting on make-up and dresses in front of her if she thinks we’re going to practice can we?”

Cressida thought very hard for a moment, trying to come up with a solution. Once again, she found herself cursing James for locking them out of their secret room.

“Finnigan has a room,” Jac said suddenly.

“What?” Felix’s head snapped up. “You want to use  my  room?”

Cressida shrugged. “It’s the best we got right now.”

“But we can’t use my room,” Felix protested. “My room is a mess. People don’t go in my room-”

“Felix, it’s your room or nothing,” Molly said firmly.

“But-” Felix paled. “But even the house elves regret going in my room lately. Vonce is a pig and I’m not much better. Plus, I’m pretty sure one of the other boys has a new pet rat running around in there somewhere this year.”

Cressida looked out and saw Margo was on her way over again. “It’ll have to do.” 

Four hours later and the group were still sat in the common room, watching as the grandfather clock on the wall chimed five. They had two hours before the party was due to start and Margo showed no sign of leaving them any time soon.

Jac and Molly had tried dropping multiple hints over the last half hour about having to leave for practice but Margo seemed to be uninterested in acknowledging a word that came out of their mouths about it.

“So,” Cressida said pointedly after a second game of exploding snap at Margo’s request. “What are you going to do while we’re all gone at practice, Margo?”

Margo put down a card, disappointed it wasn’t a matching one. “Vonce said something about a party to me. I may go to that with him.”

The four of them all glanced at each other. Molly leant back in the cushions with a slight shake of her head toward Cressida. 

“You hate parties,” Jac said, sitting on the edge of the sofa. “You didn’t even really want to come to the party with us in the first place.”

Margo looked up from the cards finally. “But Vonce likes parties.”

“Sound logic that,” Felix said sarcastically. “Tell me, does Vonce happen to like transferring to Durmstrang?”

Cressida elbowed him in the side as a warning. Pissing Margo off wouldn’t make their plan any easier. She put down another card slowly. “Which party is he going to?”

Margo focused her attention back on the game. “Ravenclaw’s. He has some friends in that House that said he could bring someone, and at least that way I won’t have to wear a ridiculous mask like the Gryffindors wanted everyone to do.”

“And Vonce is taking you?” Molly asked sceptically.

Margo looked slightly insulted by the question. “Of course, he’s taking me. We’re dating.” 

“Well, shouldn’t you go and start getting ready then, Margo?” Jac asked. “We’ll be getting ready for practice soon anyway and we don’t want to get in your way.”

Margo considered this for a moment as she put down her next card. It happened to be the winning one, sending a loud spark off from the top of the deck. “I suppose I should probably figure out what I’m going to wear,” she said getting to her feet.

“Enjoy the party!” Jac called cheerfully as Margo left.

The four remaining Slytherins watched Margo disappear into the girl’s dormitories.

“Right,” Cressida said, getting to her feet once it was safe. “You two go in and get our dresses,” she instructed the two girls. “Me and Felix will go over to his room and start cleaning it up.”

Molly and Jac were on their feet as well now. “Where did you hide the dresses?” Molly asked.

“They’re in my Quidditch robes. Cressida and I shrank them down and stuffed them in the pockets,” Jac answered. “The good make-up is hidden under the floorboards.”

“The good make-up?” Felix questioned.

“Muggle make-up we’ve compiled and don’t want Margo to take for herself,” all three girls answered.

With that, they all broke apart going in their respective directions.

Cressida followed behind Felix as they entered the boy’s dormitory side. 

Once Felix opened up his door and turned the light on, Cressida saw just how disastrous Felix’s room had gotten since the last time she’d seen it.

“Wow,” she said, staring at the mess and clutter surrounding the room. The fore-mentioned pet rat was currently nibbling on a half-eaten jam tart on top of a pile of books in the middle of the room. “Boys really are more disgusting as they get older.”

“I warned you,” he said dismally, stepping over a pile of dirty laundry to get to his bed. “Do you know any good cleaning spells?”

Cressida thought they’d need more of a miracle than a cleaning spell. “There may be one that will do it quick enough in our Charms textbook, let me have a look,” she said, holding out her hand expectantly.

Felix sighed guiltily. “So, you know how I leave my stuff everywhere-”

“Where is it?” Cressida asked lowering her hand.

“Either the alcove or your room.”

Cressida turned back towards the door with a glare at Felix. “You start cleaning the old-fashioned way while I go and find it.”

She heard a faint grumble of annoyance as she shut the door behind her.

“Heard you had a party tonight.” 

Cressida jumped as she saw Thane leaning against the wall outside Felix’s room.

“How did you-”

“The walls have ears in this place,” Thane interrupted her inevitable question. 

Cressida eyed him up cautiously. “Are you going to do anything to ruin it?”

“No,” Thane smiled.

“Then we don’t need to be having a conversation,” she said heading back out into the common room to check the alcove.

Thane followed behind her. “I’m here to offer aid.”

Cressida knelt on the floor and checked under the sofa. “Aid?”

When she got back to her feet, dusting off her hands, she saw Thane pull a pair of black heels from behind his back, forcing them into Cressida’s hands. “They’re Val’s from last year. She was going to chuck them out. Apparently, they’re out of season, but I figured you could use them. Got the house elves to clean them up ready for tonight."

Cressida looked from the shoes back up to Thane. “You’re giving me shoes?”

“Designer shoes,” Thane embellished. 

Her brow furrowed. “Why?”

“You got a decent pair to wear to this thing?”

“… no.”

“Then take the shoes and be grateful,” Thane said. “I noticed you wore those grubby trainers with your dress at last year’s party before summer. Wanted to offer you a better alternative… after all, a masquerade party is supposed to be a party of high class, not that the Gryffindors could ever imagine pulling it off the proper way.”

“But I can’t walk in heels,” Cressida admitted. “I’ve never owned a pair.”

Thane took them back off her and got down on his knees. He pulled her foot into his grasp before she could kick him off. She watched as he replaced her trainer with one of the heels, then proceeded to do the same with the other foot.

“I don’t have time for this,” Cressida said impatiently. “I need to find a cleaning spell, I can never sodding remember it-”

“Scourgify,” Thane told her. “I use it all the time to help the maids out at home.”

Once he stood upright again, he offered out his arm.

“What am I, some damsel in distress?” Cressida mocked.

Thane held his hands up in surrender and took a step back. “Alright, we’ll do it your way.”

Reluctantly, Cressida took a step forward wobbling on her ankles slightly. Huffing to herself, she used the sofa to keep her balance. “This is pointless-”

“I bet those Gryffindor girls are all going to be wearing heels to this thing,” Thane said cleverly.

She looked down at the heels again irritably. They really were pretty shoes, like the ones she’d seen rich women wear on TV or chavs get the knockoff version of in Conwell. “Fine, I’ll consider wearing them. You happy?”

“Immensely,” Thane replied smugly.

Cressida eyed him up as he continued to linger in front of her. “What do you want in return?”

Thane shrugged his shoulders. “The satisfaction I helped you look more like the sophisticated Slytherin I was raised to associate myself with.”

“And that’s a good thing is it?” Cressida shot out.

“I could always take the shoes back. Throw them in the bin like Val intended.”

“No,” Cressida backtracked quickly. “No, that’s okay. Thank you. Really.”

Thane nodded his head. “My pleasure, Miss Knightly.”

With that, Thane disappeared elsewhere. She glanced down at the black heels on her feet. They made her feel taller. She liked the feeling.

She slipped them off and tucked them under her arm as she ran back to Felix’s room.

Unfortunately, when she pushed the door open, she found Molly waving her wand around like a mad woman, sending objects flying everywhere and a sentient mop going over the floors like a less coordinated version of  Fantasia .

Jac and Felix seemed to be taking refuge on his now bare and stripped bed, with Jac clutching the normal-sized pile of dresses and Felix holding the rat, still happily munching on the last crumbs of the jam tart as though nothing had interrupted it.

When Molly realised Cressida had returned, she clicked her fingers and the mop fell lifeless to the floor. “Where did you disappear to?”

“I went to find a cleaning spell,” she replied lamely.

Jac jumped off the bed and ran over to her. “Where the hell did you get those things?!” Jac gawked, stealing the shoes from her hands to admire them up close. “Cressie, these must have cost you a fortune!”

“Did you steal them?” Felix asked, having a look for himself. “Because if so, bravo.”

“I didn’t steal them,” Cressida said, snatching the shoes back. “They were going to be thrown out.” Molly opened her mouth with the signature look of an on-coming lecture so Cressida quickly picked her dress up. “We better start getting ready before Margo figures out what we’re up to.”

Molly’s mouth closed again as the four of them all started grabbing their respective outfits to get changed one by one in the bathroom.

 

*

 

An hour had passed and the girls were all in their dresses. Jac, this year donned a black sequin dress accompanied by the purple mask she liked the best. Molly wore a simple red dress that she claimed was a bit tighter around the hips than she would have liked. Her mask was black and white. Felix, in typical boy fashion, wore a nice shirt and had no stress about doing his hair or make-up afterwards, so he sat and read through a Quibbler magazine wearing his emerald green mask while the girls finished off.

Cressida had borrowed one of Molly’s old dresses with a halter neck from last year, which Molly had borrowed from Victoire in the first place. It was a nice shade of burgundy and it matched her simple black mask quite well in her opinion. Jac had even used a spell to straighten Cressida’s hair so she looked even less recognisable behind the mask.

Luckily, due to the masks, Molly and Cressida didn’t feel the need to worry about putting on much more make-up than mascara and some lipgloss

Jac, however, loved doing her make-up and had started to become a make-up fanatic whenever the chance arose to do it, which was why even though she knew it would be mostly covered up, she still disappeared into the bathroom to add the final touches while the other two girls finished off getting ready. In hindsight, it was good Jac was rather good at make-up as it came in handy when one of the girls wanted one of their spots covered up, and they seemed to have more spots than ever popping up out of nowhere this year.

Cressida had just finished brushing through her now pin-straight hair when she noticed Molly staring at herself in the vanity mirror, pulling at random strands of her own mop of hair.

“Come here,” Cressida said, standing behind Molly and grabbing a box of bobby pins. “If you do that, you’ll make it frizzy and then you’ll be complaining about it all night.”

Molly allowed Cressida to take her hair into her hands. “Are we sure this is a good idea?” Molly sighed as Cressida pinned her hair back.

“Sure it is,” Cressida comforted her. “A party fixes everything.” 

Molly’s eyes looked at Felix in the reflection of the mirror. “I hope you’re right.”

Jac walked out of the bathroom with a dramatic pose. “How do I look?”

“Like a modern-day Barbie,” Felix said dryly. “Can we go now?”

Molly nodded, patting down a few loose curls. “Let’s go-”

The door clicked open and all four of them turned to see Jeremiah Vonce standing in the doorway.

“Shit,” Cressida cursed under her breath, not seeing an easy lie out of this.

Jeremiah looked momentarily shocked to see so many people in his room, but then, his eyes scanned the room with a frown. “You cleaned?”

“We did,” Felix said slowly.

Jeremiah gave a small shrug and started heading towards the bathroom. “Weird outfits to clean in but alright.”

With that, Cressida gestured for the four of them to leave the room silently while they had the chance.

Out in the common room, they could see their own house getting set up for a party that was starting an hour after Gryffindor’s. They kept their masks hidden behind their backs just in case anyone called them out on not sticking around for their own house party.

“Out of the way, Potter!” They heard an older boy yelling.

Cressida’s eyes snapped towards where Scorpius and Albus had been sitting in front of the fireplace playing wizard chess, which had now been knocked all over the place thanks to people carrying crates of fire whiskey without looking where they were going.

The two boys scurried to tidy it away and dart to the nearest corner to avoid any more confrontation.

“What an arsehole,” Jac said, watching the older students take over the common room without much care for whatever the younger years had been doing previously.

Cressida started crossing the common room, only stumbling over her new heels once on her way, and stopped in front of the two Second Year boys. “You two got any plans for tonight?”

“Not anymore,” Albus said grumpily, glaring at the rowdy older years.

“Want to come to a party?” Cressida asked enticingly.

Scorpius’ eyes brightened, but Albus looked hesitant. “Who’s party is it?”

“Gryffindor’s-”

“Are you nuts?” Albus said instantly. “We may as well walk around with targets on our back if we go near there!”

“It’s for Molly and Thomas’ birthday,” Cressida explained. “Plus, everyone’s wearing masks.”

“We don’t have masks,” Albus argued stubbornly.

The group looked stumped on how to resolve this. Molly gave a regretful sigh a second later. “Don’t tell anyone I did this,” she whispered as she grabbed Felix’s mask out of his hand and pointed her wand at it. “Geminio!”  One mask turned into three and Molly passed them to her younger cousin. “There, no you have no excuse,” she said.

Scorpius tugged on Albus’ jumper sleeve. “It could be fun, Al.”

Albus could see the hope on his friend's face but he still remained sceptical.

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me drag you there,” she threatened.

Albus immediately nodded, knowing better than to argue with that tone of voice. “Yes, ma’am.” 

Cressida, now with a rather pleased smile, turned back to her friends.

“Wait,” Scorpius called before she got too far away. “Do we get to drink?”

“Not a chance,” Molly said as she and the others started leaving the common room. “You have to wait until next year like the rest of us.”

They all put their masks on once in the corridor and set off.

When they got to the Gryffindor entrance, Rose and Lana stood outside the portrait hole letting people in once they’d lifted their masks to show them their faces. Rose even had a clipboard and a magical floating quill.

“Nope, sorry. You’re not on the list,” she told two Hufflepuff boys who were trying to get into the party.

“Since when is there a list?” One of them complained.

“Since my cousin gave me one,” Rose answered bluntly.

“And who’s your cousin?” The second one asked snippily.

“Which one do you want, James Sirius Potter or Fred Weasley?” Rose challenged.

“Thomas Wood is in there too,” Lana chimed in more timidly. “If you want the more reasonable option.”

The two Hufflepuff boys seemed to accept defeat and turned away from the door. “Since when did Potter take over Gryffindor parties?” Cressida heard one mumble to the other as they took their leave.

“They’re Hogwarts royalty,” the other one replied. “They think they own the place.”

Cressida debated calling them out on what they had said but Molly had nudged her to keep moving. “A bunch of Slytherins defending them isn’t going to help their case, trust me,” she whispered.

“House, name and face, please,” Rose said as the group came up to her.

The Fourth years all lifted their masks to reveal their faces and Rose broke out into a smile. “God, I barely recognised you lot. Those masks really work.”

Albus and Scorpius stepped up then, lifting their masks as well.

“Are we on the list?” Albus asked a tad nervously. 

Rose dropped her clipboard and engulfed the two boys in a group hug. “I can’t believe you two came!”

Lana picked up the clipboard and scanned it. With a thumbs up to Rose, she confirmed they were included on the guest list.

“Damn, they really do think of everything, don’t they?” Jac muttered.

“You can go on in,” Rose said excitedly after they whispered the password and the portrait hole swung open. “Sneak me out some snacks if you can.”

“Aren’t you going in?” Molly asked.

“We’re too young to drink,” Lana answered.

“Plus, the boys thought I’d be the best person to deter people from trying to get in,” Rose added proudly.

“And by the looks of it, they’d be right,” Felix commented.

“Are you two coming?” Cressida asked when Albus and Scorpius didn’t follow them into the common room.

“I think we’ll stay with Rose for a bit,” Albus answered.

“Stay out of trouble,” Molly told them.

The four Second Years all glanced at each other, the picture of innocence.

With a knowing smile at the younger ones, Cressida turned towards the party and they all covered their faces again. 

As they entered, a laughing pumpkin swooped down and made them all jump.

“Fuck!” Felix cursed, swatting it away. “What’s the stupid thing doing scaring the shit out of people-”

“It’s a Hallowe’en party for everyone else, remember?” Jac pointed out as they kept walking.

Cressida looked around the Gryffindor common room and found it was just as comforting as she remembered, even during a party.

The buffet table was set up like last time, but they lacked the champagne tower which she silently thought was for the best. Music was already pumping throughout the room and a large space in the middle was emptied for dancing. The various sofas, armchairs and bean bags boarded the edge of the circular room and were already filling up fast with people in groups chatting and laughing.

Despite there being Hallowe’en decorations all over the room, much like the rest of the castle, Cressida noticed two distinctly birthday-themed cakes on the buffet table. One red, one green. Both with sparklers coming out the top that never seemed to burn out. She watched as Penelope McFadden, wearing her mask more like a headband, went up to the red cake and tried to swipe some of the frosting off only to be met with a quick spark to her fingertip.

Jac was right, they really do think of everything.

“Happy belated birthday, Weasley,” Felix said then, shaking her by the shoulders. “Enjoy your celebration while you can.”

Molly smiled, clearly enamoured by their efforts. “I think I fancy a drink.”

“Now we’re talking!” Felix exclaimed cheerfully. “Allow me to be your guide into a drunken stupor.”

Cressida laughed as Molly got dragged away by Felix to find something to drink.

“Wait, I know this song,” Jac said thoughtfully. She paused and listened to the music pumping through the party for a moment then let out a scandalised gasp.  Super Freak by Rick James was currently halfway through playing. “They stole my CDs! I’m going to kill Fred!” She said, storming off in search of her boyfriend leaving Cressida alone at the party.

She took a step forward, aiming for the buffet and stumbled a bit in her heels. Glancing around to make sure no one had seen her, she veered more towards the walls in case she needed support. She was determined not to fall over at this party.

Up ahead on the outskirts of the dance floor, she spotted who she instantly recognised as Beatrix and April dancing together. Well, not really dancing, just vaguely swaying their hips and eyeing up the other boys on the dance floor. Rolling her eyes, she looked down at their footwear. Both were wearing heels, but not nearly as nice as the ones Thane had given her.

That confirmed it. Cressida was wearing these things all night even if it killed her, just to prove she had nice things.  They  didn’t have to know they had originally been meant for the bin. She glanced to the side and found the wall-mounted mirror covered in ivy and now, due to the party, streamers and balloons. She examined her reflection, turning her body to the side to check her dress looked okay from all angles. She hardly looked like herself, especially with the mask, and she rather liked it this way.

With a self-satisfied smile, she started unsteadily making her way over to the drinks table to pour herself a quick shot to ease her mood. Parties were never her strong suit but she wanted to enjoy this one, partly for Molly’s benefit. In addition to her determination to not fall over, she was also determined to have a good time.

“Dear Godric, is that you, Knightly?!” Thomas gawked, noticing her as he went to pass by. His golden mask had a red feather sticking out the top of it but his curly hair sticking out in all directions was unmistakable.

Cressida lifted her mask ever so slightly to reveal her full face as she took a sip from a cup. 

Fred and James appeared beside Thomas then, catching her just as she recovered her eyes. Fred was sporting a  Phantom-of-the-Opera-style  mask whereas James had one that resembled a Jester’s hat. She also instantly realised how nice James’ button-down shirt looked on him, despite the ridiculous mask. “Starting early, aren’t we, Knightly?” Fred teased.

“It’s a party,” she said, tearing her eyes away to focus on Fred instead. “I’m getting my drinks in now before they disappear.” She noticed James was staring at her as though he couldn’t quite wrap his head around her appearance. Cressida kept her attention on Fred. “Jac’s looking for you, by the way. She’s pissed you nicked her CDs.”

“They were just lying there for the taking,” Fred grinned, taking a shot for himself. “It’s not like you would be using them any time soon without the password.”

Cressida wasn’t sure the was thrilled with the idea of the three boys being in the secret room without her supervision. For all she knew, they could have changed everything and moved her favourite beanbag out of its designated spot near the window.

“We should find our usual sofa before someone else does,” Thomas said then, watching nervously as the common room quickly filled with more and more people. “I hid two bottles of cider under the cushion in case of an emergency.

The three boys turned and started walking away, but when Cressida went to go after them, she lost her footing and abruptly caught herself.

James looked back over his shoulder when he realised she wasn’t following them. His eyes moved downwards. “I knew something was different! Since when do you wear heels?” James asked, noticing them.

Cressida glanced down at the new shoes. “Since now. They make me look taller, don’t you think?”

James seemed to internally measure her height against his. She stopped just below his chin now instead of his shoulders. “Yes. You’re definitely taller.”

“One question though,” Fred chimed in. “Can you walk in them?”

Cressida squared her shoulders and did a small pace up and down in front of them, then dramatically bowed, relieved she’d managed not to stumble. “And I learnt that in just half an hour.”

“Well done,” Thomas clapped. “My sister broke her ankle when she first got a pair of those death traps.”

“Let’s hope Knightly’s newfound skill keeps her upright the whole night,” Fred joked then. “We wouldn’t want to waste a good party down in the infirmary with a broken ankle now would we?”

With that, Fred and Thomas went off in search of a place to sit.

James noticed Cressida now refused to move. “You scared of breaking your ankle?”

“I wasn’t before,” Cressida admitted.

“Come along, Bambi,” James joked, offering out his hand. “Promise to catch you if you fall.”

Cressida wrapped her arm around his for support as they moved through the party. “Luckily for you, I don’t plan on falling so it won’t come to that.”

“What do you plan on doing tonight?” James asked, ducking his head closer to hers so she could hear him through the noise.

Cressida stared up at him, noticing his green eyes somehow stood out more behind the mask than ever before. Her stomach gave a little jolt. “Getting very, very drunk,” she replied, trying to ignore it.

 

*

 

The party raged on. Everyone was having a great time. Forty minutes into the party Cressida passed by Molly having a slice of her cake. How she’d managed to get to it she had no idea.

“How’s the joint birthday celebration going?” Cressida asked.

Molly shoved more cake in her mouth with a smile. “Way better than a tea party!”

Cressida laughed as she watched Molly go back to dancing with their friends.

James had kept his promise of not letting Cressida fall flat on her ass, however, that meant her holding onto him for the majority of the dancing she mustered up the courage to do. At one point, he picked her up completely and started running around the common room with her with a manic laugh knowing she could do nothing about it. Onlookers of the party cheered him on as he ran past, seemingly having no idea it was Cressida Knightly he was carrying.

She hadn’t minded all that much, but she was slightly paranoid about her dress riding up. Eventually, James fell back onto the sofa next to Fred and Thomas with her still in his arms and she landed in his lap with an indelicate huff.

“Having fun are we, Knightly?” Fred had asked, taking a slow sip of his drink at the sight of them.

Cressida quickly clambered to her feet, pulling her dress back down towards her knees. “I’d be much better if Potter didn’t carry me around like a sack of flour.”

“It would have taken too long to walk you over in your stilts,” James reasoned, pouring himself a fresh cup of fire whiskey. “This way was much more effective.”

Fred hid his knowing grin behind his cup.

Jac had since taken over sifting through the CDs the boys had thought suitable for the party and lectured Fred on touching them without her permission, especially because she had organised them specifically in a way she liked before the summer and now that was ruined. Despite this, Jac was relishing having her CDs in her hands again, being able to listen to music for the first time since coming back to Hogwarts.

She was greatly enjoying using the Hallowe’en theme to her advantage and played  Thriller  not once, but three times throughout the party, and each time it provoked more and more people to get up and join in the dancing. By the third time it played, Fred, James and Thomas had jumped up on the tables, demonstrating to everyone just how to dance like zombies with a half-empty bottle of fire whiskey hanging loosely in their outstretched hands.

After their performances, it was impossible to move away from the dance floor. Felix was spinning Molly around the dance floor and for the first time, they actually looked like a real couple enjoying each other’s company. Molly didn’t care how much anyone drank as she’d had more than a few for herself this time. Jac was happily loading up the next few songs to be played. Fred was jumping around with Thomas on his shoulders, repeating the lyrics back to James conducting from the table as ‘Take On Me’  played.

Albus and Scorpius were by the buffet table, piling various snacks and bits of food into napkins to take out to Rose and Lana.

It couldn’t get better, Cressida thought to herself from the sidelines as the next few songs played.

She finished the last drop in her bottle of fire whiskey, the warm fuzziness taking over her whole body that she had come to rather like since she started drinking, and she abandoned the empty bottle onto a nearby table. 

She went to walk towards James as he clambered down from the table after yet another performance on his part for the watching party. One foot in front of the other, she kept telling herself.

If it had been difficult to walk in heels sober, now she was a bottle of fire whiskey deep it felt nearly impossible.

“Whoa, there,” someone said, catching Cressida as she leered dangerously to the left.

“Sorry,” she slurred. Focusing her eyes, she noticed it was Jeremiah Vonce who had caught her. He wasn’t wearing a mask. 

“Don’t apologise,” he smiled down at her. “I don’t mind fit girls falling into my arms.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“It’s a party,” he answered as Cressida held herself up. “Am I not allowed to be here?”

“No!” She told him. “Where’s Margo?!”

“Oh, I abandoned her back at the Ravenclaw party. She never shuts up-”

“Shit,” Cressida cursed, gripping the side of her head to get it to think clearly. She stumbled away from Jeremiah and went in search of Jac.

On her way, she ran into the trio of boys, laughing and shoving each other around jokingly.

“Knightly!” Thomas exclaimed as she staggered into them. “I wondered where you had wandered off to-”

“Vonce just spoke to me,” Cressida said with a scowl, struggling not to wobble on her feet.

“What’d he say?” Fred asked curiously.

Cressida waved a dismissive hand through the air at the question. “He just called me fit-”

“How dare he,” James said, craning his neck in search of the fore-mentioned boy.

Fred nudged Thomas, indicating to James. “And how would you describe dear Knightly, Jamsie?

“Not fit, put it that way,” he answered unabashed, taking another sip from his bottle. “Radiant and oddly scary, yes. But not fit. ”

Both boys seemed surprised by his words without a hint of care. Cressida hoped her cheeks didn’t feel as red as they felt. 

“Okay, so we’ve discovered Potter’s limit now,” Fred said, taking the bottle from his friend’s hands. James gave a disappointed pout.

She held the bridge of her nose, trying not to sway on the spot or focus on what James had said. He’d drunk nearly as much as her, she could hardly focus on his wording at the current moment in time. That was for sober her to make sense of. “Listen, you’re missing the point- Jeremiah is at the party,” she tried explaining.

“Yes,” Thomas said confused. “What’s the big deal?”

“He’s supposed to be distracting Margo!” Cressida finally got out.

“Shit,” all three boys chorused in realization.

As if on queue, the portrait hole opened and Margo stormed into the party, followed quickly by Rose and Lana. “Where the bloody hell is Molly?!” She demanded to know.

“We tried to stop her but she pulled her wand on us,” Rose said, chasing after Margo towards the group.

Fred’s face flashed with anger. “You pulled your wand on my cousin?!”

“I needed to get in and she wouldn’t move,” Margo defended herself. “Now tell me where Molly is!”

“How did you even know they were in here?” Thomas asked.

“It wasn’t hard to figure out. They’re always around you or getting into trouble,” Margo sneered. “Plus, Vonce said he saw them all dressed up in his room earlier.”

“That little weasel,” Cressida grumbled. “I’ll kill him for this. Where is he-!?”

Before Cressida could do her own storming off, Fred grabbed her shoulders and held her in place with some difficulty. “Not so fast, Knightly. Let’s hold off on murder in your condition. You’ll leave behind a trace.”

“Not isn’t the time for jokes, Fredrick,” Margo snapped.

All three boys held back laughter. “Oh, she broke out the Fredrick, this must be serious,” Thomas mocked, taking another swig of drink.

“I am serious!” Margo stomped her foot irritably.

James lifted his finger. “I think you’ll find-”

“Oh, shut  up , James!” Margo yelled at him, sensing the oncoming joke before it even made it out of his mouth.

Cressida moved forward, holding her bottle in one hand and shoving Margo lightly with the other. “You don’t get to talk to Potter like that!”

Margo’s glare was murderous. “Right, I forgot it’s one rule for you and another for the rest of us. God, Arabella was fucking right about you.”

“Chauncey?” Cressida questioned. “When the fuck did you talk to Chauncey?”

Fred rolled his eyes. “That sodding bathroom, I bet. That place needs to be boarded up and save us all the trouble.”

“And what exactly did Chauncey say about Knightly, Smithers?” James asked, his tone not as light and joyful as it had been moments before.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she replied cryptically. 

“Margo?” Molly called, making her way over in surprise. She had a smile on her face and a blush on her cheeks from all the dancing and drinking. “What are you doing here?”

Margo’s attention turned to Molly as she and Felix joined the group. “You lying little snake.”

Molly shook her head slightly, guilt filling her features as her smile dropped. “Margo-”

“This doesn’t look like Quidditch practice to me,” Margo went on. “But hey, anything to keep me out of the loop, right?”

“Can you blame us with how you are?” Felix chimed in then. Molly rounded on him, placing a hand on his chest, a silent beg for him not to make it worse. Felix ignored it. “You sabotaged her birthday. You complain whenever we’re having fun. You hate that she’s with me-”

“Molly got with Finnigan?” Thomas asked surprised. “When did that happen?”

“Exactly!” Margo agreed with Thomas over-dramatically. “Nobody even knows they're together because they don’t even act like a real fucking couple!”

“Because every time we tried you got in the way!” Felix argued.

“Is that so?” Margo asked pointedly. “Or maybe Molly doesn’t like you as much as she thought.”

“Just fuck off, Margo,” Molly snapped finally. Everyone stared at her in stunned silence.

Even Margo didn’t seem to compute what Molly had just said. “What?”

“I said fuck off,” Molly repeated. “I don’t want you ruining this for me as well.”

Margo’s tears welled up with tears, but still, she held her ground. She turned her eyes on the group watching her bitterly. “Molly told me she doesn’t think getting with Felix was a good idea. She regrets it but she didn’t want anyone to find out.”

Felix turned to Molly, a pained expression spreading across his face. “You said that?”

Molly kept her glare firmly on Margo. “I said that over a week ago when we first got together. I was confused. I just panicked-”

“You still said it though,” Felix interrupted. “Why did you tell her that and not me?” He turned to Cressida in an act of desperation. “Did you know about this?”

Cressida shook her head. “No, she never said anything to me or I would have-”

It was no use, Felix had left without another word, not willing to hear anymore whether good or bad.

Molly immediately ran after him. “Felix, wait! I didn’t mean it!”

The three Gryffindor boys stood in front of Margo. Fred was still holding Cressida back. 

“I think you should go now, Smithers,” James said coldly. 

“And I would greatly consider the consequences before you decide to interfere with any of my cousins again,” Fred said, a hint of a threat underneath it.

Margo gulped, turning her dark eyes on Cressida. If she was going to say something else, she thought better of it at the sight of Cressida being held back. 

Without a fight left in her, Margo turned and left the party as well.

Only once Margo was safely outside of the portrait hole did Fred let go of Cressida’s shoulders. “I should have punched her,” she grumbled.

“We should have let you,” Thomas replied.

“James,” Rose said then, bringing their attention to the two girls still standing nearby. “Shall we keep guarding the door?”

“Nah, fuck it,” James said, snatching his bottle back from Fred. “The people we were trying to keep out already got in.”

There was a tense silence as Rose and Lana left the four of them to continue on with the party. Jac suddenly came running through the crowd to them. “Someone just said there was an argument. I couldn’t see from the other side of the room, what happened?”

“Margo happened,” Cressida said annoyed.

Thomas sighed. “I knew we should have trapped her in jelly. They wouldn’t have found her until dawn.”

“Do you reckon Molly and Finnigan will be okay?” Fred asked sympathetically as he wrapped his arms around Jac as if it were them two that had the argument.

“Us being there isn’t going to help anyone,” Jac answered logically, despite the slight swaying as she stood there. “Molly’s a big girl and this sort of thing is for her and Felix to figure out themselves.”

“We should wait a while before going down to the dungeons then,” Cressida sighed.

“Here,” James said passing her the bottle of fire whiskey. “There’s nothing you can do now. Might as well enjoy the rest of the party.”

Cressida took a swig if only to bring her mood back up. Being sad and drunk wasn’t nearly as fun.

 

*

 

After that, the party continued as normal. Although, Cressida had significantly slowed down in her drinking since Margo had crashed, but she still remained just drunk enough to keep the warm fuzziness running through her body for the next hour while the party raged on. People were still dancing. Music was still playing, although Jac seemingly wasn’t in charge any more as the flow of songs wasn’t nearly as good as before. There was still laughter filling the room. It was like none of them even realised something had gone wrong. Like one of the two people the party was intended for hadn’t run out over an hour ago. Then again, Cressida reasoned, none of the people outside of their group even knew this was partly for Molly, or that the group of Slytherins were even in the room. They were just here to drink and have a good time.

Cressida was no longer having a good time, no matter how much she drank or didn’t drink. But at least the fuzziness had stayed. She was grateful for that.

However, now she wasn’t distracted with dancing or having fun, she realized just how sore her feet were and how tired she was.

She sank down onto an abandoned chair and pulled her heels off to discover her feet were now riddled with blisters and cuts.

“Stupid fucking shoes,” she cursed under her breath. No wonder Valentina was throwing them out.

She stood upright with bare feet and realised they were in just as much pain without the shoes as well. She dreaded having to walk all the way back down to the dungeons like this. She slumped against a wall and thought hard for a moment.

It was past midnight by now, not that it seemed to make a difference to the partygoers. She glanced around the common room. Albus and Scorpius had left twenty minutes ago. She had no idea where Jac had run off to in her drunken stupor. She had gotten into a drinking game with the three boys which she badly lost and none of them had seen her since.

Besides, she was hardly in the mood to go down to the dungeons and face the fallout of the argument from earlier. She doubted Molly, Felix and Margo had sorted it out in the hour they had been gone, and she doubted there would be anything she could do to help resolve the situation. She wasn’t even sure if the situation  could  be resolved.

No, she’d let the dust settle first. No sense could come out of any of them tonight, anyway.

She forced herself to hobble her way over to the sofa where the three boys were sitting having a rest after all the dancing. “I don’t suppose any of you would mind if I fell asleep here tonight?” 

James rounded on her so quickly that he nearly spilt his drink. “You can’t sleep down here on your own!”

“Yeah, this party could still be going on for hours and we don’t know who’s coming and going anymore since Rose abandoned her post,” Fred agreed with a slight slur to his voice.

“Well, I can’t walk back to Slytherin like this!” She argued back, gesturing to her feet. “Unless one of you wants to carry me back and none of you can walk straight enough to accomplish that.”

“Sleep in our room,” Thomas suggested then.

Fred and James turned their heads to stare at him in surprise. Cressida cocked an eyebrow and stumbled to her feet, heels in hand. “Is it okay with you two?” She asked. “I promise I’ll be gone by morning.”

James instantly tried to gain back some semblance of his cool demeanour. “Of course. Go right up!” He said at once. He leaned over to Fred. “She  can  go all the way up… right?”

“Well,” Fred said, sipping from his cup. “We’re about to find out.”

Cressida noticed James had started turning red under his shirt collar. Through what was left of her drunken haze she couldn’t help but smile at it. 

“Don’t get excited, Potter. I know having a girl in your room for the first time is a big deal but it’s just me,” she teased. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“No, I’m not-” he started, flustered. “What I mean to say is-” he faltered again when he suddenly realised she was messing with him. “Your Slytherin tendencies tend to come out at the worst times, Knightly.” 

She grinned, wrapping an arm around his shoulder for support like she had been all night as they turned toward the staircase leading to the boy's dormitories.

Fred and Thomas watched them walk ahead intrigued. As they did, James lent back and took a large swig from his bottle of fire whiskey behind Cressida’s back before abandoning it on the table.

“This should be interesting,” Fred said, finishing his own drink. “Come on, it’s not fair to leave Jamsie alone like that.”

“Why not?” Thomas asked confused.

“I’m worried he won’t make it out alive,” Fred laughed, nudging Thomas to follow him in the same direction. “You know how his brain and his mouth are seldom connected to one another, especially where Knightly’s concerned.”

Thomas was inclined to agree as they followed behind the two in question.

By the time the two boys had joined them in their room, Cressida was wearing a pair of James’ pyjamas and sitting on the end of his bed, meanwhile, James was in the furthest corner away from her, redder than either boy had ever seen him. Cressida, however, looked completely calm and comfortable as she brushed her fingers through the ends of her now knotted hair. The straightening spell had a rather short limit, unfortunately.

“So, how’s this going to work then?” She asked the two boys now standing in the room. “Because I’m worried Potter may start going into a seizure any second now and I’d really love to get some sleep before that happens.”

“Merlin, Knightly, what did you do to the poor boy?” Fred laughed.

“I asked for something to sleep in and got changed in the bathroom. He hasn’t left the corner yet,” she answered, slightly amused.

Fred nodded understandingly, then crossed the room to his dresser and started getting changed, not caring to do it out of view from Cressida, who quickly averted her eyes. “Well, she can’t stay in my bed. You know what I’m like in the mornings and I have a girlfriend.”

“You can sleep in my bed,” Thomas offered.

Cressida smiled at him gratefully. She knew he had Quidditch practice first thing in the morning and that he often got up and onto the pitch hour earlier to get a pre-practise in on his own, meaning he would likely wake her up well before she was ready. “Thanks, but it’s okay. I’ll just sleep on the floor.”

James remained silent, staring out at them from his corner and offering no input or solution.

Cressida grabbed a spare pillow from Thomas and a blanket that was lying on Fred’s trunk and settled down on the rug. She could immediately feel the hardwood under the red fabric she was lead on. How Felix had slept like this so often in her dorm room was beyond her. Next time she’d have to offer up her own bed for the sake of his back.

Thomas quickly changed in the bathroom and then got into his own bed. Fred turned the light off with his wand, disappearing behind his own curtains and shrouding the room in darkness.

Cressida led on her back with her eyes wide open. There was a long moment of silence. “James, you can come out of the corner now.”

There was an incoherent mumbling and then Cressida was being hoisted to her feet and moved until she was dropped onto James’ bed. “You can’t sleep on the floor, Knightly,” he said, lighting up his wand so she could see his face. “You’ll wake up with a crick in your neck if you sleep like that.”

“And where are you going to sleep?” She asked as he stood in front of her.

“Oh, you know…” he gestured vaguely. “ The bathtub,” he decided eventually.

“Fuck’s sake,” Cressida rolled her eyes and moved to the end of the bed. “Get in.”

“What?” James squeaked. An unfortunate time for a voice crack.

“We’ll sleep top to tail. Me, Jac and Molly do it all the time. I’ll sleep up here and you sleep down there. Deal?” She asked, already settling down. God, Potter’s bed was perhaps the most comfortable thing she’d ever lead on. Far more comfortable than the Slytherin’s beds. She was slightly jealous that he got to sleep in it every night and she didn’t.

James continued to linger beside his bed.

“Merlin’s beard, Potter, just get in the sodding bed!” Fred yelled through the darkness.

James scrambled under the covers and put his wand light out with a bit of awkward fumbling. 

They lay in silence for a while and Cressida was trying not to laugh. “Just for the record, I planned on handling this a lot cooler than I did,” James whispered through the quiet.

“You handled it just fine, Potter,” Cressida grinned. “If I’m nice I might not even tease you about this in the morning.”

“Fantastic,” James said sarcastically.

Chapter 78: Fourth Year: Sober

Sunday 28th October 2018 

 

Cressida’s eyes re-opened around five in the morning and she instantly noticed the fuzzy feeling in her bones had been replaced with a pounding pain in her head. She’d slept the worst of it off by the looks of it, but when she sat up she suddenly remembered she was in Potter’s bed and not her own.

He was still pleasantly snoring at the other end and she allowed herself a smile at the thought he might be dreaming about something stupid.

She often wondered what it was like inside James’ head and how he came up with his fabulous ideas, but she had never considered what he might dream about before. She supposed it was a bad habit of hers to assume everyone had blank nights like her. She never got enough consecutive sleep to warrant a decent dream.

James stirred in his slumber as though he could sense she was watching him. She fleetingly hoped he was about to wake up and keep her company, but when his snoring returned a second later she slumped her shoulders in disappointment.

But then again, if he was stirring he can’t be in that deep of a sleep, she reasoned.

“James,” Cressida whispered.

There was no answer.

“Potter,” she whispered again, nudging him with her foot.

James startled awake, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Wha- did you kick me?” He grumbled.

“No,” she lied. “You must have dreamt it.”

“Oh,” he said groggily. “Well, goodnight then-”

“Wait, no!” Cressida called out before James could cuddle back under the blanket. He paused, looking towards her through the darkness again. Cressida fiddled with the ends of her hair, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I can’t sleep… do you want to chat for a bit?”

James ran a hand through his mop of hair. “’Course,” he said softly. He crawled over his blanket until he plopped himself back down beside her on her end of the bed. “What do you want to chat about?”

“Um,” she said, watching as he made himself comfortable under the blanket with her. She hadn’t thought this far ahead. “Dunno, normally someone else decides what we talk about.”

James’ lead on his side facing her. “You often have hushed conversations in the middle of the night?”

Cressida shrugged in response. When he said it like that, it did sound a bit strange.

“Why couldn’t you sleep?” He asked then, resting his head on a crooked arm.

Cressida re-positioned herself so she was led sideways facing him. It was easier to hear the other’s whispers like this. They were closer. “I don’t sleep well. I’m always up half the night like this.”

James’ eyes seemed to glow in the dark as he stared at her intently, as though he really cared about whatever she had to say at this ridiculous hour in the morning. “Other than talking, what else do you do when you can’t sleep?”

“Think mainly, or do homework,” she answered. “Jac and I used to sneak around sometimes but we haven’t in a long time. It feels like we’ve explored everything by now.”

“I bet you haven’t,” James said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“You know somewhere I don’t?” Cressida guessed.

“I bet I know loads of places you haven’t found yet,” he confirmed. “I can even show you if you like.”

“Oh yeah?” She laughed. “And how are we going to do that without getting caught?”

James’ eyes lit up. “We’ll do it when you can’t sleep. The only person we’ll have to worry about is Filch and he’s easy to avoid now. I know all of his routes and what time he changes course and what time he takes his nap and his secret lurking-place-”

Cressida watched him ramble on about Filch and the vast things Potter had learnt about the miserable old caretaker and she found herself smiling at him again. Not out of amusement, but perhaps fondness. A fondness she only felt for Potter recently. She enjoyed his happiness and optimism, knowing she seldom felt it herself. He was like sunshine on a cloudy day.

“That sounds nice,” she said when he had finished his list.

He settled back down on the pillow facing her, his smile from ear to ear. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed. 

The two lead there then, just smiling at each other. 

“You tired yet?” James whispered then, shuffling an inch closer. 

Cressida blew her hair out of her face, trying not to focus on the closeness. “Yeah, I can sleep now. Thanks for talking to me.”

“Any time, Knightly,” James replied. “And by the way… you looked really pretty at the party, even without the mask.”

Cressida’s cheeks flushed and she failed to produce a response. James didn’t seem to notice as he rolled over and pulled the blanket up over his face. Cressida stared at the back of his head wondering why he hadn’t gone back to the bottom of the bed. Why he suddenly felt comfortable enough to lie this close to her after standing as far away as possible from her earlier?

Either way, she lead there listening to his breathing get slower. She was envious of how easily he drifted back off to sleep. Like he didn’t have a single thought or problem running around in his mind to keep him up.

Was this crossing a line, she then suddenly wondered as she watched him again, closer this time and far more coherent than when she had first agreed to share the bed. She had shared a bed with Jac and Molly and even Felix hundreds of times over the years by now, but this wasn’t like that. This was  Potter .

Lying next to her.

In his bed.

Telling her she had looked pretty.

No, this wasn’t right. This wasn’t something  they  did. This was a step over the line they’d drawn in the sand. It was dangerous.

Cressida sat up, hugging her knees once again.

Her eyes drifted down to James’ face popping out of the top of the blanket. His hair a shoddy mess on the pillow from lifting up the mask over it all night. He looked so peaceful.

He looked like sunshine even in his sleep. Warm, comfortable and inviting.

Her stomach fluttered at the thought of him and Cressida forced herself to look away. She forced herself to crawl out of the bed, grab her new shoes and mask from the end of his bed, and she forced herself to sneak out of the room and down the stairs.

Remus was asleep in his armchair as she passed his portrait, a book hanging loosely in his hands. Cressida was glad of that. She knew Remus would somehow convince her to stay and not run out on James in the early hours of the morning.

James would understand though, she told herself as she tip-toed barefoot through the now abandoned common room.

She was sober now. Her feet had stopped hurting and her hair was no longer pin-straight. There was no good excuse for her to stay in his bed.

That is what she would say if he asked. That wasn’t the real reason she had left, and she knew it.

The line couldn’t be crossed. She couldn’t ruin it. She couldn’t risk them ending up like Molly and Felix. She couldn’t risk losing his sunshine by being selfish and wanting more. For all she knew, Potter was like this for everyone. Maybe she wasn’t special at all… Maybe she was thinking about it too much. 

The swooping pumpkin laughing as she left made her jump and she panicked that it would alert someone to her leaving. Luckily, the common room was just as dead as it had been since the party ended.

She kept going, wanting nothing more than to be as far away from Gryffindor Tower as possible to think clearly.

“Well, well, well,” a sneering voice called out, taking her by surprise in the cold halls. Cressida’s attention darted sideways to see Filch lurking by the corner as if waiting for a sign of someone sneaking past. Mrs Norris weaved in between his boney ankles with a horrid meow. “A student out of bounds, sneaking out of a different house to her own no less. It must be my lucky day.”

Cressida sighed, feeling far too tired to deal with Filch at this current moment. “Do you always have to be so dramatic?” She asked. “Just give me the detention and be done with it.”

Filch’s face down turned so much she thought the corner of his mouth would hit the floor. “And extra punishment for the cheek,” he snapped. “Come now, you troublesome miscreant. Let’s get your punishment done with if you’re so impatient. To Slughorn’s office with you. Let’s see what he thinks about this.”

 

*

 

She had gotten a Sunday detention from Filch after he had told Slughorn his version of what happened. Cressida was sure, however, that if Filch had taken her to McGonagall she would have got away with a warning. She was positive the Head Mistress was in on the party anyway, considering how loud they were and hadn’t been shut down.

Either way, sneaking out of Gryffindor Tower had been the least of her worries.

When she returned to her common room just before breakfast, she found Molly sitting in the alcove staring out at the murky water. Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were stained with dried-up tears. She hadn’t even bothered to change out of her party dress. Jac was curled up on the opposite sofa fast asleep with her mask still on, cuddling Rasper like a teddy.

“How long has she been here?” Cressida asked, gesturing to Jac.

“She stumbled in about two in the morning, apparently she’d been chasing random cats around the castle until Goyle found her and brought her back,” Molly explained.

Cressida tried to hide her surprise that Goyle was capable of such a noble action of his own accord.

She shoved Jac’s legs up and sat down facing Molly. “How’re you?” She asked. Molly gave a non-committal shrug, her eyes not moving from the water. “Have you spoken to Felix?”

“He’s locked himself in his room,” Molly replied.

“And Margo?”

“She knows better than to be around me right now.” There was a beat of silence then Molly turned her eyes on Cressida. “Where were you this whole time?”

“At the party,” Cressida answered.

“The party finished around three, I heard the commotion of Filch rounding up students.”

“Oh,” Cressida said lamely, having no answer.

Molly’s eyes bore into her. “You’re wearing my cousins’ pyjamas.”

Cressida looked down and realised her attire with a wince. “I was just borrowing them. I was going to sleep on the floor-”

“Instead of coming down and listening to us arguing?” Molly cut her off.

“No, it wasn’t like that,” Cressida countered. “We thought you could use some space to figure it out for yourselves.”

Molly nodded distantly, her eyes going back to watching the water outside the window. “He called me pretty, you know,” she said then. “While we were dancing, Finnigan said I looked pretty. No one had ever called me pretty apart from my family before… it made me feel like he was actually my boyfriend instead of just being Felix… and then Margo showed up and now I don’t think he even wants to be my friend anymore.”

“He’ll still be your friend even if you guys break up-” Cressida tried.

Molly let out a humourless laugh. “I don’t even think him calling me pretty constitutes a breakup. I don’t think I can even call him my boyfriend. It’s not like we did anything romantic in the two weeks this has been going on. Margo always made sure we didn’t get the chance-”

“Do you still want to try though?” Cressida asked. “Do you still fancy each other?”

Molly didn’t answer.

Jac let out a snore in her sleep.

“Cressida,” Molly said then. “What’s going on with you and my cousin?”

“What?” Cressida asked, caught off guard by the sudden question.

“You and James. Something’s shifted. I can see it in how he is around you. How you are around him. I just can't figure out why,” she explained, looking at her once more. Cressida knew Molly well enough by now to know she was turning the conversation on her as a distraction from her own problems. “You’re not like Jac and Fred, but you’re not like me and Felix either. But whatever it is, it’s more than friends. You don’t go soft around just anyone.”

Cressida scoffed. “I don’t go soft around Potter-”

“You’re wearing his sodding pyjamas, and believe me when I say those are his good ones,” Molly pointed out. Cressida had no counter argument. “Do you like him?”

“Of course not-” Cressida tried brushing it off.

“Cressida,” Molly said again firmly. “Do you fancy James?”

Her mouth clamped shut. Her throat drying up. She couldn’t admit it just like that. She couldn’t say it out loud or even think about it. “No.”

Molly’s claws were dug in, she wasn’t letting it go that easily. “Then why all the weirdness? There has to be a reason.”

“Why?” Cressida asked desperately.

“Because I’m not stupid and watching you two is fucking mind-boggling!” Molly answered. “So just tell me what’s going on.”

Cressida took a deep breath. The jig was up. She had to give Molly some information if she wanted this conversation to be done with. Cressida chanced looking at her. “You promise you won’t tell? Not even Jac?” Molly nodded instantly. Cressida swallowed hard. Just a bit of the truth, she thought. Just a bit wouldn’t hurt. “James and I nearly kissed.”

Molly looked thoughtful. “You  did  kiss. We all saw it-”

“No. Again, after that,” Cressida corrected her, testing the waters. “We were in the stairwell and it nearly happened properly before we got interrupted by Fred and everything felt a bit different after it… but we’ve moved past that now… mostly.”

Molly was quiet for a long moment. So long, in fact, that Cressida had started to grow nervous.

“But you didn’t actually kiss?” Molly asked. Cressida shook her head. 

“Right,” Cressida confirmed, fighting the urge to just tell her everything. To get some advice and for someone to tell her she wasn’t crazy for thinking the way she was. But then it wasn’t fair for Molly to be that person. Plus, if people knew, then it could all go wrong. Margo had proved that just hours ago. 

“Alright then,” Molly said after a moment of contemplation. She got to her feet and wiped the dried tears from her cheeks. “I’m going to get some sleep. Don’t bother waking me for breakfast.”

And just like that the conversation was over. Molly disappeared into the dorm room. Cressida was left on the sofa with a slumbering Jac.

She let out a deep breath, running her hands through her knotted hair. Her eyes fell on the red checked pyjamas she was wearing again. They smelt like Potter, she suddenly realised.

She  smelt like Potter.

With a lump in her throat and a crushing feeling in the very pits of her stomach, she turned her grey and make-up-stained eyes on Jac.

“Jac,” she whispered, no louder than a mouse. Jac didn’t stir one bit. “I have something I need to tell you.” 

She waited, to make sure Jac really was fast asleep and not pretending. She wanted to make sure it couldn’t be repeated back to her. Lowering her voice even more, Cressida hugged her knees and stared at her best friend. “Jac… I think I-”

Doors started opening. People staggered out into the common room to head to an early breakfast and get something in their stomachs after a night of drinking.

Cressida’s mouth clamped shut. The secret dying and shrivelling up in her throat before it saw the light of day.

Jac stirred at the noise and peeled one eye open. “Cress?” She grumbled groggily.

Cressida forced an easy smile onto her face as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. “Rise and shine, sleepy head,” she said cheerily, manoeuvring to hoist Jac onto her feet. “It’s nearly time for breakfast.”

Jac heaved at the sheer thought.

 

 

Friday 2nd November 2018

 

If any of them thought their situations would get better with time, they were wrong. A week had passed and tensions were still as high as the night of the party.

Cressida had hoped Molly and Felix would at least be on talking terms by now, but sadly, it appeared as though only a miracle could get them on the same page again.

In fact, for the first time ever, Felix didn’t even sit with them at breakfast on Monday and instead sat on his own further down the table.

Molly hadn’t poured any of them a cup of tea and instead silently ate her eggs then excused herself to walk to lessons alone.

Cressida had tried talking to both Molly and Felix alone about the whole affair.

“She was just freaked out,” she had told Felix one night in the common room.

“Then she should have told me,” Felix replied stonily. “She wasn’t the only one freaked out, you know.”

The conversation with Molly had gone even worse. She was so determined not to think about her Felix issues, she wouldn’t even acknowledge them whenever Cressida brought it up. She had discovered, however, that turning the conversation back around on Cressida worked wonders for ensuring she was left alone.

“Maybe if you just spoke to Felix and-”

“Have you spoken to James recently?” Molly interrupted over their astronomy homework. “You need to give his pyjamas back soon or they’re going to get lost.”

“I’ll find Winky and make sure she does it,” Cressida said irritably. “Now stop changing the subject-”

“I think I need to redo this whole essay,” Molly sighed then, not even looking up from her parchment. “I really am hopeless at astronomy without-” she stopped herself, her jaw clenching. “I think I’m going to get some extra notes from Professor Sinistra. I’ll see you later.”

After a week of this, Cressida was beginning to give up. One thing she was grateful for, however, was that Margo had the good sense to stay as far away from them all as possible. The only time they saw her lately was a minute before curfew when she snuck in and went straight to bed with her curtains closed.

That left only Jac and Cressida on decent talking terms with each other, but even that had proved to be a problem for Cressida this week as Jac wanted to be wherever Fred was as much as possible, which by extension meant James and Thomas as well.

Cressida didn’t have a problem with this, to begin with, but ever since the party she had tried to put a wall up between her and James. She had been too close and she knew it. She didn’t want to face it. Not yet. The timing wasn’t right.

But she could feel the change within herself. The nagging feeling in her throat where the secret had shrivelled up and still remained waiting to come out. She panicked it would just suddenly jump out and ruin everything she was trying to preserve. She especially couldn’t handle that happening this week, or at the very least, until everyone was on speaking terms again. She couldn’t lose Felix, Molly and the trio of Gryffindors all in one fell swoop.

So the lump in her throat remained.

It wasn’t so bad most of the time, she convinced herself. In lessons, she could focus on her work, after lessons she had Molly and Felix to think about. Any time her mind drifted towards Potter she abruptly thought of something else to distract herself.

However, it was incredibly hard to focus on anything remotely academic when James Sirius Potter sat across from her with his effortlessly cocky smile which she swore she never used to notice  this  much.

Professor Binns had moved him away for talking too much, but that didn’t stop him from leaning back in his chair to tell a joke to Thomas and Fred on the table behind while the ghostly professor’s back was turned. Cressida knew he had been telling a joke by the way his tongue poked out between his teeth from suppressing a laugh. Something she  really  shouldn’t have been able to notice.

James' eyes trailed over and caught Cressida watching him. He didn’t look away. He simply smiled back at her. A less cocky smile. Like the one he had at four in the morning.

She tore her eyes away after that, the lump in her throat growing slightly bigger, and Cressida reserved herself to constant distinctions for the remainder of the lesson. Who would have guessed James Potter would have been the reason Cressida finally paid attention in History of Magic.

She had to find a better way to avoid this, she thought desperately for the remainder of the day. She had to keep everything the way it was, just for a little bit longer.

“You’re looking awfully thoughtful,” a voice said, bringing her out of her dazed thinking. Thane had taken the vacant seat beside her in the latest newspaper meeting. Normally, the seat was reserved for Felix but he was nowhere to be seen. 

Cressida looked up from her absent-minded doodling. The first Quidditch match of the season wasn’t for another week or so. Really, there was no point in her even being in the meetings until then.

Thane pushed a torn book towards her with a piece of parchment on top.

Cressida picked it up and read the title. “Wuthering Heights?” She questioned. “Christ, do you have a thing for depressing stories?”

“Ah, so you read the book I gave you?” Thane smirked.

“I read a few while I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I don’t get a lot of them. Too stupid, I think.”

“You’re not stupid,” Thane corrected. “Which one was your favourite?”

Cressida paused, thinking back. “Alone.”

Thane looked mildly shocked by her answer. “ And all I lov’d, I lov’d alone, ” he recited from memory. “And you call  me  depressing.”

Cressida shrugged. “It’s the one I understood the most.”

Thane rapped his fingers across the desk thoughtfully. Molly was currently sitting up ahead talking to Penelope about the gossip column for the week. It revolved around the Hallowe’en party. Margo, conveniently, seemed too preoccupied with helping Declan with news about the next Astronomy club meeting. Apparently, they were all gathering to witness the Taurids Meteor Shower.

“I’ve noticed your friend isn’t hanging around with you this week,” Thane said then, bringing Cressida’s attention back to him.

“Margo’s been off with us for a while now-”

“Not her,” Thane interrupted. “The funny Irish one.”

“Oh, Felix,” she replied. “I’m working on fixing that.” 

“He’s been behind the greenhouses three times so far this week,” Thane divulged to her. “He never does anything there though, just sits and mopes.”

Cressida narrowed her brow. “That’s not like him.”

Thane gave a shrug. “He liked a girl. It fucks you up sometimes… I can talk to him if you want.”

“What could you possibly do to help?”

“I’m a guy,” he said. “Which Finnigan is severely lacking in the friend department.”

“You think you can talk some sense into him?” She asked hopefully.

“I can try,” Thane agreed. “For a price, of course. I’m not full of freebies, I have a reputation to uphold.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “What is it?”

“Hogsmeade,” Thane smiled. “You go with us.”

“Us?”

“The Slytherins. Val, Goyle and I. No Gryffindors.”

Cressida considered this for a moment. Maybe a Hogsmeade trip without the Gryffindors wouldn’t be the end of the world. Maybe it’d give her some time to think about her feelings without the worry of James randomly popping up to scramble them all over again. He wouldn’t come near her if she was with Thane. She doubted they’d even cross paths while in the village considering she’d never seen the group of Slytherins anywhere near the Leaky Cauldron or Zonko’s.

“Okay,” Cressida said.

Thane hummed suspiciously. “That was easier than I thought it’d be.”

“You’ve caught me in an odd mood,” she replied. 

Molly called for the meeting to be over and everyone bustled to gather their things and leave. Valentina and Goyle were waiting impatiently by the door for Thane, who sent Cressida a wink before going to join them.

She remained seated. It’s not like she had anywhere to rush off to. The cold winter nights had already started rolling in making it dark and dreary throughout the castle.

She watched as Molly stood talking to Rose and Lana, and then to Cressida’s surprise, she watched as Margo packed her things away and left with Arabella and Declan.

That was an interesting new development.

“Did you see that?” Cressida asked once Jac had come up to her.

“See what?” She asked confused.

“Smithers with the Chauncey siblings.”

“Oh,” Jac frowned. “Yeah. While me and Fred were wandering around the other night we saw her with them then too. Do you think we should be worried?”

“Worried?”

“Well, they could do something to her,” Jac pointed out. “It’s no secret Arabella and Declan hate Slytherins, so why would they suddenly start hanging out with one?”

Cressida got to her feet. “That’s a very good question.”

Molly gestured for the two girls to go on without her while she finished up with the two younger years.

“Speaking of surprising alliances,” Cressida said as she and Jac left the room. “I know where Felix has been hiding.”

“You do?!” Jac asked eagerly.

“The Greenhouses. Thane told me.”

“That’s probably not a good sign.”

“It’s fine. I have a plan,” Cressida told her.

“Which is?”

Cressida’s answer had been cut off by the trio of boys lingering around the corner, seemingly waiting for the two girls.

“Finally!” Fred exclaimed when he saw them. “That meeting felt like it went on forever,” he said, swooping down to kiss Jac’s cheek.

“Why were you waiting for us?” Jac asked with a blush.

“Hogsmeade is coming up,” Thomas said, picking from a pack of jelly slugs.

“We wanted to make sure you two were down for the Three Broomsticks. We can get Madam Rosmerta to save us the good table by the window,” James elaborated, digging through the packet until he found a green jelly slug.

“Of course we are,” Jac said excitedly. “Right, Cress?”

Cressida internally cursed.  Of course.  Thane and Valentina walked out the doorway and squeezed past the group. Cressida tried not to glance in his direction, especially in front of James in fear of him assuming the worst. Thane, however, blatantly smirked in her direction as he moved up the corridor. 

“I don’t think I’m up for Hogsmeade this time,” she lied, keeping her eyes firmly on the group in front of her. “I’m really behind on homework.”

James frowned, a green jelly slug hanging out of his mouth. “But you have to come.”

“Yeah, come on, Knightly. Bunk off homework, we’ll get you a fake note to say you’re exempt. Dad does that kind of thing in his shop now,” Fred offered. “They rip themselves up once they’ve done their job so there’s no proof and the teachers think they’ve lost it.”

Cressida started backing away guiltily. “Maybe next time.”

 

Monday 5 ^th  November 2018

 

The newspaper article had gone out without Felix’s drawings this time. People seemed genuinely disappointed about it and told Molly so openly.

“You try talking to him then, see if you get anywhere!” She had snapped at a Second Year in the hall after he said he rather missed them.

Rose’s fortune had read: ‘Not every smile is a heartfelt one. Consider who’s worth trusting in the long run.’

“Depression all around by the looks of it,” Jac had said to Cressida after reading it at the breakfast table.

Cressida sighed, watching as the owls flew overhead delivering their mail.

“Still nothing from your mum’s boyfriend?” Jac asked then, watching Cressida’s face fall slightly.

Cressida shook her head.

“Have you considered writing to them first?” Molly asked.

Cressida picked the crumbs from her toast. “I sent them a letter when we first got here… they haven’t got back to me yet.”

That put an even bigger damper on the morning and neither girl spoke for the rest of breakfast in fear of increasingly the melancholy.

Cressida convinced herself she was past caring about the letters at this point. After all, she should have expected this.

Someone who wasn’t past caring during that week’s events, however, was James who was still reluctant to accept Cressida wouldn’t go to Hogsmeade with them. He said without an actual reason he wasn’t going to stop pestering her.

“You’re always pestering me,” she had snapped back at him when he had been constantly whispering to her about it in Transfiguration.

“It’s one of my favourite past-times,” James had whispered back. Cressida huffed as she tried to keep her attention firmly forward. He jabbed her in the side with his quill. “Why won’t you come to Hogsmeade?”

She snatched the quill and threw it across the desk while McGonagall’s back was turned.

James had pulled out a second quill and continued on unphased. “Now you have to come to Hogsmeade, you owe me a quill.”

She let her head thump against the desk in defeat.

His methods had seemingly seeped into Jac, as she too pestered Cressida on why she wouldn’t go with them. As they tended to their Bowtruckles in the cold forest in Care Of Magical Creatures, she had already asked twice.

“I just can’t, okay?” Cressida said firmly as she fed a woodlouse to the creature residing in the trees around them. “Don’t ask why.”

The Bowtruckle quickly snatched up the insect and climbed further away from them.

Jac held a woodlouse out to one of the few remaining Bowtruckles hanging low enough to see up close. “Well, if I can’t get it out of you, James will.”

Cressida sighed irritably. Her fingers were starting to go numb from the cold, which meant she couldn’t hold the woodlouse still enough for the Bowtruckles to come near her.

“Now, these are awfully shy creatures most of the time,” Hagrid explained while one dangled from his thick beard. “However, once you’ve got a bond with these little critters they won’t leave you alone.”

“How do you get a bond with one?” Beatrix asked as one scurried quickly away from her as well.

“How are ye at Herbology?” Hagrid asked her. “They tend to have a knack for people with a green thumb.”

Beatrix didn’t look optimistic about her chances. Jac, however, gasped quietly as a specific Bowtruckle reached out one of its twiggy arms to wrap around her finger tip.

“See, he likes yer,” Hagrid said watching as the Bowtruckle refused to let go.

Cressida dropped a woodlouse clumsily and Hagrid looked down at her. “Cressida, yer hands are practically blue. No wonder they ain’t coming near you,” Hagrid said concerned. “Where’s yer gloves?”

“They have a hole in them,” Cressida answered. She’d worn them through in the winter of last year and didn’t have the heart to ask her mum to buy her new ones.

“Poor thing,” Hagrid said. “Go on. Go in there and warm yerself up before you catch a cold,” he said gesturing to his hut up ahead. “Jac can finish up here, can’t ye?”

Jac nodded, the Bowtruckle now hanging from her winter robe sleeve.

Cressida blew into her hands as she made her way into Hagrid’s hut. She was glad to see he already had a fire going, although, it smelt like he was cooking stew for his dinner and that smelt less than appetizing.

Cressida had just sat down in Hagrid’s oversized arm chair when she felt feeling returning to her finger tips. It was unusually cold early this year.

The door was pulled open again sending a cold breeze blowing into the cosy hut. “Shut the frickin’ door,” Cressida called out as she shivered.

“Sorry,” James said hastily shutting the door. “Hagrid sent me to make sure you were okay… and to stir his stew.”

“Oh,” Cressida said, watching as James grabbed a large wooden spoon and tended to the strew bubbling over the fire. “What strew is it, anyway?”

James picked a fish bone up on the spoon with a frown. “I dread to think.” He dropped the spoon back into the pot and made his way over to Cressida. “You know I have extra dragon hide gloves if you-”

“I don’t want your stuff,” she told him. “I can get my own.”

James nodded understandingly. “They sell them in Hogsmeade.”

“I’m not going to Hogsmeade this term, I already told you.”

“You haven’t told me why yet,” James said. “You love Hogsmeade, it doesn’t make sense.”

Cressida stared up at him and his stupidly big green eyes. “I have my reasons. Just leave it alone, okay?”

James shrugged his shoulders, settling down on the floor in front of her. “It’s two days after your birthday this term though, did you realise that?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Cressida asked.

“We were booking the good table so we could celebrate your birthday in Hogsmeade. That’s why we wanted you to come so badly. It was Jac’s idea,” he explained. “We were going to keep it a secret.”

Cressida tugged on the ends of her hair guiltily. “I didn’t realise.”

“Will you come now?” He asked hopefully.

Cressida stared at him, at a loss on what to say. She wanted to go. She wanted to spend her birthday at Hogsmeade with him and her friends, but she’d already agreed to go with Thane. She needed him to talk to Felix and fix everything. Plus, she was still trying to keep her mind clear of Potter until the Felix and Molly situation had been resolved.

He reached out and took her hand in his. That definitely didn’t help with her current plan. “Come on, Knightly. Don’t think I’m not above grovelling,” James pleaded.

Still, Cressida produced no answer.

James grasped onto her with his other hand now as well and looked like he was about to start praying. “Dear Knightly, if you shan’t accompany us to Hogsmeade I will have no choice but to follow you around like this every day until you agree,” he said over dramatically flinging himself onto her lap.

“Fine!” She panicked, kicking him away again.  She quickly pulled her hand out from within Potter’s, averting her eyes. “Maybe I can figure it out.”

“Great!” James grinned, jumping to his feet again. “I’ll go tell the others.”

“Wait, James, I said maybe-” she called after him.

“See you later, Knightly!” James grinned over his shoulder as he disappeared back out the door, letting all the cold back in.

Cressida held her head in her hands dismally as a cold breeze blew in and put out Hagrid’s fire.

Molly was right. She’d gone soft.

Chapter 79: Fourth Year: Midnight Visitors

Notes:

This chapter continues on directly from he last one, I didn't realise there was more to the end of the last day so the pacing on this chapter might be a little strange so sorry about that :)

Monday 5th November 2018 (cont'd)

 

As soon as lessons were done for the day, Cressida raced over to the greenhouses in search of Thane.

She pulled her winter robe around as tight as it could go. It wasn’t as high a quality as James’ had been last year but at least it was something.

As she got closer, she found Felix sitting on an upturned plant pot opposite Goyle. He seemed to be teaching him how to play wizard chess.

Thane was leaning against the potting shed, a lit cigarette in his hand. Valentina was beside him, looking nothing less than elegant as always, even in this dumping ground. She had mink fur lining her winter cloak.

Cressida looked between Thane and Felix, a silent debate in her head.

Thane took a drag of his cigarette, seemingly awaiting her decision as well.

“Okay, so your Wizard piece also has a teleportation move,” Felix was explaining, showing Goyle the pawn in question.

Cressida crossed the mud-stained slabs towards him, decision made. “Finnigan.”

Felix spun around, surprised by her appearance. “How the sodding hell did you find me?”

“What are you doing here?” She asked, dodging the question. “It’s fucking freezing out here. Come back to the common room with me.”

“Is Weasley in there?” He asked turning back to the chess board.

“Probably-”

“Then no.”

Goyle averted his eye line awkwardly.

“Felix, you have to face her at some point. This is getting ridiculous.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you get shown up at a party by the first girl to like you?” He asked dryly. “No. Didn’t think so.”

“Do you still like her?” Cressida asked.

Felix went very quiet. “I liked her as my friend. I knew that as fact.” He turned to face her with a stony expression. “You and Redwick’s meddling ruined my friendship with Molly. I may have liked her, I may have not, either way, it’s fucked and I’m done.”

“You can’t be done,” Cressida said defiantly.

“What does it matter to you anyway?” Felix huffed.

“Because you’re my best friend,” she snapped. “I need you around, you useless prick.”

Goyle went to get up and Felix rounded on him. “Sit your ass back down, we still have rules to discuss,” Felix ordered him. Goyle awkwardly lowered himself back down onto the upturned plant pot. Cressida saw Thane hold Valentina back from intervening out of the corner of her eye. Felix heaved a sigh and faced Cressida again. “What do you suggest I do, Cress?”

“Just come back, how about that?”

“Has anyone spoken to Smithers since?” He asked.

“No. She’s like a fly on the wall ever since the party.”

Felix turned with a newfound confidence. “Tell you what then, I’ll come back on one condition.”

“Anything,” Cressida agreed.

“I want an apology.”

“What?” Cressida frowned.

“From Smithers. I want her to say sorry and mean it. I’ll also accept chocolate as a bribing tactic if she can’t find it within her to be sincere.”

“Felix, you know what Smithers is like-”

“Exactly. No apology for me, no Finnigan for you,” he said decidedly, turning back to the game.

Cressida lingered there staring at the back of Felix’s head repeating his offer in her head. With a dejected sigh and an unhelpful shrug from Goyle as their chess game resumed, Cressida turned to Thane.

Valentina side-eyed her as she approached. “I thought you were the one who made the others fall in line?” She jabbed, putting out her cigarette with her foot before walking away.

Cressida took the place Valentina had previously been next to Thane. He puffed on his cigarette and then offered it to her. “You look like you could use this.”

She shoved his hand away. “Listen, about our deal-”

Thane finished off the cigarette for himself. “I’m waiting for the right time to talk to him, but trust me, he’ll be back in your little alcove soon enough.”

“I’m calling off the deal, you don’t have to talk to him-”

“Oh, because your tactics are working so well,” Thane commented dryly. 

“I can’t go to Hogsmeade with you anymore,” she said hurriedly before he could shoot out another sarcastic remark.

Thane put the cigarette out with his foot, his tongue poking into his cheek. “Deal’s already in motion, Knightly. It’s too late to take it back now.”

“You’ve not even spoken to him yet!” Cressida pointed out irritably.

Thane gestured to Felix and Goyle playing chess. “People talk to Goyle. Because he never interrupts they spill all kinds of secrets without realising. Goyle then relays those secrets back to me. See where I’m going with this?”

Cressida huffed, leaning back against the shed. “That’s annoyingly clever.”

Thane put a fresh cigarette between his lips. “We’re not Slytherins for nothing.”

“So there’s no way I can get out of Hogsmeade?”

Thane had a smug smile as he lit up the cigarette. “Nope.”

Cressida pushed herself off the shed with a grunt.

 

*

 

Cressida refused to return to the common room until she had some semblance of a plan in her mind. She’d been pacing in front of Sirius’ portrait until the very last minutes before curfew.

Sirius, for the most part, had kept her company watching and making the odd joke at her expense. Cressida had ignored him for a lot of it. She wasn’t even sure why she refused to move from this spot. She supposed she was hoping some miracle plan would suddenly spring to mind if she was near enough to her secret room. After all, most of her good ideas came from sitting in that hexagonal room for hours on end.

“Either this is going to be the best prank ever or you’ve slipped into a coma with your eyes wide open,” Sirius mocked from his frame after Cressida had been staring at nothing for ten whole minutes.

“Shut up, I’m thinking.”

Sirius had taken to pacing in time with her now as she moved back and forth in front of him. “Moony used to get like this when he was thinking. There’d be no sense trying to talk to him until he was done. One time he went three days without saying a single word other than  shut up, Sirius. ”

“Did you listen to him?”

Sirius gave a grin. “Who do you take me for?”

Cressida went back to ignoring him.

The clock chimed nine o’clock.

It was officially past curfew. Filch would be out any second now.

“Best hurry along,” Sirius said then. “We wouldn’t want a detention to interfere with your precious thinking time, now would we.”

Cressida grabbed her bag and started making her way towards the Grand Staircase.

“Passageway’s quicker!” Sirius called from his frame.

Cressida re-routed herself to head towards the sixth-floor knight instead with an irritated and begrudging  ‘thank you’  to Sirius’ portrait as she passed him.

Cressida crawled into the gap behind the knight and noticed its helmet visor was pushed up when it normally wasn’t. Shrugging it off, she flicked it back down to normal as she slipped past.

She broke out on the second floor and carefully manoeuvred her way down the next two stories until she was back in the safety of her common room. When she did, she immediately met eyes with Valentina watching the entrance from across the room.

Cressida’s shoulder slumped, expecting to lose house points or get a detention, or even just a telling-off with a sarcastic comment.

However, Cressida watched in surprise as Valentina turned and walked into the girl’s dormitories without any more acknowledgement of her lateness. Although, she looked like she was regretting her choice even as she did it.

Cressida waited for a second before heading into the dorms as well, just in case.

When she entered her room, she found Margo’s bed curtains already shut, as well as Molly’s. Jac was nowhere to be seen, but when Cressida noticed the light peering out from within the bathroom it wasn’t hard to decipher her location.

She crossed the room and knocked quietly on the door. “How long are you going to be, I need to brush my teeth-”

The door was pulled open abruptly and Jac poked her head out. “I may have made a mistake.”

“Is this another  werewolf  situation?” Cressida asked in confusion.

Jac didn’t answer and yanked her into the room, shutting the door behind her.

Cressida stood in the middle of the bathroom staring at her best friend, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. “What’s the problem?” She asked worriedly.

Jac pulled her hand out from behind her back, showing Cressida a small green creature hanging from her sleeve.

Cressida’s eyes honed in on it as it swung from the fabric happily. “You stole a fucking Bowtruckle!?” She whispered fiercely.

Jac swooped the creature into her other hand to stop it from falling. “He snuck into my bag after Care of Magical Creatures. I didn’t realise he was in there until Rasper nearly ate him.”

“What are we going to do with it?” Cressida asked.

Jac held it closer to her protectively. “I was going to name him Groot-”

“We are not naming a moving branch,” Cressida contradicted.

“But it’s a good name, just look at him,” Jac insisted. "And he hasn't got any fur so my dad can't be allergic if I take him home over Christmas-"

Cressida gripped the sides of her hair. “We have to put him back before someone finds out we have him.”

“But who would even tell on us?”

“The bitch three beds over from you with a current vendetta against us!” Cressida pointed out.

Jac’s face fell. “Oh, yeah… I suppose you’re right.”

“If we get him back in his tree by tonight, no one will notice,” Cressida said logically. 

Jac stared down at the Bowtruckle hugging her index finger sadly. “Do you think he’ll remember me?”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Cressida grabbed Jac and dragged her behind.

The two girls snuck out of the common room and crept through the halls by wand light. Jac had the Bowtruckle perched on her shoulder for the journey and when Cressida questioned this, she replied  “you do it with Rasper.”

Cressida wasn’t in the mood to argue with that logic. She just had to focus on getting it back where it belonged before she somehow got the blame for it.

“Did you manage to talk to Felix today?” Jac whispered as they climbed the stairs.

“Yes.”

“Did you convince him to come back?” Jac asked hopefully.

Cressida paused at the top. She didn’t want to admit she was no closer to fixing their problem. “It’d be a lot easier to not get caught if you weren’t talking.”

“Right,” Jac whispered. “Sorry.”

Cressida listened to the darkness listening to any sign of movement. With a nod, she signalled they could keep moving forward.

As they broke out into the hall, Rasper came running up to them out of nowhere, licking his lips.

“Wait, no-” Jac gasped trying to catch the Bowtruckle as it ran down her arm and onto the floor. “Told you Rasper’s been stalking him!”

Both girls watched as the tiny creature scattered off into the darkness at an immense speed. Cressida only barely managed to stop Rasper from running after it.

“Well,” Cressida said after a moment. “That solves one of our problems.”

“Cressida,” Jac chided. “We have to go after him.”

“Why?”

“He could get hurt. Your cat’s already tried to eat him twice today.”

“But-”

“We’re going after him and putting him back in his tree,” she said taking the lead. “Or back in our dorm room, whichever is safest.”

Cressida begrudgingly pushed Rasper in the direction of the dungeons and then followed behind Jac as they crept further into the castle.

After half an hour of scouring the first floor, Cressida was beginning to grow a strong dislike for the tiny creature.

“He can’t have gone far,” Jac said, sensing Cressida’s mood.

“Let’s just hope we find him before Filch finds us,” she countered.

They continued up the corridor and Cressida abruptly stopped, hearing hushed voices coming from the other direction.

Jac smiled, hearing them too. “It’s the boys. Maybe they’ve seen Groot.”

“No, let’s just go back the way we came,” Cressida said, tugging on Jac’s arm. She couldn’t face Potter and have him ask about Hogsmeade. She needed more time. Once Jac found out she’d agreed, there’d be no way out of it.

Jac pulled her arm out of Cressida’s grasp and continued on towards the voices. “It’s not like they’re going to tell on us, it’ll be fine. Plus, I want Freddie to see Groot before we put him back.”

Cressida panicked and looked around the corridor frantically. “I can hear Filch!” She blurted out as a last resort to avoid facing the boys.

Jac paused and looked back. “You can?”

“Yeah, trust me. This way,” she said, grabbing Jac’s hand and pulling her in the opposite direction to the voices and into the nearby storage closet.

Once they had been in the closet for a moment, listening silently to any movement on the other side, Jac lifted her wand to see Cressida’s face clearly. “Are you sure you heard Filch?”

“Sure,” Cressida lied, squinting at the bright light on her face. “I heard Mrs Norris meow.”

Jac reached out her other hand for the door handle. “Then we should probably warn the-”

“It was coming from the other direction,” Cressida interrupted hurriedly, slapping her hand away. 

Jac narrowed her eyes at her. “Why are you acting so strange?”

“I’m not.”

The three familiar voices were getting closer. They were laughing about something.

“They’re right outside, let’s just open the door and-”

“No!” Cressida insisted, holding the door shut. 

“Did you guys hear that?” Thomas’ voice came.

“Reckon it was Filch?” Fred’s voice came next.

“No, he should be near the girl’s lavatory by now,” James said.

Jac glared at Cressida over the wand light. “I knew you didn’t hear him. What’s going on with you?” She whispered.

“Can you see a light coming from inside that cupboard?” Thomas’ voice asked then. Closer than it was before.

Cressida quickly took the wand from Jac.  “Nox!”

They were now standing in almost complete darkness but Jac could see just enough to snatch her wand back from Cressida.

Cressida silently cursed as she heard the three footsteps getting even closer to the door.

After a second, one of them spoke up. “Nah, you must have imagined it, mate,” Fred said.

The three footsteps continued on without a second thought.

“Cressida,” Jac said slowly.

“Can you at least wait until we’re in the safety of our room to interrogate me?” She huffed.

“Cressida, you’re glowing.”

“Um… thanks,” Cressida said unsurely. “Molly lent me a new moisturizer-”

“No, your pocket is literally glowing!” 

Jac reached into Cressida’s pocket and pulled out the clue that she had been keeping safely tucked away. Cressida was surprised to find it was, in fact, glowing. “Why’s it doing that?” 

Jac turned it over in her hand. On the back of the clue, words lit up in golden light shining off the page. “It’s the next clue!”

“On the one we already had?” Cressida asked confused.

Jac reread the original clue. “Look for me in the darkness.” She paused thinking it over. “It must have been activated when you did the Nox spell!”

“Those smart bastards.” Cressida took the clue from her, reading the golden words. “ A place where flashing lights bang, the sixth one along is where I hang. ”

Both girls lifted their eyes to one another. “We should tell Molly.”

“What about Groot?” Jac asked.

“Okay fine,” Cressida rolled her eyes. “We’ll find your new pet branch and  then  we’ll tell Molly about the next clue.”

They stepped out of the closet to find Mrs Norris sitting opposite them in the middle of the hallway.

She gave a smug meow. Filch would be upon them any second.

“Okay,” Jac whispered, accepting defeat. “I take it back. You  did  hear Filch.”

Cressida took a deep breath in, annoyed at herself for speaking it into fruition.

 

Saturday 10th November 2018

 

Jac and Cressida had both gotten an after-school detention, but Cressida was aware she needed to avoid getting caught out past curfew again for a few weeks unless she wanted to face McGonagall.

Luckily for Jac, when the two girls were returned to their dorm room, they found Rasper sitting on Cressida’s bed, the twiggy creature under his paw keeping it from running off again.

The next morning, Cressida and Jac got up extra early to sneak over to the Bowtruckle tree in the forest and tried to force Groot back onto it.

Groot had returned by tea time, climbing up onto the table right in front of them as Cressida ate her spaghetti. How he’d managed to get all the way into the castle from the forest without being spotted or stepped on, Cressida didn’t know. He must have  really  bonded with Jac… or thought she was a very interactive tree.

Molly glanced down at it over her own dinner. “Do I want to know?”

Jac quickly scooped him up and placed him safely in her pocket. “You’re not going to tell are you?”

Molly glanced sideways at Cressida and then shrugged. “They’re the natural predator of flies and bugs. If we’re lucky he’ll get that big spider that’s been living in the corner of the room since September.”

That was all that was said about sharing a dorm room with a secret Bowtruckle called Groot. Cressida knew there was no sense trying to convince them to put him back a second time and so she accepted her fate as well, but they all agreed it had to remain a secret in case they got in trouble. Margo had yet to find out, as did Felix.

 

*

 

“Do they drink tea?” Molly mused over breakfast as the three girls sat together later in the week.

Groot was poking out from Jac’s Quidditch robe pocket. “Dunno,” she shrugged. “I suppose tea comes from a plant.”

Molly poured some into the saucer and pushed it across the table towards Groot.

Cressida rolled her eyes and sipped from her own cup. The owls flew overhead. Cressida didn’t even bother looking up this time. “How are you feeling about the match today?” She asked, pretending like she hadn’t noticed.

Molly and Jac both shared a glance then Molly went back to eating her breakfast. “I doubt Ravenclaw is going to do anything to cheat-”

“No, Mol. I meant how are  you  feeling?” Cressida corrected herself. “It’s your first proper match.”

“I’m aware,” Molly said somewhat tightly. “I’m fine.”

Cressida glanced up the table where Felix was sitting on his own. She wished he had been beside her to make a sarcastic comment to ease the mood.

“Suppose we should head down soon,” Jac said then. “Cress, will you watch Groot while I’m playing?”

“Why can’t he stay with you?” Cressida asked as the three girls left the hall.

“I doubt he’d appreciate being whipped around in the air with a Quaffle aiming for him,” she quipped pulling him out of her pocket and extending him to Cressida.

Neither Groot nor Cressida looked thrilled about the situation as they continued walking.

As they broke out onto the path, they saw Arabella lurking purposefully. Cressida quickly shoved Groot into her bag.

“Knightly,” Arabella called out unusually cheerily as they got closer. “Weasley, Redwick.” None of them acknowledged her back. Arabella threw her hair over her shoulder. “Nervous for the game? Ravenclaw has been training like crazy.”

“No, actually,” Molly said stiffly. “I’m sure Slytherin can give you a good fight.”

Arabella squinted her eyes. “I’m sure.” She honed in on Jac, her smile growing slightly wider. “I heard you and Weasley became official. How nice for you.”

“Um,” Jac blanched. “Thanks?”

“Don’t let what the girls have been saying about you get in your head about it all though. I’m sure they’re just jealous.”

Cressida and Molly were both glaring now. “What have they been saying now?” Jac asked disheartened.

“Oh, you know,” Arabella said nonchalantly. “Just that it was a bit odd he was sending Beatrix Swinley flowers the same day he asked you out… and that it must be hard, being from two different houses and stuff. I mean, every house would have issues getting into a relationship together, but Slytherin and Gryffindor? That seems like a recipe for disaster.”

“You’re talking out of your ass, Chauncey,” Cressida stepped in.

“Am I?” She asked, an air of amusement. “Do you know any lasting couples from those two houses? I mean, I’m sure you get it,” she continued turning to Cressida. “Isn’t that why you and Potter haven’t shacked up yet? You were smart enough to realise it’ll never work in the long run.” Cressida’s jaw clenched. Jac averted her eyes. “Oh, and I heard about the little argument with Finnigan as well,” she went on, her eyes on Molly this time. “Such a shame losing a friend that way. If only you two could have talked it out. Anyway, enjoy the game, girls. I’m sure it’ll be a blast,” Arabella called over her shoulder as she practically skipped away.

Neither of the girls moved, the weight of Arabella’s words sinking in, taking root in their minds and festering. They just stood there for a few seconds in silence. “What a bitch,” Jac voiced quietly.

Molly and Cressida both agreed earnestly.

“Cressida!” She spun around blinking away her thoughts to see Albus coming towards them up the path. As usual, he looked stressed about something. “I didn’t know what to do, you’ve got to sort this out!” He said, not even stopping as he passed them on his way to the changing tents.

All three girls set off after him.

Stepping into the tents, they soon realised the problem. Seven brand new shiny black brooms were propped up for the taking.

“Is that a Nimbus 2020?” Molly asked.

Albus nodded biting his nails. “From Scorpius’ dad. One for each member of the team.”

“You mean Draco Malfoy bought them?” Molly whispered drastically. “Does he know we’re on the team?!”

Albus gave a small squeak. “Funnily enough, I think Scorp left that out during his letters home.”

Molly shook her head. “We cannot ride those-”

“Albie!” Scorpius shouted, breaking out of the team huddle and running towards them with a smile. As he passed the brooms, he grabbed the one on the very end. “The brooms arrived just in time for the game, how lucky is that?!”

Albus gave a non-committal jumble of noises.

“Here,” Scorpius said, extending the broom in his hand out towards Albus, a small blush on his cheeks. “I wanted yours to be special, considering I wouldn’t have had the courage to try out without you there with me.”

Albus tentatively took the broom, holding it out just enough so the girls beside him could see. On the end, underneath the label, it had the initials  A.S.Potter  scratched into the wood by hand.

Albus turned his eyes to Scorpius awaiting his reaction. “You labelled it for me?” He asked. He leaned desperately to Cressida. “He labelled it for me.”

“He did,” Cressida whispered back, at a loss for how to proceed.

Albus gulped with a strained expression. “Thanks, Scorp. It’s wonderful.”

“Does your dad know it was for Albus?” Molly asked then.

Scorpius faltered for a moment. “Well… not exactly…. but there’s one for you too. I made sure of it. No Weasley or Potter left out. My dad never has to know who they’re for.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll find out from mine soon enough,” Albus muttered under his breath.

“Weasley, Potter, Redwick!” Barney shouted. “Get your asses over here. You too, Malfoy, don’t think your dad buying us these nice brooms gets you an easy ride!”

The four of them broke away to join the team huddle. Cressida lingered on the outskirts staring at the brooms. A second later she was leaving the changing tent, telling Barney Lee she’d do his interview after the game had finished.

She raced through the crowd aiming for the Gryffindor stands and was frustrated to find that once she had traversed up and down them twice over, the trio were nowhere to be found.

“Rose!” She called, finding her sat near the middle. “Where are your cousins?”

“In your stands,” she answered as though it was obvious.

Cressida hastily turned and started running back down the steps, all the while sending tiny apologies to Groot being thrown around inside her pocket.

She eventually found the three of them huddled near the back green with silver scarves pulled up around their faces and black winter hats pulled low. “What the hell are you three doing over here?!” She panted, falling into a vacant seat beside Thomas.

“ Shhh ,” Fred said. “We’re undercover.”

“They’ll never know we’re here,” Thomas said surely.

Cressida moved past their antics with a roll of her eyes. “Look, when my lot comes out of the tents, you have to remain calm.”

James lowered his scarf from over his mouth. “Why wouldn’t we be calm?”

Georgia called for the game to start and the two teams walked out onto the pitch, their robes blowing behind them in the wind and their brooms held upright in their hands.

Thomas leapt out of his seat and leant over the barrier. “Are those sodding Nimbus 2020s! They’ve only just come out in stores! How did they get their hands on them?!”

“More importantly, how did Molly and Albus get one before us?” Fred questioned jealously.

James met Cressida's eyes, realisation taking over his face even  without her uttering a word. “Fucking Malfoy !”

“And they’re off!” Georgia called over the stands. “Molly Weasley in possession of the Quaffle, and might I add those are some snazzy brooms the Slytherin team seem to be sporting this year. It’s no wonder Malfoy made the team so fast if he bribed them with that calibre of broom!”

There was a stern clearing of the throat from McGonagall over the intercom. 

“Anyway,” Georgia hastily moved on. “Let’s see if the brand spanking new brooms help the Slytherin team win against relentless Ravenclaw.”

The three boys all stared at each other. Cressida could practically feel Arabella’s smug smile from her stands opposite them.

“Your dad’s not going to be happy,” Fred muttered.

James glared at him.

There was shuffling further up the row and the three boys readjusted their disguises over their faces.

“Finnigan?” Cressida said surprised as he sat down in a seat next to her. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s Molly’s first game. I wasn’t going to miss it because of some stupid argument. Just don’t tell her I was here,” he said opening a packet of Bertie Botts. “Want some, Weasley?” He asked, offering his packet out.

The three boys pulled their scarves down again to glare at Felix. “How’d you know it was us?” Thomas asked annoyed.

Felix quirked an eyebrow. “Knightly doesn’t have three other friends in Slytherin.”

The boys huffed and settled back into their seats to watch the remainder of the game. All three of them lent over and took some sweets. Groot popped out of Cressida’s pocket and Felix handed him a Bertie Bott without questioning it.

 

*

 

Slytherin hadn’t won, though Cressida thought it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Too many things just kept going wrong. From Arabella getting in Molly and Jac’s heads to the comments about the brooms, to Albus being so worried  about  the brooms to see the Snitch.

It didn’t help that Ravenclaw seemed to be at the top of their game for the whole eighty minutes the game lasted. They would have likely won even if those other things hadn’t happened, but on top of it all, it just felt like a calamity.

Doing the interview after the game was extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved. Especially Barney Lee, as this was his first game since taking over as Captain.

After all of it, Cressida was glad for the excuse to crawl into her bed before curfew, wanting to put the whole day behind them. Molly and Jac weren’t in a talkative mood anyway after the game, and as usual, they only saw a small glimpse of Margo before she disappeared behind her own bed curtains.

Except Cressida had that ever-present problem of her brain refusing to allow her to sleep despite her body feeling more than ready for it.

She lead in her bed staring at the cloth ceiling. She supposed she could start making headway on the latest clue, but then she had promised Molly and Jac they’d figure it out together and she couldn’t risk any more arguments breaking out between what was left of their group.

Rasper jumped up through the curtains with something in his mouth and Cressida had to tackle Groot out of her cat’s hold before shooing the tiny creature back across the room to the safety of Jac’s canopy.

She sat up after that, holding Rasper in her lap to prevent him from doing it again. As she sat there, smoothing her cat's fur down his back, her mind drifted back to the owls at breakfast. She had written to her mum and Dayle when she first got there but there was nothing revolutionary about that letter. Just letting them know she’d arrived safe and she’d miss them while she was gone. She supposed looking back at it now, there was nothing they could reply to even if they wanted to… maybe that’s why they hadn’t written back.

Gnawing on her lip thoughtfully, she rummaged around in her pile of books and parchment encasing her bed and found a quill pen lying amongst them. She placed Rasper to the side and rested some parchment in her lap instead.

‘Hi’

She scribbled it out immediately.

‘Dear mum,

She crossed that out too. If she thought for a moment her mum would read it and then reply she might have continued on with the letter being addressed to her but Cressida knew better by now.

‘Dear Dayle,

I thought I would have heard from you by now but it’s no big deal. I get you’re busy.

Schools going well this year in case you were wondering but I miss listening to the music channel. Our only form of entertainment like that here has been hard to get to recently, but I’m working on fixing that.

I hope the business is still going well. I’ve already decided I’m going to spend the whole holiday in Conwell with you and mum so I can help out. Plus, I think it’d be nice… all of us together for Christmas.

And I wanted to work on the cars some more as well, maybe even get some practice in myself. Some of my mates here have a run-down car they’re trying to do up… I was thinking we could take a trip down to theirs in the summer and you can have a look at it for them. Tell us what needs fixing sort of thing. It’d give you a chance to meet them all too. I think you’d like them-’

There was a creak in the floorboards and Cressida’s eyes snapped up. They didn’t creak unless someone was walking through their doorway but when she poked her head out of her curtains she could see the three other girls still sound asleep in their beds.

Sceptically, she moved back behind her own curtains and carefully hid her letter under her pillow, waiting and listening through the silence of the room. She recognised almost every sound the castle had to offer at this hour of the night by now. The girls’ snoring, the owls hooting as they flew over the grounds, the movement of the water from the lake above them. 

Then she heard it again. Footsteps this time.

Someone was definitely in their room. She grabbed her wand from her nightstand and got into position just in case. Rasper’s ears picked up and he gave a recognisable meow.

“Who’s there?” She whispered.

There was no answer. Cressida lent closer to her bed curtains, listening intently. The footsteps had stopped.

She used her wand to cause a gap in the curtains to peer out. Still nothing apart from a sudden breeze brushing past her.

Feeling as though she was losing her mind slightly, she settled back on her knees with a shrug.

“Alright, Knightly?”

Cressida rounded towards the noise instinctively hitting her fists out in self-defence, except there was nothing there for her to hit despite her throbbing knuckles suggesting otherwise.

James’ head suddenly appeared out of thin air with a loud curse and a quick silencing spell over the bed as he groaned in pain. Cressida soon realised she’d punched him square in the nose but she hardly cared at that moment as she stared open-mouthed at his floating head.

“What the actual  fuck ?!” She whispered furiously at him.

James suddenly shrugged something off revealing his whole body in full and Cressida’s eyes honed in on the familiar ugly fabric. She glared up at him again as he nursed his nose. “When were you planning on telling me your baby blanket turns you fucking invisible?!”

“Now,” James answered. “By the way, it’s not a baby blanket. It’s an invisibility cloak.”

“Those things are real?” She asked. “I thought they were made up from that stupid story Thane put in the paper.”

“Nope, they’re all real,” James told her casually. “My dad owned all three at one point.”

Cressida blinked away her confusion, watching as Rasper got up and nudged his head against James’ knee. “James,” she said, trying to keep her voice cool. “Not to sound rude or anything but what the fuck are you even doing here? How did you get in?”

James clicked his nose back into place. “Teddy told us all how to sneak into girls’ dorms before Second Year, we’d just never had a reason to do it. Plus, I came to check Molly wasn’t too disappointed about the game.”

“Well, you left it a bit late,” Cressida said dryly, gesturing to her snoring in the next bed over.

James made himself comfortable at the end of the bed pulling Rasper into his lap as he set his gaze on Cressida. “And I figured you’d be up for a wander… you know, if you couldn’t sleep.”

“Well,” she said, trying not to find the gesture somewhat sweet. “Unfortunately, I’m on a wandering ban at the minute. Plus, I was in the middle of something before you scared the life out of me.”

“What were you doing?”

Cressida subconsciously shoved the pillow hiding her letter further away from her. “Homework,” she lied.

James rolled his eyes. “Don’t start turning boring on me now, Knightly.”

“I am not turning boring,” Cressida scoffed.

“Oh yeah?” James challenged, sitting up again. “Prove it. Sneak out with me.”

“I can’t get another detention from Filch for being out past curfew,” she told him firmly.

James pulled the fabric over his shoulders making them disappear as he wiggled his eyebrows. “Who says Filch is going to see us?”

Cressida considered this for a moment and the more she stared at him the more willing she was to follow him. The invisibility option was really intriguing to her.

"Don't make me beg again," James threatened when she produced no answer.

“Thirty minutes,” she said eventually. “I have to send an owl. You can sneak me up there and straight back. Understood?”

James saluted her with a grin. “Yes ma’am.”

“Wait for me outside.”

James’ grin disappeared into nothingness as he pulled the fabric over his entire body. Cressida watched the curtains open and shut signalling James had done as she said. She reached under her pillow and pulled the letter out again. She quickly signed her name at the bottom then rolled it up and stuck it in her dressing gown pocket as she clambered out of bed.

She looked back to Rasper sitting on the edge of her bed, watching her go. “No eating Groot while I’m gone,” she whispered to the kitten sternly.

Rasper licked his lips in response. Cressida turned towards the door, hoping Jac would have some motherly instincts and wake up if her new baby was in trouble.

She avoided the creak in the floorboard and snuck out of the Slytherin common room, finding James waiting patiently against the stone wall opposite. 

“Enter if you dare,” he said with a fake evil laugh as he opened the cloak out for her to step under.

Cressida rolled her eyes as she obliged. She watched as James took a step closer to her, bumping their torsos together as he made sure the fabric covered them both entirely, and Cressida had a sudden feeling she’d been under this fabric once before. She suddenly dreaded how long they’d been running around this place invisible to everyone else.

“Right then,” James whispered, his head ducked low to hers. “Do you want to take the quick way or the long way?”

Cressida looked up at him bending down slightly to make sure they were completely hidden, his mop of hair being squished down by the fabric encasing them. “I suppose the long way couldn’t hurt,” she decided with a small blush. As James said, Filch couldn’t see her under the fabric and it hardly mattered if she was out for slightly longer than thirty minutes.

“Excellent decision, Knightly,” James smiled, turning around to lead the way. His hand reached back and grabbed hers, pulling her along quickly as he set off.

 

 

Chapter 80: Fourth Year: Access Granted

Tuesday 27th November 2018

 

Ever since that night, Cressida had come to expect James to show up uninvited in her dorm past midnight to convince her it was a good idea to sneak out.

The first few times she’d pretended to be annoyed, but he’d always win her over with some pathetic argument of she couldn’t sleep anyway- which was true. She’d be incredibly bored if he hadn’t shown up- also true. Or that the invisibility cloak was just  begging  to be used that night- that argument was usually a last resort if the other two had failed him.

None of the other girls in the room seemed to be aware of their nightly visitor, and as far as Cressida could tell, the two Gryffindor boys were in the dark about James sneaking off as well as he always showed up alone. She assumed if they knew, they’d invite themselves along to ensure they weren’t missing out on anything.

Cressida had decided it was better they didn’t know. The last thing they needed was a parade of them wandering out every night, and they definitely wouldn’t all fit under the piece of cloth that proved to come in handy multiple times over her adventures with James.

It turned out that when he was telling Cressida some nonsensical story as they wandered around, he often forgot to keep an eye out for Filch, resulting in Cressida having to do the hard job and hastily pull the cloak over them while simultaneously getting James to shut up mid-story, which on its own was no easy task. Multiple times since their nightly walks started, she'd have to pull him into a dark corner and shove her hand over his mouth while he was talking, and every time he'd stare at her wide-eyed until the threat had passed and they could get out of each other's personal space again.

Despite using their outings as a way for James to beat the talking world record, he did actually show her all the places he promised he would. They’d snuck into every nook and cranny of the castle. They’d found rooms Cressida didn’t even know existed before. One night they’d even made it halfway to Hogsmeade before deciding it was unfair for the others boys and Jac not to be there with them.

By the third week of this, Cressida just lead on top of her bed fully dressed awaiting the inevitable.

There was a creaking along her floorboards. Cressida peeked her head through the curtains. All the other beds remained closed and sleeping peacefully.

“ Lumos !” A familiar voice whispered.

Cressida moved so she sat cross-legged as the decapitated head of James Sirius Potter knelt on her bed opposite her, the tip of his wand lighting up his grinning face. “You know you’ll get detention if someone catches us,” she warned him for the third time in a week.

James threw the invisibility cloak off his shoulders revealing his whole body and placed a quick silencing charm over her bed so they could talk in private. “I’ve got detention every night this week anyway,” he shrugged. “So where do you want to go tonight? I was thinking the forbidden forest-”

There were footsteps on the floorboard and they both froze, staring at each other. They hadn’t been interrupted in their nightly chats as of yet.

James had only just recovered himself with the invisibility cloak when Jac was slipping in through Cressida’s bed curtains.

She settled down opposite Cressida, unaware James was barely centimetres from her. “I’ve been thinking-” she paused, looking Cressida up and down. “Why are you still dressed?”

Cressida tore her eyes away from the space James resided. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“I thought you were getting better at sleeping?” Jac said.

Cressida frowned. “Why would you think that?”

Jac shrugged. “You’ve not been waking me to wander around as much this year.”

“Oh,” Cressida fumbled. “Was there something you wanted?” She asked changing the topic.

“Yes,” Jac said eagerly. “I’ve been thinking about the latest clue. I think I know what it means.”

Cressida’s eyes momentarily flitted between invisible James and Jac. “You do?”

“ The sixth one along is where I hang ,” Jac recited. “I think it could be to do with desks in the Charms classroom. You sit on the sixth seat along from the left.” There was a muffled snorting of laughter. Both girls turned towards it, Jac looking much more confused than Cressida. “What was that?”

“Rasper snoring,” Cressida lied. Jac’s eyes turned to Rasper who, much to Cressida’s annoyance, lifted his head at the attention wide awake. “Anyway,” Cressida said quickly. “I don’t think that’s it.”

Jac frowned. “Why not?”

James’ laughter . “Just a hunch,” she answered.

Jac’s shoulder slumped. “I’m out of ideas then. Maybe Molly has figured something else out, give me a second.”

Before Cressida could stop her, Jac had slipped out of the bed curtains to retrieve Molly. James revealed his face with an amused grin. “I’m loving the secret insight into your midnight conversations, Knightly.”

Cressida pulled the cloak up over his head and shoved him out the other side of the bed just as Molly and Jac returned.

“Jac says you need my help,” Molly yawned as she sat beside Cressida.

“It can wait,” Cressida tried.

“I’m awake now, might as well make use of my time,” Molly replied. She put the parchment of paper containing the clue between them all on the bed. Cressida repositioned herself with her back to the direction she’d shoved James out of. “ A place where flashing lights bang, the sixth one along is where I hang, ” Molly read thoughtfully. “I’ve always reckoned it’s got something to do with the sixth floor. Those three love hanging out around there.”

“It says along not up,” Cressida pointed out.

“Do you have a better idea?” Jac countered.

Molly sighed. “Let’s think of things that go bang and go from there.”

Both girls went silent as they thought about this. 

“Well, we’ve already disregarded my charms theory,” Jac huffed after a moment.

“Could be the fireworks,” Molly suggested.

“They do the New Year's Eve fireworks from four different places in the castle,” Cressida said. “That’s four, not six.”

“Where else have there been fireworks in the castle?” Jac asked then.

There was a sharp pinch to Cressida's hand leaning on the edge of the bed and she involuntarily let out a yelp of pain.

Both girls stared at her. “You alright?” Jac asked concerned.

“Yep,” Cressida said through gritted teeth, swatting in that general direction hoping to hit James over the head. “I think we’re getting somewhere with the fireworks idea though.”

“Right,” Molly said, looking as though Cressida had lost her mind slightly. “Well, I’m stumped. I don’t know when else there have been fireworks apart from New Year's.”

“Have the trio ever done a prank with fireworks before?” Jac asked thoughtfully.

“Not that I can remember,” Cressida answered.

Molly’s eyes lit up suddenly. “Hang on, I don’t remember  them  doing fireworks… but there was definitely a bang.” She sat on her knees facing the two girls excitedly. “The first night I argued with Margo and stormed off, Cressida let off a  Peace Disturber  and the three boys got the blame. They spotted us on the sixth floor!”

There was another, even sharper, pinch to her hand this time and Cressida fought back a second yelp. “I think that’s it,” she told the girls, soothing her pinched skin.

“We should go check that passageway to find something that matches the second half of the clue,” Jac said excitedly.

“You two go ahead, I’ll meet you there,” Cressida said. Neither girl stuck around to argue with her and they disappeared through her bed curtains.

Cressida waited until she’d heard the creak in the floorboard signalling they were gone before reaching her hands out through the curtains until they hit something solid. She grasped it in her hands and pulled James back onto her bed with a glare.

“Did you have to  pinch me ?!” She snapped at him once she’d uncovered his face.

“We never established a system of hot or cold,” he defended himself with a laugh.

“Oh, well in that case-” Cressida grabbed her pillow and hit him over the head with it until he fell sideways. “That’s cold for future reference.”

James gave a thumbs-up while trying to protect his head. “I take it you don’t want me to accompany you to find the clue then?” Cressida pinched him hard on the side of the arm as her answer before pulling her shoes on. “See, it’s a good system,” James grinned even as he rubbed the new sore spot.

“You better be gone when I get back,” she told him firmly as she crawled out through her bed curtains to go in search of her friends.

Just as she put her hand on the doorknob, she heard bed curtains being ripped open. Cressida whipped around to find Margo getting up from her bed. 

“Who were you talking to?”

“No one,” Cressida answered.

Margo didn’t look convinced. “I heard the door shut when the other two left. You kept talking, I could hear it.”

Cressida’s eyes darted to her bed, James was still sitting in the middle of it hidden from Margo’s view by the curtains. He gave an unhelpful shrug.

“It was just Rasper-” she tried.

Margo was moving towards her now. “Don’t bullshit me. You’ve been whispering to someone for weeks now. I’ve been up listening to it. And I know what it sounds like when someone casts a silencing spell, there’s an odd stillness after it, so fess up.”

“Back off, Smithers. There’s no one in my bed,” Cressida snapped at her.

Margo stormed over and pulled back the bed curtain only to find Rasper lead in the middle of it. She looked disappointed. “Fine,” she said then, folding her arms across her chest as she turned back to her own bed. “Maybe you’re just going loopy and talking to your imaginary friends.”

Cressida pulled her curtains facing Margo’s bed closed again with a glare. “In that case, you should be careful my imaginary friends don’t take a disliking to you. They’re not as pleasant as me.”

Margo scoffed. “Oh grow up, Cressida. Your  imaginary friends  can’t do anything to me.”

Cressida’s eyes trailed back to her bed. James’ floating head revealed itself and the gleam in his eyes was one she knew well. “If you say so,” she said mystically to Margo.

She kept her eyes on James as she turned back towards the door. He sent her a wink and then disappeared instantaneously.

With a newfound smile, Cressida left the room.

 

*

 

The two girls were already at the other end of the secret passageway when Cressida eventually caught up to them.

“What took you so long?” Molly whispered as they lingered in the dark corridor.

“Margo woke up,” Cressida huffed. “Thinks I’m hiding something again.”

“To be fair to her, you usually are,” Jac reasoned.

Cressida cleared her throat and gestured to the end of the passageway. “Any more theories on what could be hiding the clue?”

“Well,” Molly started, lighting up her wand to read over the clue again. “We’ve counted the steps, the chandeliers, and every sixth painting. None of them have given us anything.”

“We’re going to be resorted to counting bricks soon,” Jac complained.

Cressida took the clue in her own hand as they kept walking and broke out the end of the corridor. They knew they were in the right place, James had confirmed that unbeknownst to the other two girls, but they were quickly spiralling into cluelessness again.

The three girls peered along the abandoned dark hall, the wand light bouncing off the knight’s armour. Jac turned towards it. “How many knights are on this floor?” She asked.

“More than six, I’ve already considered them,” Molly sighed at a loss.

Cressida turned the wand light further up the corridor. The way to the Gryffindor common room was up ahead, the knights lined the wall in the gap in between. She turned the other way. Sure enough, after the entrance of the secret passageway, there were more knights going off into the darkness.

“One of them had been messed with before,” Cressida said then, thinking back. She could vaguely remember flicking down the helmet of one of the knights when she was sneaking into the passageway. 

Jac went to the knight nearest to the Gryffindor common room and started counting. Cressida and Molly followed silently behind.

“One… two… three… four… five-”

They stopped outside the sixth knight. The one covering the passageway. It’d been staring at them the whole time. Molly gave an irritated huff. “You know, sometimes I think  we’re  the stupid ones in this absurd goose chase.”

Cressida opened up the helmet with a creak and stuck her hand inside. A second later, she pulled out a tiny bit of parchment with a red bow on it.

The three girls gathered around to read it together.

‘The end is near, we hope it wasn’t a bore. You can find me in the place you’re searching for.’ 

“The secret room!” Jac and Molly gasped at once.

They all took off at once, racing along the corridor until they came to a crashing halt outside of Sirius’ frame. He had previously been napping in a pile on the floor before the wand light had woken him up. “Merlin, what’s the matter with you? I know I’m dead but I still need my beauty sleep-”

Jac quickly took the parchment from Cressida and held it up for him to see. “We’ve got the final clue! You can let us in!” She said excitedly.

Sirius peered forward, squinting to read the note in the bad lighting. “That’s not the password.”

“What?!”  Molly snapped. “It has to be. That’s the final clue. There’s no more!”

Sirius shrugged, lounging to the side of his frame. “That’s not the last clue.”

Molly clenched her fists. “Is it possible to kill someone in a portrait, because I think we’re about to find out!”

“The clue said to come here,” Cressida told him. “I’ve searched this sodding space thousands of times trying to find a way in. There are no more clues and the password isn’t here.”

Sirius smiled. “Did you think they’d just give it up after all their hard work?”

“That’s it,” Molly said. “I’m prying that bastard off the wall.  Then  we’ll see if he’s willing to let us in!”

She surged forward, grasping the edges of the frame and started tugging. Cressida and Jac glanced at each other and shrugged, going to help Molly.

“Hey,” Sirius complained when they started shaking his frame. “Stop that, I’m expensive!”

“Here,” Jac said to Cressida. “Get on my shoulders and try pulling it down from the top.”

“Good idea!” Molly agreed. “I’ll try and think of a spell to blow him off the wall if that fails-”

“No one is blowing me up!” Sirius contradicted. Cressida climbed onto Jac’s shoulders and started trying to get her fingers behind the painting. “Don’t make me get Moony!”

“What’s he going to do, he’s a portrait just like you?” Molly called his bluff, lighting up the tip of her wand with red sparks.

“He can glare at you and say he’s disappointed, that’s what!” Sirius countered as Molly started putting the flames under his frame. “It always worked on me and James-”

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!”

The three girls and Sirius included, immediately stopped what they were doing to turn and face McGonagall with guilt-ridden faces. Molly hastily blew out the sparks emitting from her wand and hid it behind her back.

“Minnie!” Sirius said. “For once, I’m the victim. You can’t punish me for this!”

McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose. “Sirius, you’re dead. You can’t physically get detention anymore.”

“Oh, right,” Sirius said gladly. “Well, in that case-” he poked his tongue out to the three girls as he abandoned his frame.

McGonagall looked down at the three girls through her spectacles. “Should I expect to see three Gryffindor boys popping out from somewhere as well tonight?”

“If you do, they’re not with us,” Cressida answered her.

McGonagall gave a sigh as she started walking ahead. “Well, obviously I have to punish you for trying to damage school property and being out past curfew. I think a week’s detention is sufficient, don’t you agree?”

“Of course, professor,” Molly agreed as they all followed behind. “We’re very sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Miss Weasley,” McGonagall corrected her.

“But we’ll try not to include an open flame in the next one,” Cressida offered.

“How responsible of you,” McGonagall quipped as they made their way back down to the dungeons.

However, if the three girls had assumed they’d be dropped off at their common room and told to go straight to bed they were mistaken as when they arrived in the dungeons they heard a terrible wailing and as they got closer they soon realised it was coming from Margo, crying to Slughorn who was doing his best to awkwardly comfort her.

“There, there, dear. I’m sure you just imagined it,” Slughorn was saying while patting her on the back.

“I did not imagine it!” Margo insisted. “It pulled on my leg and wrote on the mirror!”

Cressida choked back a laugh knowing exactly what had happened to cause such a stir.

“What is going on?” McGonagall demanded to know.

Slughorn attempted to cover Margo’s ears. “The poor girl’s convinced she saw a ghost.”

“Not a ghost!” Margo corrected him, shooing the professor away. “You can  see  ghosts but there was nothing there to see!” She glared and pointed a finger at Cressida. “It was Knightly, I know it was!”

All eyes turned to her and Cressida fought to keep a straight face.

“Miss Knightly has been with me for the last fifteen minutes, Miss Smithers, and Merlin knows where she was before that but it definitely wasn’t your dorm room,” McGonagall came to her defence. “Do not go around throwing blame when you have no reason for it.”

Margo’s mouth opened and shut several times and she tried to blubber out a response.

“I think maybe we all just need a good night's sleep,” Slughorn said then. “Come now, girls. Off to bed with you before I have to start deducting house points.”

“Quite right, Horace,” McGonagall nodded in agreement.

The four girls were quickly escorted toward their common room and they all complied, not saying one word out of turn before they made it into the safety of their dorm room.

“I know it was you,” Margo snapped again as she got into her bed. The other two girls looked incredibly confused.

Cressida sent Margo a smug grin as she settled in her own bed, picking up the sugar quill that was on her bedside table for her to chew on. “Maybe it was my imaginary friends. Fickle things, they are. You never know when they’re going to pop up. Anyway, goodnight!”

Margo scowled as she pulled her curtains shut. Cressida happily did the same, lying under her blankets with a smile. There was a small shuffling and James’ body appeared beside her from under the cloak. He looked very proud of himself.

Cressida silently broke the sugar quill in half and passed the second half to James. The two of them held in their laughter as they lead side by side, grinning at each other.

 

 

Monday 3rd December 2018

 

‘ A PHANTOM LOOSE IN HOGWARTS’

 

‘An unexplainable phantom is running amok within the halls of this very school, tormenting the students which reside in their beds at night and throughout the day.

 

“It stole my homework,” said one student from Hufflepuff.

 

“It tickled my feet,” another from Ravenclaw said.

 

“It seems like it has a sense of humour. I can respect that in a phantom,” Fred Weasley II from Gryffindor said. 

 

And that’s not all. The co-writer for this column has had her own experience with the phantom, claiming to be among its first victims saying it pulled on her leg and she’s now too scared to go to sleep in case it returns to taunt her further.

 

When we asked our resident Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher about this menace, he replied: “I don’t have time to deal with invisible phantoms, my Banshees ran off with my Hinkypunk!” 

 

“Margo didn’t even believe it was a phantom at first,” Jac said over breakfast as they read the newest  Chatterbox  articles. “She was convinced it was Cressida for the first two days until other people started jumping on the bandwagon.”

“You don’t actually believe in this stupid phantom, do you?” Molly scoffed, buttering her toast.

“Well,” Jac said. “I suppose some odd things have been happening-”

“It’s Hogwarts, something odd is always happening,” Cressida said logically. “The phantom isn’t real, people just think he is thanks to Margo’s dramatic storytelling. I bet the whole castle’s heard her yelling about it even before she put it in the paper.”

“Still though,” Molly mused. “I do believe her. She wouldn’t make something like that up out of nowhere. Something  must  have pulled her leg-”

There was a sudden silence as the seat beside Cressida on the bench was taken by none other than Felix, who sat down and started piling his breakfast onto a plate without acknowledgement of the last month he’d been avoiding them. 

Molly seemed deathly frozen as she stared at him wide-eyed. Jac turned to Cressida, a clear question on her face. Cressida pushed her cup of tea to Felix as an offering, testing the waters.

He happily took it, adding his own sugar to make it sweeter. 

“Have you heard this phantom nonsense?” He asked then as he shovelled beans into his mouth. 

“Um… yeah, but it’s just Margo’s usual drivel,” Jac answered.

“So it’s nothing to do with you lot then?” He asked, slurping his tea.

“Why do you assume we’re involved?” Cressida countered.

“Just because I’ve stopped sitting with you at breakfast doesn’t mean I can’t smell one of your schemes from a mile away. This has you written all over it.”

“For once, we’re just as clueless about this phantom as everyone else,” Jac said.

Felix caught Cressida’s eyes. She offered no further comment. “Uh-huh,” Felix continued knowingly. “Well, I’ll be off then. See you in lessons.”

With that, Felix finished Cressida’s tea and he’d gone again.

Jac and Cressida looked at Molly curiously. She continued eating her breakfast as though his arrival and dispersal hadn’t happened.

“Absolute nonsense,” she muttered as she ate her eggs. “Phantoms in Hogwarts, who ever heard of such a thing.”

“Oh, because phantoms are very different from ghosts,” Cressida chimed in.

“Or whatever Peeves is,” Jac added.

“He’s a poltergeist,” Molly corrected her haughtily. “And that’s different.”

Molly finished the rest of her breakfast in silence after that. 

 

*

 

“This phantom is causing a bit of a stir, isn’t it?” James asked sitting next to her in Transfiguration for their last lesson of the day. McGonagall was still in the doorway ushering students in before the lesson started.

Cressida turned to him with a roll of her eyes. “Yeah, I hear he’s getting up to a lot more than one would expect from a phantom.”

“You reckon it’s real, Knightly?” Thomas asked, leaning forward to be seen around James.

“Of course, it’s not real,” Fred scoffed. “Phantoms aren’t real.”

“Well, you never know,” James said leaning back on his chair with his feet up on the desk. “The supposed phantom could be lingering right under your nose waiting to strike and you’d never know. Very mysterious creatures are phantoms.”

“Feet off the table, Potter,” McGonagall lectured as she passed by.

James immediately complied. “Yes, professor.”

“Apparently, phantoms like to avoid detention,” Cressida quipped under her breath.

“I’m just saying, it doesn’t make sense,” Fred went on quietly as McGonagall prepared to start. “Everyone seems to have a story about this thing when two weeks ago it didn’t exist. Plus, no one’s even  seen  it-” he paused abruptly, staring over Thomas’ head at James for a long time. “You sly bastard, it’s you, isn’t it?”

“What are you alluding to, Freddie?” James asked, trying to fake innocence.

“You’re using the invisibility cloak to pull this off,” he said surely. “I knew you snuck out the other night, I heard you coming back in!”

“But James can’t have done  all  of those things people are saying,” Thomas said logically, lowering his voice.

James dissolved into laughter. “That’s the best bit. I’ve not done  any  of them apart from Smithers. Whatever’s wandering around Hogwarts tickling people’s feet and stealing their homework, it isn’t me.”

Fred grasped James on the shoulder with a mischievous gleam in his eyes that could only mean trouble for everyone else. “Well, it’s about to be. We’ve stumbled on to a gold mine of a prank here, boys!”

“Mr Weasley!” McGonagall called from the front. Fred’s head whipped towards her. “If you are ready I shall begin my lesson.”

The four of them all faced McGonagall obediently, knowing not to push their luck.

McGonagall got her wand out, using it to demonstrate the spell at hand in front of them. They all watched as she waved it over an empty blackboard and suddenly the whole lesson plan was revealed before their eyes.

“Revelio is a revealing Charm which has several variations and applications. When this spell is used directly on a person or object, it removes magical disguises,” McGonagall explained. “Now, not only are we going to be putting this into practice in lessons but I want you to go off and see if you can find your own disguised things around Hogwarts. I’m sure there are a few odds and ends that have been transfigured and not turned back over the years. The ones with the best discoveries will be given extra house points. You have until the end of this term to complete the task… but for today, we will be revealing secret messages.”

“Boys,” Fred whispered then, lacing his arms around his two counterparts as McGonagall continued her teaching. “I know  exactly  what we’re doing tonight.”

James caught Cressida’s eye, a hint of disappointment in them. There would be no secret visit tonight by the sound of it.

 

*

 

Once lessons had finished and dinner had happened, Cressida had to attend one of her many backlogged detentions from sneaking out after curfew so much, plus Whimbrel had thrown one on top of her pile for talking back to him in Defence Against The Dark Arts.

She wandered back through the castle, watching people talking in couples or groups. She overheard some stories about the phantom supposedly getting up to mischief she knew hadn’t happened. She saw Margo and Jeremiah tucked away in a corner playing tonsil tennis with one another and fought the urge to throw up. She also saw Beatrix and April pass her, their noses bright red and their eyes puffy. Soon after, Penelope ran after them in the hall, waving a box of tissues in the air.

Cressida naturally assumed another breakup had happened somewhere.

And then, going down the stairs to the Slytherin common room, she ran into Felix, Thane, Valentina and Goyle. Valentina had her face covered with a large hat and scarf and she quickly shoved passed Cressida and kept walking. Thane, Goyle and Felix, however, hovered slightly.

She turned her eyes to Felix. “Where are you going?”

Felix shoved his hands into his pockets. “Greenhouses.”

“It's freezing out there,” Cressida said. She’d started watching the snow falling out the window during her detention.

Goyle showed off his green and silver scarf around his neck.

Thane gained a smile. “Welcome to come along if you want, Knightly.”

She looked at Felix again. He didn’t say anything. “Maybe some other time.”

Thane gestured for the other two boys to go on without him and they happily complied.

“Did he talk to you at breakfast?” He asked once they were gone, leaning against the stairwell wall.

“You made him do that?”

Thane shrugged. “Figured you’d know something about this ridiculous phantom bullshit. We thought you’d give up the goods to Finnigan out of guilt.”

Cressida huffed, glaring up at him. “We had a deal, Nott. You’re supposed to get Felix talking to us again, not conspiring and turning him into one of your lackeys.”

“He’s talked about what happened.”

“He has?”

“Of course, he has,” Thane said as though it was obvious. “Look, the reason he’s not talking to you isn’t because of Smithers. He knows she’s not even hanging around you anymore since the fallout. He even misses you, told Goyle that himself.”

“So what’s the issue?!” Cressida asked impatiently.

“Weasley.”

“What?”

“You’re smart, Knightly. Figure it out yourself and do something about it,” Thane said as he continued up the staircase. “You know where to find us when you’re ready.”

Cressida watched him go with a glare, and then once he was definitely out of sight and probably freezing his nuts off with Felix in the cold, she turned towards her common room.

She wandered into her dorm room expecting it to be the same as it had usually been over the last few weeks. Molly and Jac talking or doing homework or discussing Quidditch but what she found instead was much more chaotic.

The pile of clues that had been residing in the corner for the last few months had been pulled out and dissected into parts in the middle of the room. As before, Rasper was rolling around in bits of red yarn across the floor. Groot was swinging from a piece that had been draped over the bed frame.

“What are you doing?” Cressida asked closing the door behind her.

The two girls looked up, startled by the interruption. “We have  to figure out this stupid password now we’re so close,” Jac said. “I need my CDs!”

“And I need a distraction,” Molly grumbled going back to sifting through the different bits of clues.

“I just saw Finnigan, funnily enough,” Cressida said, joining them on the floor.

“Oh?” Molly said far too casually, picking up a clue and holding it to the light. “Have much to say, did he?”

“He’s hanging out at the greenhouses with Nott again,” Cressida replied. “Apparently, he misses us though.”

Molly lowered the clue, looking at Cressida. “Oh?”

“You should try talking to him,” Cressida told her.

Molly’s eyes snapped back to the mess of clues in front of her. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“How about sorry?” Jac suggested.

Molly started compiling all the parchment containing a clue into the order they were found in, offering no further comment on the situation. “I think it’s a code,” she said instead.

Cressida and Jac sent each other a glance and then looked down at the clues to assist Molly.

Jac sifted through the pile of clues and notes Molly had made, pulling out each clue and the theory they had come to about it.

One thing had been clear all throughout this scavenger hunt, there was a reason behind all of them.

She lined them up beside each other, the clue and what the answer had been, trying to wrap her mind around what the point of it all had been.

It was like Sirius had said; the answer wasn’t going to just be given to them at the end of it, they had to find it in all the clues. 

Cressida’s eyes scanned down the list.

‘Don’t let this be a disaster. Find me with the original prankster’.  

Answer; Potter.

‘For the second act, you need to locate the contrary cat.’

Answer; Rasper.

‘Without further ado, an unlikely accomplice has the next clue.’

Albus 

‘This spell doesn’t require sharpness. Look for me in the darkness.’ 

Nox.

‘A place where flashing lights bang, the sixth one along is where I hang.’  

Knight’s secret passageway.

Molly lined up the final clue with the rest.

‘To end is here, we hope it wasn’t a bore. You can find me in the place you’re searching for.’ 

“Wait a minute,” Jac said, getting on her knees beside Cressida. She reached out and folded every bit of parchment over so it only showed the first letter of each answer.

Potter became P.

Rasper became R.

Albus became A.

Nox became N.

Knight’s secret passageway became K.

“Those smart bastards,” Cressida muttered.

“They were spelling it out for us this whole time,” Molly said in disbelief. “And I didn’t realise? I could have figured it out halfway through if I’d known they were  spelling  something!”

“So, if the place we’re searching for is the secret room,” Cressida went on. “That would make the final letter  S .”

“Pranks,” Jac read out. “The password is  pranks !”

“We did it!” Molly realised with jubilation. “We know the password!”

“I can finally listen to music again!” Jac celebrated, jumping up to her feet.

Molly was quick to join her. “I can rub it in my cousins’ stupid faces that we figured it out!”

They joined hands and practically ran out of the dorm room leaving the door swinging open behind them, seemingly forgetting Cressida still sat on the floor.

While the other two girls rushed up to the secret room to relish in the end of the scavenger hunt, Cressida got to her feet and instead walked out into the cold winter night.

She pulled her school cardigan tighter around her and made her way to the greenhouses, looking for the signature little puffs of smoke coming from their cigarettes and their wands sticking up in plant pots for a light source.

“Knightly,” Thane greeted her as soon as she was within distance through the horrid winter weather. “Didn’t expect you here so soon.”

Cressida’s eyes momentarily fell on Valentina standing under the cover of the potting shed, her big hat still covering her face. She was shaking like a leaf and took turns between puffing on her cigarette and blowing into a hankie. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s sick,” Thane answered, puffing on his own cigarette. “It’s going around the school at the moment. Two Hufflepuff kids were in the infirmary with it last I heard.”

“Then why is she outside?” 

“She also has a nicotine addiction,” he said. 

“Where’s Finnigan?” Cressida asked next, moving past it.

Thane nodded his head towards the upturned plant pots as he lit up a fresh cigarette with some difficulty due to the damp weather surrounding them.

Cressida crossed the space towards him. He looked like he had been doing homework but when Cressida found him, he hastily covered it with a wizard comic book.

“If you’ve come to get me to talk to you all again, save it-” he said quickly.

“Nope,” Cressida said, sitting on the spare plant pot opposite him. “Just came to chat. I’ve missed you and your corny jokes.”

Felix eyed her up suspiciously. “You’re going to freeze to death out here dressed like that.”

There was a small tapping on her shoulder and Cressida turned around confused. She saw Goyle offering out his thick scarf in retaliation to what Felix had said.

“Oh,” she said surprised. “Thanks, Goyle.”

Goyle nodded as she wrapped it around her neck and then he went and joined Thane under the shelter, standing beside him silently.

Cressida turned back to Felix.

“We figured out the password,” Cressida told him when it became clear he wasn’t going to start talking until she did.

Felix scuffed his shoe against the icy floor. “Bet Weasley was over the moon. Did she figure it out herself in the end?”

“Not quite,” Cressida replied. 

There was a small pause.

“What else have I missed since leaving you lot?” He asked then.

“Well, I’ve got about three weeks' worth of detentions from being caught out past curfew. Jac adopted a Bowtruckle called Groot that lives in her pocket. And Margo’s convinced herself she’s being targeted by a phantom when it’s really just James. ”

“Standard stuff then,” Felix joked.

Cressida looked at him and gave a small sigh as the snow started to trickle down on them. “You know Smithers is never going to apologise for what she did.”

Felix stiffened up. “I’m starting to realise that.”

“So why punish us for what she did?”

“I’m making a point. I’ve been made to apologise to her thousands of times. It’s about time she apologised to me for once.”

“You heard the bit about her and the fake phantom, right?” Cressida asked. “She’s hardly one to reason with.”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Felix said. “Besides, I’ve got other friends now. Guy friends.”

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “Coming here and sitting in the cold while Goyle and Thane smoke is hardly better than what you used to do with us.”

Felix squared his shoulders defiantly. “I could smoke here too, you never know! I’ve changed since leaving you lot.”

“Oh yeah,” Cressida challenged. “Go on then.”

Felix stared at her. “What?”

“If you’re so hard now since hanging out with this lot, prove it… or just admit you’re still the same loveable dorky Felix that you were before all this shit happened and that you miss us too.”

“Fine,” Felix huffed. “In that case-” He abruptly got up from his plant pot and strode over to Thane. Cressida quickly followed behind him, worried the idiot would actually go through with it.

Thane had no qualms about passing Felix a cigarette after he demanded one.

“Are you nuts?!” She hissed at him.

Thane shrugged, puffing on his own. “Let the boy live, Knightly. You’re not his mum.”

Cressida scowled. She'd never been referred to as the 'mum' or the responsible one before. Maybe Molly's lecturing was starting to rub off on her after four years.

Felix rolled the cigarette around in his fingers, lost on what to do with it exactly. “Finnigan, just put it down, I was messing with you,” Cressida told him.

“No,” Felix refused determinately. “I’m trying it! I hang out here now, I should know how to!”

Thane smiled as he offered out his wand to light up the end of Felix’s cigarette.

Cressida sighed irritably, tugging on her hair to come up with a solution to the new problem she’d caused. “Fine, if you’re going to do it then I am as well.”

“What?” Felix and Thane both asked.

Cressida plucked the cigarette out of Thane’s hand and stared at Felix. “Well? What’s it going to be? We doing this together or not?”

Felix’s eyes darted from the lit cigarette in his hands to Cressida’s his mouth falling open.

“Finnigan-!”

They jumped around to see Molly making her way over to them through the falling snow. They both instantly dropped their cigarettes to the floor and put them out in fear.

Thane continued puffing on his, finding it amusing.

“What the bloody hell are you doing out here?” Cressida asked her. Molly didn’t even acknowledge Cressida had spoken, her eyes set firmly on Felix.

“You weren’t there,” she said to him. “We figured out the password and we ran up to the room to celebrate and you weren’t there.”

“Um-” Felix started, slightly thrown off.

“And I’m sorry,” Molly spoke over him before he could get a word in. 

“Come again?” Felix asked, surprised.

“I realise it was my fault now,” Molly went on. “It’s not an apology from Margo you wanted, it was one from me.  I’m  sorry. I should have been on your side from the beginning and I wasn’t… now stop being a pratt and go back to sitting with us at breakfast.”

Felix stared at her for a moment, his brow narrowing. “What about Smithers?”

“From what I hear she’s been too busy sticking her tongue down Vonce’s throat to notice anyone else,” Thane chimed in.

“You stay out of this!” Molly lectured him. Thane ducked his head, stomping out his cigarette and casting Goyle a guilty side-eye at Molly’s tone. Goyle fought back laughing at him.

“Come back to us,” Molly said to Felix, ignoring the rest of them. “Be my friend again.”

Felix averted his eyes, scuffing his boots along the stones. “I want a chocolate frog as compensation.”

“Done,” Molly agreed.

“And I want the first pick of the songs on Jac’s CD player for the rest of the year,” he went on.

“A month,” Molly bargained.

“Three months!”

“That’s fair,” Molly gave in.

“Grand.”

The two shook hands like it was an important business deal and that was that. They turned back towards the castle together and started walking. Molly sniffed the air around Felix suspiciously as they left. “Have you been smoking?” She asked just as they rounded the corner.

Cressida turned to Thane as he lit up a fresh cigarette. “Now I can see what Finnigan means. She is rather scary up close.”

Goyle nodded in agreement.

“You just have to get to know her,” Cressida said.

Thane took a long drag of his cigarette. “If she’s anything like Potter, I think I’ll pass.”

“Look who’s being judgemental now. Just because she’s related to Potter doesn’t mean she’s like him. She’s a Slytherin just like us.”

“Fine,” Thane said smartly. “Invite her to Hogsmeade with us then and I’ll give her a chance.” Goyle looked up in surprise at his off-handed offer. “In fact, you can invite your whole crew. We’ll really make a day of it.”

“Are you nuts?” Cressida scoffed.

Thane shrugged. “You’re reluctant to spend the whole day alone with us, I know that. I know how you think it’ll look so I’m offering an alternative to our deal. Your friends are my friends for one day.”

Cressida thought about this logically. “And you won’t be a dick?”

“I’ll try and resist the urge.”

She stared out at the group surrounding the Greenhouses as she thought long and hard. She wanted to do her party at the Three Broomsticks with her friends, but she knew Thane wasn’t going to let go of their deal easily… but with a promise of him being civil with her friends for a day, she might just have a plan to get everything exactly how she wanted it. A way to break the ice, in a way.

“And this includes  all  my friends, correct?” She emphasised.

Thane finished the last of his cigarette. “Don’t see why not.”

“Good,” she smiled. “Then you can come to the get-together James has planned for my birthday in the pub,” she said starting to head back into the castle.

Thane stubbed his cigarette out on the floor. “I never said  they  were included in this deal-”

“My friends are your friends, right?” She asked cleverly over her shoulder. “I want you singing come-by-ya by the end of the night.”

Thane poked his tongue into his cheek in annoyance. “I feel swindled,” he muttered to Goyle as Cressida disappeared inside in the warm.

Chapter 81: Fourth Year: When You're Fifteen

Thursday 13th December 2018

 

As expected, the ‘phantom’ problem got worse in the following week and none of the school knew about the true cause behind the incidents, considering the trio of Gryffindors  also  seemed to be being pranked by this mysterious menace. 

Cressida thought that was a smart little detail in their plan.

The ‘phantom’ had stolen all of their left shoes by the looks as they trudged through the castle with only one shoe earlier in the week.

“That darn phantom!” James had said over-dramatically as he hopped on his covered foot through the corridor.

“Whatever will it do next, ay?” Fred joined in.

“Someone ought to do something before it gets out of hand,” Thomas embellished.

McGonagall happened to pass by at that moment, rolling her eyes at their antics.

There had been words written on the walls claiming  ‘MCGONAGALL IS DA BOMB ’. There had been mysteriously moved knights. The Christmas decorations around the castle would magically be switched around in the middle of the night.

However, the boys had found a foolproof way of getting out of it. If they ever were caught in a precarious situation in the castle, which wasn’t often due to the invisibility cloak, all they had to say was they were searching for things to use the  Revelio  charm on. Fred had been seen explaining to Flitwick that,  “these types of things weren’t going to be in plain sight, sir!”  when he had been caught with Thomas on his shoulders trying to reach a chandelier on the ceiling. Cressida just thought the cloak had fallen off them and they hadn’t realised until it was too late.

The next morning, everyone had woken up to find Filch’s keys hung from a chandelier and all of his ladders mysteriously missing.

Jac and Felix had been in hysterics about it.

One night, just before curfew, people swore they saw a deer head floating through the halls.

That was when Molly twigged onto it. 

“It’s them, isn’t it?” She’d asked late one night in the secret room.

Cressida looked up from her homework. “Took you long enough.”

“I knew last week,” Felix chimed in from the pile of cushions in the corner where he was riffling through Jac’s CDs trying to pick one to put on. Since making up with Molly he’d returned to hanging out with the girls as if he’d never left in the first place, but still immediately left whenever Margo showed up.

Jac threw a pillow at Cressida. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Fred’s  your  boyfriend, how come you didn’t figure it out sooner?” Cressida countered, throwing it back.

Jac looked stumped. “Wanker,” she muttered then.

“How are they doing it, anyway?” Felix had asked.

“Invisibility cloak,” Molly and Cressida answered in sync.

Felix went very quiet for a moment. “I thought my dad was bullshitting me about that thing.”

The phantom wasn’t the only thing that had taken over Hogwarts in the following week, however. That terrible cold going around seemed to be infecting more and more people every day, including half the staff.

So far, Flitwick, Sinistra, Sikander, Whimbrel and Longbottom were off sick with it. Half the students were down with it and unable to attend lessons, some of them ending up in the infirmary.

Most annoyingly, Margo had caught it, as well as Vonce, and she had now resided in her bed for the last two days complaining that she was dying.

Cressida and the rest of the Slytherins had never been so grateful to have the secret room back.

Due to the lack of teachers and students roaming around the castle unaffected, McGonagall had limited lessons to only attending the ones where the teachers weren’t sick, which by this point wasn’t very many.

This left a lot of time for wandering around and catching up on homework before the holidays. 

Cressida was also very much aware she had set up her ‘surprise’ birthday outing as a way to get Thane and James talking civilly with each other, but she still stood by her decision. She’d be there the whole time and she knew neither boy would do anything disastrously bad as it was her birthday. She debated telling James and the others this was happening, but then she figured them knowing the three older Slytherins were going to appear at the table would only make their backs go up before the day even arrived. It was better as a secret, she reasoned. She’d make it look like an accident and they’d all be happy and get along for her sake. 

They could moan and complain about each other once the outing was done, but at least they would have taken the first step to getting them all to see each other as more than by-products of their parents before them.

However, with this sickness going around, she highly doubted whether they’d all be able to make it to the village in the first place. Valentina was already down and out of the mix as she was still suffering from the worst cold in existence. Jac had had the beginnings of a stuffy nose a few days ago but nothing more than that. Cressida had reasoned it was because of some grotesque flowers Fred had stolen from the greenhouses for her as a surprise and didn’t know the origin of. Once Molly had disposed of them, Jac’s nose miraculously cleared up.

And even if they all somehow managed to avoid this mysterious sickness, Cressida doubted there'd be enough teachers to chaperone the trip regardless.

She just hoped she didn’t catch the dreadful cold going around. She hated being sick. She was a sickly child growing up, what with being half the size of everyone else and severely lacking the vegetables and nutrients she should have been getting on a regular basis. No, she would avoid the impending illness in any way she could throughout the castle. The only reason Cressida wasn’t worried about being in the same space as Margo while she was sick was because Molly practically disinfected the room every half hour.

Either way, in spite of the illness spreading around like wildfire, and the potential disaster she’d set up, she was rather looking forward to the next twenty-four hours. 

Cressida woke up on the morning of her fifteenth birthday and rolled to the side. Rasper was lead on the pillow beside her already wearing a party hat, purring happily in her face.

“Mornin’ buddy,” she yawned, scratching him under the chin. Rasper got to his feet and darted through the bed curtains.

Cressida stretched her arms above her head and wondered what she was going to be met with that morning. It was the first year everyone had known about her birthday and she wasn’t sure what to expect. Should she expect a big fuss? Should she expect nothing? Should she get her hopes up or did that look desperate?

She poked her head out of the bed curtains assessing the room first and found a small pile of presents on the trunk at the end of her bed. There was no one else seemingly in the room.

She pulled on her slippers and stood in front of the pile. On top of it was a large card.

She picked it up and opened it only to realise it sent off a loud bang and confetti spilt everywhere as tiny sparks read out  ‘HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY’  before fizzling away into nothingness.

“Would you keep it down!” Margo’s groggy voice complained from within her bed curtains. “Some of us are dying in here.”

“Do it quicker then,” Cressida called back. Her eyes went back to the card to read the writing inside.

‘To Cressida

Happy fifteenth birthday!

From all of us xx’

She recognised the writing as Jac’s and immediately wished her best friend had been there when she’d opened the card. In fact, she wished they were all with her now.

She put the card back down on the presents and grabbed her clothes to quickly get changed to go in search of them.

In the common room, her eyes scanned every corner for them expectantly.

There was a small tap on her shoulder and she spun around. She was surprised to find Albus and Scorpius standing in front of her instead of who she’d been expecting. Albus extended out a small homemade card covered in glitter.

“We overheard James and Molly say it was your birthday,” Albus explained sheepishly, a smear of glitter stuck to his cheek. 

“We thought we should get you something too… to say thanks for taking care of us and all,” Scorpius added, his hands suspiciously hidden under his armpits. She suspected they were also covered in glitter.

“Thanks,” Cressida said gratefully taking the card from them. “That’s really sweet.”

“Enjoy your birthday, Cressida,” Albus smiled at her then as he and Scorpius continued on their way.

Once it became clear her friends weren’t waiting for her in the common room, Cressida stepped out into the dungeons only to find that devoid of them as well. She knew they couldn’t have gone to breakfast without her, she’d woken up just in time for it today.

She glanced around the corridor, a small frown on her face.

Then she felt something hit the side of her head and she turned to see it was a paper aeroplane. It flew around her head a few times then darted away, forcing itself behind the secret passageway. 

She followed after it knowingly, pulling back the tapestry and stepping inside.

She followed the aeroplane all the way up to the third floor and then up more flights of stairs until she came to a stop outside of Sirius’ portrait, where the enchanted aeroplane crashed into the wall and abruptly died and crumpled to the floor.

Sirius was seemingly waiting for her in his frame and opened up the tapestry without even forcing her to say the password which had quickly become one of his favourite ways to mess with them. He even sent her a knowing wink as she snuck behind the fabric.

Cressida continued forward and made her way up the spiral stairs into the secret room.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

She nearly fell back down the stairs at the shock of it as their voices rang out at an incredible volume before her head had even peered through the opening at the top of the staircase.

“We wanted to surprise you at breakfast,” Fred’s voice said excitedly as she made her way up the last few steps.

“But I convinced them you’d want a private celebration,” Molly said then, dragging Cressida into the middle of the room. “You’re welcome,” she whispered jokingly.

Cressida’s eyes fell on the full extent of the surprise. Banners and balloons and floating candles lined the secret room. All of them stood in front of it smiling at her with party hats on their heads. Felix, Molly, Jac, Fred, Thomas… her face fell. No James.

“This is amazing,” she said, forcing herself to push past it. “Cheers.”

“Have you opened your card yet?” Jac asked excitedly.

“Yeah, it pissed Margo off.”

Felix smiled proudly. “As intended.”

“Did you see the pile of presents?” Fred asked.

“Ours are in there too!” Thomas butted in eagerly. “Nothing too expensive so you wouldn’t get mad, but stuff we thought you’d like or be able to use.”

“The rest of the family are sending theirs at breakfast, I imagine,” Molly said then.

“Great,” Cressida said.  Why was there no James?  “Can’t wait.”

“We’ve got a bit of time before breakfast,” Jac spoke up. “Do you want to open your presents now?”

“Won’t that annoy Smithers again though?” Thomas asked concerned.

Felix clapped his hands together gladly. “Then it’s decided. Let’s go, people!”

Cressida was pulled lovingly and excitedly back out of the room to return to the dorm room to open her presents with all of her friends. All of them except James.

 

* 

 

Fred and Thomas had gotten her some dragon-hind gloves. Jac had gotten her  Lorde’s ‘Melodrama’  album. Molly had gotten her a new set of pens she’d transfigured into really expensive-looking quills. Felix had gotten her an abundance of sugar quills and  Drooble's Best Blowing Gum .

All very good presents she was really grateful for and thought she didn’t entirely deserve. Especially, the new gloves.

Cressida’s pressing question about James’ absence never got to be asked as once they’d opened the presents and ignored all of Margo’s nasty comments being hurled from her bed, it was breakfast time and she was being hoisted and dragged through the castle once again by the group.

She didn’t mind this that much. She knew she had to wait for the letter from her mum anyway. She secretly hoped Dayle would write as well for the occasion… she never heard back from him after the last letter she sent.

The Gryffindor boys broke away to eat at their own table and the Slytherins all sat together. That morning, Molly invited Albus and Scorpius to join them on the bench and they happily agreed, taking the tea Molly offered them with big smiles on their faces.

Only Felix mentioned the vast amount of glitter stuck to the two second year’s fingertips and faces.

Cressida ate her breakfast muffin and looked up at the teacher’s table. Most of them were missing due to the illness but McGonagall was still primly sat up there presiding over the hall. She met Cressida’s eyes and gave the young witch a smile and a nod of acknowledgement of the day.

Cressida nodded back.

The owls arrived and, as expected, Barnabas swooped down first with a package of sweets signed  ‘from the family x’ .

She waited expectantly for a second owl to arrive.

She watched them all fly in one by one, deliver their letters and their howlers and their packages to the students around her, and then she watched every single one of them fly back out again without dropping something else in front of her.

No letter from her mum.

No letter from Dayle.

No happy birthday from either of them.

She tried not to let it show on her face. Felix, Molly, Albus and Scorpius knew no different. Cressida had hidden her mother’s letters from them every other year before now. But Jac knew.

Jac could see it on Cressida’s face. She could see the disappointment.

Her mother forgot a lot of things… but she’d never forgotten Cressida’s birthday.

“Here,” Felix said, still overly happy about the occasion and oblivious to Cressida’s new mood. “It’s your birthday, you should eat cake for breakfast-”

He tried to shove a chocolate cauldron in her mouth that he’d fished out of the package from Potter and Weasley’s family.

She swatted it away and then the others around her tuned into the fact she wasn’t celebrating anymore.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, feeling bad immediately as they all stared at her. “I just- I think I’m starting to feel a bit sick.”

“You’re not getting ill, are you?” Molly frowned, concerned. “You haven’t got a red nose like the rest of them-”

Cressida had gotten up from the table before Molly could finish and gave them a feeble excuse of seeing them later and a second  ‘thanks’  thrown over her shoulder so she didn’t look ungrateful for all their efforts.

She paused in the hallway, looking between the Grand Staircase leading upwards and the stairs leading down to the dungeons. A silent choice of where and how she wanted to sulk or let her emotions out.

After a second of debate, she turned and joined the staircase and made her way all the way to the sixth floor where she discarded her green robe onto the floor carelessly and said the password to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Cressida had struck a deal with Rose that if the younger witch told her whenever the password was updated, Cressida would keep her updated on her cousin’s antics throughout the castle so she could avoid being caught in the crossfire.

The portrait opened up and a jolly high note that Cressida winced in pain at as it hit her ears and she crossed the threshold into the red-cladded common room. It was quieter than normal with several students strewn about under blankets or in front of the fireplace with stuffy noses and ice packs on their heads.

Cressida didn’t look at any of them as she climbed the staircase to the boy’s dorm and banged on the door. James hadn’t come for any nightly visits since Fred declared they take up the role of the phantom and now he’d missed the beginning of her birthday and she was pissed… or maybe hurt.

“Potter! Are you in there?” She yelled. There was a faint shuffling on the other side of the door but nothing more. She knocked again. “You better have a good excuse for missing my birthday or I’ll kill you myself!” 

Still, there was no answer. Cressida banged on it again and again.

She banged until she felt a sob escape her throat and her forehead hit the door instead of her fist. “I was fine celebrating on my own before you came along last year and then this year you just- you can’t just-”

Forget about me

They forgot about me

The door creaked open and Cressida abruptly composed herself only to find James wasn’t standing on the other side of it. She cautiously stepped into the room. She saw a limp hand clutching loosely onto a wand poking out the side of James’ bed curtains.

“James?” She called, crossing the room towards it.

“No, Knightly, don’t open-”

She’d already pulled them open to find James curled up under his blankets, a mess of tissues covering the top of his sheets and an ice pack plastered to his head. 

“I’m sick,” he sniffed. 

“I can see that,” she replied, her tone a bit softer than it had been a second ago. He was pale and sickly and the ice pack had caused his hair to stick flat to his forehead but even like this, she thought he didn’t look grotesque. In fact, she was silently debating reaching out and fixing his hair for him. She knew how much he hated it touching his forehead like that.

His puffy green eyes looked up at her apologetically. “I didn’t want to miss your birthday. I tried to get up, I really did, but Freddie and Tommo forced me back into bed. They said I could have infected you and ruined your birthday… I figured with all of them there you might not have noticed.”

Cressida stared down at him for a moment, watching as he shivered under his numerous blankets. “I noticed.”

Taking a deep breath, she sat on the end of the bed facing him. He struggled to sit up to look at her. “What are you doing? I’m full of germs!” 

“I just needed to sit for a bit without people around.”

“I’m people,” James pointed out.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, her worries from a moment ago still bubbling inside of her. She’d had to see him, not that she could admit that to him. “You’re sick. If I’m lucky you’ll go unconscious and I’ll get some peace and quiet in a minute,” she said instead.

James gave another sniff but didn’t argue with her further. They sat in silence for a minute.

She looked down at her hands in her lap as James’ eyes bore into her, clearly sensing something was on her mind. “My mum didn’t send me a letter,” she said after a while, wanting to get it out on her terms before James inevitably asked. “She must have forgotten it was my birthday or something. The days get muddled up for her sometimes… but… but never this day. This day she always remembers. Always sends something.”

James chewed on his lip thoughtfully for a moment. Then he reached over to his bedside table and grabbed something. “Here,” he said extending it out to her. “Hopefully, this will take your mind off it.”

Cressida looked at the small wrapped present in his hands. “You didn’t have to get me something.”

“I don’t have the strength to fight you, Knightly. Take a dying man’s present, won’t you?”

Cressida looked from James back at the present. “Fine,” she relented, taking it.

She pulled open the paper and opened the box to find some golden thread, a needle and some fancy-looking buttons inside.

“What is it?”

“A magical sewing kit,” James explained. “I noticed the buttons on your favourite jacket were falling off last year. This way you can fix it and anything else that needs mending. It’ll make most things look as good as new and it never breaks.”

Cressida looked back up at him. “That’s so useful,” she said surprised by how good the simple gift of a magic needle was. She didn’t have the heart to tell him she’d given her jacket away in the summer to afford his watch.

“Oh, and these,” he said throwing her a pack of jelly slugs. “As payback for eating yours last year.”

Cressida caught them in her hand and opened them up with a smile, the pit in her stomach loosening slightly. She crawled over the bed until she sat next to him, sickness be dammed.

James coughed unto the crook of his arm. “Knightly, are you nuts?! I’m contagious, get away!”

“Jelly slug?” She offered, ignoring his protest. 

James let out another pathetic cough as he faced her. “You’re going to get sick if you stay around me for much longer.”

Cressida shrugged, throwing a jelly slug into her mouth. “I’ll be fine. I haven’t caught it off anyone yet.”

“Surely you have better ways to spend your birthday,” James said then.

Cressida turned her eyes to James, the urge to reach out and fix his hair nagging at her again. “Nope,” she said honestly. James’ mouth formed into a lopsided smile as he stared back at her, touched by the sentiment. “Plus,” she went on, settling down properly beside him on the pillows. “With how bad you look right now, you might be dead by tomorrow.”

James laughed followed by a wince of pain as he held his chest. “Cheers for that,” he said, lying back down.

It went quiet then as they lead there. Cressida fiddled with the knotted ends of her hair to occupy her hands. The reason she’d really stormed up here wouldn’t just disappear with a few light-hearted jokes. It wouldn’t change it, even if being there made her feel a bit better for the time being. But at least she knew James  hadn’t forgotten about her.

“So,” James said after a few seconds as if reading her mind. “No letter from your mum, huh?”

His voice was low as they faced each other, no need to speak much louder than a whisper to be heard. Cressida gulped. “Seems that way.”

“Maybe her card just got lost in the mail or the owl took a wrong turn,” James said in that tone that made everything he said sound like a fact.

Cressida sniffed, trying to keep her face straight. She knew deep down that’s not what had happened. If they wanted to write to her they could have answered her letters. They could have checked up on her. 

And more than anything, after her mum and Dayle not sending anything for her birthday, she wanted to be close to someone. She wanted to be held and told they’d never forget about her. She couldn’t go and tell all her friends this. She knew they loved her or were at the very least fond of her. They’d gone to all that trouble for the sake of her birthday and yet she’d run away from it because she was scared James had forgotten about her like her mother and Dayle had and she couldn’t bare the thought.

What had happened to the girl who didn’t need anyone but herself?

“Yeah, maybe,” she lied, pushing all these thoughts to the side to be dealt with later when she was really alone.

James stared at her for a moment, assessing whether to push the conversation further. Evidently, he decided against it as he gained his smile back and shuffled that tiny bit closer to her. “How does it feel being fifteen?”

Cressida's eyes trailed his face as she lead beside him on the pillow. She found the freckles and the acne and the scar and the tiny details she’d come to search for whenever he was this close to her like she was making a mental map of his face in case it suddenly disappeared. “Like things might start changing,” she admitted quietly.

“In a good way or a bad way?”

She took a long moment to consider that question. “Not sure yet,” she said finally.

James gave a tiny hum in response as he shivered.

Cressida pulled a third blanket up over his shoulders and watched as his eyes fluttered shut at how comfortable he was now he was warmer.

Her eyes remained on him for a moment, watching him take deep wheezy breaths in and out as he fell asleep. 

Once she was sure there was no chance he would wake up, she reached out and pushed his fringe to the side out of his face, re-adjusting the ice pack on his forehead to keep his temperature down.

James gave a grateful murmur in his sleep and moved closer again, his head now resting near hers. 

Cressida gulped, her eyes trailing over his face again and the words she had nearly said to Jac two months ago screaming inside her own mind, trying to fight their way out into existence. She desperately tried to shove them back down.

But it was hard not to at least acknowledge some semblance of her felt… something, even if she only acknowledged it silently in her own mind for a mere moment.

It was her secret and hers alone.

Maybe she liked it that way. She couldn't get hurt that way.

James stirred, causing the ice pack to fall away from his head. Cressida quickly averted her eyes, pretending like she hadn’t been staring in the first place in case he woke up and caught her. 

His eyes remained closed but his forehead touched against hers and Cressida let it, not moving back but thinking it'd be safer for the both of them if she did. “Happy birthday, Cressida,” he whispered sleepily, his breath smelling distinctly of cough syrup.

Her stomach dropped and shattered into a thousand little pieces as she looked back at him, tracing all the little details over again.

Oh, God,  she thought desperately.  How could she let this happen to herself?

 

Chapter 82: Fourth Year: Keep Your Secrets

Saturday 15th December 2018

 

The remainder of Cressida’s birthday came and went. She’d eventually left Potter fast asleep on his bed and went back out into the castle. She’d eaten lunch and dinner with her friends. She’d listened to them sing her happy birthday and she listened to CDs with them in the secret room. She’d watched Fred twirl Jac around to the music. She watched Felix and Molly get into a heated debate about their Charms homework, knowing they were both as smart as each other now had started to make them even more competitive. She watched Thomas playing with Rasper on the pile of cushions and listened to them all talk about how excited they were for Hogsmeade in two days’ time. In a way, she felt like she didn’t even need the celebration in Madam Rosmerta's after this much of a fuss.

And all the while she sat there with her thoughts about her mum and Dayle and James. Stupid sodding  James  led up in his bed asleep with a cold.

She’d silently wished she could sneak back up to his room and lie there in the quietness of it all instead of laughing and pretending to enjoy her mini-party when her mood was far from a celebratory one. 

She’d had a small beacon of hope earlier in the day when she saw McGonagall coming towards her in the hall. For a brief moment, she thought the old Head Mistress had a letter concealed in her robes specifically for Cressida. That James had been right after all and the letter had just gotten lost and had now arrived.

But when the head Mistress stopped for no longer than to say a quick ‘ Happy Birthday’  in person before continuing on her way, Cressida knew that she had been right.

They really had forgotten her. 

She’d cried about it later that night.

After her birthday was done, Cressida tucked herself away in her bed curtains under the blankets and refused to resurface until she felt like she absolutely had to. She sat up late at night wondering whether or not to send her mum another letter asking why but she knew it’d be no use. She’d probably just ignore that one too.

That’s okay,  she told herself. She’d be going back home in a week. She could slip it into conversation while they were pulling crackers over Christmas dinner.

Because no matter what they had promised to spend Christmas together. Cressida was going to ensure they kept that promise at least.

Eventually, sleep had taken over her body and saved her from her own thoughts, causing her body to go limp and drowsy as the early morning broke.

Next thing she knew a bright light shone in her eyes and she squinted them shut, a searing pain shooting through her head when she tried to lift it.

Oh crap,  she thought.  Oh, sodding balls.

She forced her aching body to get out of bed and go into the bathroom to drink some water from the tap. When she lifted her face to see her reflection in the mirror she looked like a corpse. A stuffy red nose and puffy eyes and sickly skin.

She was fucking sick.

Jac knocked on the door and poked her head in. “Finally! We tried to wake you half an hour ago but you were dead to the world. Are you-” She paused when she saw Cressida’s appearance, her mouth dropping open. “You look like crap!”

“I’m fine-” Cressida tried to get out but her throat was as dry as a dessert.

Felix popped his head in beside Jac’s. “Oh bollocks, Knightly, what’s happened to you?”

“She’s sick,” Jac said.

“I’m not sick,” Cressida said leaning on the sink for support.

“Knightly’s sick?” Molly asked, appearing in the bathroom as well now. “Oh shit, Cressida. You look awful.” She put a hand to Cressida’s head assessing her like a nurse and frowned. “She’s got a temperature.”

“I’m starting to feel much better,” she lied, resting her head on the cold porcelain.

Molly rushed forward and lifted Cressida back up, leading her out into the bedroom. “You have to get back in bed this instant,” she said dropping her indelicately back on her mattress.

“But we have Hogsmeade today,” Jac pointed out disappointedly.

“Look at her,” Felix said. “Unless you want to  Weekend at Burnie’s  her, I think Hogsmeade is off the table.”

Cressida gave a pathetic sniff as they all stared at her. 

Felix narrowed his brow in thought. “How’d you manage to catch it anyway? All of us are fine.”

The door clicked open and they all turned to see Margo entering, seemingly over her latest ailment. “Don’t blame me for her catching it. Knightly didn’t come near me,” she scowled, catching the tail-end of their conversation. They watched as she grabbed her bag, pulled on her green beret and left the room without another word.

“It’s fine,” Cressida said, slouching down in her bed again. “I’m sure I’ll be feeling better in a few minutes.”

Molly hummed thoughtfully. “Let me go talk to my cousins and see what they say.”

“Is James better now?” Cressida asked then, shivering slightly. Christ, being sick really did suck as bad as she remembered it to.

Jac turned her eyes to her. “How did you know he was sick? Fred tried to keep it a secret to stop him from infecting you before this weekend.”

“Clearly it didn’t work,” Felix huffed.

Cressida shrugged, coughing into her arm. “Albus told me,” she lied.

“We’ll be back in a minute. Don’t move,” Molly instructed her. She nudged Felix and the two of them left the room.

Jac took Molly’s place perching on the side of the bed. “I really wanted you to come to the Three Broomsticks with us. There was supposed to be something special happening-”

“Jac,” Cressida interrupted her. “I knew about the surprise party.”

“You did?!”

“Yes, and I did something a bit stupid,” she started explaining. “I invited Thane and Goyle to it.”

“You did  what ?!” Jac shrieked. “James’ll kill him. Or Thane will kill everyone. You know they can’t stand each other, what on earth possessed you to think this was a good idea?!”

“Exposure therapy,” she joked with a rough cough. “They have to learn to get over themselves at some point.”

“I don’t think the pub is the right place for that,” Jac said concerned. “Maybe a padded cell where they can’t injure each other. One swift hit of the table and someone’s getting glassed in the abdomen-”

“It’ll be fine-”

“Cressida, you can’t fucking lift your head currently, how is this fine?!”

“I’ll take some Calpol and meet you guys down there,” she reassured her. “Just don’t tell the other’s they’re coming. I have a plan.”

Jac still looked unconvinced. “As long as you’re sure.”

“I am,” she said surely. “Now, go down to Hogsmeade with the others and I’ll be there before lunch.”

“You promise?” Jac asked, getting to her feet.

“Scout’s honour.”

Jac did some extra fussing with the blankets and then got to her feet, sending a sympathetic glance over her shoulder as she left Cressida alone in the bedroom. She briefly saw Groot poking out of Jac’s back pocket and give her a small wave as the door shut behind Jac.

Cressida led back down on the pillow, pulling the blankets up around her chin.  ‘It’s fine ’ she convinced herself, letting out another string of coughs. She’d just rest for five minutes to get her energy back up and then she’d be well enough to make her way down to Hogsmeade.

Rasper jumped up onto the bed and nested into Cressida’s side with a purr and she felt her eyelids grow heavy as sleep took over her body again.

What felt like seconds later, Cressida forced her eyes open again and let out a terrible cough that she had to sit up in order to breathe properly again afterwards. Rasper jumped up and disappeared out of the room at the disruption of his nap.

Cressida glanced at the clock, trying to remember what she was supposed to be doing. 

“Shit!” She cursed, realising she’d fallen back asleep for a whole hour. “Shitting, fucking- Christ-” 

She’d fallen over trying to get out of bed. Her coordination was completely shot and her head was spinning. With great difficulty, she managed to pull on some jeans and a jumper over her pyjama top. Today wasn’t a day where she could afford the extra effort. Just getting out of bed was hard enough.

Once she’d done the absolute basics of getting ready, she pulled on her shoes and ventured her way out into the castle. It was colder than she’d ever remembered it being and her teeth chattered as she stumbled through the common room. Even Regulus’ portrait looked at her with concern as she passed by him.

It had taken all of her energy to make it to the stairs and halfway up she had to rest against the wall to catch her breath back.

‘Keep going’,  she told herself. She knew it’d all go to shit if she wasn’t there to make sure everyone got along. She  had  to be there.

Her legs buckled under her just as she made it to the top of the stairs and she went down hard. She vaguely felt her head hit the floor but didn’t have enough energy to even lift it before everything went black.

 

*

 

Her eyes painfully opened once again to find her location had changed. The bright fluorescent lights and a strong smell of mint and lemon disinfectant gave away she was in the medical bay. Her head was throbbing without her even attempting to lift it and it felt like she’d swallowed a dozen razor blades, and the ones she hadn’t swallowed had been shoved up her nose.

Her eyes registered a figure sitting at the end of her bed. With a strained squint to get her vision to focus, she realised it was James.

“Potter?” She croaked, rubbing her temples to try and soothe her painful head. 

“Madam Pomfrey gave you some medicine for the cold,” James said. “Said she found you passed out on the stairs.”

She peered out the curtain at the time. Three hours had passed. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Hogsmeade?” James looked down at his hands in his lap. Cressida’s blurry vision followed his eye line to see his hands were bandaged. “Are you hurt?”

James tried to hide his hands behind his back as he faced her again. “I’m not important right now. How are you feeling?”

Cressida forced herself to sit up despite the painful stabbing sensation in her chest. “What have I missed?” She insisted. James pressed his lips into a thin line. Now she was more coherent she could see the plaster across the bridge of his nose and the bruise already forming under it. Cressida’s jaw went slack in realisation. “Thane?”

“Present.”

Cressida looked to her side to see Thane was two beds over. His arm in a sling accompanied by a black eye. “Fucking hell, you two. What happened?”

Neither boy said anything for a while.

“Potter!” Madam Pomfrey said, muddling her way over to them from out of her office. “I discharged you an hour ago. What are you still doing here?”

“Checking in on my friend, Ma’am,” James replied. 

“Friend my left nut,” Thane muttered.

“That’s enough from you, Mr Nott,” she scolded him. “In fact, you can get out as well now your swelling’s gone down. Both of you, out now.”

Thane rotated his sore shoulder slightly as he pushed himself off the bed. He sent a hard glare to Potter as he left the infirmary without another word to either of them.

Cressida turned to James. “You got in a fight?”

“He started it!” James defended himself instantly. If Cressida had been in better health she would have pointed out he sounded like a child. “By the way, next time you invite a known jackass to a party  we’ve  thrown for you, a head’s up would be nice,” he said quietly.

“I won’t tell you again, Mr Potter,” Madam Pomfrey warned. “Out with you!”

James reluctantly stood and sent one last glance to Cressida as he walked out the door.

Madam Pomfrey went about folding bed sheets now that Thane had vacated. “You must have caused quite a stir between those two boys for them to go after each other like that,” the old medi-witch commented to Cressida. "Both of them forgot about their own injuries when they walked in and saw you were here fast asleep. Took me bribing Potter just to get him away from your bed."

Cressida let out a strangled cough as she led back down, not having the energy to think about that.

 

 

Thursday 20th December 2018

 

Thane and Potter’s fight in Hogsmeade had been mentioned in the paper, as was expected. Molly had said that Penelope had insisted they include it as she’d seen the whole thing first hand- the whole pub had, in fact- and Molly knew everyone knew about it by now anyway. There was no sugar-coating it. The two boys had battered each other. But thankfully, Penelope didn’t know the cause had been Cressida and so the fight was labelled as a result of ‘Generational disliking of the other.’

Molly didn’t correct her, although, she did thoroughly reprimand Cressida as soon as she was back to full health on her  ‘idiotic logic on how that would ever work.’

A part of her wished she’d been there to see exactly what had caused it, but when Jac had filled her in on the details, it appeared that nobody knew why it happened.

“They were perfectly civil for a while,” Jac had explained it once Cressida had been released from the medical bay a few days later. “Thane and Goyle even brought everyone a drink, and then Nott and James started talking at the bar while getting more Butterbeer and all of a sudden they were fighting. James basically had Thane pinned to the bar at one point. Madam Rosmerta chucked us all out after it and McGonagall was furious.”

Cressida had tried to ask James what had been said to cause it but he wasn’t budging. “It doesn't matter now,” he’d say whenever she asked. “It just proves the likes of Nott and I can’t get along.”

She would have cornered Thane to try and get it out of him too but he seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet since.

Despite the fight taking the spotlight for the next week, everyone had been glad to see Felix’s comic drawings return in the  Chatterbox  in time for the Christmas season around Hogwarts, and as always, the Christmas spirit took over the castle in the run-up to the holidays. They even had partridges in pear trees this year.

And luckily for the majority of them, the recent cold epidemic seemed to be trickling out as all the teachers were back to full health and the infirmary was cleared out of cold patients.

The trio of Gryffindors momentarily hung up their phantom persona as they took pride in their last prank before leaving for their two-week holiday to take the attention away from James’ altercation with Nott. They had somehow found a deer in the Forbidden Forest and bribed it into the castle, magically sticking a pair of glasses to its face and setting it loose. McGonagall had seemed frozen on how to react when it burst into the Great Hall during dinner. 

By some miracle, the deer roamed the castle for nearly a whole day before Hagrid and Flitwick managed to lead it back outside.

Apparently, Remus had been visiting Sirius in his frame when the creature sauntered past them before being caught and the portraits both blinked in surprise and then stared at each other, seemingly at a loss on how to react themselves.

The three boys had gotten a detention every day until they left because of it but they thought it was worth it just to see the look on people’s faces. The Howler they’d received from Harry and Ginny telling them off for it, however, suggested the family weren’t as impressed, apart from the distinct cackling of Teddy in the background.

Unfortunately, their jubilation about the upcoming break was momentarily thwarted once they’d learned Cressida wouldn't be joining them for Christmas this year.

“I’m trying to convince Grandma Molly to let all of us camp out in the living room this year,” James had been saying as the group all wandered through the hall late one night. “It’ll be like a massive sleepover and we can stay up all night talking and sneaking snacks from the kitchen and-”

“James,” Cressida interrupted him. “I’m not coming to the Burrow for Christmas this year.”

All of them turned their eyes to her immediately, “Why not?!”

Cressida shrugged. “I’m spending the whole holiday with my mum and Dayle this year.”

Felix frowned. “But they forgot your birthday-”

Molly and Jac elbowed him in the chest. It had become clear not to mention the letter fiasco on her birthday since Cressida made it very obvious she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Thomas asked softly. “Even just for one day?”

“Grandma Molly’s expecting you for dinner and everything,” Fred added.

Cressida felt guilty and averted her eyes. “Sorry. I promised I’d be home with them like a proper family.”

She saw all her friends send each other a glance as they continued moving through the hall but she decided to ignore it.

It didn’t help that Jac also wasn’t attending the Burrow Christmas party this year as her brother had written to her and demanded she come home to support him during Christmas day. Apparently, he wanted to bring his boyfriend over and was scared it’d ruin Christmas unless his little sister was there to ease the tension. Jac claimed it was because she fell into the 'perfect child' category where if there was a situation to be diffused, she'd be sent in to do the job. Fred had been less than thrilled when he heard about it and made sure Jac knew about it. In a weird way, it was sweet he wanted her there for the holidays so much.

As the end of term drew closer, Cressida was also annoyingly reminded of McGonagall’s task to find something hidden within the castle. So far, Jac had discovered a secret message in the girl’s bathroom. Molly had discovered one of the cauldrons in Slughorn's collection was actually a tortoise. Felix had found a secret recipe for alcoholic butterbeer hidden in a book in the library. Margo had yet to find anything, as did Cressida. The trio of boys had apparently found an abundance of things, including but not limited to;

A broom that was actually a large umbrella. Invisible footprints leading throughout the castle to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. (Cressida overheard them saying something about a Chamber of some sort).  A love note written on a desk in McGonagall’s own classroom and a secret hatch that led into Filch’s office from the ceiling. (They decided against telling McGonagall they’d discovered that one)

It quickly became clear they were going to win her competition, especially if Cressida failed to find something better by the last day, but she felt like she’d exhausted all her options.

She’d cast the spell on the knights in the hallways. On the portraits. On random books in the library and the mirrors in all the bathrooms. She was positive if there was anything else left to find she would have found it by now and she was annoyed she hadn’t gotten to any of those other things first.

That wasn’t her biggest problem, however.

It had taken nearly a week since the Hogsmeade trip for Thane to confront Cressida, and he’d done it in his usual sly manner, cornering her alone where she couldn’t get away.

She’d been sneaking out into the common room long past curfew in an attempt to cast the spell on a couple of suspicious objects she’d scouted out hoping to find something good. She knew Slytherins were sneaky, surely they had some hidden stuff lying about right under their noses.

She got on her hands and knees crawling under one of the tables, hoping to find a secret message written underneath. She’d got her wand out of her hair and just started doing the incantation when she heard someone clear their throat.

“So, Potter didn’t know we were coming to your birthday,” Thane said simply when she poked her head out. “And you were nowhere to be seen.”

Cressida got to her feet and faced him. She was in a corner and Thane was blocking the easy way out. “I was sick.”

“So I heard,” he said with a twinge of annoyance. “You hung us out to dry, Knightly.”

“I didn’t mean to,” she defended herself. “I tried to get there, it’s not my fault I passed out.”

“Well, now I have a broken collarbone to pay for it,” he said sharply. “Next time you have one of your grand integration ideas, don’t trap Potter and I in the same place and then bail.”

“I didn’t expect you to start fucking fighting each other, Thane!” She snapped back. “Could you two not act like two-year-olds around each other for just one afternoon?”

“He started it,” Thane replied coldly.

“Who threw the first punch?”

Thane didn’t answer.

“Who?” Cressida pressed.

“He did,” Thane answered smugly. 

Cressida frowned. “James doesn’t just punch people-”

“Are you seriously taking his fucking side in this?!”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side, I’m just saying-”

“Saying what?” He snapped. “That it  must  have been my fault because Potter’s the good one?”

“You’re putting words in my mouth,” she scowled.

“Or am I just saying what everyone’s fucking thinking?” He said harshly. “I was open to the pathetic idea they’d give us a chance. I did it for  your  sake and as usual, it was a fucking stupid decision. Val had tried to tell us you weren’t worth the effort.”

“It was a bad call, I get that now but next time-”

“Fuck no. There won’t be a next time! Face facts, Cressida, Potter and his golden friends are never going to accept us and we’re never going to get along with them. Stop trying to make us into something we’re not.”

“What is your big fucking deal with each other?” She snapped desperately. “You don’t go around punching people and breaking bones for the sake of your stupid dads not getting along!”

“You really are dense,” he laughed turning away. “It’s you, Cressida. Don’t you get that?”

“Why's this pathetic feud my fault now?”

“You wanna know what I said to make Potter lose his God-damn mind?” Thane challenged. Cressida gave an unsure nod. “All I’d said was you came to me because I understood you in a way he couldn’t because he’s got sunshine coming out his ass and people like us don’t… I said you’d come to me for advice and that I’d been the one to suggest you kiss someone to get it over with. He wasn’t too happy about that, clearly.”

Cressida ran her hands through her hair guiltily. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“Of course, you didn’t,” Thane agreed. “But, honestly, Knightly, what the fuck did you think was going to happen?”

“I just wanted them to see that you’re not so bad.”

“That’s because you know they see us just like everyone else does deep down,” he said. “I bet he secretly hates that you’re down here with us instead of up in that ivory tower with him.”

“He just doesn’t think about how he words things sometimes,” she tried defending him.

Thane shook his head, a bitter-sweet smile taking over his features. “He sees you being a Slytherin as a downfall when in reality it’s the only fucking choice. You’d be nothing if it wasn’t for how you are. Hell, you were going around with the title of Princess of Slytherin last year for fuck’s sake! Don’t go back on all that now just because you’ve got a pathetic crush on Potter.”

Cressida faltered slightly. “I’m not.”

“Oh yeah?” He asked taking a step closer. “Could’ve fooled me.”

Cressida glared up at the older boy. “Okay, so maybe I wish people saw us differently and we didn’t have a reputation but it’s not like me trying to fix that affects you in anyway-”

“No, it does actually,” Thane towered over her slightly. “Do you think I’d waste my time talking to just anyone? You think I’d even consider being in the same space as Potter for more than a second for anyone else? You think seeing you in this common room and every time since that night we met was an accident?”

She frowned. “You planned it?”

“We’re Slytherins, we plan everything.” 

She sighed irritably because she knew he was right. “Why did you do it?” She asked after a moment. “Why me?”

Thane stared down at her. “I paid attention. I’d seen you fighting. I’d seen your  brain … you felt different. You didn’t have a family or a name or a story. You were just you and then you started letting Potter and his family get in your head.”

She paused, replaying those words over in her head as Thane remained in front of her waiting for her to argue back. “What if they’re making me a better person?” She asked finally. “What if how I was before  was  bad?”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” he sighed dejectedly. “What made you think you weren’t already a good person?” 

Cressida tried to ignore the tiny jab to her heart at the thought someone had seen her as a good person all along when she knew she wasn’t. 

“Besides,” Thane said, starting to back away. “Being good only gets you used.”

She watched him disappear into the darkness of the common room, and then her eyes fell on Valentina lingering in the entrance to the boy’s dormitories as Thane passed her.

She was glaring in Cressida’s direction, the implication clear if she didn’t go back to her room immediately.

With a huff, Cressida gripped her wand in her hand and stormed back into her dorm room, watching over her shoulder as Valentina followed Thane to his room on the other side of the common room.

She stood in the middle of her dorm room, staring around the snoring beds. Then, she noticed Jac’s bed curtain was parted slightly and she was missing from under the covers. No doubt she'd snuck out to see Fred, especially considering she’d left Groot behind asleep in one of her old shoes on her nightstand.

She looked down at the wand in her hand. Still, nothing to offer McGonagall tomorrow morning.

On a whim, she aimed it out into the room. “ Revelio !”

Nothing changed.

She aimed it in a different direction. “ Revelio !” She whispered again.

Cressida watched the golden spell bounce off the chest of drawers, the floorboards, the ceiling and the bathroom door.

She turned towards her own bunk desperately. “ Revelio !” 

The golden light hit something and stuck this time. Cressida peered closer hopefully, unsure what she'd even hit unintentionally.

Crouching down in front of her own nightstand she saw the spell had hit the picture of her and her mother that she’d had since First Year.

She watched the empty space behind her mother shift and shimmer slightly, and then she watched as a figure started fading into place. 

Dark hair. Grey eyes.

Her dad. 

She fell to her knees, taking the picture frame into her hands to stare at it in shock. This whole time he’d been in the photo. This whole time the gap had been filled and hidden from her.

Not only that, it was a second picture proving his existence and a picture with  her  in it no less. Proof she  had  known him. Proof they had been all together once.

Peering closer, Cressida recognised something else in the photo. Her father was the one draping the jacket over Cressida’s tiny frame. Had the jacket belonged to him instead of her mum?

The jacket had always seemed too big for Alice as well as Cressida. It made more sense than it’d belonged to a man… had Alice kept that detail from her as well?

And if she had, then all this time-

All this time she’d had a part of him.

Alice had let her wear that jacket for years and never told her.

Tears pricked at her eyes as she stared at it.

At something she’d lost and something she’d given away without even knowing it.

There was a creak in the floorboards and Cressida turned her watery eyes to the door where Jac was sneaking back in, a wide smile spread across her face.

It fell when she saw Cressida. “What’s the matter?” Jac whispered, rushing over to her.

Cressida swallowed hard, showing Jac the photo with shaking hands.

Jac examined it for a moment, then looked back at Cressida. “You used McGonagall’s spell on it?”

Cressida nodded distantly.

Jac narrowed her brow, assessing the photo again. “But, Cress… who would've cast the concealment spell in the first place?”

Cressida’s wide eyes looked from Jac back down to the photo, her mind racing with thoughts.

Chapter 83: Fourth Year: It's Christmas Time (Part One)

Saturday 21st December 2018

 

Cressida hadn’t shown the newest photo of her dad to McGonagall. She doubted it’d win the competition and she didn’t want anyone else to see it anyway. She hadn’t even shown Molly and she swore Jac to secrecy.

All through Friday while people were saying premature goodbyes, celebrating and discussing how they were spending the upcoming holiday, Cressida felt like she was sleep-walking. The photo, after being folded up, never left her pocket. 

She’d taken it out of its frame to search the back for any clues or a hint of a message she’d missed- maybe something else had been revealed when she cast the charm, but there was nothing. Just a man where there wasn’t a man before.

Jac’s question still remained unanswered.

Who cast the concealment spell in the first place?

Did that mean that she and her mum had had experience with wizards once before and just… didn’t remember or realise?

Or had Cressida accidentally caused her father to disappear from the frame? After all, she’d magically started changing her hair back. She’d learned from her years at Hogwarts that witches and wizards can complete silent magic without meaning to, especially at a young age.

Had she made her dad disappear from the photo because she thought she’d never had one in the first place… because it had always been just her and her mum in her mind?

It felt like an impossible question to answer without the help of her mum.

And while all this was going through her mind ever since her discovery, Cressida had been having a silent debate with herself about whether bringing up the photo was more important than confronting her mum and Dayle about her birthday.

“Cressie,” Jac said softly, shaking Cressida’s shoulder.

Cressida jumped out of her thoughts where she’d been staring blankly for the last half an hour in the common room. “What?”

“It’s time to go,” Felix said, dragging his trunk along the floor.

Her eyes went to the room around her. The First Years had already been taken down by the looks of it. Thane lingered by the bookcases, his head stuck in a book. Goyle sat on his trunk beside him, absent-mindedly looking around the room.

Albus and Scorpius were near the fireplace seemingly saying goodbye to one another, based on the hushed voices and the quick hug Cressida caught them in the middle of.

“Right,” she said distantly. She turned her eyes to Molly. “Is my trunk-?”

“I finished packing it for you this morning while you were off wandering around,” she answered knowingly. “I even packed some extra jumpers in case you change your mind about coming to the Burrow.”

“I won’t,” Cressida said surely. She had far too much to sort out at home to even consider having fun at the Burrow. “Cheers for doing my trunk.”

Molly nodded back and the four of them grabbed their trunks to drag down to the Entrance Hall ready to leave.

As Cressida dragged her trunk behind her friends, she looked back over her shoulder and found Thane’s eyes following her out.

 

*

 

She thought she’d escaped saying goodbye to the trio of boys, but she should have known better as once they had sat down in an empty compartment, their faces appeared in the doorway.

“Room for three more?” Fred greeted them with a grin.

Despite not having Margo sitting with them on this particular train ride, fitting seven of them into one compartment would still be a bit of a squeeze, not that any of them other than Cressida seemed to mind.

The three boys shoved their trunks into the space and found just enough room to plonk themselves down. Luckily, Cressida had been nestled in the corner near the window with Rasper on her lap when they arrived and so was now shoved in between the wall and Molly.

Jac had had the grand idea of making more room by sitting on Fred’s lap which Felix mocked relentlessly as this took place.

This spurred a memory in Thomas’ oblivious mind as he turned to Felix and Molly. “What’s going on with you two now anyway? Last we heard you were together?”

Felix and Molly glanced at each other briefly. “We’re friends,” they said together.

“With benefits?” Fred teased.

“No,” Molly scoffed, annoyed. “Just friends. Believe it or not, two people of the opposite sex can manage it.”

“Good on you two, I say,” James said then, leaning back on his hands folded behind his head even though the room hardly allowed for it. “Sometimes it’s better that way. No need to complicate what’s already working, am I right?”

Cressida turned in James’ direction. If James felt her eyes on him, he was swiftly ignoring them.

“Uh- right,” Felix agreed, as though he was surprised James had said something so clairvoyant.

“Well, I say you two are stupid to give up so easily,” Fred said then. He had his arms wrapped around Jac’s waist as she sat on his lap. “It worked out pretty well for us.”

“Just wait until we pull into the station and Shari Redwick sees her only daughter on the lap of a random boy…  then  we’ll see how well it worked out for you two,” Felix countered.

Fred leaned forward to face Jac with a frown. “You still haven’t told your mum about me?”

Jac turned red in embarrassment. “It’s not something I can just write in a letter. I have to plead your case-”

“Plead my case?  But I’m a delight!” Fred said abashedly. “Ask anyone in a fifty-mile radius!”

“Just stay clear of his own mother and any of the teachers at Hogwarts,” Thomas jabbed with a smile. Fred swatted him over the head. 

The conversation for the remainder of the train ride had been along those lines and Cressida remained silent for the majority of it, not that any of them seemed to notice or felt the need to point it out. Perhaps they knew better by now than to talk to her when she was in one of these moods. Maybe they assumed it was because of what happened on her birthday.

Either way, the train rolled into the station and all her friends happily bustled about gathering their things together to get off the train and meet their families.

Molly and Felix had been the first off, offering their merriment over their shoulders as they departed. Thomas was next, saying he’d been meaning to ask his father if he’d gotten the latest broom so he was up to par with the Slytherin Quidditch team.

Jac and Fred took their time saying goodbye in the compartment in fear of Shari chasing Fred away from her daughter with her handbag. They shared a quick kiss and a hug and then they turned towards the remaining two. James was reaching up to get his trunk down from the overhead compartment and Cressida hadn’t even attempted to move yet. Her eyes looked out the window and scanned the crowd.

“You two coming?” Fred asked, his arm still draped around Jac until the last second.

“We’ll be there in a minute,” James said on behalf of both of them.

They nodded and turned away. Cressida faintly heard Fred bargaining with Jac to tell her mum about the two of them over the break.

She tore her eyes away from the window and opened her hobo bag for Rasper to crawl inside ready to get off just as James got his trunk in his hands. He lingered in the middle of the compartment for a moment, watching Cressida gather her own stuff up.

“You’ve been quiet,” he said suddenly now they were alone. 

Cressida turned to him as she got to his feet. “Just got some stuff on my mind,” she said dismissively, trying to walk around him.

James held out a hand and stopped her, meeting her eyes. “You sure you don’t want to come back with us?” He offered. “It’s Christmas, you should-”

“Should what?” She asked haughtily. “Be around family? Because if you haven’t noticed, that’s what I’m trying to do.”

He sighed, clearly searching for the right words before he said them out loud. “I know your mum let you down. I’m just offering you an alternative to dealing with that for a couple more days.”

Cressida chewed the inside of her cheek, averting her eyes. “I can handle seeing my own mother, Potter. I’m not a child anymore. I don’t need you to protect me from my hard home life.”

James stared down at her, silently debating saying anything further. After a moment, he removed his arm, giving her a way out. “Have a nice Christmas, Knightly.”

Cressida nodded, keeping her eyes down. “Say hi to your family for me.”

She stepped off the train and onto the platform. 

After ten minutes it appeared as though her mother was nowhere to be seen. Starting to worry, Cressida chanced running through the barrier on her own. On the other side, she saw Alice slumped near a pillar, her eyes dazed over. She had mismatched shoes on.

Cressida heaved her trunk up and hurried over to her. “Mum? Why didn’t you come through to get me?”

“Couldn’t remember how,” she answered distantly. 

Cressida narrowed her eyes concerned. “Did you drive here with Dayle?”

Alice blinked slowly. “No.”

That was all she said before she turned and started leaving the platform. Cressida looked down at Rasper poking his head out of the bag and then she followed behind her mum.

 

 

Monday 24th December 2018

 

It had taken a full twenty-four hours of being back in Conwell before Alice spoke to Cressida about anything meaningful.

The entire way home from London and in the flat, all Alice did was sit and stare blankly in front of her. Cressida had tried everything. She’d tried being gentle, she’d tried shouting, she’d tried storming out. She’d asked what was wrong. She’d asked if anything had happened. She’d even brought up not getting a letter on her birthday out of spite.

Nothing seemed to shake Alice out of her mood.

Eventually, once Cressida had gone to bed in a fit of rage and confusion, it had dawned on her.

Nearing two in the morning, she crept back out to the living room.

Her mother sat with her knees pulled up to her chest on the sofa, staring at a black TV screen as a cigarette burnt down to the filter in her hand. An overflowing ashtray lay balanced on the arm of the sofa. A half-drunken bottle of gin was on the floor beside her. The window was open letting a cold draft into the tiny flat, not that Alice seemed to notice or care.

“Mum,” Cressida said weakly. “Where’s Dayle?”

Alive gave a small sniff, snuffing out what remained of the cigarette into the tray. “They nicked him,” she answered simply.

Cressida felt like someone had punched her through the gut. “What?”

She lit up a fresh cigarette, not even bothering to look in Cressida’s direction. “Turns out he was dealing. Someone stitched him up. He got taken away not long after you left… dunno where. Haven’t been able to get anyone to talk to me tidy about it.”

Cressida crossed the room to sit opposite her mother on the couch. “When’s he coming back?”

Alice rolled her eyes, her hand going limp with the lit cigarette. “I don’t know, Cress. If I did, do you think I’d look like this?”

Cressida eyed up the bottle of gin. Her mother’s tone wasn’t to do with her, it was the alcohol making her snappy, but her eyes had started to well up with tears regardless.

“So no Christmas?” She asked childishly, fighting back a sob.

“No,” Alice said, puffing on her cigarette. “No sodding Christmas. No nothin'.”

Cressida took a deep breath, still trying to stop the floodgates from opening completely. She looked at her mum. “That’s fine… I didn’t really want a big Christmas anyway.”

Alice stared straight ahead still. “He left something for you though,” she remembered after a moment. She blew out the smoke. “He got it before it all happened. It was going to be a surprise when you came home.”

“Where?” Cressida managed to get out.

Alice’s head gestured in the vague direction of the kitchen.

Cressida got to her feet and went to where Alice had indicated. On the kitchen table lay a book on vintage car mechanics, stained with oil and grease giving away it had been well used beforehand. Beside them, was a shoebox and when she opened it there was the pair of vans trainers she had been saving up for since the summer. The tears running down her cheeks fell to the floor silently.

Rasper rubbed his head against her ankles in an attempt to give her some comfort. Cressida glanced down at the cat, biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from making a sound.

She looked back out to her mum in the living room. She’d seen her mum go through breakups and abuse before but she hadn’t seen her quite like this. She didn’t think she’d ever seen her mum heartbroken and it was almost worse this way. She’d cared for Dayle,  Cressida  had cared…. and now he was just gone.

Another one bit the dust.

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and shoved her own emotions down for her mother’s sake. She ventured back out into the living room, retaking her seat on the sofa. Alice still didn’t turn towards her. “Is there anything I can do?”

Alice didn’t answer.

“Mum,” Cressida said, reaching out a hand towards her. “What do you need me to do?”

Alice met her daughter’s eyes, a wince giving away she was close to tears herself. “Stay,” she said with a quivering lip. “I can’t-”

That had done it. Alice broke down completely in a fit of sobs and curses and Cressida lunged forward to catch her mother’s crumbling body. She wrapped her arms around her mum as she cried in Cressida’s lap.

“It’ll be okay,” Cressida told her, soothing her mother’s greying hair. She choked back her own tears, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the nothingness in front of her.

‘Don’t be selfish,’  she kept telling herself.  ‘This isn’t about you.’

“Everything’s going to be okay,” she said again, wishing desperately she could go back to the train and take James up on his offer. In fact, she wished he was here now. He always made everything seem alright.

God  how she wished he was here.

“Do yourself a favour, Cress,” her mother started through blubbering sobs. “If a boy ever tries to tell you he loves you, run the other fucking way. Don’t let yourself get hurt.”

Cressida squeezed her eyes shut tight, the image of James in her mind shattering into tiny pieces instantaneously with her mother’s words of warning. Her jaw clenched so hard she thought her teeth might snap in half. “Okay, mum. I’ll do just that.”

 

Wednesday 2nd January 2019

 

All she had done since that night with her mum was listen to the Cd Jac had given her for her birthday, take care of the flat, take care of Rasper, and take care of her mum. It was all she  could  do.

She’d had Christmas cards and letters from her friends. She couldn’t bare to open them. She couldn’t bare to do most things apart from getting through the days until it was time to return to Hogwarts, and even that threatened to send her emotions spiralling down again with worry about what state she was leaving her mum in.

She kept the newest photo of her dad hidden under her pillow along with the first one. She got them out and stared at them occasionally when she couldn’t sleep, which had been every night since coming home.

She found herself thinking of Dayle more than anything though. How he had been the closest thing she’d had to a dad. How the man in the photo didn’t even come close to Dayle in her mind.

She also wondered about Dayle’s real daughter. Whether she knew he’d been arrested. Whether she knew he was in prison somewhere Cressida apparently couldn’t go. Whether she cared like Cressida did.

Cressida also thought about what would have happened if she’d stayed home instead of going to Hogwarts. Whether Dayle would have been caught if it was  her  still doing the deals. She would have only been charged as a minor and on a first offence. Dayle would still likely be home with them if she’d been there to do it. Her mother wouldn’t be in a state. 

It was ridiculous, she knew, but it’s what she thought about.

Cressida brought her legs up to her chest and hugged them, staring out at the water-stained concrete walls of the flat block. She’d snuck out of her room near midnight to sit somewhere new and the stairs just outside her front door was as far as she got before giving up.

It was too cold to go out exploring anyway, and there was no snow to enjoy. Just darkness.

She heaved a sigh and even inside the stairwell her breath turned to steam in front of her. No wonder Rasper had defiantly turned around once he saw her opening the door to step out into the cold. He was probably comfortably nestled his in nest of blankets under her bed right about now.

Cressida pulled the sleeves of her knitted jumper down over her shaking hands. She’d hardly removed that thing since being home as well. It was one of the only things that gave her some sort of warmth or comfort in the last few days.

She couldn’t open her friend's letters, but she could sit in the jumper they’d made her specially only last Christmas. She’d been thinking about that Christmas a lot too recently.

It was what she had been thinking about tonight when she snuck off.

Being in the bare flat and thinking about the Burrow’s grandiose Christmas was too depressing. Cressida had debated scrounging enough together to go out and get a tree with some decorations but what would be the point?

She heard the clunky front door of the flat block clicking open and shut below her. She listened silently as stumbled footsteps were making their way up the stairwell.

“Ah shit,” a surprised boy said when he nearly stepped onto Cressida sat in his path. She recognised him briefly from the summer. Kirby or something stupid. It was still odd to not imagine Callie Powell and her foul brothers coming out of the flat opposite hers anymore. “Didn’t expect anyone to be here…” he said with a slight slur. He scratched his badly shaved head inquisitively, staring down at her. “What you doin’ sat out here?”

“Thinking,” Cressida answered bluntly.

She tried to remember his name in the pits of her memory.  Kyle?

He jutted out his chin towards her. “Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?”

Cressida didn’t answer. Kory?

“Yeah, I remember now. I saw you in the summer.” He sat down on the step beside her uninvited. Cressida turned her eyes to him. She could smell the beer on his breath now he was closer.

Kirk-  That was his name. 

“I asked around about you, you know,” he continued. 

That piqued her interest slightly. “Why?”

“Mysterious girl who left five seconds after I met you… left a bit of an impression.”

Cressida got to her feet with a roll of her eyes. “Yeah, well, I ain’t interested in making impressions-”

“They said you’re born and bred here,” he said, following behind her as she made her way down the staircase. “One of the good ones , whatever that means to these people.”

“I don’t care what the others have to say about me,” she said, still ploughing forward. “It’s not like they really know me anyway.”

Kirk kept up with her as she pushed open the door and stepped out into the icy cold of the night. “Let me know you then,” he said with a cheeky grin. “Then I can judge you for myself.”

Cressida glared at him. “Why is it whenever I say go away to you people, you never listen?” 

He quirked an eyebrow leaning down to her, clearly a lot more confident a lot quicker than the previous boys she’d known- or maybe that was just the drink. “Jeez, how many guys you got sniffing around you?”

“Go away before I hurt you,” she threatened.

“See, it’s the mean-girl attitude that gets us. Us boys love a challenge,” he joked.

Cressida heaved a sigh and turned out towards the road again, hoping he would get the hint soon enough

Annoyingly, he lingered nearby, rolling a cigarette under the shelter of the doorway. “Want one?” He offered when he saw her eyeing it up.

“I don’t smoke,” she said, turning away again. She debated walking away completely but where would she go? Plus, it was much worse being outside in the cold rather than in the stairwell. She was sure her teeth were going to start chattering.

Kirk glanced her up and down as he lit the cigarette with a lighter. It had never occurred to her how naturally it seemed to watch a cigarette be lit with a wand instead now until this moment. “What’s with the ugly jumper?” He asked, exhaling.

Cressida hugged herself even tighter, her eyes staring at the ‘ No Balls’  sign standing opposite her like a beacon. “It’s homemade.”

“Like from a family member?” He asked curiously.

“Yeah,” she answered, feeling more love for the jumper than ever. “Like from family.”

Kirk shrugged, feeling no need to press the conversation. Cressida felt the pit she’d had in her stomach since coming home get that tiny bit bigger. Her longing for a normal family and the reality of what she had settled a little deeper into her bones.

Cressida looked back at him. “Actually,” she said. “I will take one of those.”

Kirk lit one up and passed it to her.

She took a deep breath as she held it between her fingers.

Already it smelt foul but she’d gotten used to the smell after so many years of being surrounded by it. She also noticed that the cigarettes Thane smoked at Hogwarts never had this smell, though she wasn’t sure why. Surely, all cigarettes were supposed to smell bad.

They should  smell bad, she rationalized. They’re very bad for you. Cressida was aware of that fact too, but at this moment she didn’t much care for facts.

With Kirk’s eyes on her, she put the cigarette between her lips and inhaled.

She only lasted a second before spluttering and coughing out the smoke.

They tasted worse than they smelt.

“It takes some getting used to, should’ve warned you,” Kirk said, amused by her innocent reaction.

Cressida stomped out the cigarette on the icy gravel, swearing to never try that experiment again.

“Those are disgusting,” she said, wiping her mouth hoping to get rid of the flavour.

 “Why the fuck do people smoke them so much?”

Kirk shrugged, finishing off his own. “Takes the edge off. Better to smoke these than do pills though.”

At the mention of drugs, Cressida’s back went up slightly. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” 

“Do you?” He countered.

“Yes, actually,” she said, folding her arms over her chest.

“Alrigh’ then,” Kirk smiled. “It can be dangerous around these parts at night, so I hear. It'd be rude of me not to escort you wherever you're going.”

"I think I can manage."

"You?" He laughed. "I've seen rats in the bypass bigger than you."

Cressida bit the inside of her cheek and stepped out onto the abandoned road, accepting her fate. Kirk shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket and happily swaggered behind her.

They walked in silence, with the odd sniff or shiver from the two of them at the cold. Although, she wasn’t sure why Kirk was shivering. He had on a hoodie and a body warmer. Both Adidas as any good chav should have. She only had her jumper and a tank top underneath. A stupid decision really. A  really  stupid one.

On their aimless walk, they passed a twenty-four-hour garage and Kirk popped in and came back out with a four-pack of beer in both hands. 

“Thought this would keep us a bit warmer,” Kirk had reasoned, passing her one from the pack. “Plus, you look like you could use some cheering up.”

Cressida rolled her eyes but took one regardless as they continued on, and another one after that, and before she knew it she’d had the whole four-pack to herself. She wasn’t even sure why she’d drunk all four. She’d always hated the flavour of beer, especially cheap beer from some random shop, but she was glad when the familiar numbness and comfort that came with drinking alcohol took over her shivering body.

Eventually, once Cressida’s new shoes were sufficiently covered in mud and dirt, they doubled back on themselves and broke onto the main street of town and glanced around at all the closed shops lining the road. As they walked, Kirk took to kicking an empty can up the pavement, having run out of beer to occupy him as well. Cressida’s eyes fell on the café that would be opening up in the next four hours to do the morning rush of labourers and junkies looking for a hot meal.

Beside the café stood the pawn shop.

She meandered closer.

Then she stopped dead.

In the window, on a badly put-together mannequin, hung her jacket. She noticed the price hanging from the sleeve. £20.

Her eyes honed in on it as Kirk came up beside her again.

“Why’re staring into his old dump? There’s never anything worth havin’ in it,” he said dismissively.

Cressida pulled the sleeves down around her hands again. “That’s my dad’s jacket… I swapped it for something important in the summer.”

“Ah,” Kirk said, itching his neck thoughtfully. “Was your dad pissed about it?”

“He’s not around to be pissed about it,” she answered thoughtlessly.

Kirk glanced between Cressida and the window. “Bit old and dingey for a jacket though, inn-it?”

“It did the job,” she told him. “Used to be the best thing I owned.”

Kirk went silent for a moment, his eyes scanning the empty street. Then he moved away silently. 

Cressida remained where she was, unconcerned with whatever Kirk was doing. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the jacket in the window, and then they were fixed on the glass smashing as a rock went through it.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” She yelled, jumping back to avoid being cut.

Kirk stepped over the glass and into the window display with a shrug. “Getting you the jacket.” He jumped back down in front of her, extending it out to her. “You’re welcome.”

Cressida felt panic rising in her, checking the street for any cameras that could place her at the scene. At anything that could get her into trouble.

She wished desperately that she hadn’t had four beers in her system at that moment.

“I could’ve bought it back in the morning! I would've found twenty quid somehow!” She yelled at him.

“Shopkeeper died in November, shop’s not been open since,” he said, dusting the shards off class from his hood. “You couldn’t have bought it back even if you wanted to.”

Cressida took the jacket from him and pulled it over her shoulders with a glare. She still wasn’t thrilled about how she’d gotten it back but it did feel good to be wearing it again, especially now she knew who it had once belonged to before her.

More ammunition to show to her mum when she’d worked up enough courage to ask about the photos and finally get some answers.

Sirens were suddenly blaring in the background bringing Cressida quickly out of her thoughts.

“Shit,” Kirk cursed, looking towards the sound. “Guess he didn’t turn off the silent alarm before he kicked the bucket.”

Cressida clenched her jaw. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she cursed. “This way. I know a shortcut that cars can’t follow,” she said pushing him in the right direction quickly and forcing herself to not tie him to the scene of the crime as punishment for pulling this stunt in the first place. She probably would have if she’d had enough time.

Chapter 84: Fourth Year: There’s No Need To Be Afraid (part 2)

Notes:

Once again I’ve underestimated how long this year would be once I split it into chapters to upload so sorry about how long fourth year seems to be taking. To remedy this, the chapters for the rest of the year might be longer in comparison to the others to try and lessen the amount. Hope you’re all still enjoying:)

Friday 4th January 2019

 

Cressida had refrained from leaving the flat again since the incident with Kirk. She didn’t much fancy risking being tied to the new hole in the window of the pawn shop in town, and she knew somehow it would likely get back to her if she went snooping about out there. For all she knew, Kirk would give her up anyway. She hardly doubted he’d be the chivalrous type to go down on his own.

Regardless of the fact she’d committed a crime to get her jacket back, she didn’t take it off since getting it back, wearing it over the top of her over-sized knitted jumper. That, paired with her new shoes from Dayle, didn’t make up the most fashionable outfit by normal standards, but she liked it nonetheless. It was comfy and cozy and reminded her of the few people she cared about. Plus, she liked to think it suited her in a weird mis-matched kind of way.

If her mother noticed the jacket was mysteriously back in Cressida’s possession she didn’t say anything. Cressida doubted she’d even noticed it was missing in the first place.

That brought Cressida back around to the main issue of the holidays. She was returning to Hogwarts tomorrow and she was quickly running out of time if she was going to confront her mum about everything she’d discovered.

She had been waiting- hoping- for a good time to slip it into conversation. Make it seem less like a confrontation and more like a random inquiry. She knew now that moment wasn’t going to come by chance. 

Cressida had to bite the bullet and just get it over with. Either Alice would answer the questions she had or she wouldn’t.

Still, she didn’t move from her bed any time soon. She had the two photos of her dad on the blanket in front of her. Cressida had been listening to the  ‘After Laughter’  album that morning, hoping to cheer herself up a small bit before venturing out into the living room. So far, the album wasn’t having its usual joyful effect on her as it normally did.

Rasper lay at the foot of her bed, swatting his tale as if debating whether to try and eat the pictures in front of them.

‘Tell Me How’   the last song on the album had just finished playing and Cressida remained silently staring at the photos. At the possibility they held.

She reached over and pressed the button to make the album play from the beginning again.

As her hand lingered near the stereo, she noticed the piled-up stack of unopened letters from her friends that had arrived over Christmas. She saw James’ messy, bunched-up handwriting on the top letter staring at her as if it was taunting her.

With a clenched jaw, she picked up the letter and ripped it open.

 

‘Cressida,

             I wish you would write back, we’re starting to get worried. Freddie even asked Jac and she said she’s barely heard from you either.

            If you want the offer still stands. We can come and get you as soon as you write back, no questions asked. We’ve had to convince Teddy against just randomly showing up to get you a few times already since being home. He reckons you should have been here for Christmas. Or at least New Year's Eve. 

            I knew something was up with you on the train but no one seems to know what… I’m- We’re just worried about you. You don’t have to handle everything alone all the time.

            Please just let us know if you’re okay.

            

            James’

 

The sentence ‘We’re just worried about you,’ had originally said ‘I’m’ and been hastily scribbled out, but not enough for Cressida not to be able to see it.

She reread the letter with a deep breath. No hint of a joke in any of it. He must really mean it. She felt bad about not writing back sooner now but what would she even say? She couldn’t just blurt out everything in a letter and expect him to keep it to himself. She wasn’t even sure if this was something she wanted to share with James or the others. It was too personal.

The cheerful beats of  ‘Rose-Coloured Boy’  started up and, with a tightening knot in her chest, Cressida discarded the letter back onto the pile and turned off the music.

She took the photos into her hands, and with a resolute look towards Rasper, got to her feet.

Rasper quickly followed suit, understanding the assignment.

They walked into the living room to find Alice where she had been practically every day since Cressida had been home. On the sofa with a gin bottle and an ashtray, staring blankly into space.

Cressida fiddled with the loose button on her jacket, remembering her birthday gift from James. She quickly forced her mind back to the main issue at hand. She heaved a sigh and gained enough courage to cross the living room to stand in front of her mum.

Alice didn’t acknowledge Cressida’s presence with more than a brief glance.

“Mum,” Cressida started, struggling to find the confidence or the words. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you about.”

Alice stubbed out the cigarette. “What is it?”

Cressida reached into her jacket pocket and produced the two photos of her dad. She put them on the table in front of the sofa.

Alice shot upright, spilling her bottle of gin over onto the carpet, not that she seemed to care. Cressida had to pick it up to stop the stain from getting bigger. Alice’s eyes were fixed on the two photos, her face slack. She blinked silently a few times and moved her mouth as if to speak but the words died in her throat before she got them out. 

Cressida couldn’t tell if this was another one of her trances or the fault of the gin now soaking into the carpet. She suspected it was a combination of both in this instance.

 “Mum,” Cressida tried, sitting on the sofa beside her. Rasper jumped into her lap for moral support. “I need to know.”

Alice’s eyes, now dazed over with confusion and devoid of any other emotion, didn’t move from the photos. Her fingers reached out and brushed against the edges of the picture she had dropped in the kitchen. “You took this from me… didn’t you?” She asked, barely audible.

Cressida licked her bottom lip nervously. “I had to-”

“I knew I was missing something. I remember trying to find something while you were gone only I could never figure out what,” she went on as though Cressida hadn’t even spoken. She moved her fingertips to the second picture. “But this one… I remember… he wasn’t supposed to be there…” Her eyebrows knit together as she lifted her gaze to Cressida. “How did you find him?”

“Magic,” Cressida replied slowly, cautious that saying the wrong thing could cause her mother to clam up completely and she’d never get any answers. “A spell revealed it.”

“Oh,” Alice said again, looking back at the picture. “I’m not sure how that happened… how he was just- just gone. I knew he was missing, I just couldn’t- I can’t-”

“Mum,” Cressida interrupted Alice’s disjointed thoughts. “Can you tell me about him?”

Alice’s fingertips brushed the image of her father’s face and then she shook her head. “No.”

“Please,” Cressida begged. “I deserve to know-”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Alice said firmly, bringing what was left of the bottle of gin up to her lips. “He doesn’t exist.”

“What do you mean  doesn’t exist?!”  Cressida asked, feeling frustration licking at the back of her throat. She took the bottle from her mum. “He did exist. This is proof he exits.  I’m  proof!”

Alice’s brown eyes turned to Cressida. There were tears in them now, her hand still grasping a bottle that wasn’t there anymore. “I can’t explain it. It hurts and it goes all fuzzy. He doesn’t exist, Cressida. I’m not lying to you… this is all there is,” she said gesturing to the photos. “This is the only way to…to-” she stopped herself, staring at the images again.

A single tear fell onto the old paper.

“Just tell me a name,” Cressida said, reaching out and putting her hand over Alice’s on top of the photo. “Tell me anything .”

Alice blinked slowly, her eyes lifting to stare at nothing. “It hurts-”

“Just try,” Cressida pressed.

“No,” Alice wept, shaking her head. “No, I can’t. It’s not there-”

“Try!” Cressida snapped, shaking her mum slightly. 

Alice stopped, her eyes staring out at the nothingness beyond Cressida’s shoulder.

“Cas,” she said after a moment as if it hurt her to physically get the word out. “His full name was so stupid, some old-fashioned name everyone made fun of…” Her eyes snapped to Cressida, a brief flicker of clarity breaking through her foggy brain. “Castillo. His name was Castillo.” Alice’s lip began to quiver as her memories broke down again. “He was like you.”

“Like me?” Cressida questioned.

“Magical,” Alice muttered, staring as though seeing right through Cressida sat in front of her. “Magical and stubborn and… and gone.”

“Gone where?!” Cressida asked impatiently. Alice didn’t answer. She didn’t even react. Cressida shook her mother’s hand desperately. “Where did he go, mum?!”

Alice slipped her hand out from under Cressida’s. Her eyes unblinking. “Just gone. Somewhere I can’t go.”

Alice returned to lying back down on the sofa like a child with a whimper. Cressida let her mum slip through her grasp, her own eyes now staring at nothingness as she processed what her mum had said.

 

Saturday 5th January 2019

Cressida had run from the flat and she hadn’t returned all night. 

She’d got up from the sofa and just kept walking. She walked and walked and walked until her legs buckled underneath her. 

She passed the Quarry and the garage and trekked through the forest and back over and over again, circling the perimeter of her pathetic excuse of a village until the early hours of the morning broke.

‘I’m not a muggle-born,’  was her only coherent thought.

This whole time Alice had known deep down in her minefield of a mind.

She had gotten it from her father. She was like this because of her father.

‘He was magic, just like me,’  Cressida thought.

She’d eventually broke down and fell to her knees in the tunnel under the overpass. Screaming her lungs out and crying and kicking anything she could within a twenty-foot radius. She didn’t know why she was so angry but she was and it wasn’t going away.

She was glad she finally knew an ounce of the truth, but she was also aware this wasn’t it.

There was still more to come. There had  to be.

But she also knew she was out of time. It’d probably be months before she got any more information out of her mum like this. It had taken fifteen years to just get a name.

She still didn’t even know if he was alive or not.

Luckily, after what felt like hours, the tears had all dried up or just simply ran out. She sat in the filth of the tunnel, shivering in the cold winter morning.

The sun was rising.

She was returning to Hogwarts in less than a few hours.

Pushing her knotted hair out of her face, she got to her feet and started walking again despite the fact her legs were still aching.

If she was lucky, she’d time it just right so she’d be too preoccupied packing her trunk to go back to talk to her mother for more than a few seconds. She’d deal with the journey back to London when she got to it.

She meandered back through the woods and took the long way through the main strip of town before going back to the flat.

The cafe and the bakery and the shops were all starting to open as Cressida walked past.

And just ahead of her on the street, outside of the pawn shop, was the old shopkeeper, standing with a broom sweeping up the shards of glass still littering the front of his shop.

Cressida’s eyes grew wide as she quickly hid around the corner watching him and cursing Kirk out for ever getting involved in the first place and then lying to her.

She’d  stolen  her jacket back. Not from an abandoned shop, but from a man that was still very much alive.

Feeling guilt in her stomach, she dug around in her pockets and pulled out two ten-pound notes left over from when she’d done a small food shop for her mum a few days ago.

Thinking quickly, she took off the jacket and stored it safely behind the bins in the alleyway, and then she stepped out onto the pavement leading towards the shop.

She waited, pretending to take interest in the pastries in the cafe window just far enough away from the shop for the man not to recognise her, and then, once he’d slipped inside for more supplies, she rushed past the window, dropping the money onto the floor and kicked a rock on top to stop it from blowing away in the wind.

Hopefully, that would be enough to repay her debt. She couldn’t possibly pay him back for the window. 

With the need to get as far away from this part of town as possible, Cressida retrieved her jacket hurried back to her flat.

She walked in to find her mother hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet, and feeling no need to face her before she had to leave, she went straight into her bedroom and started packing.

 

*

Forty minutes later, Cressida was pulling her trunk out into the living room. This time Alice was lead on the sofa, her expression still dazed and her pyjamas still on.

Cressida opened her hobo bag for Rasper to climb into.         

“Aren’t you going to get dressed?” Cressida asked, her back to her mother. “We have to leave to get to London in five minutes.”     

“A taxi’s going to take you,” Alice’s voice came.      

Cressida spun around, her eyes narrowing. “What?” Alice didn’t make a sound. Cressida took a step closer. “You’re not even going to bother taking me back yourself now?”         

Alice’s eyes briefly glanced up towards her, and then, without saying anything else, she turned around and pulled her blanket up over her head.       

 Cressida glared at her mother, her jaw clenching as she fought back tears once again. She knew she was mad at her mum, or maybe she wasn’t, she could hardly figure out what she was feeling at this particular moment, but either way, she wanted her mum to say a proper goodbye to her as she got on the train. She wouldn't be home for another six months.

Surely, that should have provoked some reaction from her mother.          

There was a car horn outside and Cressida’s eyes snapped towards it.

“I assume that’s for me?” She asked snippily. Alice, once again, didn’t react.

Cressida sniffed, grabbing her trunk and rapidly turning towards the door. “Great, well, see you in the summer, mum. Can’t wait to see if you’ve moved from your pit of despair by then.”

She stormed out of the flat and slammed the door behind her.

Rasper poked his head out of the top of the hobo bag at the sound of Cressida crying into her hands.

After a few seconds of her forcing herself to get a grip, Cressida composed herself just enough to head down to the waiting taxi. It was time to go back to Hogwarts.         

 

Sunday 20th January 2019

 

Cressida had barely spoken to any of her friends since returning, not that they hadn’t tried to get her to talk. Jac and Molly did it more subtly than the trio of boys. They tried to sneak in questions and get responses to their theories over homework or at the dining table.

“Everything go alright with your mum?” Jac had asked the first day back in Hogwarts.

“We really missed you at the Burrow. How was your Christmas?” Molly had asked a week in when Cressida had produced no answers to what happened over the break or a reason as to why she was barely speaking.

Fred and Thomas had taken to their usual tactic of cornering her in lessons, not that it had ever worked for them in the past.

Cressida had also realised upon coming back that Valentina was no longer even close to being an ally since her dispute with Thane and she was going to make it abundantly clear Cressida wouldn’t be getting away with anything for the foreseeable future.
         
After only being back a week Valentina had cornered her. Cressida hadn’t fancied being in her secret room where the others would try and force answers out of her so she’d wandered the halls and traipsed back into the common room a second before curfew was about to hit. Regardless, Valentina was there with a metaphorical stopwatch.

The dark-skinned girl eyed her up as Cressida stood there.         

“Those shoes are not uniform compliant,” Valentina told her.         

Cressida looked down at her vans from Dayle on her feet as they had been ever since she’d received them. “It’s after school hours-”     

“I saw you wearing them with your uniform this morning,” Valentina interrupted. Cressida knew she couldn’t argue. She had been wearing them to lessons but she didn’t expect anyone to actually ban her from wearing them.     

She bit the inside of her cheek as she looked back up at Valentina. “No one else has had a problem with them yet.”        

“Well, I have a problem with them now,” Valentina said stubbornly. “Take them off.”      

Cressida scoffed. “I’m not taking them off.”          

“Then you lose us five house points.l      

“That’s fucking stupid-”

“That’s life,” Valentina shrugged smugly. “I don’t want to see them on you with your uniform again or I’ll tell Slughorn.”

Cressida glared at the older girl. “Is this about Nott? Did I hurt his feelings before Christmas and now I have to deal with your shit?”

“This isn’t about Thane, this is about you thinking you can just do what you want around here all the time,” Valentina corrected her haughtily. “But just for the record, the only reason I gave you a chance in the first place was because of Thane.”

“I don’t see you giving up the newspaper position I got you though,” Cressida countered.

Valentina’s eyes flashed darkly. She opened her mouth to retort when Thane appeared in the archway to the boy’s dorms. He and Valentina shared a silent look of acknowledgement.

Valentina turned her glare back to Cressida in front of her. “Don’t let me catch you sneaking in this close to curfew again,” she said as she turned around.

Cressida watched as Valentina sauntered towards the archway where Thane was waiting for her and then the two of them disappeared into the darkness together with Thane’s arm around Valentina’s shoulders.

Even Arabella had noticed her rather sour expression since returning and found great joy in pointing it out in Defence Against the Dark Arts. 

“Let me guess, you didn’t get the new robes you desperately need from Santa this year?” She mocked quietly during class. “Or maybe your two boy toys wised up and both dumped you before the holidays… how sad.”

“I was never dating either of them and you know it,” Cressida had grumbled in reply, having no energy within her to argue or come up with a smart comeback.

“So you managed to fumble it with both of them?” Arabella continued, hoping to get a rise out of her still. “Or did they just come to their senses and realise they can do better than an arrogant muggle-born?”

Cressida had bit back a remark about her not being a muggle-born. She realised giving out that information to the likes of Arabella was a spell for disaster, especially when her own friends didn’t even know the truth.

Luckily for her, the lesson had ended at that point and Cressida could quickly gather her things and make a get-away before doing something she regretted, but even as she left, she could feel Arabella’s eyes following her out.

Felix, much to Cressida’s gratitude, told them all to leave her alone until she was ready to talk, but even he, in the late hours of the night while he was camped out on their rug, couldn’t resist asking why she came back from the break so ‘odd’.

At every question they threw at her, or at any speculation they brought up for Cressida’s behaviour, she simply remarked that she was ‘fine’ - and she was  fine .

She was coping, and if she was coping she was fine. That was the general rule growing up.

Besides, she had learned more about her father. She had a name. That in itself was rather huge.

She now knew she also had a reason for the magic. It had occurred to her on the second week back after Christmas that she was only in Hogwarts because of her estranged father. Without him passing the magic gene down to her, she wouldn’t have the life she had now. At least she had one thing to thank him for if she ever had the chance to meet him.

James’ approach to getting Cressida to talk was more invasive than previous years as he knew full well he could just sneak into her room and bombard her that way. He’d tried this every day the first week back, but Cressida couldn’t bring herself to tell him. She couldn’t bring herself to tell any of them what had happened over Christmas.

By the second week, Cressida had thrown James off by sleeping in the hexagonal room instead, but even still, he managed to find her after a couple of days.

She’d been using her birthday gift from him to sew up her jacket and keep Rasper from getting tangled up in the magical thread when he’d appeared in the room, his face a mixture of relief, tiredness and annoyance.

“Do you know how hard it is to find you sometimes?” He’d asked, storming up the spiral staircase and plonking down in the pillows in front of her.

Cressida didn’t look up from her sewing. “There’s a reason for that.”

James threw a pillow at her head. She glared at him as the object fell into her lap, interrupting her task.

His determination to get answers was as unwavering as it normally was. “You’re quiet. That’s never a good sign.”

“I’m perfectly fine, James,” she sighed. Rasper had finally got a hold of the thread while Cressida was distracted.

“Was your Christmas shit?” He badgered her. “Jac told Fred that you won’t talk about it, so they think something must have happened. And you never wrote me back, so I  know  something happened-”

“James,” she warned him.

“Did you ever figure out why they didn’t send anything on your birthday?” He went on regardless. “Did you ask why they never answered your letters?”

There was a small sniff and James’ mouth clamped shut as he realised there were tears in Cressida’s eyes. Cressida had refused to think about Dayle since being back in Hogwarts for the most part. She’d kept up a strong hold over her emotions about the whole affair while in Conwell, it would be easier to do that in Hogwarts while she was away from it all. It wasn’t a Hogwarts problem, after all. That had always been her mentality.

She wouldn’t let herself cry about it here. There was no sense in it. It was made easier by the fact none of the others had brought him up since coming back, but James asking just the right questions to punch her in the gut made her façade of fineness slip.

“Knightly?” He asked when he realised maybe he’d pushed too far. Even Rasper had stopped in his playing to turn towards his owner with wide eyes.

Cressida kept her eyes firmly on the needle and thread in her trembling hands, producing no answer.

James shuffled closer to her along the floor, his brows knit together in concern. “Cressida?”

A tear slid down her cheek as she took a shaky breath in. She chanced looking him in the eyes and that was all it took. “It was so shit-”

That had done it. Cressida broke down completely in a fit of childish sobs similar to how her mother had. James rushed forwards on his knees and pulled her in for a hug and held her as she cried and shook and bordered on throwing a tantrum in his arms.

Cressida latched on to him, relieved to be the one being held for once.

James moved her hair out of her face to stop the strands from sticking to the tears. “It’ll be alright, Knightly.”

“You can’t tell the others,” Cressida begged lifting her face to look at him in between sobs. “I don’t want them to know. I don’t want to answer any questions-”

“Okay,” James agreed instantly, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “No more questions. Our secret, yeah? Just like before… No one else has to know.”

Cressida nodded and placed her head back on James’ chest, not ready to not be held yet. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had held her as she cried… she couldn’t remember the last time someone held her in general.

 

Saturday 26th January 2019

 

As James had promised there had been no more questions or concerned glances sent in Cressida’s direction. Thankfully for Cressida, ever since her breakdown to James in the hexagonal room, she felt a bit more like herself. Maybe all she needed was a good cry to get it out of her system… maybe bottling it up like she normally did wasn’t always going to work, but she still hated the feeling of weakness that came during it. She hated even more that it had only taken one concerned look from James for her to break her vow of silence on the matter.

She would tell her friends what she’d discovered and what had happened eventually, just not yet. Not while it was still fresh.

Either way, with the Christmas mystery seemingly dealt with, Cressida should have known the trio of boys would have something up their sleeve to bring some entertainment to an otherwise dull and dreary January.

“I propose a challenge!” James proclaimed while the trio of boys and the two girls were sitting doing homework in the hexagonal room. It had been Jac’s idea to get help from them instead of going to Molly like normal. Cressida knew this was due to her now wanting to spend every waking moment in Fred’s presence and by extension, the rest of the boys. Molly and Felix were down in the common room after getting into a rather heated debate over Quidditch scores anyway, so she didn’t mind on this occasion. Cressida silently thought they’d be glad they’d missed out on whatever was about to follow that statement.

Thomas sank low into his pile of cushions knowingly. “Here we go.”

“Come on, we need a good game to cheer us all up,” James went on enthusiastically.

“Speak for yourself,” Fred countered, stealing the second half of a sugar quill right out of Jac’s mouth for himself. “I’ve never been happier.”

Cressida glanced over at Fred’s homework parchment to find it was covered in doodles and drawings instead, some of them suspiciously Jac-shaped in resemblance. She was surprised to find he was actually a decent drawer. Better than Felix even.

“What’s the game?” Thomas asked intrigued.

“All of us have to say yes to everything for three whole weeks!” James continued.

“Yes to everything ?” Jac repeated.

“You’re mad, mate!” Fred laughed, now interested as well. “Do you know how much damage we could cause to one another?”

“Oh, I’m counting on it, Freddie!” James replied excitedly. “Are we in?”

“Screw it,” Thomas sighed, knowing fighting it was pointless. “I’m in.”

“Me too,” Fred agreed.

“Ladies?” James prompted.

All eyes turned to Cressida expectantly.

“Alright,” Cressida agreed rolling her eyes. She could use a little fun after everything that’d happened. She looked at James. “I’ll play your stupid game.”

James grinned widely back at her. 

Fred poked Jac in the side. “What about you, Redwick?” He asked.

“No way, count me out!” Jac objected, getting to her feet. “I already know this will end terribly.”

“Your loss!” James called as they watched Jac retreat down the spiral staircase. He turned back to the group with his manic smile. “Now,” he said authoritatively. “Who wants to set a challenge first?”

Chapter 85: Fourth Year: Don’t Say No

Notes:

Hi, sorry for the delayed uploads, it’s been a bit difficult to keep a schedule with everything going on but I promise I haven’t abandoned the story!
Uploads may continue to be sporadic for a bit longer while I get everything back on track, hope you all understand and enjoy the new chapter :)

Friday 1st February 2019

 

It had been a good start to the challenge as they approached the end of the first week. Thomas was already out after refusing to break an old broom at Fred’s request within the first twenty-four hours. Thomas had claimed it was an ‘antique’ whereas James had referred to it as ‘fire kindling’.

However, regardless of the reasoning behind it, Thomas had said the word no  in response to a request and was therefore out of the game before it had barely started.

That left Fred, James and Cressida for the remainder of the two weeks.

So far, James had poured porridge down his trousers as requested by Fred. Fred had agreed to do all of Cressida and Jac’s homework for the two weeks. Cressida could say nothing for a whole day without first exclaiming that  “Fred Weasley II and James Sirius Potter are the kings of Hogwarts”.

That one had caused some odd reactions and problems whenever she was called on to answer a question in class. Whimbrel in his usual grumpy fashion had given her a detention for such foolishness, whereas McGonagall gave a curt nod and said nothing more on what had been said before Cressida gave her answer.

There had been missing shoes. Going to class without underwear on. Trying to eat their dinner upside down. Falling asleep in class whenever one of them gave the word to. There was seemingly no end to what one of the others would agree to if it meant they won the challenge.

As Jac had predicted, it was in fact, chaos and Cressida was loving every minute of it. She’d hardly thought about her shitty Christmas all week. Although, she did find it slightly concerning that this week’s fortune read: ‘ Whatever you’re thinking of doing in the following week- don’t’.

Cressida thought Rose must be in the know about the yes bet without her telling her somehow for such a blunt fortune.

But regardless of who knew or how many stupid things she had to subject herself to in order to be in the running for this ridiculous bet, she was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

“Are you nuts?” Molly had asked once she’d discovered what Cressida had gotten herself into with the trio of boys as they made their way to Muggle Studies. They’d passed James and Fred earlier in the day and found them wearing wellies on their heads as hats and jelly slugs stuck to their top lips as moustaches.

Cressida hadn’t told either of them to do that, meaning that by this point they were doing stupid stuff to themselves for their own amusement.

“It’s just a bit of fun,” Cressida had defended herself.           

“I’ve heard that before!” Molly lectured her.          

“This is different,” Cressida argued. “It’ll be over in two weeks and it only affects us three. No one else is involved.”

“No, we just all have to watch  the chaos unfold around us, as normal. This is the scavenger hunt all over again!” Molly huffed, folding her arms over her chest. Cressida rolled her eyes as the two of them kept moving through the busy crowd. Molly glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. “Who’s idea was it?”

“James’.”

“Should’ve guessed,” Molly tutted. “Did he give a reason for it? Normally, there’s a reason behind his madness.”

Cressida gave a shrug as they reached their classroom door. “I think he was just bored-”

The door was pulled open and James stepped out, a wide grin on his face. “Afternoon, ladies,” he nodded at them.

“Where are you going? Class is about to start,” Molly asked as he started walking away from the classroom. James sent them a wink over his shoulder as he kept going down the hall.

Professor Sikander appeared in the doorway then, a rather perturbed expression on his otherwise cheerful face. “Mr Potter is excluded from my class until he has grown up a bit.”

With a firm straightening of his purple waistcoat and a twiddle of his handlebar moustache, the professor turned back into his classroom. When he turned his back, the two girls saw a tail poking out the backside of the professor.

Molly’s face went slack. “Tell me James wasn’t behind that.”

“Oh yes,” Fred said proudly, coming to stand by the two girls as they lingered in the doorway. “He nearly broke and said no but losing a bet is much worse to Jamsie than facing McGonagall… or giving a professor a tail by the looks.”

“Stupid boy,” Cressida muttered, walking into class in fear of Sikander’s mood getting even worse.

“Stupid boy indeed,” Fred laughed, following behind her.

 

 

Wednesday 6th February 2019

            
By this point in the challenge they were swiftly running out of ideas, as well as free time due to all the detentions they were racking up. 

Filch, who already had a vendetta against the group from the last four years, had reached new levels of his hatred for them as he had been the accidental target of a few of the tasks over the following week, meaning he was now on constant alert for them which made doing any challenges after curfew very difficult as they couldn’t risk getting caught before doing it.

The two boys didn’t seem bothered by the numerous detentions they were being handed as for the most part it meant them spending an evening with Hagrid, stuck in McGonagall's office where they undoubtedly talked her ear off, or at the very worst, cleaning something throughout the castle, which they more often than not summoned Winky to assist with in secret.        

James had revealed that to Cressida in confidence as they worked together on a Herbology project and she had to admit, she was miffed she hadn’t thought of that solution herself much sooner. She didn’t seem to have the same knack for dealing with detentions as the boys, annoyingly.         

It was as though the two boys had surpassed Hogwarts’ ability to punish them. That was until a Howler arrived at the Gryffindor table at breakfast on a Thursday morning.            

It had landed in front of Thomas by mistake in the flurry of morning newspapers and letters and the innocent boy had opened it without a second thought. Meanwhile, James and Fred’s eyes grew wide, their toast hanging out their mouths as they dashed across the table trying to prevent the Howler from talking.

It was fruitless and the letter started producing a voice. The group of Slytherins looked over in interest as it unfolded.

To Cressida’s surprise, it was Teddy’s voice that came out first in a hurried tone.

“Boys, just want to say I couldn’t be prouder of what you’re doing, but just a pre-warning that you are about to be-

JAMES SIRIUS POTTER AND FREDRICK WEASLEY!”

Grandmother Molly’s voice had taken over now.

“IF EITHER OF YOUR PARENTS RECEIVE ONE MORE LETTER HOME ABOUT YOUR BEHAVIOUR I WILL STORM DOWN TO THAT SCHOOL AND PUT AN END TO THIS RIDICULOUS GAME YOU’VE GOT GOING ON MYSELF! STOP BOTHERING POOR PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL WITH YOUR NONSENSE THIS INSTANT AND REMEMBER YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE BEING PUNISHED, NOT GOING FOR TEA AND BISCUITS WHENEVER YOU’RE SENT TO HER OFFICE. YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE THE POOR WOMAN GO GREY!”

At this, Cressida glanced up to the teacher’s table to see McGonagall subtly pat her neatly slicked-back hair under her hat. Considering her age, Cressida thought she didn’t look a day over seventy.

“Oh, and will someone tell Rose, Hugo’s borrowing her training wand as he sat on his and broke it.”

The whole hall looked towards Rose, who had continued eating her eggs as though the Howler was a normal occurrence until this moment. She gave a quick thumbs up as the eyes turned to her and then everyone focused on the Howler again.

The sentient letter blew raspberries at the trio of boys then ripped itself up into nothingness, leaving the two boys in trouble staring at it in disturbed silence.

“Shit,” Fred muttered after a moment of reflection. “They got Grandma Molly involved.”

“It’s official,” James sighed. “We’re in too deep now.”

“Only one solution to it then,” Fred nodded along.

“We die like men,” James conceded.

“Like men! ” Fred asserted proudly.

McGonagall let her head thump against her hand in defeat, but Neville seemed to be hiding a chortle behind his jam on toast beside her.

 

*

 

The latest newspaper meeting had been derailed slightly with everyone wanting to know what exactly was going on with Cressida, Fred and James. They wanted explanations for all the weirdness they’d seen over the last two weeks.

“Is this a new prank war?” Penelope asked hopefully.

“Merlin, I hope not,” Declan grumbled.

“Yes, we all remember how well that worked out for Knightly last time, don’t we?” Arabella chimed in. Cressida sent the fair-haired girl a glare and she hissed under her breath in retaliation. Apparently, she was still bitter Cressida hadn’t snapped back at any of her taunts yet. Margo sat silently beside Arabella, keeping her eyes firmly on the parchment notes in front of her, as though the conversation wasn’t happening around her.           

“It’s not a prank war,” Cressida said to the group at large, purposefully ignoring Arabella.         

Molly stood at the front, giving up any hope of getting on with more important matters of the meeting until this was dealt with.         

“What is it then?” Valentina asked, although, she did it in a way that made her sound uninterested in the answer to anyone who didn’t know better. Cressida looked towards them and found the three Slytherins listening intently. Thane had even shut his book to give them his full attention. No doubt he was working on some snarky comment to make to her later about this whole affair.             

“A yes bet!” Rose answered on Cressida’s behalf. “By the way, I predict one of you’s going to get seriously hurt soon so watch out for that.l           

Margo gave a jealous scoff at the younger girl’s psychic abilities.

“No one’s going to get hurt, you watch,” Felix said confidently, lounging back in his chair. “They’re basically invincible.”

Jac sat up a little straighter towards Rose. “Which one do you think is going to get hurt?”             

Rose gave a small shrug. “It doesn’t work like that… if I had a crystal ball I could be more specific but mum banned me from having one until completely necessary. She hates Divination.”           

“Can we just agree that the three of them have lost their minds and come up with our layout for the next issue?” Molly asked from the front.             

Everyone returned to their seats and focused their attention on Molly.

That was, everyone apart from the  Chatterbox’s  newest recruit, a scrawny and acne-riddled Hufflepuff from the year below, who wore plaid brown trousers and always carried his books around in his hands rather than a bag. Plus, he wore brogues a size too big for him that always made him walk a bit funny. Despite seeing him once or twice throughout Hogwarts, Cressida could never remember interacting with him until he turned up in the meeting the week before.

He had taken the spare seat next to Cressida that Margo had formally sat in. “I think it’s really neat that you’re doing pranks with the Gryffindors again,” he said to her as Molly gained control of her meeting back. “Reminds me of my First Year watching it all unfold, you know… before the whole snake thing.”

“Um, thanks,” Cressida said.

“I’m Fabian,” he said, extending his hand out to her awkwardly. “Fabian Farley.”

Cressida shook his hand and was disturbed to find it was wet and clammy. “Cressida-”

“Oh, I know who you are already,” he interrupted her. “ Everyone  knows who you are. My friends aren’t going to believe I worked up the courage to talk to you. You’re a legend!”

Cressida shrank down in her seat embarrassed and gave a grimaced smile. 

She turned her eyes to the other side of the classroom hoping for a distraction. Instead, she found Thane watching her. He raised an eyebrow and lifted a piece of parchment.

It read, ‘ New boyfriend?’

He turned the page over to show a second sentence.

‘Poor Potter :(’          

He pulled a mocking sad face and Cressida sent him the middle finger then turned her focus on Molly, hoping the meeting would be over soon.

 

*

            
After the Howler, it was agreed they would dial down on the challenges that would get them immediate detention- which meant any during lessons were now barred from the challenge until further notice for the sake of McGonagall and the other teacher’s sanities.

This didn’t mean the game had stopped, however. If the three remaining people involved uttered the word  ‘no’  to a request outside of lessons, it meant they were out and now, with the added pressure of trying to avoid detentions, it became even trickier to find ways to win the game.

Therefore, they’d upped the stakes. The last man standing would have free reign of the invisibility cloak for the remainder of the year. Now  that  was something Cressida liked the sound of. If it hadn’t been for that she likely would have dropped out before the end of the second week.             

However, with the rising pressure to find something the others wouldn’t say no to outside of lessons, they were bound to push the limit of common sense eventually.        

Which was why, on Monday evening, Jac and Cressida had rushed up to the boys’ dorm room at the request of Lupin who had intruded on Regulus’ frame, to find that they had indeed hit that limit.       

The two girls had barged in to find Fred perched in his window, a broom between his legs as he faced the dark sky outside.             

“According to Lupin, we’re needed as safety control,” Jac said alerting them to their presence.           

“Regulus is mad you used his frame for this shit by the way,” Cressida added. She eyed up the broom, knowing it wasn’t Fred’s usual broom but an old one from the supply closet, wondering what they could possibly be about to do with it. “What was the bet?”          
 
“Freddie here is about to fly this thing all the way around the castle,” James elaborated.             

Jac and Cressida glanced at each other. “What’s so bad about that?” Cressida asked.           

“We’ve attached fireworks to the end of the broom,” Thomas added breezily.            

“ What?! ” Jac shrieked in concern.

“Weasley, if you do this you could break every bone in your body,” Cressida warned him.             

Fred rotated his shoulders confidently before sitting low on his broom. “I’m here for a good time not a long time, Knightly. Light her up!”             

Thomas moved forward and pointed his wand at the tips of the fireworks. “Incendio!”           

Fred set off, fireworks in toe.             

The two girls could do nothing but stare in stunned silence as they watched Fred disappear into the darkness of the night.             

“Your boyfriend is a fucking idiot,” Cressida mumbled.             

There was a loud bang and an array of colours.            

Jac grabbed Thomas’ broom that was proudly displayed next to his bed and started beating both boys with it. “You. Just. Killed. My. First. Boyfriend!”

 

*

“I’m out,” Fred said as they crowded around his bed in the infirmary. He would have his arm in a cast for the next six weeks which would hinder his ability to continue being reckless until the end of the month. “Madam Promfrey said if I agree to do something that monumentally stupid again she’ll send me to Mundungo’s for psychiatric evaluation.”

Madam Pomfrey knew full well she could have healed his arm in seconds with a potion, but she was doing this to him as punishment for getting injured in the first place. Luckily for Fred, she was merciful enough to give him something for the pain in the meantime.

Jac had taken up the role of doting girlfriend rather well considering she didn’t have any experience with it prior to this occasion. She’d even brought him some sugar quills to cheer him up and was the first to sign her name on his cast with a tiny heart.             

James put a sympathetic hand on Fred’s shoulder. “You know what this means?”           

“That the bet’s over finally?” Jac asked hopefully.             

“Don’t be ridiculous, Redwick,” James scoffed. He turned to Cressida with a smug grin. “It means I’m  so  going to win this competition!”

“Are not!” Cressida retaliated.

“Am to!” James argued. “I’m the master of doing stupid stuff for no logical reason. I’ve got this in the bag, Knightly. Prepared to have your ass whooped.”

Cressida picked up a bedpan and went to hit him over the head with it when Madam Pomfrey appeared, clicking her fingers and shooing the group away. “Out with all of you! I don’t need this nonsense crowding up my infirmary. And I don’t want to see any more of you in here because of your idiotic ideas of fun!” She exclaimed as she threw them out the door and slammed it in their faces.

 

Monday 11th February 2019

            
Now it was basically a competition of who could last longer between Cressida and James until the end of the week, the group had started taking bets knowing this would end in tears or death.             

Molly was still refusing to get involved in the mess, knowing there was no point trying to talk sense into any of them. Felix, however, had started charging people from all years to get in on the bet. So far, Knightly was winning.          

James took this as his chance to campaign himself, so to speak.

“Get your badges here, folks!” Fred’s voice called coming around the corner of the hallway. James and Thomas were dutifully at his side with boxes in their hands containing badges.

“Badge with my face on it, Knightly?” James offered, waving a badge in the air.

Molly took the badge from him, dropped it on the floor and promptly stomped on it. 

James breezily placed a new one in her hand. Molly glared at her cousin as she stormed away without another word.

“You’re going to make her have a mental breakdown,” Felix pointed out, snacking on a lollipop. “You know she hates this kind of thing.”

“It’s nearly the end of the week,” Thomas pointed out. “It’ll be over soon.”

“Besides, we need to determine a winner before then, and if it ends up being a draw then we’re going to count the votes to decide,” Fred explained, pinning a Potter badge to Jac's robes with his uninjured arm.

Jac promptly took the badge off and hid it in her bag, stepping closer to Cressida to show that despite being Fred’s girlfriend, her loyalties still lay with Cressida.

“Speaking of winners,” James spoke up then. “I’ve already won.”

“Oh yeah?” Felix laughed. “How’d you figure that?”

James rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet smugly. “Because I’ve come up with a task Knightly wouldn’t possibly agree to do.”

Cressida stepped forward challengingly, thinking of everything she could do with an invisibility cloak in her possession, and more importantly, it being out of James’ possession. “Try me.”

He smirked, thrilled she’d taken the bait. “I dare you to steal McGonagall's hat,” James challenged her.             

The group was rendered speechless. “There’s no way she’ll get away with that!” Thomas exclaimed after a moment.

James’ grin was growing wider by the second as Cressida debated whether it was worth the risk. If she said no the three weeks of idiotic decisions and bets would have been for nothing. She had told herself she would win this bet if only to wipe that smug grin off James’ face once and for all. This is all she’d been thinking about since the bet was started, she couldn’t cave now.

“I’ll have her hat by tomorrow lunchtime,” she said taking the box of badges from Thomas as she moved forward.

“Where are you going with those?” Fred called after her.

“To burn them, or use them as dart practice, I haven’t decided yet!” Cressida called back over her shoulder.

Jac let out a knowing sigh. “Now you’ve done it.”

 

*

           
Cressida had been up all night trying to think of some smart way to get McGonagall’s hat. She could try sneaking into her office before she woke up in the hopes her hat would be perched on the desk ready for the taking. She could try and grab the hat as McGonagall passed her in the hallway. Cressida wasn’t stupid enough to consider drugging McGonagall with a sleeping spell like she might have done if this was Filch. That was a step too far.        

When morning broke and Molly poked her head through Cressida’s bed curtains to tell her to get ready for lessons, Cressida’s declaration of getting the hat did, in fact, seem impossible.           

Jac sat down beside her on the bed and pulled a previously dozing Rasper into her lap with a disgruntled meow. Groot the Bowtruckle quickly sought higher ground at being in close proximity to the cat. “So, what’s the grand plan?”             

“Oh for Merlin’s sake, can we not go one day without your annoying antics being the centre of attention?” Margo grumbled, grabbing her stuff and getting changed in the bathroom.             

“She’s more grumpy than normal,” Molly commented, picking out a clean shirt to wear.             

“No, she’s normally that grumpy, you just don’t notice,” Jac replied. “So,” she went on, looking to Cressida again. “The plan?”             

Cressida reluctantly rolled out of bed and started searching for her shoddy uniform. “Wait and see.” She knew full well Jac would have helped if Cressida had asked for it, but she couldn’t risk it getting back to Fred or James that she couldn’t come up with a foolproof plan on her own. It would take away from her victory slightly if she managed to pull it off.          

“And you’re still going to do it before lunch?” Molly asked sceptically.            

“Yup,” Cressida nodded buttoning up her shirt. She noticed it was a bit tighter on her now than in previous years, especially around the chest area. Maybe next September, she could finally get an upgrade. 

Ten minutes later the door burst open and Felix strode in, paying no attention to the girls still only half ready. “Knightly got the hat yet?” He asked casually plonking himself on Cressida’s bed and covering his eyes with his hand.            

“Not yet,” Jac answered, pulling on her tights. “But she’s got a plan.”            

“Come on,” Molly said, finishing her daily attempt to try and soothe down her curls in the mirror. “Let’s go get some breakfast. I hear it’s bad to heist on an empty stomach.”             

Felix’s mouth fell open in surprise as the group all followed Molly out. “Did I just hear Weasley make a joke? Who switched her brain in the middle of the night? I demand answers-”           

Molly shut the door in his face before he could step through it with them.             

Felix pulled it open again, now with a hand to his throbbing nose. “And order is restored,” he said sending a glare in the ginger witch’s direction. “Who’s up for eggs and soldiers?”

 

*             

Cressida stood alone in the hallway facing the gargoyle statue that would take her up to McGonagall’s office in defeat.            

It was officially lunch time and she wasn’t even close to having a plan to get the hat from the stern Head Mistress. She’d thought of everything possible and none of them seemed even remotely plausible.             

Just as she was about to hang her head in shame and admit James had won the bet, the gargoyle moved and revealed the staircase as though it could sense Cressida standing there.              

She sheepishly stepped on, feeling as though it would be more troublesome if she didn’t. She suspected McGonagall would want to know the reason she’d been lurking there for the last fifteen minutes.

Cressida took the stairs all the way up and knocked on the doors. “Professor McGonagall,” Cressida said, tentatively entering her office.       

The stern headmistress looked up from her paperwork, but the quill continued writing on its own. “Miss Knightly… I thought someone was lingering down there. Is there something I can help you with?”

Cressida glanced at the hat placed on the desk beside her then back at the Professor. Cressida knew better than to lie to McGonagall. Even if Cressida  could  come up with a cunning way to trick McGonagall into giving her the hat, she knew it wouldn’t be long until the Head Mistress realised what Cressida had done and punished her accordingly.             

Taking a deep breath, Cressida did the only logical thing she could think of as a last resort. “I need your hat,” she said bluntly.             

McGonagall didn’t react much, simply watched the quill writing sentences in neat cursive. “I know the scenarios in which my specific hat is required are very minimal so that can only lead me to believe this has something to do with a bet of some kind.”           

“Yes,” Cressida said.          

“And to no one’s surprise, I’m going to assume it is to do with three trouble-making Gryffindors?” She asked.             

“Yes,” Cressida said again.             

“And  who , exactly, would benefit from having my specific hat?”             

“Me, Professor,” Cressida answered. “Stealing the hat from you was the hardest thing the boys could think to do and being this close to the end, I  really  want to win… so much in fact, I told them I could pull this off even though now I think about it, they were right and it’s pretty much impossible to try and trick you.”             

There was a moment's silence as McGonagall took over writing a few sentences with the quill by hand. Then, she placed the quill neatly down on the desk beside the parchment and looked back up at Cressida. “You may take the hat, Miss Knightly,” she said, pushing the desired object across the desk towards her. “On one condition.”          

Cressida held the hat carefully in her hands, amazed she had even made it this far without the threat of detention. “Anything, Professor.”

McGonagall seemed to gain a slightly wicked smile. “You never tell them how you acquired it.”

Cressida grinned back at the Head Mistress. “Of course, Professor.”

“And I want it back in one piece by tomorrow morning,” she said in the sterner tone of voice Cressida was used to dealing with.

Not wanting to test her luck any further, Cressida bid goodbye to the Headmistress and rushed out of her office, hat in hand.

With five minutes left until their lunch break was over, Cressida eventually found her friends lingering by the Grand Staircase preparing to head up to Charms any second. She watched from afar as James checked his watch every few seconds.

“I’m telling you, she had a plan!” Jac was advocating for her.

“If she had such a fool-proof plan, where is she?” James challenged cockily.

Trying to hide her smugness, Cressida strode forward towards them with a skip in her step, hands behind her back and McGonagall’s hat proudly on her head.             

James’ mouth fell open as he saw her. “No fucking way.”           

“She did it,” Thomas said in amazement.             

Fred grinned, almost proudly. “Of course she did.”         

Thomas then turned white, imagining the worse punishment McGonagall could muster for Cressida having the hat the trio of boys thought she stole. “She’s way braver than  any of us! ”             

“Boys,” Fred said firmly. “Assume positions.”             

Cressida looked back at them confused when they all dropped to their knees, bowing dramatically at her feet.           

“You are our God, Knightly!” James bellowed, trying not to laugh.            

“We don’t deserve to be in your presence, oh cunning one!” Thomas added on.          

Cressida was growing weary of the odd looks from passers-by. “Okay, that’s enough, get up now!”             

The three boys clambered to their feet again, dusting off their trousers.              

“So,” Fred said. “The bet continues. Only six days left.”          

James and Cressida locked eyes. “You’re going down, Knightly.”             

“Says the one that was just bowing to me,” she quipped, turning and continuing on through the hall. Jac quickly ran after her with a wide grin, poking her tongue out at the boys as she went.

Chapter 86: Fourth Year: One Of Us Is Gonna Lose

Thursday 14th February 2019

 

With the final two days of the prank upon them, it felt as though there would never be a clear winner as both Cressida and James simply refused to back down. Even their friends had given up on the betting pool and were now just counting down the days until it officially ended so they could get on with other things again. James had become so paranoid that Cressida had commissioned other people to trick James into saying no, he refused to deny or refuse anything anymore and that alone had gotten him into some tricky situations Cressida hadn’t even planned for. When she walked past James following behind Rose and Lana carrying their school bags in the hall, she’d begun to suspect people who knew about it were beginning to take advantage of this bet.

Molly had stated that James was going to end up agreeing to marriage at this rate if they weren’t careful. Even after Cressida had assured him she wasn’t getting other people involved to try and trick him, he didn’t believe her.

“That’s exactly what you would say if you  did  do that!” He argued.

“I say you let him spiral into his own madness in that case,” Felix had replied when Cressida relayed it back to the group. 

“It’d sure speed this whole process up,” Molly had grumbled shortly after.

Despite Potter’s suspected oncoming mental breakdown and the enthusiasm for the bets dwindling, whenever the others were extremely bored or having a slow few hours over the last few days they still engaged in antagonising either party remaining in the game.

That was why James and Cressida were currently camped out in a fourth floor cupboard. It had been Molly setting the task this time, sensing that she was the only one that was able to give such an incredibly boring and mind-numbing one that they’d give up at the same time. She told them they had to stay in the cupboard from the moment lessons finished until curfew hit.

“It’ll keep them out of the way for a couple of hours,” Molly had responded when Thomas had asked why she’d set it. “That way I can get some revision done in peace.”

Cressida thought it was justified, but by the three-hour mark and after missing dinner, she was debating giving in and walking out.

James had been leaning against the wall opposite throwing a golden snitch up and down in the air to amuse himself and it was starting to get on Cressida’s nerves for no particular reason. Being stuck with someone in a confined space for this long would do that to anyone.

She was sitting on the floor resting her back against the door. “Only your cousin could be smart enough to come up with this,” she sighed.

“It’s the Slytherin in her,” James responded, his eyes following the snitch up and down. “It’s begun to give her an unfair advantage.”

Cressida tried not to focus on the snitch. “How long until curfew?”

James checked his watch. “Another hour.”            

Cressida thumped her head back against the wall. This was not how she’d envisioned spending Valentine’s Day, but it was still far better than the previous year’s events. Plus, she took slight joy in the fact James was too busy thinking about the bets he hadn’t even paid attention to any girl trying to show their affection today. Jac and Molly had been smart enough to commission Fred to keep James away from any overly confident girls who’d ask him on a date in person, knowing he’d like likely stupidly agree in fear of saying no. She'd watched him get a swarm of cards at breakfast but he seemed to idly push them to the side uninterested. Fred had received more than a few but significantly less than last year due to him dating Jac officially. Thomas got the occasional one but he never much cared for this type of thing.

None of the Slytherin girls had received a card apart from Jac, who'd had an owl land in front of her carrying a large box of chocolates spelling out her full name and a card with a cheesy joke on the front of it reading  'you've put a spell on me.'  It was obviously from Fred. Cressida spotted Margo looking up the table in envy as Jac opened it. Clearly, Jeremiah hadn't bothered to get her anything for the special day. Surprisingly, Felix had also received a card that morning. A cute homemade one in the shape of a heart signed without a name.

Jac and Cressida suspected it might have been from Lana Longbottom, as when she passed the group with Rose earlier in the day, the younger girl had a furious blush when Felix complimented her new short hairstyle and Rose had that certain look like she knew something scandalous.          

Her eyes trailed the snitch again as she focused on James again. Up and down. Up and down. Up and-           

Cressida shot it out of the air with her wand.          

James watched it explode into tiny fragments with a frown. “That was my favourite snitch.”           

“You’ll find another one,” Cressida responded irritably.

James coked his head to one side, an easy smile still on his face. “What? Aren’t you enjoying my company anymore?”

“I’ve had far too much of your company for one day,” she said, getting to her feet to pace around in the tiny space. “Plus, I’m starving.”

James rummaged around in his robes and pulled out a pack of jelly slugs. Cressida begrudgingly took them from him to find it was only the green ones. She should have suspected as much. Regardless of them being her least favourite, she started eating them anyway.

“You know, you could just walk out now and be done with this whole thing,” James pointed out.

“And let you win?” Cressida asked, chewing on a slug. “Unlikely.”

“Then quit complaining.”

“There wouldn’t be a reason to complain if you hadn’t come up with this whole idea in the first place,” Cressida argued. 

James shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned back against the wall. “You didn’t have to agree to it.”

“Yes I did,” Cressida rolled her eyes.

“Why’s that?”

“Because you came up with it,” she answered without much thought.

James pushed himself up straight. “You agreed just because it was my idea?”

Cressida turned away from him, trying to backtrack in her own mind. “Don’t be stupid. I didn’t agree with this just because  you  suggested it. I just thought it’d be fun… turns out I was wrong,” she quipped sending a sarcastic smile in his direction.

James went back to leaning. “Like I said. You could always say no and leave.”

“I wish I’d said no to being stuck in here right about now. Then this game would be over  and  I’d have had a hot meal.”

“Were the jelly slugs not good enough for you?” James teased.

“Not a big fan of green,” Cressida replied, moving to the wall opposite him in the cupboard so that the tips of their toes were touching as they both leaned back against the walls.

“It’s my favourite colour, you know,” James said then. “Always loved it, ever since I was a kid.”

“Bit ironic that a Gryffindor loves the colour green, don’t you think?” Cressida pointed out humorously.

James shrugged, glancing Cressida up and down discreetly. “Yeah, well, I can’t help that a lot of my favourite things tend to be associated with the colour.”

Cressida caught his eyes turn away and she felt a blush come to her cheeks. She hoped it was too dark in the cupboard for him to notice. She knew he hadn’t been talking about her personally, but the way he looked at her then made her think maybe she reminded him of something so simple as his favourite colour or sweets.

It was then she noticed their close proximity within the cupboard and that there was no easy way out of it. She shuffled her feet back away from his ever so slightly. He noticed.

“I’m still bored,” she said to ease the new tension. 

“Just try and take your mind off it,” James suggested.

“How?”

"There must be something to do in here.” He proceeded to poke around a bit, and after failing to find anything of note, he faced her again with a resided sigh. “Bollocks. Yeah, you’re right this is the most boring place on earth.”

“I’d rather be in Professor Binns’ lessons,” Cressida huffed.

“Now don’t start talking crazy,” James joked.

She crossed her arms and silently debated whether staying in the tiny space for another hour was worth one of them winning this bet. “I don’t even know why you wanted to do this, honestly. All it’s done is get you more detentions than ever before.”

“I had my reasons,” James said mystically.

“Oh yeah?” Cressida scoffed. “And what  reasons  were they?”

James paused as if assessing whether he should say anything at all. Cressida gave him a quizzical look. “You’ll call it stupid,” he dismissed her.

“Probably, but I want to hear it anyways,” she argued. James went quiet again. She got out her wand a jabbed him in the way he often did to produce an answer from her.

“Alright, fine,” he gave in, shoving her wand away. He looked at her through his eyelashes as though he was embarrassed. “Did it take your mind off it?”

Cressida frowned. “What?”

“The game,” James elaborated. “All the stupid stuff we were making each other do… did it make you feel better, even for just a little while?”

She stared at him in silence for a moment. Even after she’d tried to put some space between them, it was hard to not be incredibly close to one another. “You came up with this to make me feel better?”

“I didn’t know how else to help,” he shrugged. 

Cressida’s stomach dropped as she realised what he had done for her and at the realisation she hadn’t had a chance to think about what happened at Christmas for the whole month. He’d done this for  her . He’d taken her mind off it. 

“Knightly?” James said, nervously moving an inch closer when she had been quiet for a moment too long.             

She looked up at him at the sound of her name. He was right in front of her now, closer than before not that she thought it had been possible, but then she realised she had become oddly familiar to having him this close now. 

“You did all this for me,” she said quietly. Not a question. She was telling herself the basic fact.  He cared enough to do this for her.             

Her eyes silently trailed his face as she stood there. The smell of sweets on his breath and now her own, his ruffled hair from running his hands through it while thinking, his crinkled shirt from being in lessons all day.        

And in that moment she felt such an overwhelming affection for the boy standing in front of her she could barely contain it. To know he has thought up this stupid game to distract her, to take away her horrible memories about Christmas, how could she ever thank him? 

He winced as she still continued to say nothing. “Are you mad? Because I can forfeit and let you-”

“You did all this… for  me ,” she said again, locking eyes with him. 

James gave a tentative nod. “Couldn’t stand to watch you be so sad. I had to do something.”

All the detentions, all the stupidity and laughter and trouble they'd got in. The fact he’d held her as she cried about it and then knew exactly what would make her smile again. All for her benefit. Because he cared and he knew her in a way other people didn't seem to sometimes. And she cared too. Not only for what he'd done, what he'd always been doing, but for him. For James . 

She hadn't realised perhaps just how much until this moment when faced with what lengths he would go to for her own happiness. How selfless he was when it came to her.

Cressida took another step closer, clearly surprising James who was staring down at her. She grabbed his tie to pull him down and pressed her lips firmly against his before she could talk herself out of it. “Thank you,” she said softly.

”Of course,” he replied, equally as soft.

Neither of them moved back, their noses brushing against each others. Her hand still wrapped around his tie, her other resting on his chest.

James’ eyes seemed to have grown heavy as they remained there, dreamy almost. Cressida’s stomach fluttered like it never had before, the skin on the back of her neck prickling and her throat drying up. She fluttered her eyes up to meet his, his scent intoxicating, drawing her in like she couldn’t resist even if she tried.

Testing the waters, pushing her limit, she went up ever so slightly on her toes again to close the gap a second time.

James responded immediately. Gentle at first and then, as they realised the gravity of the situation, they went all in. The two of them pushing against each other as they fumbled in the tight fit of the space they were in.         

It was messy and it wasn’t at all dignified, Cressida thought, but  God  did it feel good. Better than that kiss at the party and even better than the kiss in the hall. It was so good in fact, Cressida wondered why they hadn’t been doing it like this all along. 

After a minute or so, a mop handle toppled over and bonked James on the head forcing them apart momentarily.

When they released each other, Cressida took a step back, nervously awaiting his reaction. His lips were still slightly parted as he stared down at her with eyes like saucepans.             

“Don’t stop yet,” he breathed after a long moment, pushing away the handle that had interrupted them.

She couldn’t say no.        

James moved forward instantaneously, not waiting for her reply and started kissing her again, firmer this time, as if he suddenly wasn’t worried about anything at all other than kissing her like this. They stayed like that for longer than either of them thought possible. Their hands on hips and in hair, getting more confident now they were doing it a second time, and when they broke apart again, all they could do was stare at each other in silence as they tried to catch their breaths.            

Cressida moved back forcing space between them until her back hit the door to avoid it happening a third time. She ran a hand through her hair as she thought hard about what to do next. She had to do something to seem normal. She couldn’t think about what just happened clearly just yet. Not when her brain was all foggy and covered in James.            

‘ Fucking hell, I just snogged James Sirius Potter in a cupboard.’

“Give me your tie,” Cressida said panicking. She had to keep the bets going. It was the only coherent thing she could think of.            

“Whatever you say,” he agreed instantly pulling his tie up over his head and putting it in her hand.            

Cressida took the tie and fumbled to turn the door handle. Screw it not being time for curfew yet. So what if she left fifteen minutes earlier than she was supposed to? The others would never know. They could  never  know. 

She paused as she faced the open exit, feeling James still staring at her. Staring at how vulnerable she was at that moment.          

Cressida sent him one last look over her shoulder, debating whether to say anything, debating acknowledging it but, feeling whatever words would have come out already shrivelling up in her throat, she stepped out of the closet and shut the door behind her with James still inside it.            

A few steps away from the closet, and redness still overtaking her whole body, Cressida’s eyes locked on Margo coming towards her. The other girl looked equally as surprised to run into Cressida, but then the dark-haired girl paused, noticing the difference in Cressida’s appearance and the redness of her lips.             

Cressida’s defences shot up, preparing for the onslaught of questions and any way she could deflect them from the truth. However, with a click of a door behind her, she knew what had happened.          

Margo’s eyes went to James sneaking out of the closet behind Cressida, and then back to the girl in front of her, a look of realisation spreading across her face.           

“Margo-” Cressida tried.

Margo didn’t say anything or react any further before turning back the way she came and rushing off.

She felt James come up beside her, a guilt-ridden expression on his face. “Do you think she knows?”        

Cressida couldn’t bare to think what would happen if Margo was let loose with this information. Unable to look at James, she took a steadying breath and headed off into the darkening corridors, his question unanswered.

 

 

Friday 15th February 2019

            
Margo didn’t return to the dorm room all night. Cressida stayed up waiting for her, hoping to corner Margo for a chat to set the record straight.            

Margo hadn’t in fact seen Cressida and James sneaking out of the cupboard. She hadn’t seen Cressida holding James’ tie and his flustered expression and they definitely didn’t look like they’d just been making out.           

Annoyingly, this never happened, and so Cressida sat cross-legged on her bed with her mind swimming with thoughts until she resisted the urge to bang her head against her headboard for hours on end.            

It was fine, she reasoned as the early hours of the morning greeted her as they usually did after a sleepless night. She and James could pretend it never happened like last time, and the time before that, but  God  did Cressida want to kiss him again. This was worse than all those other times. This wasn't a rash decision in an argument or a bet. This was based on feelings now. Feelings Cressida has been repressing for longer than she even realised. Plus, she didn't know where James stood on the whole thing. Whether he thought this one was any different than the last. She hated feeling this way. Like she'd given James a piece of her she didn't know existed before.            

She just knew that Margo couldn't know what had happened. Cressida was well aware that information could become power in the hands of someone like her. She’d have to see to it that Margo never let slip what she’d seen. It couldn’t get out. Her friends would be so mad at her for not telling them as soon as it had happened. After all, she and Jac told each other everything. How would she explain not telling her this?            

That she was embarrassed? That wasn’t the reason. There was nothing wrong with Potter… in fact, Cressida was well aware there were at least a dozen girls throughout the castle that would have killed to be stuck with James in a cupboard, never mind get the chance to kiss him, and here she was, having done it three times now, and trying to convince herself it didn’t mean anything.

How could she explain that to them when it barely made sense to herself?

And then if she told them, she'd have to admit to all the other kisses, and then Molly would know she'd been lied to.  God , she could only imagine Molly's reaction if she found out Cressida was dating one of her cousins as well. She'd only begrudgingly been okay with Jac dating Fred at first. Would she react differently if it was Cressida and James?

No. It would be too much for Cressida to handle if it go out without her supervision. Not when she hadn’t admitted it out loud yet. Not when it was still fresh and had the chance of messing up and going away.            

It just couldn’t get out. It was as simple as that.            

Besides, she had other problems to sort out before she even considered focusing on some semblance of a love life.            

And now that the ‘yes bet’ was nearly over and her mind was spiralling for something to focus on that wasn’t Potter based, the nagging feelings about her father and Dayle cropped up again. It was a vicious cycle she’d gotten herself into, it seemed.            

She still hadn’t told her friends about that either.           

At one point, she sat with her head in her hands and told herself to keep breathing to get her mind to focus on something,  anything  other than what was going on in her life, at how complicated it all felt and how confusing.             

At that moment she knew she needed someone. Someone specific and someone who would understand her.          

She grabbed her wand and put it through her tied-up hair and pulled on her trainers, heading out of the dorm room and up to the sixth floor.

At five in the morning, Cressida was rapping her knuckles against the golden frame of Sirius Black.

The young portrait had been asleep in the ball on the floor as he normally was, and looked rather annoyed about being woken up before dawn.

“What do you people have against sleep in this castle?” He grumbled, standing up and stretching his arms above his head. “Now I know how Minnie must have felt with us running around at god-awful hours in the morning.”

Cressida sat cross-legged on the floor facing him. “Sorry, I just… I didn’t know who else to talk to.”

Sirius quirked and perfectly manicured eyebrow. “And you landed on a dead portrait from the seventies?”

“I think we’re a bit similar, you and me,” Cressida admitted. “I think we think the same about some things.”

Sirius sat cross-legged in his frame facing her. “And what gives you that impression?”

“You didn’t have a happy life-”

“Understatement of the century,” Sirius scoffed under his breath.

“But I’ve heard the stories,” Cressida continued. “You managed to find happiness within all of the shit… I just- I think something’s wrong with me… I don’t think I can let myself be happy. I don’t think I know how to do it right.”

Sirius was quiet for a moment as he assessed her. “What exactly spurred this dark and twisty thought of yours? If I know this feeling of existential dread- and I know it well- I know there’s always a reason.”

Cressida picked the dirt out from underneath her fingernails, averting her eye line. “My mum had this boyfriend over the last year… he was different from her other boyfriends, he didn’t hurt us or steal our money or do anything wrong. He would talk to me… he was nice. My mum loved him more than I’d seen her love any of those other pricks… and then I went home over Christmas to find out he’d been put in prison for dealing drugs-”

“That must have come as a shock to you,” Sirius said sympathetically.

“It wasn’t,” Cressida said bluntly. “I’d helped him deal over the summer but we promised to keep it quiet from my mum. She had no idea.”

“Right,” Sirius said, clearly surprised. “Carry on then.”

Cressida sighed as she thought back again. “Either way, now he’s gone and he was the closest thing I had to a real dad and my mum’s the worst she’s ever been.”

“So, real dad’s not in the picture, huh?” Sirius asked. “Sometimes it’s better that way. Trust me, some people just aren’t meant to be dads. They only know how to hurt you.”

Cressida turned her grey eyes on Sirius’ blue ones. “I found out my dad was a wizard over Christmas too. Until then we all thought I was muggle-born.”

Sirius sat up a little straighter at the revelation. “Did you get a family name?”

“Only his first name,” Cressida said, and then she felt a small bubble of hope rise in her stomach. “Castillo?”

Sirius pondered for a moment. “Sounds like a wizard name alright but can’t say I knew a Castillo that’d still be alive now. Sorry to disappoint.”

Cressida felt her bubble of hope evaporate instantaneously. “It’s fine, it was a long shot anyway.”

“So,” Sirius went on, lounging back on his hands. “This dad thing was the cause of your meltdown?”

“Not quite,” Cressida said. “I kissed James.”

“What?”

“I kissed James.”

“When?”

“About six hours ago… and another time before that.”

Sirius blinked as he tried to take it all in.

“But I don’t want to go out with him or anything,” Cressida said quickly. “I can’t be anyone’s sodding girlfriend. I’d be shit at it. I know I would, and so I just won’t do it. Plus, boyfriends are always shit in the long-run anyway from what I’ve seen and I don’t want Potter to end up like that.”

"I can see some semblance of logic in that,” Sirius nodded along, slightly bewildered.

“And you can’t tell anyone about any of this,” Cressida told him firmly. “I just needed someone to know so it was off my chest for tonight. I’ll tell the others about my dad and Dayle when I’m ready to answer questions, but not about the James thing-”

“Knightly,” Sirius interrupted. Cressida chanced looking at him. “You kissed Potter twice and you didn’t tell anyone?” Cressida gave a small nod. “More importantly, how did  James  not tell anyone?!”

Cressida shrugged.

Sirius took another few seconds to think. “Was he a good kisser?”

Cressida gave another sheepish nod. Sirius looked impressed. “Way to go, Mini Prongs.”

“Sirius, this is-” Cressida stopped herself before the inevitable word came out her mouth but luckily it snapped Sirius back onto task regardless.

“Right, sorry,” he refocused himself. “So the jist of it is, you got an M.I.A wizard dad, a step-dad in the slammer, a wacky mum, and a very attractive boy who you keep kissing despite protesting you don’t fancy him?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” Cressida confirmed.

“It’s not so bad, Knightly,” Sirius said then. “You could also be addicted to crack.”

Cressida threw her shoe at his frame. 

“Look, kid, I don’t know what to tell you,” Sirius admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Truth is, I was shit at dealing with my feelings when I was alive. I always have been. All I can tell you is, if you aren’t ready to commit to someone like James, you’ve got to tell him. People like him don’t understand what it’s like for us sometimes… they don’t know how to not go after what they want. All they know is how to be happy.”

“So I tell him I can’t be his girlfriend?” Cressida asked. “But what if he never talks to me again? I don’t want to lose him over this, Sirius.”  I can’t lose him.

Sirius looked at her with the sympathy of someone who knew what she was going through. “It’d be cruel to keep him waiting around until you’re ready,” he said softly. “If you keep him hanging on, it’ll just hurt the both of you in the end. Trust me.”

Cressida glared at the portrait just as people started appearing in the corridor to head down to breakfast. She didn’t like the fact she knew Sirius was right. She didn’t like what she’d have to do next time she got Potter alone.

Annoyingly, the trio of boys were among that group wandering the halls and she hastily had to gather her thoughts and pull her shoe back on.

“Knightly, it’s only half six, what are you doing up this early?” Thomas asked as Cressida got to her feet. James looked like a deer in headlights when he saw her in front of them.

“And why aren’t you dressed?” Fred asked, noticing her pyjamas.

Cressida made eye contact with James and felt her mouth fall open without any words to come out of it. He didn't say anything either.

“She wanted my advice on an upcoming prank idea,” Sirius stepped in. When Cressida looked at him, the mischievous portrait offered her a sly wink. “Considering this bet of yours ends today, she wanted to be prepared for the next grand event you lot are going to pull.”            

“What did you two come up with?” Thomas asked excitedly.            

“Nothing good,” Cressida said. “Just brainstorming.”          

“Well, in that case, you better go down and get ready for the last day of the bet,” Fred urged her. “We still need one of you to say no so we have a definite winner.”           

Cressida turned and followed Fred’s instruction without an argument.

 

*

            
For the majority of the day it resumed as normal. The Slytherins all attended breakfast, the Gryffindors walked with them to  lessons and no one acted any differently apart from the odd reminder that someone still needed to win and it was their last chance to. Apparently, Fred was annoyed Cressida and James weren’t constantly trying to outdo each other for the whole day.            

“We could always draw,” James had suggested as they moved through the halls as a unit towards their next lesson after lunch. He'd gotten over his momentary muteness once he realised it'd arise suspicion if he didn't act completely normal. He and Cressida hadn't had a single moment alone to discuss what to do all day despite constantly being together.           

“Doth my ears deceive me?” Fred said dramatically. “James Sirius Potter accepting defeat when he is so close to victory?”          

Molly rolled her eyes and kept her attention firmly on her textbook as they kept walking.

“It’s not a terrible idea,” Jac chimed in as she walked hand in hand with Fred. “If neither of them back down, this bet is never going to end.”

“Correction,” Fred said. “The bet ends no matter what at the end of the day, it would just be slightly underwhelming if after all this and me breaking my arm, they  drew .”

“What say you, Knightly?” Thomas asked then, bringing attention to her. “Are you willing to give Potter half of your hard-earned victory?”            

“I want the bet to be done with,” Cressida answered Thomas. She had bigger problems to deal with now. “I don’t care who wins anymore.”            

Fred frowned. “You’re taking all the fun out of it now you’re not fighting each other.”            

“Knightly and I don’t fight each other all the time,” James said diplomatically.            

The whole group laughed in response. 

“Yes you do,” Felix said.          

“It’s what you two do best,” Molly added.            

Cressida and James avoided looking at one another. Arguing wasn't all they were good at, it seemed.           

They rounded the next corner and Cressida stopped when she saw Margo up ahead, waiting in line for Transfiguration beside Jeremiah Vonce. The two girls caught each other’s eyes and then Margo’s gaze shifted to James standing next to Cressida. She turned away again after that, pretending as though she hadn’t seen the group in the first place.             

She definitely knows, Cressida thought fleetingly.           

The door to Transfiguration opened and the previous class started spilling out.            

Fred’s face lit up with an idea. “Day’s not over despite you two being buzzkills about it, which means technically we can still set tasks until one of you eventually says no.”

“What could you possibly get them to do in the five seconds before we go into class?” Molly asked.

“Knightly,” Fred grinned putting an arm around her shoulders. “Go and ask out Fabian Farley to the next Hogsmeade weekend.”            

“What?” She asked turning to look at him as they joined the back of the line waiting to go into class.             

“It’s the season of love, after all, and Fabian has a crush on you,” Fred explained.            

“He told Rose the other day after your newspaper meetings,” Thomas interjected.           

“So, you have to go and ask him to Hogsmeade with us or you lose the bet,” Fred continued.                   

“Like a date?” She asked.         

“If you want it to be,” Fred teased.

Cressida glanced at James beside her quickly. He was staring straight ahead with a hard-to-read expression. 

“Come on, it’s just you and James left. One of you has to give up eventually,” Jac rolled her eyes.

“I dread to think who they’re going to make James ask to Hogsmeade if Cressida goes through with hers,” Molly chimed in.

Fabian came out of his Transfiguration lesson right in front of them and gave a timid wave to Cressida before he turned and blended in with the crowd of students. Fred leant down so his face was directly beside Cressida’s, pointing out Fabian as he walked further way from them with his slightly too big shoes. “Now’s your chance, Knightly.”            

Cressida sighed deeply, her jaw clenching. “No.”          

The three boys stared at her in mild surprise. “No?” Thomas repeated.            

“No,” she said again, casting a quick look at James. He was smiling now, ever so subtly. “I’m not asking Fabian or anyone else on a date for a stupid bet.”            

With that, Cressida linked arms with Felix and Jac and pulled them through the hall away from the group and into the classroom past McGonagall greeting students in the doorway.            

“Congrats, Potter. I guess that means you win!” Fred said slapping James on the back in celebration.        

“Yeah, I guess I did,” James replied, his eyes following after Cressida.           

“Thank Merlin, that’s over,” McGonagall muttered gratefully under her breath as the others entered her classroom.  

“You let him win,” Felix whispered as he was swept away.         

“Shut up,” Cressida grumbled back.

 

Sunday 17th March 2019

            
There was a creak in the floorboard and Cressida opened her eyes with a sigh, having not been asleep anyway. It was the early hours of the morning, barely past three.            

Her bed curtains rustled slightly and any bystander might have thought the wind blew them apart, but Cressida sat up straight knowing better.           

James discarded the invisibility cloak and cast a quiet silencing spell over her bed.             

“Alright, Knightly,” he whispered, clambering over to plonk himself down indelicately next to her.           

She would have been lying if she told him she hadn’t been thinking of him, or the kiss, or what happens next. She would have also been lying if she said she wasn’t glad he still turned up in her bed. But if she had said she didn’t know how to act around him anymore, she would have been telling the truth.          

She’d thought a lot about her words with Sirius and what he said to do. She’d thought a lot about telling her friends that she maybe did fancy Potter... that she definitely fancied Potter… but every time she debated that she quickly tucked it away in a box in the back of her mind again. She still didn’t know why she couldn’t just admit it.          

“James,” she said quietly, as if just speaking his name was a mistake.            

He rolled onto his side to face her with a mischievous grin. “Knightly.”           

“I think I might like you. Like really  like you…” She paused to take a deep breath. “And I think it might ruin me.”

James smiled back like it was inevitable. "It will. That's the way life goes for people like you. Just look at your mum."           

She gasped awake in her bed. Rasper jumped up and gave a hiss at the sudden unexpected movement and darted out of the still-closed bed curtains.           

Cressida looked to her side and found her bed empty apart from her.            

No James.          

No conversation.           

No admission.           

It hadn’t been real.            

Her bed curtains were suddenly pulled open letting in the bright light of morning. Cressida squinted her eyes at it and found Jac’s figure lurking in front of her wearing Fred’s Quidditch jersey from over the summer.         

“Why are you all red?” Jac asked, sitting on the side of her bed.            

“Bad dream.”          

“Here,” Molly said, passing her a cup of water that she filled up magically with her wand. “Drink this and start getting ready. We have to get a good breakfast in us before the Quidditch match.”            

Cressida sipped the water. “Which house am I interviewing?”            

“Arabella requested she do Hufflepuff this time,” Molly told her as she tied up her wild curls. “I didn’t have the energy to fight her on it. I figured she’d do less damage this way anyway.”           

Cressida gulped the last of her water. “Is there any way I can get out of doing the interviews today?”            

“I’ll do them!” Jac jumped in excitedly. “I’d love to be in the tent before they go on. Fred could use a little pep talk-”            

“Jamming your tongue down his throat is hardly a pep talk,” Margo chimed in from the vanity where she was doing her eyeliner.            

“Oh yeah, and when exactly do you and Vonce have a meaningful conversation instead of just making out and following each other around looking miserable?” Jac shot back.           

Margo glared at her from the reflection in the mirror.           

“Jac’s not doing the interviews,” Molly said firmly, pulling on her jeans. “That’s not her job, it’s yours.”            

“Fine,” Cressida relented, falling back into her pillows.         

Molly threw clothes on top of her as she led there as a not-too-subtle hint to start getting dressed.

 

*

            
By ten o’clock Cressida was begrudgingly trudging her way down to the Quidditch tents and was keeping an extra eye out for any sign of Arabella. That girl could always sense when something was on Cressida’s mind and the last thing she wanted that day was for Arabella to make a comment about James or anything to do with her life.            

She pulled back the fabric and stepped inside to find the usual level of chaos taking over the space. Clothes were hanging from the poles in the ceiling, people were flying around on their brooms, the chalkboard was covered in three different game strategies, and it smelled terribly of broom polish and body spray.            

“About time you showed up, Knightly.”

Cressida turned towards her name and found Fred coming out of the showers with a towel around his waist and neck. Thomas followed close behind, his towel wrapped around his head much in the same way her mother did after a shower, and his towel went all the way up to his armpits. She decided against questioning it and hastily averted her eye line.            

“Don’t be shy,” Fred teased as they came up to her. “You should be so lucky to witness the male body in such pristine condition.”            

Malcom Havoc came up behind the taller boy as he showed off his muscles dramatically and towel-whipped him. Fred quickly ran after him to do the same. Thomas stood in front of Cressida still, removing the towel from his head and shaking out his curls like a wet dog.           

“If you’re here for the interviews, you’re about fifteen minutes early,” he explained. “The match got pushed back. Apparently, one of the Hufflepuff players was sick so they had to find a replacement on short notice.”             

Cressida glanced around the trashed changing room. “Is James about?”          

Thomas frowned, looking around as well. “He came down with us but I haven’t seen him since. Maybe try the showers? He spends ages in there trying to get his hair just right.”           

The last thing Cressida needed was to see James stepping out of a shower half-naked.      

“Wood, I need your help reading your scrawl of a diagram for our backup plan!” Aslow yelled from across the room. He was half-dressed with his Quidditch robe over his boxers but was still wearing his shoes as if ready to go at any moment. He had a quizzical look as he stood in front of the blackboard covered in scribbles and drawings Cressida couldn't even imagine being able to understand.            

Thomas looked thrilled to be needed for his expertise and hurried off.           

She sighed and looked aimlessly around the room again. Maybe trying to talk to James before the game was a mistake, and Aslow seemed too preoccupied to do a pre-game interview. If she was going to leave without being spotted she had to do it now while everyone was distracted.

She turned quickly and started heading for the exit but just before she reached it, the opening in the tarp was pulled apart and James now stood in her way. He smiled instantly when he saw her. “Alright, Knightly?”            

Cressida glanced down and found he was almost completely dressed apart from his jersey which was draped around his neck. She forced her eyes away from his torso and tried not to notice how James did in fact have the beginnings of a six-pack          

“Come here to wish my luck?” He asked when she didn’t say anything.           

Her eyes snapped up to meet his. She knew she had to get it out of the way eventually but she didn’t imagine it would be this difficult to even think of the words.            

She moved her attention to the dirt-covered ground instead. “I really need to talk to you about something.”           

James glanced around and yanked her sideways behind one of the sturdy poles keeping the tent up. She realised they were just about hidden from the view of the others behind it. “Is it about the kiss?” He asked, leaning down to her.

They hadn’t spoken about it or been alone since the kiss in the cupboard and, although they were both getting rather good at pretending like nothing was out of the ordinary between them by now, she knew one of them would crack eventually. She just didn’t expect it to be her.           

“I just- I just think maybe…” She gulped as her eyes trailed up to his lips. Her neck bristled and tried to refocus herself. She looked up at his eyes instead. That wasn’t much better. Why couldn’t she even talk  to him anymore?             

“Is everything alright, Knightly?” James asked concerned.            

“No,” she said truthfully, feeling redness creeping up her cheeks. “We keep… you know, kissing.”

“I’m aware. I was there for most of them,” he said, moving that inch closer as if testing whether they were going to do it again.

She punched him in the arm and he jumped back. “Could you be serious for one second?!”

James gained a smug smirk, even as he rubbed the new sore spot on his arm. “It’s my middle name, after all.”

“No, James,” Cressida said, her tone firm as she looked anywhere but at him. “What I’m trying to say is-”

“If you’re worried about the others, I haven’t told them yet,” he interrupted her. “Not even Fred and Thomas. I figured we should tell them together.”

“ Together ?” She squeaked. “Why would we do that?”

“Well, we didn’t really get a big show like Fred and Jac did but I figured they’d still need to know what’s going on between us.”

Cressida wasn’t even sure what was going on between them at the moment, and this was doing anything but helping. “No, James, I think-”

“Right, lads!” Lucas Aslow said loudly with a clap, demanding all their attention and interrupting Cressida just as she was finally about to get her words out. The two of them peered around the pole as Aslow stood on a bench in the middle of the room. He was fully dressed now, unlike the majority of the team. “It’s my last year as captain and you’re all dead meat if we’re not in the final match of the year so get your game faces on and meet me in ten for a huddle- and for Merlin’s sake will you lot get some clothes on you. It’s starting to look like a burlesque show in here, there are children present!”

All eyes turned to Rose sitting on the benches as she tightened her bootlaces. “Half of you lot are related to me, I really couldn’t care less,” she said to the room.

They all rushed to finish getting ready after that. 

“Potter, there you are!” Fred yelled, spotting him despite his tangled-up position. His jersey had gotten stuck on his headgear awkwardly and uncomfortably. “I need help over here!” 

“Be there now!” James called back. He moved back behind the pole and kissed Cressida on the lips quickly before she even realised what was happening. “See you out there, Knightly,” he grinned as he moved back. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a bloody good game today.”

And with that, James pulled his jersey on over his torso and went out to help Fred.

Cressida leant back against the pole with her head in her hands. This was pointless, she thought to herself. James had already decided they were a couple. She was doomed.

“Let’s get our interview done, Knightly,” Aslow said, walking past her with his broom in his hand. She lifted her head at his voice, not that he even paused to notice she looked less than thrilled. “I want it written down just how I plan to win this thing and get that trophy at the end of the year.”

Cressida sighed and obediently followed after him, her quill pen at the ready, accepting her fate in more ways than one.

 

*

Fifteen minutes later, Madam Hooch was blowing her whistle to alert everyone the game was about to start. Cressida lingered near the bottom of the stands, her arms crossed and her extensive notes from Aslow stored safely in her jeans pocket.            

Jac stood nearby, chewing on a sugar quill and looking chipper as usual as they awaited the two teams to come out of the tents and onto the pitch.          

She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how to resolve her new problem with Potter. Even as Aslow was drivelling about strategies and new manoeuvres, Cressida’s eyes kept wandering off within the tent and seeking out James. Aslow didn’t notice. He was blinkered when it came to this sort of thing.             

Regardless of the distraction, James was posing on her everyday life now, she got the notes done with some coherency and made it out without another surprise kiss from James.            

“Why do you seem so narky?” Jac asked Cressida, bringing her out of her thoughtful staring. She had clearly picked up on Cressida’s less-than-joyful mood but saw no sense in dampening her own chipperness in spite of it. “Did the interviews not go well?”           

“They were all half naked and Aslow wouldn’t shut up about his three backup plan manoeuvres.”            

“You saw Fred without a shirt?” Jac asked, her eyes widening.            

“Him and about half the team.”           

Jac bit down on her sugar quill. “Did he have a six-pack? I hear James has one now from all their training. Apparently, Thomas let it slip to Felix in Ancient Runes. How it came up in conversation I have no idea-”          

“I didn’t really get chance to stare at your boyfriend's chest, Jac,” Cressida said bluntly. “I didn’t stare at any of them as a matter of fact.”            

Jac gained a sly grin. “I bet you stared at James-”           

Cressida shoved her best friend to the side as the teams started coming out of the tents.            

Jac quickly recovered herself and ran up ahead to meet the Gryffindor team halfway. She instantly wrapped her hands around Fred’s neck, pulling him down to plant a kiss on his cheek and wish him good luck like any good girlfriend would.            

Cressida turned her attention away, pretending she hadn’t noticed. How Jac could be so open with her affection towards Fred, she had no idea.            

As the team continued to pass, she noticed Thomas was back to his usual nervous self as he approached the field with his broom in hand. James tightened the straps of his gloves with his teeth, his other hand holding onto his broom. It was a new one. All three of the boys had new brooms, in fact. Nimbus 2020’s spray painted red. She suspected they had been a Christmas present. Under normal circumstances, she would have been there to watch them open them. Her stomach sank even lower at the reminder of how her Christmas had actually been spent.

Jac came back up beside her with a lovestruck sigh as she stared off at Fred running onto the field. Cressida rolled her eyes and dragged Jac to sit in the stands with the rest of their friends.            

As the two girls climbed the steps, Cressida’s ears pricked up as she heard familiar voices arguing, and following the sound she realised it was coming from just behind her. 

It was Margo and Jeremiah making their way to their seats in the middle of the stands as well. They seemed to be in a heated debate about something but as she and Jac kept climbing, they were getting too far away for Cressida to make out what it was about. No matter what it was, it looked like Margo was losing based on how she was flailing her arms around while Vonce walked beside her with a deep frown.

Jac didn’t seem to notice as they took their seats beside Felix and Molly at the very top. Albus sat with them this time, though he didn’t look pleased to be there.

Cressida took the spare seat next to him. “Where’s Scorpius?”            

Albus gave a low grumble. “Over there with the others,” he said quietly. Cressida looked over her shoulder to see the younger boy nestled between Goyle and Valentina. Thane was there too, but his attention was on a book rather than the game at hand. Scorpius looked even less thrilled to be up there than Albus did to be down with them. “His dad’s really been pushing him to get in good with that lot. Apparently, they had a big party over Christmas and their families all agreed they could use each other.”           

 

Cressida frowned as she turned back around. “So he’s going to listen to them?”            

Albus crossed his arms over his chest. “He’s convinced if he doesn’t, they’ll report it back to his dad. He says they’re just looking out for him… helping with the bullying, sort of thing… but if you ask me,  we  were handling it just fine on our own.”            

They watched as the two teams took off on their brooms at the sound of a sharp while blow.             

“GRYFFINDOR IN POSSESSION OF THE QUAFFLE. A STRONG START TO THE GAME!”           

“What does Rose think about it?” Cressida asked quietly as everyone else took to enjoying the show.            

Albus was quiet for a moment. “She’s been a bit preoccupied lately. I mean… she’s the most popular girl in our year, what with Quidditch and the newspaper. Plus, it helps she brags about knowing you and James and everything else… she hasn’t really had time for us since coming back from Christmas.”

“HAVOCK DOES A GOOD THREE-POINT-TURN FAKE-OUT WITH THE QUAFFLE THERE. HE BETTER WATCH OUT FOR THOSE BLUDGERS THOUGH. CLOVER MACMILLAN IS NOT GOING EASY ON THEM!”

“Why would she brag about knowing me?” Cressida asked after Gryffindor had scored. James and the rest of her cousins, she got, but she was a no one. She wasn’t worth bragging about knowing.

“Everyone’s heard the stories from before we started Hogwarts,” Albus answered. “They reckon you’re the only person who could actually beat my idiotic brother at his own games and I reckon they’re right… plus, some of them are scared of you-”

“Scared of me?” Cressida asked confused.

Albus looked a bit guilty as he faced her. “Well, I mean, you’re a Slytherin who’s really good at being a Slytherin… sometimes the stories get twisted from person to person.”

Cressida nodded distantly as she turned her eyes back out to the game. She should’ve suspected as much.

“WEASLEY- ROSE WEASLEY, THAT IS- GOT THE QUAFFLE NOW. LET'S SEE IF THEY CAN GET A THIRD SCORE IN!”

The crowd cheered as they did just that. Rose threw her arms up in celebration as the crowd roared.

Albus huffed and sank down in his seat slightly.            

Hufflepuff scored a second later thanks to Clover Macmillan.

 

*            

Turns out Aslow’s three backup manoeuvre plan had been genius and caused them to win the game. At every turn, the Gryffindors were in perfect positioning and had scored six goals to Hufflepuff’s two. Not to mention, the Hufflepuff team’s late stand-in was their goalie and he was severely out of his depth, meaning it wasn’t hard for the other team to score once they were close enough.            

Everyone could practically feel the Gryffindor team getting more and more excited with every goal they scored while the Hufflepuffs, ever the most pleasant house, tried not to show their frustration on their faces.           

Fred was amazing as the Gryffindor Keeper, and the three times the Hufflepuff team managed to get close enough to try and score, he batted it away with a huge celebration from the crowd at his showmanship in doing so.           

Cressida thought that Fred had even more stage presence while playing Quidditch than James, and that had seemed impossible until this moment. Even while both teams were busy up the other end of the pitch, Fred would be performing backflips or neat tricks or cheering on his team with fun little rhymes.            

At one point he had all the stands singing along with his rhyme from the year prior.            

‘ Who’s the best?           

Who’s better than all the rest?          

GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR!’           

The Slytherins did not remember this rhyme with fondness and so did not eagerly sing along like the rest of the student body. Albus especially seemed to have grown sour-faced. It didn’t help that Georgia Lee was blasting it into her speaker every time Gryffindor scored.            

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Felix complained after the second time. “She’s a Hufflepuff, surely that’s going against her own team?”           

“She goes with the winning team,” Molly said as she and Jac shared a bag of ice mice. “Doing whatever it takes to get the crowd going is what makes her good at this.”            

Cressida suspected her House might be slightly annoyed about that in the long run.         

 

Eventually, after over an hour and a half had passed, it came down to Thomas and the Hufflepuff’s Seeker racing for the Snitch, and Hufflepuff’s caught it despite them being too many points behind to win. Cressida suspected they just wanted to put an end to the game knowing there was no hope left for an underdog victory.

That was when James’ showmanship came out to rival Fred’s. Both boys broke away from their positions and started racing around the edge of the pitch, letting out loud lion-esque roars in celebration before Georgia could even announce the winners formally.            

“GRYFFINDOR WINS THE MATCH. THEY GO THROUGH TO FIGHT RAVENCLAW AT THE END OF THE YEAR!” The crowd continued to cheer as both teams landed their brooms on solid ground again. “AND A GOOD FIGHT FROM HUFFLEPUFF, JUST GRYFFINDOR’S DAY FOR VICTORY, I SUPPOSE!”            

There was less enthusiastic cheering from the Hufflepuff stands across from them. Lana, however, had a tiny sign held up in her arms, cheering on Rose. No one around her seemed to mind.            

On the pitch below, Gryffindor was in a huddle soaking in the victory.              

“Bet they’re going to have a party?” Felix asked, watching them.            

“Fred said they’d already ordered the booze before the game,” Jac said. “If they had lost, they were just going to drink it in despair.”            

“Are you going?” Molly asked, looking at Jac and Cressida specifically.            

“Well… Fred did invite me if they won,” Jac said. It was still blurry if Slytherins were allowed to victory parties after last year. She wasn’t sure if her being Fred’s girlfriend changed that fact. “Did James say anything to you, Cressie?”         

Cressida’s eyes were still on the pitch. Clover Macmillan had crossed over to the Gryffindor team and was shaking their hands in congratulations. “I don’t feel like a party.”            

Thomas had been lifted onto Aslow’s shoulders as the team started heading back to the changing rooms. Even now they were still chanting.          

‘ Who’s the best?             

Who’s better than all the rest?           

GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR!’           

Cressida got up and started leaving without another word. Molly was quick to follow her lead. “We should try and beat the crowd,” she said as she ushered the others to follow them. “Feels like it might be chaotic around here for the next few hours.”            

Albus didn’t move from his spot. He was glancing back over his shoulder at Scorpius with the other group. “Here,” Felix said, passing him an unopened pack of Bertie Botts. “Go and offer them some. Might give Scorpius a chance to slip away with you.”           

Albus broke into a grateful smile. “Cheers, Finnigan.”

The four other Slytherins started departing back into the castle. As they moved down the steps, Cressida picked up on the familiar sounds of arguing again. At the bottom of the stands were Margo and Vonce, their heated debate still going by the look of them. That was until Vonce said something that rendered Margo speechless and he walked away from her completely.            

Cressida lingered a few steps above them watching as the others continued on. If they had noticed Margo was upset, they didn’t acknowledge it as they passed.           

Margo remained stood on the bottom step, her head falling into her hands as she burst into tears once Vonce was gone, not caring that people coming down from the stands above were bumping into her as they tried to depart after the end of the match.            

With a blubbering sniff, Margo lifted her watering eyes and spotted Cressida watching her. Cressida, unsure of what to say or do, turned and followed her friends into the castle.

 

*

            
Margo never returned to their dorm room. Cressida had waited up for her. She’d hoped the catch the girl alone and talk about what she’d seen of her and James under the guise of asking if she was okay. She knew that was probably deceitful, but it would give her a good reason to isolate them both so they couldn’t be interrupted. Plus, a small part of her did feel bad that Margo seemed to be having such a hard time. Why she cared after all the shit Margo had pulled, she wasn’t sure.         

Either way, Cressida had waited up for her regardless. Once it had passed midnight quite significantly, she felt like giving up and just trying to get some sleep but then there was a creak in the floorboard and she poked her head out of her curtains hoping to find Margo’s face there in the darkness but it wasn’t Margo at all.            

A pair of disembodied Converse trainers were making their way through the room.            

Cressida cursed instantly, disappearing back behind her curtains.

The invisible force briefly bumped into the chest of drawers before making it to Cressida’s bed, where James revealed himself and sent a silencing spell over them. This time it wasn't a dream.

“You never came to the party,” James said instantly. He’d undoubtedly had a few fire whiskies at the party but he didn’t seem too drunk to function. Just a bit tipsy.

Cressida brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them. “Didn’t know I was invited.”

James scoffed. “’ Course you were. Jac was there with Freddie. I think even Finnigan showed up at one point. You missed Wood performing tricks on his broom in the common room and all.”

Cressida averted her eyes. “Wasn’t in the mood.”

James assessed her and even though he’d had a few drinks, he could tell something was off. “You alright, Knightly?”

She glanced up at him. “James,” she started slowly. “What do you think we are, exactly?”

James thought for a moment. “We’re James and Knightly. Same as always.”

“Right,” she said. “But earlier you said about telling the others about us.”

“Well, yeah,” James said reaching over and grabbing her hand. “Don’t you want to tell them?”

Cressida winced, looking away from him again. She couldn’t bring herself to say the words, or  any  words, it seemed.  

He shuffled a bit closer. “Knightly, I can tell something’s on your mind. Just talk to me.”           

‘I can’t anymore’, she thought pathetically.            

When she produced no answer, he narrowed his brows. “Is this about us?” He asked. He paused for a moment. “Is it about the kiss? Do you regret doing it?”            

“No,” she said honestly.            

James tried to hide the relief on his face. “Okay, good,” he said, his voice completely calm and cool. “So, what’s the problem?”            

“I don’t think we should tell the others.”            

He grew confused again. “But then… how do you want to handle this?”           

“I don’t want to handle this,” Cressida said, removing her hand from his. “Not right now. I don’t know how to handle it.”           

“Well, I don’t exactly have a lot of experience in the matter,” James replied. “I think it just boils down to if we like each other or not.”            

“There’s more to it than that, James,” Cressida sighed frustrated. “It’s more complicated than that. It has to be.”           

“That’s all it was for Jac and Fred-”          

“We’re not Jac and Fred,” Cressida said, finally looking at him. “I’m not like Jac.”          

“Good, because I don’t want to date Jac,” James joked lightly.

“But you want a girlfriend, right?” Cressida went on desperately. “And Jac is what a girlfriend  should  be. That’s not me. I’m not going to be anyone’s sodding girlfriend. You need something I can’t give you despite how I might feel. I'm just not ready for all of it yet!” 

James sat up straighter. He was quiet for a long moment. Any sign he’d been drinking was now gone from his demeanour. “I think we keep kissing each other for a reason,” he said quietly. He met her eyes again. “And I like you, Cressida. I have for a while. No sense denying it now.… the question is… do you like me?”

Cressida’s heart threatened to shatter into a thousand little pieces. Her throat dried up like the Sahara Dessert. She wanted to say something. She wanted to give him the answer he needed but all she could do was stare pathetically back at him like a deer in headlights.

Her mother's words rang out in her brain.  ‘Run away. Don’t get hurt.’

James chewed on his cheek as he broke the eye contact, feeling the silence had started to become painful. “When you have an answer, you know where to find me,” he said, and just like that he was under the cloak and gone again without a trace.

Notes:

‘Narky’ is slang for snappy or in a mood for those who don’t know :)

Chapter 87: Fourth Year: Why Don’t You Like Me

Monday 18th March 2019

 

Cressida didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. She didn’t even move from her spot on the bed, staring at the space Potter had been telling her he liked her.  James actually liked her.

All those times people had told her hadn’t been exaggerations or jokes or a way to get a rise out of them. He felt something for her. He’d admitted it so freely like there was nothing wrong with it. Like he wasn’t scared of what came after.

There was no coming back from that.

Once the sun had begun to rise over the castle, Cressida heard the familiar hustle and bustle of the other three girls waking up for the day.

Moving for the first time in hours, she slid through her own bed curtains and crossed the room to enter Jac’s. She was stretching her arms above her head when Cressida joined her.

There was a napkin with a drawing on her bedside cabinet that Cressida had never seen before. “What’s this?” She asked, picking it up. It was a very detailed picture of her drawn in ink.

Jac smiled fondly, looking at the napkin in Cressida’s hands with a blush on her cheeks. “Fred drew it for me at the party last night. It’s good, don’t you think?”

It was far more realistic than she’d expected. Fred had real talent. He'd even drawn a tiny heart in the top left corner.

The lump that had been in Cressida’s throat all night had begun to make her feel sick. She looked to Jac. “How did you know Fred was worth it?”

Jac narrowed her brow like the question itself was ridiculous. “You what?”

“How did you know he was the right choice for a boyfriend?”

Jac considered this for a moment. “He just was. He was always there and he made me feel butterflies in my stomach and go all nervous whenever we’d stand too close together. Plus, it’s no argument he’s incredibly hot,” she laughed. Cressida didn’t laugh. Her expression was deadly serious. Jac sensed the seriousness and rethought her words slightly. “I don’t know, I guess, it just made sense,” she finished.

“Weren’t you scared?” Cressida asked. “About it all going tits up?”

Jac looked down at the drawing again. “Not really. If it was meant to be, it’d just be. Once I got over the initial nerves of it all, it was as simple as that.”

“What drivel are you two talking about this early?” Molly asked coming out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth. “Normally, Knightly’s still drooling into her pillow at this hour.”

“Cressie was asking what makes Fred a good first boyfriend,” Jac answered.

“There’s no such thing as a  good  first boyfriend,” Molly said matter-of-factly. She returned to the bathroom to discard of her toothbrush. “You just get lucky or unlucky with who you pick first. Good guys can turn bad and bad guys can surprisingly be good."

“Which one was Felix?” Cressida asked. 

Molly came back out and stood in front of the vanity. “Felix was neither,” she said pulling her wild curls back into a bun. “He’s better as a friend and he’s going to stay that way from now on.”

“But there must have been something that attracted you to him in the first place,” Jac pressed.

Molly paused, assessing her reflection in the mirror. She seemed annoyed with a new pimple on her cheek. "He made me laugh,” she said finally. She turned to face Cressida as she started pulling her uniform on. “Why are you asking about boys anyway?”

Jac gasped in excitement, turning to her as well as if only just realising there might be a reason for this conversation. “Wait, do you like someone?! Is it Potter?!”

Molly scoffed before Cressida could even react. “ Please . As much as we joke, if Cressida did start fancying James it’d be the end of us all.”

Jac frowned. “Why would you say that?”

Cressida’s eyes moved silently between the two girls as the conversation progressed.

“Well, for starters, they argue and push each other’s buttons too much to go around acting all gooey like you and Fred,” she started. “Plus, James would want to make a big show of it, which she would hate.” Both girls looked to Cressida for confirmation. She silently and reluctantly gave a small nod. “Not to mention every girl in Hogwarts would be out for murder, you barely survived getting with Fred in the beginning," she reminded Jac. "And finally, Merlin forbid they ever broke up,” Molly went on, packing her books for the day into her bag. “The whole group would basically go up in flames.”

Cressida sank back into the cushions but it felt like her stomach had sunk down through the floorboards into the murkiest depth of the Black Lake. Molly was right in every word she said. That was confirmation Cressida had done the right thing by not answering James. They would just go up in flames anyway.

The girls finished getting ready for the day without much input from Cressida after that.

 

*

 

After the conversation in the morning only confirming what Cressida had been telling herself, she stuck to only going to lessons or hiding out in her dorm room in fear of running into James. She didn’t have the stomach or willpower to face him given the current situation. She just needed a day or two to figure out what she would say to him. Whether she was going to listen to what everyone was telling her or the secret bubbling up in the back of her throat. Whether she’d lie to protect the both of them or tell him the truth and threaten ruining them.

Luckily for Cressida, Molly had sprung another impromptu revision session on them as soon as lessons finished meaning her time was going to be taken up for the next couple of hours regardless. Felix and Jac had both slumped together with discontent groans. They hated when Molly spurred a revision session on them out of nowhere. This was one of the only times Cressida had been grateful for Molly’s vigilant studying.

They’d taken up residency in their alcove and remained there with Molly residing over them as if she was a professor herself but after two hours of non-stop work, even Cressida was growing restless of something else to do.

“Do you reckon the Gryffin-gang are up to anything this afternoon?” Felix asked pretending to write down ancient runes but instead doing a doodling of a cartoon-ish looking wizard with a cool staff.

“Fred didn’t mention anything to me when I saw him earlier,” Jac answered from where she was prying Groot from Rasper’s hold. “I think they’re just training for Quidditch.”

Cressida reached over and took her cat away from eating Jac’s pet for the fourth time that week.

“Would you lot stop concerning yourselves with what my cousins are doing and focus on getting good grades at the end of this year?” Molly lectured them. She passed by Felix and grabbed his parchment to assess his work before swatting him on the head with it. “This is not what I told you to do!”            

“I’m bored, Weasley!” Felix argued. “I know it all anyway so sitting here making flashcards is hardly going to help me.”             

Molly huffed. “Fine. If we get ten more inches of parchment done, you lot can run off and I won’t force you to do any more revision for the rest of the week. Deal?”              

Felix grinned as Molly handed him his parchment back. "You drive a hard bargain, Weasley, but it’s doable.”        

Cressida watched as Felix started completing his work with efficient ease. If he had done that in the first place, he could have been finished half an hour ago. 

Molly rolled her eyes and gathered her books into her arms. “Well, now this whole ordeal is done with, I have Astrology homework to try and figure out all on my own. None of you are any help with that subject, unfortunately.”             

“You should ask Margo for help,” Cressida said as Molly sat down on the sofa opposite.       

She paused, looking at her confused. “Why would I ask Margo? She barely speaks to us anymore.”             

Cressida shrugged. “She’s the best at Astrology. We’re all shit at it and our grades are starting to show that.”     

“She does have a good point with exams coming up soon,” Jac said thoughtfully.          

“I don’t care how good at Astrology she is, I am not talking to that cow,” Felix said resolutely.        

“We can figure it out for ourselves if we put our minds together,” Molly said surely. “No need to involve Margo at all. In fact, I think I have some of Victoire’s old notes in the hexagonal room. She gave them to me over Christmas, those should help-”          

“I can go get them for you,” Cressida offered, hoping for an easy way to get out of homework for at least a few minutes. Unlike Felix, she couldn’t just do it without thinking, especially when she had other things spiralling around in her mind. She'd just pop up to the room and come straight back, there was no risk of running into Potter if he was at quidditch practice like Jac said anyway.             

Molly didn’t glance up from her books. “Sure, we can make a start on it as a group then.” Felix gave another dramatic groan and threw himself back on the sofa. Molly looked up then. “They’re in a blue book on the window shelf, you’ll recognise Victoire’s writing on the front.”            

Cressida gratefully got to her feet and headed out of the common room.

She’d just joined the staircase on her way to retrieve the book for Molly when she saw Margo hastily walking through the halls.

She was alone. In fact, this was the first time Cressida had even caught a glimpse of Margo since the Quidditch match.      

She quickly changed course away from the secret room to go after Margo instead. Now may be her only chance and it’d prove a good distraction for a little while longer. A way to set the record straight, as it were.             

She tracked Margo all the way up to where Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom was and rolled her eyes at how predictable it was. Fortunately for Cressida, Margo had stopped momentarily to discuss something with Professor Sinistra, giving Cressida the chance to sneak ahead and enter the unused bathroom.       

There had only been two girls in there before she entered and they’d only been Second years.    

“Do you guys mind sodding off for a minute or two? I need this bathroom for something important,” Cressida had told them hastily.           

“But we were here first!” One of them complained.         

Cressida knew she was losing time for her to have the upper hand. 

“Who are you anyway, demanding we leave like that?” The second one said confidently.        

Cressida turned her grey eyes on them. “Cressida Knightly.”

They both went slack faced. “Oh, sorry. We’ll get out of your way,” the first one said timidly, dragging her friends out of the bathroom with her.

Cressida watched them hurry out of the bathroom. It appeared that what Albus had said was true. Some of the younger years  were  scared of her. She didn’t want them to be. She hadn’t even meant to use it to her advantage at that moment.             

She was forced to put that thought to one side as she saw the door being pushed open. She darted into a nearby stall and waited for the tell-tale sign it was Margo who had entered.         

Watching through the gap in the cubicle, Cressida watched Margo go up to the sink and start touching up her make-up. No one else had entered behind her.         

Knowing the likelihood of them being alone for much longer was slim, she stepped out into the bathroom.

Margo jumped at Cressida’s reflection in the mirror behind her and she turned so abruptly she smeared her lipgloss across her cheek and was now agitatedly trying to wipe it away with her sleeve. “God Godric, Cressida. Why are you lurking in the bathroom?”

Cressida noticed the mascara stains under her eyes. She’d been crying again. “Why’re you upset?”

Margo rolled her eyes and turned back to the mirror, fixing the makeup. “I’ve got stuff going on… not that it’s any of your concern.”

Cressida moved to stand beside her in the mirror but couldn’t bare to look at her own reflection. “Is this about Vonce?”

“How did you-” She stopped, already knowing the answer. “You saw us at the match.”

“And practically every other time,” Cressida admitted. “Plus, you stopped coming to newspaper meetings and that was a dead give away something was wrong.”

Margo scoffed, reapplying her lipgloss. “Surprised you noticed. Thought I was invisible to you all now.”

Cressida folded her arms. “After what you did to Molly and Felix, is it any surprise?”

“I did what I thought was fair!” Margo defended herself. “I thought Molly was- she made it sound like she was unhappy with Finnigan. I didn’t know what was going on in her head, can you blame me?” She turned to glare at Cressida. “I was trying to stick up for her. I was… I was scared I was losing her completely.”

Cressida narrowed her brow. “And shutting her away from the rest of us was going to solve that, was it?” Margo didn’t answer and instead chewed the inside of her cheek. 

"I just wanted to be like it used to be when we were kids... before boys came along and ruined everything," she said eventually.

" You were jealous Molly got a boyfriend before you, is that it?" Cressida countered. Margo averted her eyes again. "Or were you just jealous she didn't have time to be your one and only  best friend  anymore ?"

Margo took a deep breath in. "I just missed her," she said quietly. "Is that so much of a crime?"

Cressida thought this was perhaps the most honest Margo had ever been with her. She knew Margo and Molly had been close before Hogwarts, but based on Margo’s reaction maybe Cressida underestimated it. She knew she’d never react this way about Jac and here Margo was acting like she and Molly had broken up. Maybe being childhood best friends was different to being normal best friends, Cressida reasoned. It not like Cressida had any experience in long term friendships.

For what reason she didn’t know, she decided to take pity on her and give her one last chance to make up for everything she’d done and said. “You know, if you just apologised to Felix, they’d probably hear you out-”

“And come back to a group of people that hate my guts?” Margo cut her off with a scowl, her barrier back up. “Let’s be honest, Cressida, I lost Molly a long time ago when you and Jac came around. She didn’t need me anymore. I wasn’t her only friend anymore. Her making up with her pathetic family despite being in Slytherin just solidified the deal.”

Cressida narrowed her brow in annoyance, her short burst of sympathy gone. “Her family treated you like one of their own.”

Margo packed up her makeup. “You think getting a few invites to Christmas and birthdays counts as being one of them? Honestly, it means nothing for them to do that stuff. They collect stragglers like trophies-”

“They took you in. They gave you gifts and loved you!” Cressida snapped, offended on their behalf. On behalf of Molly and Arthur and every other Weasley and Potter she’d had the pleasure of meeting.

Margo took her bag into her hands and turned to face Cressida with a blank expression. “Not everyone is as desperate for a big loving family as you, Cressida. I didn’t need the Weasleys and they don’t need me taking up extra room in their already cramped house. Now I’m not friends with Molly anymore I’m out of the mix… and if you and James ever go in the crapper, you will be too.”

Cressida rushed forward and blocked the door before Margo could escape out of it. “No, that’s bullshit.”

“See,” Margo said. “You wouldn’t react this way if you didn’t need them.” She sidestepped around Cressida and opened the door regardless of her being in the way. “I won’t tell anyone what I saw… but if I were you I’d think twice about this thing with Potter unless you want to risk losing it all. James doesn’t do anything by half.”

Cressida's hands fell limp at her side. Her eyes trailed around the empty bathroom until it landed on her reflection staring back at her. 

She hadn’t accomplished anything or set the record straight at all. In fact, now Cressida just felt worse.

 

Friday 22nd March 2019

 

Cressida felt like the conversation in the bathroom was the final nail in the coffin but she should have expected James to come looking for his answer. He’d basically kidnapped her on her way to Herbology first thing Tuesday morning.

“You’re avoiding me,” he said straight to the point.

“It’s only been two days. I’ve had homework.”

“I know you’re  going  to avoid me then.”

“You don’t know everything I’m going to do,” she argued.

“Don’t I?” James scoffed. “We’ve done this once already, Knightly and pattern dictates it’s going to happen again.”

Cressida's jaw clenched. “Oh, you’re so sure I’m going to just throw myself at you now?”

"Every other girl does, why are you the only one that won't?!" He complained.

She glared up at him, anger and jealousy flaring in her chest at the mere thought. "Because you're a pompous twit, that's why! They just don't have the smarts to realise it yet!"

James met her eyes with that familiar look and her throat closed up once more as the butterflies took over her stomach. It appeared even during an argument the new tension between them couldn't be outweighed. It seemed as though James was struggling with a similar issue as he checked no one could catch them, even just talking like this. 

“You have to give me an answer eventually, Knightly," he said leaning over her, just close enough to tempt her.

She kept eye contact and bit the inside of her cheek to distract her thoughts. One of them had to move, she told herself, and if this was a test of willpower she had to be the one to do it. 

Cressida didn’t say anything as she pushed herself up straight turned and walked off ahead. She knew he was right, of course, but she still wasn’t sure what answer to give that would be best for everyone. She didn't know which answer would be better for her own sanity.

Since then, Cressida went about trying to pretend like nothing had even happened but with a few more boundaries in place than before while she thought. Boundaries that should have been there all along to prevent this, she convinced herself.             

Cressida ensured that she and James were never alone.           

That they were never standing too close.           

There was no touching. No lingering together in a hallway. No stolen glances.

And  definitely  no kissing.

However, it did have a few minor setbacks.             

Both of them knew that something  had  happened and been stopped as abruptly as it started and so the tension of not talking about it or addressing it seemed to be bubbling in the background of every interaction ever since. It also appeared, that to make up for them no longer indulging in each other’s company, the default was now to just be snippy with each other, which was somehow better and worse at the same time. It made the urge to snog his face off at any given moment lessen at least, which she supposed was a good thing, but he still had his moments when she debated taking it all back with one look from him.

Cressida knew she shouldn’t have been the one snapping back at Potter as this new situation was her fault but he had a certain way to agitate her that no one else did, and he tugged on that talent constantly in the following days. Luckily for them, their friends were too caught up in their own lives to notice the two of them.

She’d unfortunately been sat beside him in Potions as they revised the method of brewing the shrinking solution. It also didn’t help that Jac and Fred sat opposite them, practically doing their half of the work while gazing into each other’s eyes.

“God, I’m going to baulk,” Felix said as he carried his cauldron over to his station where Molly was waiting.

“You and me both,” Cressida muttered in reply.

She dumped her cauldron on the table in front of Potter, scattering the jar of wormwood everywhere.

“Hey, watch what you’re doing!” He complained. He’d looked particularly good that day, his tie loose around his neck. His hair ruffled from concentrating in lessons. His freckles more prominent as his tan got darker with the warmer weather. It was infuriating how good he looked.

“Don't take up the whole table space with your stuff then!” Cressida replied haughtily, tearing her eyes away from him.             

“I’d have more room if I wasn’t trying to do two people’s work on my own!” He snapped back, gesturing to Fred and Jac across from them.

They both turned their glare on the couple as Fred held the daisies used for the potion out for Jac to smell.

“Whatever,” Cressida huffed returning to the work at hand. “Let’s just start this so we can get it over with.”

“Don’t know why you’re so pissy, it’s your fault we got put together.”

“Slughorn’s stupid inter-house pairing is the reason,” Cressida argued.

“Could’ve gone with Wood,” James pointed out. “Now the poor git’s stuck with Vonce.”

“You have the book that secures me a good grade.”

At that, Fred held the book up mid-kiss with Jac for Cressida to see before securing it safely back in his robe pocket.

Cressida accidentally snapped the wooden stirrer in half out of frustration. “Great, so now I’m stuck with you for nothing.”

“Oh like that’s so terrible for you,” James muttered under his breath.

Cressida turned her glare on him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

James glared back, getting alarmingly close to do so. “I’m sorry, I don’t feel like giving you a clear answer on that right now. Maybe by next week I’d have come up with something.”

Cressida’s jaw clenched as the two of them enveloped into a glaring contest. Her knee bumped into James’ and she desperately tried not to glance down at it and pretend she hadn’t noticed it all. That was when they finally caught the attention of Jac and Fred enough for them to take their eyes off one another.

“Have we missed something?” Jac asked innocently.

“No!”  Cressida and James snapped, breaking the contest simultaneously. However, their knees remained touching.

“We’ve definitely missed something,” Fred said, glancing between the two of them knowingly.

“We need more wormwood,” Cressida decided in an instant, getting up from her stool and storming off.

Cressida saw James adjusting his robes over his knees as she left.

*             

It didn’t get easier from there.              

While they were all hanging out in the hexagonal room trying to get some sort of a revision plan sorted, James purposefully put on CDs he knew Cressida hated. It was only after the seventh time they’d all listened to the song  Grace Kelly  by  MIKA  blasting at full volume that Felix eventually threatened to throw the stereo out the window if they didn’t pick a new album.

They’d had a spat in Charms over who could do the summoning charm the best. It resulted in Cressida using the spell to try and summon James’ teeth right out of his mouth before Flitwick stepped in. 

By now, their friends had definitely picked up on their odd reactions to one another.

“Is it another game of some sort?” Jac had asked watching the two of them practising spells on each other on the grounds and calling it revision.

Fred fed a small maggot to Groot resting on his shoulder. “Don’t think so. Normally they at least include us when it’s a game.”

“I think it’s just  them ,” Molly huffed, still trying to get some coherent work put in despite everything.

Felix relaxed back on his hands. “They need to find a date. It’ll give them someone else to focus on other than each other.”

“Or they should just kiss and get it over with,” Fred suggested.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Thomas laughed. Instead of revision spread in front of him, he had a whiteboard detailing the Quidditch pitch and all the players. “Kissing wouldn’t solve their problems. They just like to mess with one another. They always have.”

“I’m not so sure. Kissing solves more than you’d think, Wood,” Felix hinted.

“Oh, because it did wonders for you,” Jac jabbed jokingly.

The sun disappeared sending the scenery into a grey hue. Dark clouds were rolling in from over the hills stealing the group's attention away from their conversation momentarily. Fred glanced over his shoulder. Behind them, Cressida had just hit James with the  Arresto Momentum  spell, causing his retort to happen in slow motion, unaware of the change in weather.

“I’m just saying,” Thomas went on. “Kissing isn’t  everything .”

All eyes turned on Thomas curiously. “Wood, have you even kissed anyone yet?” Molly asked, glancing up from her numerous books.

“No, but I’m not the only one. There’s plenty of time for that stuff,” he answered breezily, chewing on a quill-pen as he analysed his board.

The rest of them all glanced at each other knowingly. Thomas finally clocked on to the other staring at him in silence. “Wait, am I really the only one left not to have kissed someone?”

Fred clapped his smaller friend on the shoulder. “I think so, mate.”

Thomas winced. “Is that bad?”

“Well,” Fred started. “We never thought Molly would get kissed and it happened for her so your chances are good-”

Molly hit him with her book.

Raindrops started falling to the ground around them. A storm was rolling in. James and Cressida remained too focused on each other to notice.

         
*  

It was no surprise Cressida couldn’t sleep. She hadn’t slept more than a wink all week. Every time she closed her eyes all she could see was James. James laughing, James pulling pranks, James playing Quidditch. Even when they were arguing in her dreams she still couldn't tear herself away from him, much like in real life.

And so she lead on top of her bed covers, fully dressed, listening to the clock tick by.

She’d tried coming up with a solution to James’ question. A way to answer it without answering it or some kind of loophole but there were none she could even begin to conjure up. It was a yes or a no.

It was as simple as and as complicated as that.

She rolled onto her back and stared up at the cloth ceiling with a sigh. Her hands wrapped around her stomach and she fiddled with a loose thread on her knitted jumper.

She had to answer him soon. They couldn't keep arguing and hoping something would magically resolve it. James was right. They’d done this before. And each time they ended up back here, wondering where they stood. Except that James could openly admit how he felt.

Cressida felt like life would be a lot easier if she could just do that too, but she couldn't. She’d seen how relationships affected people. She’d watched her mother be destroyed by one. She wondered if she had the same gene in her brain that meant she’d do the same thing eventually.

She sat up and ran her hands hopelessly through her knotted hair. Sitting there thinking all these things wasn’t helping at all.

Cressida had debated waking Jac up to come along with her to listen to some music to distract herself, but after seeing how soundly Jac was sleeping, she decided against it. Besides, she wasn’t really in the mood for people anyway. She was scared she’d slip up and spill all of her thoughts over to Jac, and then there’d  really  be no taking it back.

Pulling on her shoes, Cressida left the dorm room and stepped out into the darkness of the castle alone.

It was eerily quiet throughout the halls that night but she could hear the wind and midnight rain thundering down on the castle. She wondered if the creatures of the forest were stuck out in it. She knew that Hagrid would likely try and squirrel as many of them to safety in his hut if he could in these conditions, despite how dangerous and unpredictable some of them could be. She hoped Beebe and all the other Hippogriffs especially were somewhere warm eating fresh rabbits instead of in the rain and mud.

She ventured to another floor. She could see lighting flashing through the windows as she passed and then the low distinct sound of rumbling far off in the distance.

Rather liking how the random flashes lit up her path, Cressida disposed of her wand light. She knew Filch would likely be around here somewhere, and the noise of the storm made it hard for her to hear him before she saw him.

She continued on aimlessly through the darkness with only the occasional light coming from the sky, fewer and farther between now. Cressida didn’t really need more than that, she felt like she knew these halls well enough to traverse them in the dark now anyway.

As she reached the fifth floor and rounded the corner there was another flash of light and then her body hit something solid. Stepping back, she realised it was James, holding out his wand light. Typical, she’d spent days avoiding him and now they were the only two people dull enough to be up and wandering around at this hour.

“What are you doing out here?” They both asked in unison.

“Couldn’t sleep,” they answered together.

They were quiet then, assessing each other.

This was the first time they’d been alone. There was no one around to run to if things got awkward or intense.

“Shit weather to be wandering around in, don’t you think, Knightly?” James said to lighten the mood.

“And yet here we both are,” she quipped back.

“Ah, well, I’m out here for a reason other than just insomnia,” James elaborated, glad to have an opportunity to boast his genius plan. “I originally snuck out to get a midnight snack but then I ran into Filch. Since then, I’ve been leaving ice mice on every corner going around in a circle for him to find.”

“And he hadn’t caught you yet?” 

“He’s come close a couple times but I keep getting away under the cloak,” he said, rather proud of himself. Cressida smiled, glad of the sense of normalcy after days of tension. "Should be coming around that corner any second now.”

Cressida’s face dropped. “You mean Filch is coming here  now? ” James nodded, not seeing the problem. “Fucking hell, you’re such a dip-shit,” she muttered, grabbing his arm and pulling him along away from where Filch would be coming from.

James took charge after that, grabbing her hand and dragging her around a corner and into a tiny alcove between two walls where he hastily threw the cloak over the both of them.

He now had to crouch down to avoid his ankles sticking out the bottom of the fabric so he was practically the same height as Cressida.

James put a finger to his lips with a mischievous grin and Cressida pressed her lips together to refrain from making another sound.

James kept his head turned sideways, his attention on the abandoned hall in front of them.

When it was apparent Filch wasn’t upon them just yet, Cressida began to hate the silence of standing beside James under the cloak. He was too close. It was too cosy. She could see his face in perfect detail in the flashes of lightning. One of them had to say something, and before she knew it her mouth had opened and words were coming out. Maybe the small moment of normalcy had reminded her that James was also her friend before anything else.

“You know, it’s not you that’s the problem.”

James frowned and turned to her. “What?”

Cressida sighed, already regretting what she had started saying. She was adamant on looking anywhere but at James but that was extremely difficult given their current positioning. “It’s not you… I just- I have a hard time letting people in.”

“Really,” he said dryly. “I hadn’t noticed.”

She glared at him, her defences going up again. “I don’t like getting attached to things I can lose, alright? That's why I can’t just give you a stupid answer.”

James raised his eyebrows. “You think you’re going to lose me?”

Cressida was forced to look at him properly. “You think if we start this I won’t?”

James stared down at her intently. “Knightly, there’s nothing you could do to make me walk away from you. You could slaughter my whole family- whom I love  very  dearly- and I’d still be the one to fight for your innocence.”

She turned her back on him with great difficulty under the cloak. “Don’t tell me that, James! Shit like that isn’t real!”

Lightning momentarily lit up the dark hallway.

“What if it  is  real?”

The rumbling afterwards felt like it was shaking the castle.

“See, this is exactly why I can’t be your fucking girlfriend,” she huffed. “It’s too much… I can’t…” she faltered. “I don’t know how to accept that and I won’t be able to handle everyone else sticking their noses in like it’s their business and then it’ll all blow up in our faces and no one will get on anymore.”

James was quiet for a long moment. “So that’s what this is about,” he said finally. “You’re scared of getting hurt.” She gave him a warning glare. She hated that he could sometimes read her like an open book. “You’re scared of what people are going to say and this going wrong-”

“I don’t give a shit what they  say, ” she corrected him. “I just know I’ll fuck it up… and I know everyone will be thinking it before it happens.”

James reached out his hand and brushed against hers. “But that doesn’t change the fact I like you and… you like me, right?”

Cressida gazed up at him as James interlocked their fingers and for the first time, she couldn’t feel herself gearing up to deny it. Because it was true. She  did  like James.

She liked him so much it even scared her a little bit.

Fuck that. It terrified her because she couldn’t guarantee what would come next.

And he seemed to like her back in spite of all of that.

Before she could produce her answer, before the secret finally made it out of her throat to the one person who deserved to know it most, they heard the signature slap of Filch’s feet trotting towards them and his sneering words to Mrs Norris following at his boney ankles.

The two of them instinctively moved closer together and flattened themselves against the wall as Filch rounded the corner. Cressida practically held her breath as Filch and his horrid cat got closer, her hand still encased in James’.        

”Filthy students,” the old caretaker was muttering to himself, taking all thought away from their previous conversation momentarily. “I know they’re out here somewhere. Smell them out, Mrs Norris, and we’ll give them their punishment. Oh yes, we will. They’ve been getting away with far too much since Umbridge left. Leaving ice mice and whatnot for me to find. Who do they take me for? Well, I’ll get them and then they’ll be sorry-”       

Cressida could see Filch pass them by through the fabric and noticed he was carrying the various ice mice left by James in his arms. One slipped from his grasp and bonked Mrs Norris on the head and she let out an annoyed and croaky meow.            

“Oh, sorry, my sweet,” Filch apologised to the cat.

James and Cressida both suppressed their laughter, struggling not to make a sound or move a muscle under the cloak.

However, Cressida must have shuffled slightly while clasping her hand over her mouth to stop herself laughing and they now had the attention of Mrs Norris, who had crouched down and started sniffing the air right in front of them.             

She looked to James desperately. He winked as he reached into his pocket. A second later, he pointed his wand at an ice mouse. “ Piertotum Locomotor.”              

The otherwise inanimate sweet started squirming in his hand and James pushed out the bottom of the fabric and Mrs Norris ran after it as it whizzed into the darkness. Filch, arms still filled with ice mice, trotted after his cat trying to call her back.        

Once they were sure Filch was out of range, they both burst out laughing, falling into each other. “I can’t believe that worked!” Cressida beamed. “Do you reckon he’ll come back this way?” She asked then, looking over her shoulder in the direction Filch had gone.         

“Nah,” James shook his head. “That mouse can go for at least an hour. We have plenty of time to make our devious escape.”          

Cressida, still smiling from the image of Filch running past, turned back around to face him and found he had moved even closer, their noses practically touching. He was still crouching down holding the cloak over them despite the threat being gone. Their previous conversation was at the forefront of their minds again.    

Another flash of light. The rain felt like it was getting heavier outside the stone walls.

With how close they had gotten in their attempt to evade Filch, Cressida was having a hard time trying not to look down at his lips.              

He was obviously staring at her lips and he didn’t seem to care if she noticed. “Knightly,” he started softly. “Yes or no?” His expression was almost desperate. “I just need a yes or no.”        

Another lightning strike hit the grounds around the castle. The window opposite them in the hall blew open with the wind.

Neither of them moved. Cressida’s eyes trailed up to meet his. There was a beat of silence between them. All of the tension and pettiness and frustration from over the last few days or even months seemed to be coming to this point, bubbling up inside of them until they couldn’t take it any more. Being just friends with Potter had become far more problematic and difficult than Cressida had suspected it to be, especially when she knew just how good it was to be  not  friends with him.             

And the situation arose where being  not friends  with him again was so tantalisingly close and she didn’t care about all the reasons why to avoid being this close. They were so  so  close.             

Lightning hit with a deafening crack as the rain started pouring in from the open window.

She swallowed hard but this time the secret didn't go down with it. It was too late for that, it was on the top of her tongue, and she knew it would only go one way from there despite everything else in her life begging her to shove it back down where it belonged.            

“Yes,” she blurted out, barely audible.        

James had heard it though and wasted no time leaning down that last inch to press his lips to hers despite the loud rumbling of the storm threatening to engulf the castle.          

Cressida responded immediately, pushing into him much like when they were in the cupboard. He whipped the cloak off them and discarded it to the floor. The rain from the window came in at such a velocity it was drenching them now they weren’t under the safety of the cloak but neither of them seemed to care.             

Next thing Cressida knew her back was hitting the wall, James’ hands all over her. Her hair, her hips, her waist. More intense than in the cupboard, more intense than the storm raging on around them.      

Hers went up and gripped onto his hair. God, she loved his hair and how his curls seemed to wrap themselves around her fingertips like they belonged there.        

Cressida felt like she barely had time to catch her breath when James started trailing kisses down her jaw and onto her neck. Then just as her eyes had fluttered shut at the sensation of it all, James was breaking away, staring at her with wild eyes and swollen lips as though he couldn’t fully comprehend what he was doing.

James bit his lip thoughtfully as he rested his forehead against hers and Cressida almost melted. “We don’t have to tell anyone,” he said then. She could still see his chest rising and falling rapidly and wondered if hers was doing the same. It sure felt like her heart might just jump out and flop onto the floor in front of him any second now like it was an offering. “It’s still just you and me, yeah?” James offered. “Another one of our little secrets.” Cressida met his eyes again, unable to form any words or fully comprehend what he was offering her. “I'll be your secret. Let me be your secret.”

She stared at him, all the thoughts and possibilities of what he was offering her whirring around in her head. “My secret?” 

James’ grin grew. “Your best one yet,” he confirmed. “No one has to know. Not until you want them to.”

Unable to contain her own grin and glee anymore, she reached up and kissed him again, softly this time. When she moved back she found he was grinning wider than she’d ever seen him grin before.               

Forcing herself to put space between them, she moved back, squinting to see him through the rain still slashing in through the window. His hair was plastered to his forehead in that way he hated it and hers was a scraggly mess from getting drenched but neither of them cared. "Alright, Potter,” she said. “I think I can handle that.”           

She could see James laugh happily to himself over her shoulder as she turned and left heading back to the dungeons to finally get a good night’s sleep.

Chapter 88: Fourth Year: Dirty Little Secret

Wednesday 24th April 2019

 

It had been nearly a month since James and Cressida had agreed on their newly defined ‘non-relationship’ and she was amazed it seemed to be going so smoothly.

So far, they’d kept their promise to not do it in front of anyone or anywhere they could be found out rather well, but they’d come close to breaking it a few times.

They’d sat opposite each other in Herbology while Professor Longbottom went about explaining the lesson on the Flutterby Bush. Cressida had accidentally knocked her wand off the table while she and Molly rummaged about to open their textbook to the right page. James, mid-demonstration from Longbottom, leapt out of his stool and crossed the classroom to pick up Cressida’s wand for her.

Everyone had turned their attention on him as he’d straightened up again with an awkward clearing of his throat. “Sorry to interrupt,” James said to the class. “My contact lens had rolled over here- conveniently next to Knightly's wand.”

“Conveniently indeed,” Fred muttered sarcastically.

Thomas looked up from his table top with a narrowed brow. “You don’t wear contacts-”

James had elbowed him in the side as he retook his seat. “Carry on, professor,” James said to Longbottom.

Neville glanced between Cressida and James and then, with a slight fumbling of his words as he tried to remember what he was saying, the lesson continued on.

Another time, Cressida had been coming out of the secret room when James was on his way in. Ironically he had been looking for her to pull her into the nearest cupboard, it wasn't romantic but it did just fine. The two bumped into each other, and then realising they were both alone, risked standing a little closer than they should have in the open space.

James had been retelling a story from Quidditch practice when someone hastily cleared their throats behind them. The two of them jumped apart to find it was McGonagall making her rounds through the halls.

“Getting awfully cosy, aren’t we?” McGonagall questioned, raising a thin knowing eyebrow. Cressida wondered if she and Neville talked about them in the teacher's lounge, whether they’d both figured it out.

James rubbed the back of his neck, trying to come up with a witty response on the spot as redness took over his whole face.

Luckily, Sirius had been in his frame to witness the whole thing. “Let them be, Minnie. Don’t you remember what it was like to be young?”

McGonagall turned her eyes on the frame then. “I remember what it was like when  you  were young,” she scolded the portrait. “There wasn’t a corner in this whole castle you didn’t try and sneak some poor girl into.”

Sirius gave a proud smile. “They were the good old days.”

“That reminds me,” the old headmistress said as she continued on her way. “Where is Remus this evening?”

Sirius had gained a very obvious blush to his cheeks that he quickly tried to conceal with his hair as he scurried off with some terrible excuse of having somewhere to be.

Once everyone had left them, James and Cressida decided it would be safer for them to depart separately as well.

It was especially hard when it was just the two of them alongside Jac and Fred. Those two, as they had been since becoming official, would be all over each other and Cressida and James would stand nearby casting each other silent glances, or James would pull a face and Cressida would have to try and ignore it for the sake of her own rules.

And the more it went on, the more Cressida began to understand why Jac and Fred were like  that . She wanted to do anything she could just to cross paths with Potter and get a glance at him, and he seemingly would appear in places he shouldn’t have been if he knew Cressida was going to be there. He'd even snuck into a detention once or twice that she knew he wasn't supposed to be in, just to sit next to her in silence and pull faces behind the professor's backs to make her laugh- which often got her into even more trouble. The best part of it all though was that no one knew. They could share their looks and their secret smiles and know it was just theirs. It was sacred.

That was partially the reason for Cressida’s new favourite pass time- watching Quidditch practice. Some part of her knew that when James hovered slightly too close to the stands or did a particularly showy move on his broom in the middle of practice, he was doing it because she was there. He was showing off for her and played it off effortlessly.

Sometimes he would do things and Cressida wasn’t even sure if it was him showing off for her or her just noticing things she never did before. One time, after practice had finished and the team was taking a break before going to get changed, the trio of boys had gotten into a water fight with their drinks bottles as the weather started getting warmer.

Fred had emptied the entire bottle of water over James’ head and ran away before facing the same fate for himself. James, being left dripping wet and with no one left to antagonise on the pitch, started pulling his jersey off over his head and started using it to dry his hair.

“We should go,” Cressida said to Jac urgently once she noticed.

Jac was reading over the article to be proofread for the  Chatterbox  that week. “But I said I’d meet Fred after he’s showered.”

Cressida sank down in her seat slightly, looking everywhere but at James, as he walked towards the changing tent, his attention now looking up to her with a cocky grin once he realised she was watching him. Her only saving grace was that Jac was too preoccupied reading to notice the furious blush taking over Cressida’s entire face.

Once Jac and Fred had wandered off somewhere, Cressida cornered him by dragging him into the nearest broom closet. “You were messing with me on purpose!” She accused him furiously.

James leant down, his eyes trailing her lips. “I didn’t know Freddie was going to pull that- but I can’t say I’m mad it’s provoked this reaction out of you.”

Cressida ensured there was still a centimetre of space between them despite his hand now residing comfortably on her hips. “You can’t act like that while everyone’s around. You’ll get us caught.”

“They don’t suspect a thing,” he said surely. “Besides, what’s the worst that can happen if they find out-”

Cressida shoved him back slightly. “I don’t want them to know yet, Potter-”

“I know, I know,” James relented instantly. “Tell you what. I’ll stop trying to mess with you if you stop messing with me.”

Cressida frowned. “I’ve not been messing with you.”

James winced. “So that thing you do with your quill isn’t even on purpose? How is  that  fair?!”

“What thing-”

“You chewing on it while we’re in lessons.”

Cressida laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Why the fuck did you think I was doing that on purpose?”

James put his forehead to hers. “It makes you look very studious, Knightly, which ironically makes it very hard for  me  to concentrate.”

Cressida stole a quick kiss before continuing. “Anything else I should be aware of?”

“I’ll keep you updated,” James smiled back, closing the gap completely.

Luckily for Cressida, Jac was as clueless as ever and was becoming rather fond of having her there in the stands to watch the training sessions. Plus, she had no shame in stating the reasons why  she  loved watching them train so much.

“Fred’s just so pretty when he’s flying through the air,” she had said dreamily one night as the group all led on Cressida’s bed.

“Yeah, like some swaggering pigeon about to take flight,” Felix had mocked her with a teasing swoon.

“You mock but I’m right. Everyone just looks hotter while they’re playing Quidditch,” Jac countered. “It’s basic fact.”

Cressida gave a thoughtless murmur of agreement as she read over her Potions essay. James especially looked good on a broom, Cressida had come to accept. It made his hair all wind-swept and fall perfectly in his face in just the way he hated it. His annoyance at it was what made Cressida like it all the more. 

Molly picked up on her reaction while Cressida’s thoughts had started to drift away. “Are you saying you agree with this nonsense?” She asked.

Cressida twigged onto what had happened and was pulled out of her daydream. “Are you saying you don’t feel hot as shit while everyone’s looking and cheering you on?” She asked smartly.

Molly shrugged her shoulder and took great interest in opening her Herbology textbook. “I would feel even better if they weren’t cheering for our team’s downfall.”

“At least you know we’ll always cheer you on to win,” Felix comforted her with a nudge of his elbow.

“You’re in my House, you have to support me,” she countered.

The door clicked open and Margo walked in, her expression souring slightly when she saw them all huddled together. Her mascara had run under her eyes and she swiftly tried to cover it up as she crossed the room to her bed.

Felix and Molly promptly put their heads down and focused on the numerous books in front of them. Jac gulped and averted her eyes, always hating the awkwardness of these interactions. Cressida, however, didn’t look away this time.

“Everything alright, Smithers?” She called across the room. She suspected there had been another fight with Vonce. That was the third one this week.

“Never better,” she said as she hastily made her way into the bathroom without acknowledgement of the others.

She didn’t come out again until Felix had left for his own dorm room.

 

*

 

Despite everything going suspiciously well in regards to Cressida and James, and the fact that no one seemed to be arguing within the group, there was still the looming pressure of exams always putting a slight damper on the upcoming summer mood around Hogwarts.

So far, Muggle Studies was the only lesson where exams had not come up once, despite Molly asking about them much to the displeasure of the rest of the class. Still, even once being asked, the professor simply smiled and continued on his lesson as though exam prep hadn’t even entered his head.

This worried Molly and thrilled everyone else. In fact, it worried Molly so much, that she was more panicked about Muggle Studies than any other lesson. She’d started to convince herself Sikander was going to spring the final exam on them without warning, or worse, trick them into thinking it was a normal lesson when he was actually testing them in the background.

James and Thomas had told her repeatedly that both of those plans were stupid.

It did little to soothe her anxiety and so she spent the entire lesson writing down every word that came out of the kooky professor’s mouth.

“Now,” Professor Sikander said towards the end of his Muggle Studies lesson. “As I’m sure you’re aware, our topic of study this term is electricity-” Cressida banged her head against the table at the thought of just how out of touch wizards were with the aspect of electricity. “But I had a rather more interactive course of study in mind for the main test. There will still be a small final exam on the basics we have covered and how to use technology to our advantage as the muggles do, of course, but for your final mark I want you to partake in a project for me.”

“What kind of project?” Thomas asked.

“A scrapbook!” Sikander announced excitedly. 

“So no proper exam?” Molly asked slightly put out. She had since moved down the front to accompany the two boys and Cressida after Cressida had bribed her with giving the trio of boys the Slytherin common room password. “But that’s not fair!”

“I’d prefer it,” April chimed in miserably. “I never test well, I get awful mixed up and read the questions all wrong.”

“Aren’t you dyslexic?” James turned around in his seat to ask her.

“Yeah,” April blushed looking down at the desk. “I’m surprised you remembered.”

Cressida brought them back on task. “Tell us more about the project, sir.”

“Yes, well,” Sikander started, plonking a large box onto his desk and reaching into it. “You’re each going to get one of these,” he said showing them a Polaroid camera. Cressida thought this, in fact, had very little to do with electricity but she wasn’t about to point that out to him. “Take photos of anything you want. Your life. Your friends. Your surroundings. Do what you want with it, and by the end of the year, I will assess your project and add it to your final grade.”

“How can you mark a bunch of pictures?” Molly asked. “It’s nonsense.”

“Muggles are often nonsense,” Professor Sikander retaliated. “I mean just look at their hobbies. All they do is stare at endless pictures on their little devices and call it fun. Some people even make a life out of taking pictures of their lives if you can believe it! The worst part is, their pictures don’t even move unless it’s what’s called a video clip…or a Jeff-”

“You mean GIF?” Cressida asked.

“Yes, exactly, Jeff,” Sikander continued. “Imagine how boring that must be for the poor sods.”

“I can hardly imagine,” Cressida said dryly.

“Now, if you’d all like to come up and collect your camera on your way out,” Professor Sikander said as they all packed up their things. “I look forward to what you come up with by the end of the year.”

After Molly and Cressida had both collected their cameras they started making their way to their next lesson together.

“I don’t know why he thought this was a good idea,” Molly complained, looking dejectedly at the object as they moved through the halls. “I mean, what are we even supposed to photograph?”

“Oi, Molly!”

Both girls turned around and were abruptly blinded by a flash and a whirring sound. Once the white pots had gone from Cressida’s vision she saw James shaking the polaroid between his fingers.

“What was that for?” She asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Making sure it works,” James grinned, looking down at it proudly. “I’m calling it,  ‘First girl to be annoyed about no exam’. ”

“Apart from your aunt Hermione,” Thomas chimed in.

Molly snatched the photo and ripped it in half, rolling her eyes. “You’re supposed to photograph stuff you like, not me looking pissed off,” she said.

“But he’d have so much material,” Cressida joked.

“Hey, Knightly-” James said then, bringing up the camera to his eyes. “Give us a smile.”

Cressida sent him a middle finger just as a second flash went off.

James lowered the camera, looking disappointed. “Well, I doubt Sikander is going to appreciate this one going in.” He looked back up at her. “Can you pose like a civilised person?”

“I’ll show you civilised in a minute,” Cressida threatened him, snatching the picture for herself. James shoved his tongue into his cheek to stop himself from smiling down at her in just that way that alluded to something more than friendship as she held the picture out of his reach teasingly.

“Do you reckon Sikander will like a scrapbook based on Quidditch?” Thomas thought out loud, bringing James and Cressida back to the group at hand.

James shoved his camera into his bag and wrapped an arm around Thomas’ shoulders as they kept moving forward. “Or you could take photographic evidence of your first kiss. I bet that’d get you a high grade.”

Thomas shoved him off. “I can’t  really  be the only one not to have kissed someone yet.”

“It’s heading that way, Thomas,” Molly said softly. “But don’t listen to James. You don’t need to rush anything if you’re not ready-”

“I  am  ready!” Thomas said instantly. “I just haven’t had time with Quidditch, that’s all.”

“I do Quidditch,” James pointed out.

“Yeah, but you’re hardly what they’d call a ladies' man,” Molly said pointedly. “I mean, when was the last time  you  kissed someone?”

Cressida and James shared a knowing look. Barely Twelve hours ago . “Good point. Thomas shouldn’t rush this kind of thing. Where do you reckon Freddie and Jac are anyway?” James said, speeding up the pace and trying to change the topic.

 

*

 

Astronomy was one of the more stressful exams coming up in a few months and so to help deal with that pressure, Cressida had started sneaking gum back into her daily routine. It was still a bad habit from the previous years and she knew the teachers frowned upon it, especially in lessons, but she felt it was necessary.

Cressida rested her head on her fist and glanced around the old classroom while chewing. Her eyes fell on James on the table opposite hers while the professor continued rambling. He looked utterly lost and bored with what was being said, as did almost everyone in the room.

When he realised she was looking in his direction he gave her a small smile. Cressida blew a bubble with her gum and smiled back.

“Miss Knightly!” Professor Sinistra was suddenly in front of her and Cressida’s attention snapped towards her. “I suggest you swallow that gum before I summon it out of your mouth.”

“Sorry, professor,” Cressida muttered, swallowing with a gulp.

“Busted,” Felix teased her once Sinistra had continued on with her lesson.

Cressida shoved him away playfully. Her eyes trailed back over to James. He suddenly looked very red in the face.

Once Astronomy was done with, Cressida put a fresh stick of gum in her mouth in perpetration for History of Magic- another lesson and exam she was slightly dreading. At least she knew Professor Binns wouldn’t notice her chewing throughout his class, however. He was always too preoccupied monotonously getting through his lesson plan.

“Gum,” James said coming up beside her in the hallway as she walked alone. The others had momentarily gone off-route to try and find the annotated potions book that Thomas left in Hagrid’s hut.

Cressida stopped chewing immediately upon his arrival. “What?” 

“Gum,” he said again as they kept moving. “When you do that thing where you blow bubbles with it… can’t do that anymore.”

Cressida turned her eyes on him. He was still rather red, although, she hadn’t realised that reaction had been about her. “You can’t be serious.”

James gave a helpless shrug in response.

“Alright, fine,” Cressida said, and then, because she couldn’t help herself, she blew a tiny bubble with her gum as she faced forward again.

“You’re an evil, evil woman,” he whispered as he glanced around the numerous students passing them in the hall. There was no way he could sneak her off her without anyone noticing.

“But apparently I’m a hot one,” Cressida said smugly.

James made a tiny noise in the back of his throat as he pulled away and went up a different corridor in search of the others, or to just simply get away from Cressida. 

Cressida suddenly felt very pleased with herself.

 

 

Saturday 4th May 2019

 

 

‘What Happened To The Phantom Of Hogwarts?

Sources have suggested it never existed in the first place.’

 

“Glad to see common sense has returned for the most part,” Molly said as she read over the latest edition of the  Chatterbox  on their way to their first lessons of the day .  Since it came out at breakfast there had been a general chatter with people having their doubts about it’s existence and then claiming ‘they never fell for it anyway’. Most of them had also claimed the phantom had eaten their homework before Christmas.

Felix took the newspaper from Molly and read it for himself. “Can’t believe Penelope and Margo did a follow-up on that ridiculous thing. If anything, that’ll make the boys take it up again.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” Molly said surely. “I threatened to rat them out to McGonagall if they started causing trouble again.”

“It was funny though,” Jac defended them. “I’m still amazed we’re the only ones that realized it was them.”

“Not everyone knows about the cloak,” Felix pointed out. “Plus, it’s not like them  not  to gloat about their shenanigans.”

“What was Rose’s fortune this week?” Cressida asked curiously.

Felix turned to the appropriate page. “ All things become clear eventually to those who look closer. ”

“Her mysterious ones are my favourites,” Jac said, reading it over Felix’s shoulder. 

“Remember that one week she just wrote  ‘Boys called Jack Millard are often a two-timing twit’ ?” Cressida asked with a fond grin. “There was no mystery in that one and you loved it.”

Molly took the paper back and shoved it safely into her bag. “Can’t believe she convinced me to print that. Apparently, Jack has a bit of a reputation already with Rose’s year and she demanded she put a stop to his crap.”

“She’s ballsy, you’ve got to give her that,” Felix complimented her.

“I think it’s a part of the Weasley gene,” Jac smiled, nudging Molly.

As May rolled around, Cressida was incredibly glad to have the sun shining down on them again as she awaited the arrival of the summer weather. Hogwarts was beautiful in winter but in summer it felt alive. Everyone would run around outside or lounge by the lake. Plus, it made watching Quidditch all that more enjoyable as it gave her a chance to get a bit of a tan on her otherwise pale skin. 

Fred, Thomas and James had already started to tan rather nicely, Cressida had noticed. Even the boy’s acne had started to clear with the fresher air. She supposed it was all that time on the Quidditch pitch training. It was harder to tell if Jac had tanned, her complexion always sort of glowed a nice golden brown. Molly and Felix always seemed to be a of bit of a sickly pale shade no matter how much time they spent outside. Cressida suspected that was just a downfall of being ginger and Irish.

With the newfound warmth, the boys found any excuse to linger outside doing random tasks and activities. One afternoon had been taken up completely by Fred and James standing on the half walls overlooking the green while Cressida, Jac and Thomas sat on the ground below them with their homework on their laps with no attempt to try and complete it.

“What about that one?” Fred had asked, pointing in a random direction. Thomas glanced that way then shook his head.

This was the fourth time in a row Thomas had shaken his head but it was also, apparently, the chosen entertainment for the next hour or so until they found something better.

James and Fred were determined to find a girl Thomas found attractive enough to warrant his first kiss and so took to pointing at people at random. Anyone who happened to be sitting on the green minding their own business or passed by them during this game fell victim to being a contender.

“What about her?” Fred would ask, pointing.

“Nope,” Thomas would say almost instantly.

And it went on like that for longer than Cressida thought was still in the vicinity of sanity.

“What about that one?” James would ask next.

“No,” Thomas would reply.

“What about the blonde?” 

“Nah.”

“What about the one with the ponytail?”

“Not my type.”

“What about that one?”

“That’s a boy.”

“Do you want to kiss him?” James interjected hopefully.

Thomas thought for a moment. “Hmm… not really.”

“Then what about that one?” Fred continued on undeterred.

Cressida and Jac had grown tiresome of this game and got to their feet to go in search of normal people to spend some time with. As they left, Cressida silently thought to herself that even if, by some miracle, they did find a girl Thomas thought was worth kissing that didn’t guarantee she’d agree to kiss him. She doubted they’d thought that far ahead in their endeavour and she felt bad pointing it out at this point.

Sitting by the lake was one of her favourite places to be in summer, and apparently, everyone else had taken to this as well. It felt like lately whenever there was more than five minutes of sun, the group would convene on a patch of grass under the tree beside the lake, watching the light bouncing off the water and soak up the warmth on their skin. Sometimes, Thomas would bring a snitch and they’d play keep-away as ‘practice’  as he’d like to call it. In reality, he just didn’t want to admit he’d stolen Quidditch supplies for non-Quidditch-related purposes.

They’d all dip their toes into the water and make dares on who would go the furthest in once it was hotter. That was all apart from Felix who refused to even put a finger in the water in fear of the giant squid. James still vowed to make that thing come out of the water one day. Felix had begged him not to make good on that promise.

And even when it wasn’t the whole group, sometimes James would grab Cressida’s hand once lessons were done and the two of them would go down to the lake, hidden behind the tree, and talk for hours. They’d sunbathe, James lead on his back and Cressida on her front so they could still face each other. They’d take their shoes off and feel the blades of grass between their toes. They’d laugh and James would do terrible impressions of all their friends and the odd professors. 

Any time someone lingered even a few meters close to them, they’d break away and have an array of books ready to use as an excuse for what they were doing sat out there together. One time, Hagrid had turned up to get some gillyweed that had washed up on the bank and nearly caught them kissing, but luckily his clomping footsteps had alerted them to his arrival and they had enough time to put some space between them.

“Didn’ expect to see you two don ‘ere,” he said happily when he noticed them. “Taking in the sun, are ye?”

“Studying,” James answered promptly, holding up a random book for proof. Luckily, Hagrid didn’t realise it was upside down.

“Ah, you work too ‘ard, you do,” he said, dumping a hand full of gillyweed into a wooden bucket. “You deserve to have a little fun,” Hagrid said, giving them a wink. “Ay, don’t tell McGonagall, I took this, alrigh’? It’s for a personal project of mine I got goin' on.”

“You got it, Hagrid,” Cressida agreed, using her own book to hide her grin. 

“Will I be seein’ you for tea this month?” He asked, drying his now-wet arm in his fur coat.

“We’ll be there,” James confirmed.

“Right ye are,” Hagrid smiled gladly. “I’ll make sure to have some rock cakes ready ter go. I know how much you love them.”

With that, he gave a secretive tap of his nose and plodded off again.

James and Cressida burst into fits of laughter, falling into each other on the grass once he’d left.

Another time, James even made Winky steal some hash browns from the kitchen and they had a tiny picnic with pumpkin juice all to themselves.

They’d ended up missing dinner because of it and Jac relentlessly questioned her on where she’d been for the next two days. Cressida felt like she’d gotten away with it by coming up with some random excuse because Jac stopped questioning her after a while.

There was a sharp clap in front of her face and Cressida was brought out of her daydream by Molly. “Are you even listening to me?” She ranted. “You haven’t answered the last four questions!”

Cressida looked across the picnic blanket at her. They’d taken their study session outside as the common room was beginning to get a tad stuffy as summer rolled in. “What?” She asked, trying to push away her pointless thoughts.

Molly rolled her eyes and went back to asking her questions, seeing no use in berating Cressida. “Who claimed to have patented a method of taming Wampus cats for use as guards over wizarding houses?” She asked.

“Abel Treetops of Cincinnati,” Jac answered methodically.

“Brilliant name,” Felix chimed in, throwing a Bertie Bott's in his mouth.

“Don’t know why you’re even studying Care of Magical Creatures theory,” Cressida sighed then, bringing her attention fully back to the matter at hand. “Hagrid always does physical exams instead of written ones.”

“Still, better safe than sorry,” Molly said primly, flicking through the pages of her notebook. “What is the Flitterbloom suspected to be related to in the plant family?” 

“Oh, I know this one-” Felix said.

“Devil’s snare,” Jac answered before he got the chance. When Felix frowned at her, she gave a guilty shrug. “Fred and I have been studying in our downtime. We made a game out of it-”

“I beg you to not give details,” Molly grumbled, put off by the implication alone.

“Well, don’t you got getting too big for your britches as well. We can’t have  four  smart-asses in this group!” Felix huffed.

“Focus, this next one is about Potions,” Molly went on. “List the ingredients of the Doxycide potion.”

Felix jumped in before anyone else could. “Bundimun ooze, streeler shells, dragon liver, hemlock essence and…. and…” 

Cressida pulled the annotated book from inside her bag and scanned the appropriate page. “Tormentil tincture and a hint of cowbane essence.”

Molly took the book from her and examined the page for herself. “I thought James had control of the book this week?” She questioned as she double-checked the answer. They'd had to come up with a weekly rota for the book as people kept claiming 'it wasn't their fault' it got left somewhere.

“Oh um, he did,” Cressida said. Truth was, James had left it on her bed one night after his visits where they’d gone out exploring and she’d kept a hold of it ever since. “But he said I could lend it early because I’m so behind.”

Molly looked up concerned. “If you need some extra study sessions-”

“That’s okay, Mol,” Cressida said surely. She wasn’t actually behind at all. If anything she was ahead, having read the whole book twice over while she was bored waiting for James to appear during the night. “I think I’m all caught up now.”

Jac turned her eyes on Cressida then, her brow furrowed. Cressida pretended not to notice as they kept going with their revision plans. She noticed Jac had been doing that a lot lately. Watching her as if she knew something was up. Cressida thought it would be impossible for Jac to catch on to what she’d been getting up to with James. They’d been extra careful not to give anything away and if Molly hadn’t noticed anything suspicious then surely Jac shouldn’t have noticed anything either.

If Jac was about to say anything about her rising suspicions, she’d have to wait as the trio of boys arrived at their designated meeting place to study.

They looked like the three of them had been in a heated debate on their way over.

“But are you sure I’m not ugly?!” Thomas was asking desperately.

“Oh, you’re absolutely hideous, Wood,” Felix joked with no prior context as they joined up. “It’s all the hair. Makes you look like James May.”

Thomas held his head in his hands with a small groan as he slumped to the floor with them.

“What are you lot talking about?” Jac asked.

James and Fred rolled their eyes, taking their spots on the grass as well. “Wood’s still worrying about-”

“I still can’t find someone to kiss!” Thomas wailed lifting his head. “And now I apparently need a haircut.”

James tapped him comfortingly on the back. “One problem at a time, Tommo.”

“As long as you don’t do what Finnigan did, you’ll be fine,” Molly comforted him, her eyes still scanning their revision notes.

“I don’t even  have  a female friend to ruin the friendship with in the first place!” Thomas complained then. 

“Unless you snog Knightly,” Fred chimed in.

“Let’s not do that,” James said instantly.

Thomas looked up hopefully. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Knightly, can you do to me what you did to James!?”

Cressida choked on nothing as she thought back to all the things she  had  done to James in that week alone. “Best if I don’t, Wood.”

“Come on, Knightly,” Fred grinned then. “I’ll pay you twenty galleons to kiss Tommo.”

“Why would  you  pay?” Jac questioned.

“Funny,” Fred shrugged in reply.

“I’m not kissing Wood for twenty galleons,” Cressida insisted. 

“How much would it take?” Felix asked curiously, adding fuel to the fire for his own amusement.

“You kissed James for free during a game, why am I not worth twenty galleons?!” Thomas asked desperately.

“That was different,” Cressida said.

Jac quirked a knowing eyebrow. “Why was that different?”

Cressida glared at her best friend. 

“Can we get back to studying please!?” Molly pleaded.

“Okay,” Jac said eagerly. “I propose we split into groups. I’ll go with Cressie!” She said, yanking Cressida to her side and starting to walk off with her.

“What are you going to study?!” Molly called after them.

“Magic!” Jac called back.

“That’s very vague,” Thomas muttered, watching as the two girls disappeared around the corner.

Jac didn’t let Cressida go again until they were safely in their hexagonal room. “You’re hiding something from me!” Jac said instantly.

Shit.

Cressida attempted to fake innocence. “What makes you think I’m hiding-”

“You haven’t been getting in trouble for weeks apart from a few late homework's,” Jac said knowingly. “You’re not waking me up to sneak off in the night but I know  you’re not sleeping based on the bags under your eyes. You’re actually studying. You’re  willingly  watching Quidditch practice… what’s going on with you?”

“Nothing,” Cressida shrugged indifferently.

Jac wasn’t relenting anytime soon. “I know I’ve been spending a lot of time with Fred this year but you’re still my best friend, Cress… you can still tell me your secrets.”

Cressida looked back at Jac with a twinge of guilt. Maybe she and James hadn’t been as sneaky and aloof as they thought. Maybe it was time to finally tell someone what was going on… but then, if Cressida told someone, that meant it wouldn’t just be  their  secret anymore. Cressida knew that if Jac found out, Felix would likely find out too, and then Molly would figure it out from him and soon they’d all know and it’d all go in the shitter. They’d all have their opinions and their questions and at that moment Cressida was perfectly happy with how it was.

She was happy in her own little bubble with James.

Jac reached out to her. “You’ve been distant since coming back from Christmas,” she said then, which brought a whole new crippling sense of guilt crashing down on Cressida. “You never told me what happened…”

Cressida ran a hand through her knotted hair as she sighed deeply. “Okay fine,” she said after a moment of contemplation. It was time at least one of her secrets came out. Plus, this would take the pressure away from the James situation. “You want to know what happened at Christmas, I’ll tell you.”

She gestured for Jac to take a seat in the pile of pillows opposite. Cressida sat cross-legged in front of her and started talking.

Chapter 89: Fourth Year: Come Out With It

Notes:

Hiya, just for those wondering, no I haven't abandoned the story and i don't intend to. There will be more uplaods just whenever I get around tot hem, which I understand is a bit of an annoyance to you all but I'm trying my best tog et back into writing and making it as good as I can :)

Also, this chapter contains some LGBT representation, which I'm worried could be taken the wrong way because of the character it's centred around but I promise, she's not the only LGBT storyline in this story and I had her storyline planned in my head from the beginning so wanted to act on it, so I hope I haven't caused offence to anyone in the way I've written it, and I pulled on a real life experience with some of the aspects of how I went about it. Hopefully, it's all okay and you enjoy the new chapter. Any problems, let me know :)

Sunday 5th May 2019

 

Jac had taken the news about Cressida’s father rather well, although, she did have a twinge of disappointment once she realised the implications of it. They were still hiding out in the hexagonal room, having spent the entire night talking and theorising about what it all meant. Luckily for Cressida, the news about her dad explained any odd behaviour from her since returning from Christmas. James was definitely not on her radar after this. 

“Does that mean I’m the only real Muggle-born now?” Jac had asked after the main bulk of the conversation was done with. “All of our friends have wizard parents… that was always something only you and I had in common.”

Cressida reached out and grabbed Jac’s hand as they led on the floor beside each other. “I’m still muggle-born in my mind, really,” she said thoughtfully. “I was raised like one. ‘Suppose that hasn’t changed.”

“Yeah, but it’s different when people  know  you’re from a wizarding family around here. They assume you know more… you’ll get treated differently.”

“No I won’t,” Cressida said surely. “Because no one’s going to know.”

Jac sat up, looking down at her. “But you’ll get treated better, Cressie. It sucks but that’s how Hogwarts is sometimes. If everyone knew you’re really half wizard on your dad’s side they won’t look at you like-”

“Like I’m a small-town nobody?” Cressida finished for her.

Jac shrugged. “It’s how they look at me a lot of the time. Especially the Quidditch team, but I don’t think they mean to. They think I don’t understand their terminology and the rules just because I didn’t grow up doing what they did.”

“You still play better than half of them-”

“Because I train twice as hard,” Jac said. “I got a lot of help from Molly and the boys in the beginning, and even now I still go to them for tips on new manoeuvres that they've known about for years.” 

Cressida sighed, staring up at the blank ceiling again. “Look, we don’t even know my dad’s full name- never mind what kind of wizard he was. Everything stays the same for now.”

Jac led back down with a huff. “Have you told anyone else?”

“No.”

“Are you going to?” 

Cressida shrugged her shoulders. Maybe Molly deserved to know… possibly Felix when she felt ready for it to be joked about.

“You know…” Jac started then. “I bet if anyone could track down who your dad is, it’ll be Fred and James-”

“No,” Cressida said instantly.

“They know everyone-” Jac continued regardless.

“I said no!” Cressida said firmly. 

Jac turned her head to the side. “What are you so scared of?”

Cressida’s eyes remained fully on the ceiling. There were tiny cracks creeping in from the corners.  That they’ll find something bad.  Maybe there was a reason no one went looking for him. “I just don’t want a manhunt for a man I’m not sure I even want to know.”

Jac rolled over to face Cressida properly. “What if he’s everything you wanted in a dad though?”

“He won’t be.”

“What if the reason he left was stupid and he regrets it?” Jac kept pressing. “What if you finding him brings him back to your mum?” 

Cressida’s jaw clenched. The thought of her mother alone undoubtedly smoking her days away in the flat crept their way in much like the cracks in the ceiling. The thought of her father just waltzing back in and fixing it all felt like Pollyfilla. 

She got up from the floor and went about rearranging Jac’s potted plants in the window. “Even if I wanted to find him, Mum only gave me his first name. That’s not exactly much to go on.”

“So write to your mum and ask for more,” Jac suggested like it was easy.

Cressida stared out at the rising sun over the Scotland mountains. The vibrant reds and oranges taking over the dark blues and greys. “You really think he’d come back if I found him?” She asked childishly. “You think he’d explain why he left in the first place?”

Jac joined her in the window, a soft smile on her features. “It’s worth a shot, right?”

Cressida met Jac’s eyes, a less hopeful expression on her own face. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good,” Jac said, wrapping an arm around Cressida. “And if you find out anything, you come straight to me this time so I can keep talking sense into you,” she joked lightly. “Not everything is going to end in doom and disaster, you know, Cressie.”

Cressida forced out a laugh at Jac’s expense. Her eyes went back to watching the last of the sunrise. All of the darkness of the night seemed to be gone now as morning broke.

*

Cressida had thought long and hard about what Jac had said once they’d left the hexagonal room. Jac had disappeared to get breakfast with the others but Cressida hid herself away behind her bed curtains under the lie of getting some sleep.

She didn’t sleep. That was a given. She doubted Jac even believed it when she said it, but she left Cressida alone regardless. And as she sat alone, she thought.

She thought about what Jac said and about every scenario and situation in the possible realm of reality happening and playing out over and over again. And the more she thought, the more conflicted she felt.

She knew the likelihood of her father regretting it and coming back to play happy families was doubtful, especially in her life, but that small bit of hope had been placed.

She could find him.

She had the means to, and even if she couldn’t do it herself, she knew people who could.

And who’s the say he  didn’t  regret leaving them behind? Maybe he  would  come back and fix her mum. Maybe he was like Dayle and more. Maybe Cressida was just like him.

Gnawing on her lip until it bled, Cressida reached under her bed to find some loose parchment and grabbed the quill pen Rasper had been entertaining himself with at the end of her bed.

It was time to cut the bullshit.

‘I want names and dates.’

She sealed the letter and stored it in her robes before heading off.

She wouldn’t use Barnabas to send the letter to her mother. She couldn’t risk James asking what she’d sent and after the affair at Christmas, he’d badger her for whether she got a reply or not. So she scouted out a small brown owl no one would even realise was missing and with shaking hands, she sent it off on its mission.

She watched it disappear over the mountains and into the distance wondering what state it would find her mother in when it arrived at the flat.

She wished she had something to chew on to soothe her nerves, she felt like her chest would cave in as she thought about the response she may get in a few days' time or even months, knowing Alice. She wondered whether she’d get a response at all, or if her mother would ignore it like she had all the other letters.

No, she couldn’t dwell on that now. It would only lead the others to suspicion. She needed a distraction from it all. She wanted to put it out of her mind and there was only one thing that could overpower her thoughts about this. One thing that could overpower her thoughts about anything, especially the bad stuff.

She needed not to think, even just for a few moments.

After giving a quick pat on the head to Barnabas as she passed, Cressida went back out into the castle halls.

She found Jac and Fred sitting on the wall by the viaduct gazing stupidly into each other’s eyes. She didn’t stop to distract them. She passed Felix on his way up from the kitchens, his pockets overflowing with the treats being prepared to go out at dinner. She found Molly nestled under a tree with an array of books spread out in front of her and quills sticking out of her hair. She was muttering words and spells to herself like a mad woman.

Eventually, she came to a stop near the Grand Staircase feeling at a loss.

“Alright, Knightly?” Cressida spun around to find Thomas and James coming down the stairs wearing their Quidditch jerseys ready for practice. Her hands stopped shaking as James smiled at her. Her worries suddenly felt lighter, just having him standing in front of her. “You coming to watch us today?”

“Um, actually,” she cast a guilty glance at Wood innocently standing there before locking eyes with James. “I wondered if you wanted to come with me somewhere else for a bit. I have some homework I need help with.”

“But we have Quidditch practice,” Thomas said.

“It’s important,” Cressida tried.

“But we have Quidditch practice,” Thomas repeated.

She looked at James almost desperately.  Please distract me.  He gave a small nod as if reading her mind. “You and Aslow have a good rapport going at the moment, Wood. I doubt you need me there for the first half hour while I help out Knightly.”

“But- but we  have  to be there. You can’t just skip practice, James! What would Freddie think?”

“I just passed him on a date with Jac,” Cressida interjected.

“Bloody girls,” Thomas muttered throwing his arms up in the air as he walked down the last few steps. “You know, you lot are really eating into our strategy planning.”

“Have you considered that mentality is why you haven’t kissed anyone yet?” James teased.

“Whatever. I don’t have time for girls right now, I have Quidditch practice!” Thomas yelled as he stormed down the hallway.

James clutched a hand to his chest. “His dad would be so proud.” Cressida was still looking at James and his attention clicked back to her as if noticing something was off-kilter all of a sudden. “Everything alright, Knightly? It’s not like  you  to drag me away somewhere in front of people.”

Cressida ran a hand through her hair as she moved forward towards the hexagonal room or the nearest broom closet, whichever one was more convenient at the moment. She unthinkingly reached back to grab James’ hand and pull him along faster behind her. “Yeah, I just-”

“Well, if it isn’t the unhappy couple.” 

Cressida froze, looking up to see Arabella and Margo coming down the staircase towards them. She quickly snatched her hand out of James’. Margo had already caught it.

“Keep moving, Chauncey,” James said to her.

Arabella did no such thing. “Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting a pathetic date of some sort? Honestly, Potter, with your money you should be treating Cressida to something a bit more classy than feeling her up in a closet.” Cressida’s eyes shot to Margo as she shrunk behind Arabella slightly.  She’d fucking told . “It’s not like she gets to experience lavish things often-”

“James was just on his way to Quidditch practice,” Cressida said, forcing her voice to be calm, eyes firmly on the rotten Ravenclaw girl. 

“I was?” James asked disappointed.

“Have I hit a nerve?” Arabella smiled.

“Not at all,” Cressida strained a smile in reply. “Whatever you’ve been told I can assure you it’s nothing but bullshit to get a bit of attention,” she said glaring at Margo. “Potter and I are just friends.”

Cressida noticed the slightest clench in James’ jaw as he looked to the floor in front of them.

“Oh, that’s a shame,” Arabella said, noticing it as well. “You two would have made an adorably dysfunctional couple.” She continued on her way down the stairs with Margo scurrying behind her. "Would have kept us all entertained for weeks, watching you two crash and burn."

James glanced down at Cressida knowingly as the two girls disappeared.

She was glowering. She was going to kill Margo the next time she caught her alone.

“Do you want me to go and kick her ass?” James offered quietly.

“Nope,” Cressida said, moving forward. “I can do it myself-”

James reached out and held her back by the waistband of her denim shorts. “Are you sure nothing’s bothering you?” He asked. “You don’t seem…” he faltered, not quite being able to place it.

Cressida waved his concerns away. “You know what, maybe you should just go to practice after all,” she said averting her eyes. She blew her hair out of her face as she met James’ eyes again. “I’m fine. Just a late night studying with Jac.”

James didn’t look convinced.

“Wood needs you at practice anyway,” she assured him, already taking a step away from him. “I’ll find you if I need anything later.”

She turned and went up the stairs before James could refuse.

She snuck into the closest closet she could find and sank to the floor, chest rising and falling.

Margo’d fucking told.

 

Wednesday 8th May 2019

 

Cressida had waited and bided her time. 

She hadn’t gone after Margo straight away. If she had it would have been reckless and harsh and the other’s would have asked what had happened.

So she sat.

And she waited.

And she watched.

She’d seen James again since what happened on the staircase but only briefly. He thought she’d gone there to explain why she seemed so off. She’d really gone there for a favour.

“I need the invisibility cloak,” she’d said as they stood outside Gryffindor’s portrait hole.

James lowered his voice. “What the hell for?”

“I just need it for something quick,” she’d whispered back hurriedly. “I can give it back to you by the end of the week, don’t worry-”

“It’s not that I’m worried about.”

Cressida looked up at him. “Don’t go all gooey on me, Potter, I’m fine. I just have something I need to sort out.”

“Cressida-” James tried.

She ran a hand through her hair agitatedly. “Don’t deepen it, James. I’m not going to do anything bad.”

He huffed as he thought about it. “Fine,” he said eventually. “I can drop it off after lessons.”

“Thanks,” she said as she pushed herself up off the wall to leave.

“Wait,” James called after her. “Is that it?”

She glanced back at him guiltily.

I have to sort this out first. We can’t be found out. Not like this.

“I have homework,” she said pathetically.

James scoffed, shaking his head. “Sure,” he said as he turned around. “I’ll just see you later then.”

With that, he disappeared back into his common room.

Once she had received the invisibility cloak, Cressida went back to her dorm room and situated herself on the chair and didn’t move from the spot until she’d done what she needed to do.

She’d watched Molly and Jac come in, grab some books, and leave again. She’d seen Winky pop into the room and drop a note off on Jac’s bed from Fred, and she’d seen Felix poke his head in looking for them before leaving as well. 

It took two hours before Margo walked in alone.

She dumped her bag on her bed and went into the bathroom. Cressida got up from the chair, under the protection of the cloak and put her hand on the door handle. 

She kept it there for a moment, debating walking in or getting her wand out or locking Margo in there until she told her exactly what she’d said to Arabella.

In the end, her hand slipped off the door handle and Cressida moved to the side.

She hated Margo more than ever for saying something about her and James. She hated that someone had ruined her bubble and told Arabella of all people. She could’ve cursed and screamed and fought, but she didn’t.

The door clicked open again and Margo stepped out.

Cressida remained in the corner, unbeknownst to Margo.

She watched as Margo sat on her bed, opened her bedside drawer and stared at something for a long moment. Cressida wasn’t close enough to see what it was.

With a sniff, Margo forcefully shut the drawer again, her eyes staring off into space, and then Cressida watched as Margo burst into tears like a switch had been flipped.

Her head fell into her hands and her tears stained her green ornate bedding and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to why she’d started in the first place.

And then, Margo simply lifted her head and took a deep breath. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and reapplied her mascara. Then she grabbed her school bag again and left like nothing had ever happened.

Cressida pulled the cloak off her once the door shut behind Margo.

She crossed the room and opened the drawer just for a peek at what had been looking at before crying. Something she could use for revenge maybe, if she felt it was necessary. She reached inside and pulled out an old wizard photo of Molly and Margo when they were kids at the Burrow. She turned it over and on the back, it read  ‘M&M, together 4eva’  in scruffy, undignified writing with hearts drawn in colourful felt tip.

Underneath was a birthday card. Homemade. It was for Molly.

‘ To my one and only best friend. Love you always.’

She’d never given it to her, clearly. 

Cressida thought back to their conversation in the bathroom. How Margo was so scared of losing Molly completely. How all along the only thing Margo actually openly cared about  was  Molly. How she wanted it to be like the photo forever. Just the two of them. 

With a small realisation, Cressida replaced the photo exactly how she found it.

She could’ve hurt her. She could’ve yelled at Margo until she was blue in the face and threatened her with everything under the sun but then Cressida suddenly realised nothing she could do to Margo was as bad as what she seemed to be doing to herself.

She left the room shortly after that as well.

*

The next day at breakfast, Cressida sat and ate her usual hash browns and drank her tea served by Molly. The invisibility cloak was stored safely in her bag ready to give back to James when she got the chance. Her eyes glanced further down the table to find Margo sitting with Vonce. Neither of them was talking as they pushed their cereal around in their bowls. Occasionally, Cressida caught Margo’s vision turn in their direction, or more specifically, Molly’s, then she’d turn back to her breakfast with a clenched jaw.

She wondered whether it was worth saying anything to Molly about what she’d seen, but then, she supposed it wasn’t Molly’s problem anymore. She supposed Margo’d just have to deal with it alone like the rest of them. She’d learn sooner or later.

That didn’t stop her growing theory, however. A strange sort of realisation settled in her brain. Could it possibly be true?

Her eyes were pulled away when a tiny brown owl dropped a letter onto the table in front of her. She recognised the writing on the front instantly.

“What you getting a letter for?” Felix asked, shoving scrambled eggs into his mouth.

“It’s from my mum,” Cressida said, putting it safely into her bag along with the cloak. She didn’t see the sense in lying to them anymore. Not about the small things when she had much bigger things going on. “I had some questions to ask her.”

Jac choked on her muffin at the unexpected admission. “You actually wrote to her? You didn't even say anything!”

Molly looked up over the teapot. “You knew she was doing this?”

“What did you ask her?” Felix asked curiously, peering over the table for a glance at the letter. “Is it to do with that Dayle fella your mum was seeing?”

“Dayle’s gone,” Cressida said, finishing the last of her breakfast. “He went away at Christmas.” That brought an awkward silence to the table as Felix and Molly took in the information. “I’ll see you in lessons,” she said getting up from the table.

As she left, she heard Molly and Felix grilling Jac on what she knew.

Cressida hid out in the secret passageway and ripped open the letter, not wanting to wait a second longer. She was amazed she’d got a reply so quickly in the first place.

When her eyes scanned the page, she realised the letter wasn’t very long or bursting with information at all as she’d hoped it would be.

It simply read:

‘Last name Doe was given at an orphanage. He never knew his birth parents. Never had a family name. No one ever came looking for him.’

She crumpled up the letter and threw it back into her bag in disappointment and frustration. Great , she thought, her father was a John frigging Doe. A no one. A blank slate with no traceability.

That put her back to square one.

Maybe she would need help after all.

*

After meandering through lessons all day in a daze-like state and then hiding out in the hexagonal room to reread her mother’s letter to double-check there hadn’t been even an ounce of new information she could decipher from it, Cressida re-joined her group of friends in the library for their designated study session of the day.

She walked in to find Molly still stressing about the amount of revision they needed to get through, Thomas was complaining about his lack of kissing antics, and Felix was snacking, watching the chaos unfold around him.

Molly looked up from her books as Cressida took a vacant seat opposite her. Cressida could see it in her face, Molly wanted to ask about the letter or about Dayle. Luckily, with a quick glance at Fred and Thomas, she chose a different subject. “Did you remember to bring those notes on the calming draught?”

“Forgot, sorry,” Cressida answered.

“Where’ve you been all afternoon anyway, Knightly?” Thomas asked then. “James said he couldn’t find you when we asked after you.”

He hadn’t looked very hard then,  she thought. James always found her if he wanted to. It was like some secret skill of his.

“Had some stuff I needed to get done,” she answered vaguely.

“I would’ve come looking for you myself if I didn’t have to deal with Wood moping all the time,” Fred said then. He had his feet propped up on the table with Thomas’ head resting across his outstretched legs. “We spent all afternoon out on the grass, scouting which girls could be contenders for Wood to get it on with, and we’re still at a standstill.”

“It’s hopeless,” Thomas complained.

Madam Pince’s old and withered face appeared around the shelves of books instantaneously with a scrutinising look.

All of them apologised in a monotone chorus.

“Jesus Christ, Wood, it’s not the end of the world you’ve not snogged someone,” Felix said once Pince was gone again. 

“Yeah, Tommo, James and I were only joking,” Fred comforted him.

“You said I was going to marry my broomstick and ride off into the sunset last night,” Thomas grumbled. Felix chortled a laugh and Jac quickly elbowed him in the stomach. 

“You’ll find someone eventually, Wood,” Molly said then. “No sense in rushing and making a mess of it. Your first kiss should be with someone you really like… someone you can trust with anything.”

James appeared then, something bulky hidden under his robe. Cressida averted her eyes away from him as he squeezed in the gap beside her. He gave one look to Thomas before rolling his eyes. “You’re not still moping about the kiss thing are you, Tommo?” 

“Molly said I should find someone I really like,” Thomas started.

“Well, that mission can wait for another day,” James said, brushing it away. “I’ve got just the thing to cheer you miserable bastards up.” He slammed an old dusty book down in the middle of the table. “Behold!” He exclaimed excitedly.

“Shhhhh!”  Madam Pince scolded them.

James saluted her as she disappeared back to the depths of her library again. 

“What’s this old crap?” Fred asked, blowing the dust off the book cover.

“I,” James started with great showmanship, “being the criminal mastermind that I am, traversed the restricted section of the library under the cover of night-”

“Under cover of cloak more like,” Jac cut in.

Cressida looked up at the mention of the cloak. She’d had it in her possession for the last day or so. He couldn’t have used it to get the book.

“ Under the cover of night, ” he repeated pointedly. “And stole-”

“Is that  Magick Moste Evile ?!” Molly interrupted furiously.

“Can I  please  finish my sentence!?” James chided.

“James, why on earth would you need this book?!” Molly asked, quickly concealing it under a pile of other books in fear of Madam Pince.

“Whimbrel’s going to start teaching us about the unforgivable curses and dark magic in a week or so. Thomas and I snuck in and looked at his lesson plan the other night,” Fred explained.

“We were fed up with him not teaching us properly so we took it into our own hands just before Christmas,” Thomas added. “We’ve been two steps ahead of him ever since.”

“Hence the book,” James elaborated proudly. “We’re going to know everything by the end of the month.”

“Isn’t that kind of dangerous?” Felix asked. It was unusual for him to be the voice of reason, which meant it was a terrible idea. “I mean, you can’t just have unlimited access to these kinds of spells.”

“We’re not going to  do  any of them,” James said, pulling up and chair and sitting down. “Just read all about them.”

“Plus, not all the things in our potions book are exactly safe,” Fred pointed out.

“Yeah,  sectumsepera  is still in here,” Thomas said.

“At least we all know what it does and to stay clear of it,” Molly huffed then, opening a new textbook. 

“What does it do?” Jac asked curiously.

“It’s a spell Snape came up with when he wrote the book the first time,” James said darkly. “Really nasty. You’d know it if you saw it."

"Just ask Malfoy," Fred added. "I bet his dad still has the scars from being on the receiving end of it back when Uncle Harry-”

"Yeah, well, that was a mistake on my dad's part-" James jumped to his defence haughtily.

“And a bloody good reason for us to make sure no one ever gets the chance to use that spell again,” Molly went on. “That is unless you bumbling baboons leave the book somewhere unattended for the fifty-fourth time.”

“You know, Weasley, I’m getting really sick of you not trusting us to look after this book responsibly,” James said, fishing out the restricted book from under the pile. He opened it to a random page and it let out a deafening shriek that James quickly tried to conceal under his robes. It did little to silence it and Madam Pince rounded on them for a third time in a furious rage.

“That’s it, you lot!” She wailed almost as loud as the book. “Out!” Her beady eyes fell on the book terribly concealed in James’ arms. Her nostrils flared. “Is that one of my restricted books?!  Without a note? !”

“… no,” James tried.

“Come with me, Mr Potter!” Madam Pince scowled, grabbing him by the earlobe and dragging him out of the library. “We shall see what McGonagall has to say about this!”

The others watched him get pulled away in silence.

“So,” Felix said, breaking the silence. “Are there any girls you think would risk kissing you, Wood?”

Thomas banged his head hopelessly against the table.

*

James had obviously been given a detention. One of the most boring ones too- sorting all Madam Pince’s books alphabetically and putting them back on the shelves after the library had closed for the night. His new book had been taken from him and replaced in the restriction section as well. He had been very annoyed about that.

Cressida had been pacing the floor wondering whether or not to go and find James before his detention and finally explain to him what had been going on, or why she needed the cloak at the very least, but every time she made it to the door to go and do so, she stopped herself and her hand would fall away from the door handle and she’d return to pacing.

That was until she was disturbed by Margo entering the room at around eight o’clock. The other girl had clearly been surprised to open the door and find Cressida immediately on the other side of it, but she didn’t acknowledge it with more than a scowl as she moved to her bed and sat down.

Cressida turned her attention to Margo instead, her theories and knowledge of what she had seen the other day bubbling away in her brain.

Margo caught Cressida staring at her and her scowl worsened as she got her homework out ready to complete it. “Can I help you with something?”

Cressida didn’t answer. She continued to stare across the bedroom at her. It was so rare the two of them just happened to be here alone at the same time without Cressida doing it for a reason. Fred and Jac were off snogging each other somewhere undoubtedly. Molly was going over the Chatterbox articles and Felix had probably fallen asleep in the alcove in the common room with a pumpkin pasty hanging out of his mouth.

If Cressida's suspensions were right, they wouldn’t be disturbed for at least half an hour.

Margo, as expected, went about her business pretending Cressida wasn’t there after she’d received no answer, but Cressida had no intention of returning the favour.

This might have been her only chance to ask and have it look somewhat natural rather than an interrogation. Not that Margo even deserved that decency after what she'd done, but Cressida knew this was a sensitive topic and if she was wrong... well, if she was wrong she doubted Margo would stop trying to ruin her life anytime soon for accusing her of such a thing.

“Margo,” Cressida said tentatively.

“What?” She asked, eyeing her up. Cressida could tell Margo was panicking it was payback time for telling Arabella but trying not to show it.

“I know.”

Margo, still confused about what Cressida's angle was with this conversation, moved across to the vanity to start brushing her hair. “What drivel are you talking about, Knightly?”

Cressida stayed on her side of the room. “You liked her,” she said simply. It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. A test on whether Margo would scoff and turn away or confirm her theory.

Margo dropped her hairbrush to the floor as she whipped around. She didn’t say anything straight away, just composed herself and picked up the brush, turning her back on Cressida once more. “What are you talking about?”

“Molly,” Cressida went on. Despite not being able to see her face, she knew Margo had frozen and was listening to her words intently. “You liked her more than a friend… that’s why you acted that way.”

Margo didn’t move for a long time. Didn’t say anything. Neither did Cressida.

“Does anyone else know?” She asked finally, almost defeated. She still hadn’t turned around.

“Just me,” Cressida admitted. “I don’t think the others even have it on their radar-”

“Good,” Margo said firmly, turning around then. “Shoving my tongue down Vonce’s throat every day tends to put people off the scent.”

There was an awkward silence then. “I guess I should be sorry for how we treated you,” Cressida said. “I just kind of assumed you were a bitch… I didn’t realise-”

“Keep thinking that way,” she snapped. “I don’t want your pity or your apologies. I was a bitch. I still am, we both know that. Just because you’ve figured out I secretly like girls- a girl- doesn’t make us friends again.”

“Does Molly know?” Cressida asked curiously.

Her knuckles turned white as she braced herself against the chest of drawers. Her face gave nothing away, however. “Don’t think so. Molly probably just assumed we were being normal girl best friends. It’s not like we ever did anything more than hug… that’s what makes this so pathetic, in a way. It was all in my head.”

Cressida gave a nod of understanding, although she knew she’d never understand how this must have felt for Margo to go through. Her anger towards Felix felt somewhat warranted now even though it still wasn’t fair on him. Cressida couldn’t imagine how she would have reacted if James  had  got with April and then they flaunted it in her own room every night.

Margo cleared her throat and squared out her shoulders as she looked at Cressida again. “So. Who are you going to tell?”

Cressida frowned. “What?”

“I told Arabella about you and James.” She paused to gulp nervously. “It’s only fair you tell my secret like I told yours. Tit for tat.”

Cressida got to her feet and faced Margo straight on. She could tell. A part of her, the worst part of her, thought it might be deserved, but she knew it wasn’t the same. She knew it wouldn’t be fair. “I won’t out you, Margo. And I intend to keep to my word on that.”

Margo tried not to show the relief on her face. Cressida didn’t say anything more on the matter before turning and leaving the dorm, the invisibility cloak tucked away under her arm. If this secret ever got out, it wouldn’t come from Cressida’s mouth. Hopefully, that act of kindness from Cressida would keep Margo from telling anyone else about her and James. 

She set off through the castle. She needed to talk to James in private and explain why she’d been so weird these last few days, especially now her anger with Margo was squashed for the most part.

She paused when she reached the library and hid around the corner. Madam Pince was walking out the door, all her most precious books concealed in her arms. 

“Don’t let him ruin anything,” Madam Pince said firmly to Filch, who was pulling up a chair to guard the door. “If you hear so much as a pin drop in there I want you to reprimand that boy.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Filch grinned back horribly.

Madam Pince handed her keys to Filch and set off through the hall.

Filch placed his lantern on the floor beside him, his eyes scanning the hall for any sign of a student on the loose. Mrs Norris weaved in between his bony ankles before settling down, her own red eyes looking for the same thing as Filch.

Cressida pulled the cloak over her body and set forward. Filch was saying his usual drivel to Mrs Norris about being on high alert and protecting Hogwarts from unruly children.

Neither of them had even noticed the door open a tiny slither for her to slip in through.

The library was incredibly dark as she walked up the abandoned aisles.

The only sign of life in the library was a tiny lantern on the furthest aisle and the muttering cursing of James as he carried stacks of books to and fro.

Cressida pulled off the cloak revealing herself just as James turned around. He yelped and dropped the pile of books to the floor in surprise.

“Christ, Knightly!” He cursed, bending over and clutching his heart. “Give me some warning next time!”

Filch popped his head in the door with an ugly scowl. Cressida flattened herself against the bookshelf. “What you doing in here, Potter?”

“Rat,” James called back as he scurried to pick up the dropped books. “Gave me a bit of a fright.”

Filch gave a grumble in reply before returning to his chair outside the door.

James met Cressida’s eye. She held out the cloak for him to take. “Figured you’d need this back.”

“You snuck into detention to give me the cloak back?” James asked doubtfully as he put the books on the shelf.

Cressida shrugged. “Also… just wanted to see you, I guess.”

James quirked an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“You hadn’t come to see me since I borrowed the cloak.”

“Thought you’d be busy scheming,” James answered.

“I wanted to explain what’s been going on the last few days,” she went on, helping him with his task. He looked at her expectantly. She glanced around the eerily quiet library, trying to find the words. They weren’t coming to her. She didn’t know where to start.

It had been easier to tell Jac. It was always easier to talk to Jac about these things but she didn’t know how Potter would react. Whether he’d even be able to help. She still wasn’t even sure if she wanted him to know in the first place.

It was like Jac said, people treat you different if you’re not a muggle-born.

“Tell you what,” James said once the silence had dragged on for too long. “Let’s get out of here and you can tell me somewhere where we’re not being watched.”

“You can’t just bail on detention."

James grinned. “Sure I can.”

He grabbed his wand and performed a spell so complicated Cressida wasn’t even sure it could be taught. Instantaneously, all the books left to be sorted flew into the air and ordered themselves into perfect alphabetical order and flew into their designated spots on the shelf.

In total, it took about five minutes for James’ entire evening of detention to be done with.

“Why didn’t you do that in the first place?” Cressida asked him.

“Sometimes I feel bad that their punishments never work so I put effort in to make it more difficult for myself. Chuck this back over you and we’ll go,” he said throwing her the cloak.

Cressida did as was instructed and the two of them made to leave the library.

He was stopped momentarily by Filch. “You can’t be done!” He exclaimed annoyed. “You’ve only been in there twenty minutes!”

James put his hands smugly into his pockets. “Look for yourself. The books are all where they’re supposed to be.”

Filch looked doubtful. “Mrs Norris, watch them,” he instructed before storming into the library, lantern in hand.

James turned his eyes on Mrs Norris. She hissed at him. He threw a piece of cheese down on the ground and the cat was begrudgingly appeased, her red eyes still eyeing James up as if she'd change her mind any second now and summon Filch on him.

He strolled off through the corridor unbothered.

Cressida met him around the corner. “Cheese?”

“I get peckish in detentions and Teddy gave me the tip that Mrs Norris likes cheese. Two birds, one stone,” he shrugged, shoving the cloak into his own book bag. “So, where to?”

Cressida sighed, building up the courage within herself. “Somewhere quiet.”

James gave a nod. “Alright then.”

It took over an hour of strolling through the halls in silence before James started leading her in a specific direction. Cressida had hoped the words would have come to her by now but nothing was coming out, and whenever she tried incoherent nonsense came out instead.

“Where are we going?” Cressida asked dismally as they climbed the stairs.

“Somewhere quiet, like you said,” James said. 

They reached the top of the Astronomy Tower as the clock struck nine. Curfew was officially upon them.

James leant on the barrier overlooking the mountains, taking in a deep breath of the cool air. Cressida came up beside him, her hands gripping onto the cold metal bar as she looked down to the ground below.

It was still, and Cressida liked the stillness that came with the night at Hogwarts. She liked sharing it with James even more. She sat down and dangled her legs over the edge, resting her chin on the lower bar to buy herself some time to gather her thoughts.

“I sometimes come up here when I need to think,” he said breaking the stillness. “I like to watch the stars to clear my head.”

“Which one’s yours?” Cressida asked, looking out at the stars shining down on them. “Isn’t Sirius a star?”

“Surprised you remembered that.”

“Sometimes I pay attention in Astronomy,” she joked lightly. If she was honest, the only reason she  had  remembered that was because it was somehow linked to James. She’d never admit that to him though.

James grabbed her index finger and directed it to a constellation in the black sky. “That’s Sirius’ star. The Dog Star.”

“Huh,” Cressida said, admiring it. “It’s pretty.”

James smiled, releasing her hand. “It does the trick. That one’s my favourite though,” he said pointing to a different lone star off to the side. It had a strange glow to it that was different from the others. “I always notice it up there.”

Cressida examined it. “Pretty sure that’s a satellite.”

“Oh,” James frowned. “Well, it can still be my favourite either way.”

“It’s not even a real star,” she laughed at him softly.

“It’s still up there though,” he countered with a grin. “Looks just as beautiful as all the other stars from where I’m standing.”

Cressida rolled her eyes at him humorously as they went back to staring out at the glittering sky.

She felt more at ease now. More herself.

The stillness returned.

“James,” she said finally. He turned his green eyes on her.  It was now or never.  “I wrote to my mum this week.”

“Oh… did she not reply again?” He asked sympathetically.

“No, she did,” Cressida sighed. “It wasn’t as helpful as I’d hoped though.”

James leant his back against the barrier now so he could solely focus on Cressida. “What did you write to her about?”

Cressida gulped. “My dad.” 

James didn’t say anything straight away. “I thought he didn’t exist?” He asked finally, sitting down on the ground beside her.

Cressida’s hands tightened around the bar. “He doesn't really, that’s the problem,” she started. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I want to find out who he was, or is… whether anyone knew him.”

James didn’t take his eyes off her. “But you’ve never mentioned your dad before now. It’s only been your mum’s boyfriends-”

Cressida averted her eyes at the mention of Dayle and the sudden memory of Gareth. “It’s about time I learned who I came from… mum told me over Christmas he was like me.”

“Welsh?”

“Magical,” she corrected. “Turns out my dad was a wizard.”

“Oh,” James floundered. She held her breath as she waited for his reaction. She watched his brows narrow in thought. “But if your dad was magic… that would make you-”

“A half-blood,” Cressida finished for him. “Yeah, I know.”

James gave a frown as he contemplated what it meant.

The two of them looked out at the scenery again, this time the stillness felt a bit more tense.

After a while, once the silence had dragged on for almost too long, James turned to her again. He clearly had a thousand questions run through his head as he thought, but landed on the least personal one. One he knew Cressida wouldn't shut him out over. “How are you going to do it?”

Cressida looked over the edge of the barrier again, taking note of just how far the drop to the ground would be if she leant too far forward. “Dunno yet… but when I’ve figured it out I might need your help.”

“Of course,” James agreed instantly. “We’d do anything for you, Knightly, you know that.”

“James,” she said gravely. “Only you and Jac know. I need you to keep this to yourself for a little while.”

James nodded. “Okay,” he said softly.

Cressida gave him a smile of appreciation.

He reached over and took her hand in his and the two of them continued to sit in silence until Cressida was ready to move.

Chapter 90: Fourth Year: In The Dead of Night

Notes:

Happy New Year everyone!
A rather long chapter for you all today, hope you enjoy it :)

Wednesday 15th May 2019

 

It was three in the morning when Cressida’s bed curtains were hastily opened and shut with an invisible force. For once, she’d been in her comfy pyjamas ready to attempt some sleep before the intrusion.

She sat up and rubbed her tired eyes as James revealed himself. “I don’t think I have the energy to sneak around tonight, Potter-”

James clambered up the bed to sit beside her. “I have a theory on your dad,” he interrupted her after performing the silencing charm.

Cressida rested her head back on the pillow. “And it couldn’t wait until the morning?”

“We wouldn’t get a chance to talk alone in the morning.”

“Oh, I must have imagined all the times you’ve pulled me into a closet on the way to class without the others noticing,” she quipped.

“Well, that’s a bit different,” he replied. “This involves actual brain power.”

Cressida sighed and reluctantly sat up to face James. “What’s your theory?”

“Your dad was a wizard, right?” Cressida gave a nod. “Then it’s likely  he  had wizard parents too.”

“Unless he’s a muggle-born like Jac and-” she’d gone to say herself and then remembered that wasn’t exactly true anymore.

James thought for a moment. “Well, Castillo is  a magical name. An old one at that… he has to be connected to someone somehow.” Cressida offered no comment. “And your mum said he had no record of a proper last name?” 

Cressida shook her head. James looked stumped.

“Well, I’ll come up with something else then,” he said after a moment. “I’ll keep trying-”

“When I said I wanted your help, James, I didn’t expect you to lose sleep over it too,” she told him. “Something will come out about him eventually. It’s not going to be an easy answer by the looks of things.”

James turned his eyes on her. “But this is important to you.”

Cressida grabbed his hand. “I’ve gone fifteen years without knowing him. I knew it was going to take time to find a lead, even with your help.”

James gave a yawn. “I’ll keep thinking,” he vowed regardless, resting his head against the pillow.

“You do that,” Cressida said, settling back down. 

“Say we do find your dad…” James said then. “What exactly are you going to say to him?”

Cressida took a deep breath. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. There were probably a thousand things she could have asked him but the main overbearing question was why he left in the first place .  Why he never left her a sign of who he was... or what they were.

“I’ll figure that out when I get there,” she said instead.

James gave a thoughtful hum as he made himself comfortable. Her eyelids began to get heavy and she was enjoying the extra warmth James brought to the cold dungeon dorm room.

It was normally around this time James excused himself and trudged back up to Gryffindor Tower, or Cressida simply threw him out after they’d been out exploring or talking nonsense until the early hour of the morning. It was unusual for one of them not to be acutely aware of the people existing outside of the bed curtains that could stroll over at any moment and find them lying there together holding hands, but they were both too comfortable at that moment.

Cressida supposed it normal for them to be like this now. Comfortable. 

After all, James was practically in Cressida’s bed as much as his own by this point, but they’d never fallen asleep together. James was always back in his tower before morning came and Cressida always woke up alone.

She forced her eyes open on the brink of sleep taking over her body to find James had already succumbed to it. It reminded her of the night of the Hallowe’en party and how reluctant she’d been to admit she felt more than friendship for Potter. 

She was far past that point now. She was truly in the deep end she feared so much.

Pushing the thought out of her mind, she pulled her blanket up over him so he didn’t freeze and lead back down on the pillow. She had a hunch he’d still be gone by morning anyway, but letting him catch up on his sleep for an hour or two couldn't hurt.

There was a familiar chirp and Cressida felt the weight of Rasper crawling his way into the gap between her and James. She scratched him between the ears and rolled over to get some sleep for herself with the faint sound of James’ snores in the background.

 

*

 

James never returned to his dorm room by the morning. He never got caught either. With the help of the invisibility cloak, all James had to do was cover himself with it in the morning when they all woke up and sneak out as easily as he’d snuck in.

It was simple. So simple in fact, James came back two nights after that again. It’d started in a very similar way, with the two of them talking and speculating on how to proceed with their current mission, and it had once again ended with James falling asleep beside her.

After a week of this happening almost every other day, she’d begun to think James just preferred sleeping in her bed. For what reason she didn’t know. The dungeons were always slightly colder than the rest of the castle, and there was more often than not a monotonous drip somewhere in the distance, but James stayed nonetheless.

Towards the end of the week, she began testing it.

“More theories on my dad?” Cressida had asked as he plopped himself down on the bed.

“Nope,” he’d said. “Not tonight anyway, but rest assured I’m spending more time on this than pranking- Tommo and Freddie think I’ve gone slightly mad. They think I’m always doing homework instead.”

Cressida had noticed he was wearing a hoodie and pyjama bottoms this time instead of something resembling actual clothes. “Sneaking out then?”

“Nope,” he’d said again. Rasper had taken up residence in his lap. 

“How have the boys not noticed you’re not in their room?”

“Pillows and a hair charm on a Quaffle,” he said proudly.

Cressida watched him for a moment. He was fluffing up a pillow under his head. “Why are you here so much lately?” She asked finally. It wasn’t like they ever did any promiscuous while he was here. They mostly saved that for closets and daylight. She didn’t know why they did that either if she was honest. Maybe it felt more innocent or sneaky that way.

James was scratching Rasper between the ears. “You sleep through the night now.”

“What?”

“You sleep,” he said again. “Before, when we used to sneak out it was good fun and all, but it’d keep us up till four or five in the morning and we’d go to lessons like it was normal… but I noticed after the first night, you fell asleep not long after I did. I tested it again the next time I came. You were asleep by two that time. The third time I came you even fell asleep before me.”

She frowned at him. “You’ve been micro-managing my sleep?”

James smiled. “Well, we’re going to need all the energy we can get if we’re going to find your dad-”

She hit him lightly on the arm, startling Rasper gave an annoyed sort of grumble. “I can’t believe you’ve been making me sleep.”

James rolled over to face her. “I must be magic to make the known insomniac fall asleep so easily,” he joked.

“Or incredibly boring,” she quipped back.

“You wound me, Knightly,” he said clutching his heart. “If you want, I can always go and you can return to staring aimlessly at your ceiling.”

She hated how well he knew her. She rolled onto her back and crossed her arms, faking annoyance. “You’re here now. Might as well stay.”

James nestled his face into the pillow contently. “That’s what I thought.”

Cressida led there for a moment longer, trying to be mad at James but she couldn’t be really. She had been feeling more rested lately, not that she had realised why. She didn’t know what it was about him that made her sleep so easily. Maybe it was the fact her mind seemed to go quiet.

She turned to face him. His eyes were already closed and Rasper was getting comfortable on James’ stomach once again. “If you’re not careful, you’re going to end up in my bed more than your own,” she said then, not feeling ready to sleep yet herself.

“Your bed is more comfortable,” he’d replied.

“That’s a lie,” she’d scoffed knowingly. “You’re bed is way better than mine and it’s a lot warmer up there than down here.”

“Well… if you prefer my bed, why don’t you come up there instead?”

Cressida rolled her head to the side. “What?”

“You could come up there with me,” he said like it was the most normal thing in the world. “I never actually know if you can sleep fine on your own or not, I just guess… but if you decide you do prefer me there with you, you could always… come to me.”

“What if you’re asleep?” She asked.

“Poke me with your wand and I’ll soon wake up,” he replied.

Cressida rolled her head back to face the ceiling. “I don’t have the invisibility cloak,” she pointed out. She didn’t know why she was trying to find faults in his suggestion. It was a good suggestion but something about it felt special, more intimate than James showing up in her bed every couple of nights. If she went to him, that would admit she wanted to go to him, that she now couldn’t sleep unless he was there.

James took her prolonged silence as a disliking of the idea. “Just thought I’d suggest it,” he said. “And it’s not like not having a cloak has ever deterred you from sneaking around this place anyway.”

Cressida turned to face him again. “I’ll consider it,” she said.

James tried not to show his grin. “You will?”

“Yeah,” she said, turning away again. “But just so we’re clear, us sleeping in each other’s beds still doesn’t make me your girlfriend.”

“Just go to sleep, Knightly,” he replied.

Cressida rolled back over and led her head on the pillow.

A second later, she felt James’ arm wrap around her loosely. Against her better judgment, she allowed him to pull her backwards into him and they fell asleep intertwined.

She’d never slept so good.

 

 

Friday 17th May 2019

 

The new routine of falling asleep beside James had done wonders for the bags under her eyes and her general dislike of sunrise. However, it did have some drawbacks. Firstly, she’d noticed her usual time spent on homework and general school reading when she couldn’t sleep quickly went out the window in favour of actual sleep nestled beside James.

Secondly, James always had to be careful about sneaking out first thing in the morning, and that wasn’t always easy when Jac came bounding over onto Cressida’s bed with reckless abandon and nearly fell right on top of James hiding under the cloak more than once.

And thirdly, due to now often sleeping intertwined with one another, she and James seemed to have reached a new level of… something. Things that once seemed outlandish or caused the hairs on the backs of their necks to stand on end now seemed almost familiar to them. Their hands touching in lessons while passing things back and forth, their knees bumping together under the desks. One time since this new development, James almost came up and put his hand around her waist when joining the others for a study session. He played it off quickly by pretending she had a bug on her skirt and repeatedly faked trying to swot it away until she assured him firmly that he’d got it and was just making it worse.

Thankfully, the others were too busy pulling their hair out over exams coming up in the next few weeks to pay much attention to James' odd behaviour lately. They must have just assumed it was some sort of stress-induced breakdown.

One thing Cressida had come to notice was that although their friends hadn’t noticed much of a change in their behaviours to one another, someone else had. More than once, she had caught Arabella passing her in the hall while Cressida was with her friends, James included, and the horrid Ravenclaw girl would make kissing noises under her breath as she passed. In Defence Against the Dark Arts, she’d purposefully ask incriminating questions about Potter loud enough for Felix to hear. Cressida always managed to fob them off and ignore her for the most part, but it did make her wonder… why  hadn’t  Arabella just gone and told everyone? There must have been a reason she was keeping it to herself. Was it some sort of grand scheme to out them at the worst time possible in some horrid way? Either way, Cressida was wary of it and what exactly she was planning. So much so, she’d started taking extra steps to not be caught with James alone in the halls. It was more difficult than before, she’d realised that she’d rather come to enjoy the comfort of James' hands wrapped around her in some way or another, but that could be saved for her dorm or their many hiding places where no one could find them… where no one could  ruin  them.

Either way, between actually having to take time out of her day to study and her worries about what Margo and Arabella were up to behind the scenes, Cressida felt like she was long overdue for a weekend where she felt like revision wasn’t coming out of her ears. But with exams creeping closer by the day she knew Molly wouldn’t let that happen, which was the worst time for her own work ethic to go out the window.

This Friday in particular felt like it had dragged on unnecessarily. Every lesson had involved the word exam at least a dozen times. Even Neville’s lessons, which were usually some of the more enjoyable hours on the timetable, were spent writing notes on parchment about what they needed to cram into their already overflowing brains in the next few weeks.

It didn’t help that even when they weren’t in lessons Molly had started telling them about her ten-step plan on how to take the perfect photos for Sikander’s task.

Apparently, she was going to photograph Hogwarts’ natural fauna and flora.

Felix had stated that it was boring, but Jac seemed rather enamoured by the thought of it. “You have to admit, there isn’t anywhere as beautiful as Hogwarts,” she said as they walked through the halls toward their final lesson of the day.

“Or as deadly,” Felix chimed in then. “Why not do an exposé on all the creatures waiting to rip our throats out inches away from where we sleep? You can start with that bastard squid floating around above us all the time.”

“I want Sikander to be impressed with my work,” Molly had shut him down.

“Oh, sure, and a bunch of flowers are going to do just the trick I bet. It’s not like they’re literally fucking everywhere in the world,” Felix rebuked. “Just photograph the directions to the nearest garden centre and he’ll get the same effect.”

“He has got a point,” Cressida agreed. “Everywhere has flowers. Not everywhere has trolls and mermaids.”

“And what exactly are  you  planning to do for your project?” Molly huffed, clearly rethinking her idea.

Cressida shrugged. “I don’t know yet,” she admitted.

“Well, you better think of something soon,” Molly lectured her. “You have to start photographing and putting it together by the end of next month if you want it to be just right.”

“It’s just a bunch of photos put together to look good,” Cressida said. 

“It’s basically just Instagram with extra steps,” Jac backed her up.

“What the hell is an Instagram?” Molly frowned. 

“A Muggle thing,” Felix unpredictably answered. “Very pretty girls and a lot of pointless pictures of food on there from what I’ve heard.”

They rounded the corner, all except for Cressida, who had been yanked suddenly backwards without the others even noticing. 

James pulled her into one of the many nooks and crannies of the castle they’d discovered on their wanderings out of sight from most passers-by unless it was a certain angle.

“James, someone can still see us here,” Cressida protested as she was pulled into the tight space.

“They’ve not even realised you’re not following behind them anymore,” he said, swooping down and stealing a kiss.

Cressida relented but pretended like she had done it reluctantly. After all, who was she to argue with Potter kissing her?

“I have to get to class,” she said once James had kissed her a second time.

“Defence Against the Dark Arts,” James nodded. “Why do you think I stole you away before you could get there? You hate that class.”

Cressida shoved his face away before he could get a third kiss. “I still have to go to it-”

James reached around and gave her one last kiss on the cheek before she could escape. “Try not to let Chauncey piss you off you this time,” he said, slumping back against the wall as she left the space. “And meet me after lessons. We’re long overdue doing something stupid.”

She glanced back over her shoulder with a smile as she stepped back out into the crowd. “You  are  something stupid.”

She caught up to her friends just as they were entering the classroom.

“Where did you disappear to?” Jac asked as she rejoined them.

Cressida noticed Margo up ahead, her eyes trained on Cressida standing with her other friends. She glanced at Molly, searching for any sign that Cressida had told. Unbeknownst to Margo, Cressida hadn’t uttered a word about her discovery and she never would, as she’d promised. Still, Margo was reluctant to think it wouldn’t get out now someone knew. Sometimes one person was all it took. A giveaway, even if it was never spoken out loud.

“Dropped my quill,” Cressida lied effortlessly, turning her attention back to her friends.

They all walked in and took their seats expecting to have a good ten minutes before Whimbrel started his lesson as usual, but today, the wacky professor stood straight-backed at the front of the classroom, watching them all come in and take their seats.

“What do you reckon’s gotten into Whimbrel?” Felix whispered as the last few students filed in.

“Maybe he’s actually going to teach us something decent today,” Cressida whispered back. So far, the trio of boys had taught them more on this subject in their revision sessions than Whimbrel had.

Once the last student had found their seat, Whimbrel used his wand to summon the door shut with a groaning thud. The classroom seemed darker than normal. It looked like even Molly was confused about what was going to take place next.

Professor Whimbrel took to pacing the front of his classroom, twirling his wand in his hands thoughtfully. The rest of the class hadn’t noticed something was odd about this particular lesson and were otherwise uninterested in whatever nonsense was about to sprout from the mad teacher’s mouth for the next hour. In their defence, it seemed the closer it got to exams, the more manic he became in his storytelling and tales of days past. Hardly any of it was relevant to what they were supposed to be learning about, but he’d occasionally throw a question about an unforgivable curse or a dark creature to the class as a segway for him to move onto a different story.

Today, however, Whimbrel seemed to be actually thinking about what he said before he said it. That didn’t bode well for the class, from Cressida’s experience. 

“Now,” Whimbrel started no more than five minutes after everyone had arrived- another giveaway today’s lesson would be out of the norm. He was usually still waffling or tidying away the mess from his previous lesson at this point. “I’m sure you and your parents are all acutely aware of the month we are in and the great tragedy that befell our school and the wizarding world-”

Cressida leant sideways to Felix. “What stupid wizard tradition don’t I know about now?”

Felix sank into his chair, his eyes trailing Whimbrel as he moved back and forth up the front. “Battle of Hogwarts. May 2nd.”

Cressida thought back to earlier in the month. She’d seen something about it mentioned in the paper but never gave it much thought to read all the way through. It was mainly condolences and a few kind words. She’d noticed candles as well, scattered throughout the castle this time every year, but never actually asked what they were for. She now realised they were memorial candles.

“I know some teachers around here think we should approach this subject with extreme caution. Some even suggested backburning this sensitive topic in detail for those who last until Seventh Year. I, however, think it is vital to your common knowledge and that you’re all old enough. After all, if you can learn about unforgivable curses in this year’s syllabus, you should learn what they’re used for in real life... just don't tell McGonagall if she asks,” Whimbrel continued, coming to a stop in the centre. “There’s no way around it. Dark wizards and dark magic were running rampant for many years even before the battle, causing chaos and terror in the dead of night. It’s a miracle as many students survived as they did. It was no doubt, a great disgrace to what a wizard is supposed to stand for. Many lives were lost for foolish reasons.”

He pointed his wand to the projection screen behind him. Pictures and names of students and people of all ages appeared. “Colin Creevley,” Whimbrel started listing when the appropriate picture came up. “Lavender Brown. Remus Lupin. Nymphadora Tonks. Severus Snape. Fred Weasley-”

Molly winced at the picture in front of them. It showed not only Fred Weasley but George too as if Whimbrel couldn’t tell them apart to pinpoint which twin was still alive. Even Felix seemed uncomfortable with the picture being shown so bluntly in front of them. Cressida found it odd to see two of the same face when she’d only come to know the one. It was even odder to see George Weasley looking much younger and even more full of life than she’d ever known him when standing next to what had once been his twin brother. They really had been identical. 

The list continued. All casualties that Cressida didn’t recognise the name or family of. All too young, she thought. It seemed like the rest of the class thought it too. Even Arabella sat silently beside her, unable to summon up a harsh comment in the face of what they were being shown.

Once the list was finished and the faces stopped appearing on the screen, Whimbrel stared at the class in silence as if assessing whether he’d made an impact. 

Seeing that he had, he continued once more. “I know a lot of you are not strangers to the battle already. I know a lot of you if not most, lost family. I feel it is important you know the reason behind all this.”

A picture of a pale man with red eyes and snake-like features appeared on the screen with another flick of Whimbrel’s wand. He turned his back on the class to look at the picture for himself. “Tom Riddle, also known more commonly as Voldemort, rallied a group of Death Eaters to purge the wizarding world of the impure.” He glanced back at them over his shoulder. “To them, that consisted mainly of Muggles and Muggle-borns, plus anyone who associated with them.”

Arabella turned her eyes on Cressida ever so slightly at the mention of Muggle-borns. Cressida was too busy watching Jac tense up on the opposite end of the classroom to take offence.

The two of them weren’t as involved in the history of the war as the rest. They hadn’t lived through it, they didn’t have any terrible stories or lost family members. The tragedy of this happening was new to them, they really were learning about it properly for the first time. The mere thought alone of this happening to them once upon a time was terrifying. To be killed for having non-magical parents. It was unfair and out of anyone’s control. It was barbaric.

Cressida began to realise for the first time just why James was the way he was about Death Eaters, but it seemed impossible Thane could be related to someone capable of thinking this way. It seemed ridiculous that tiny, innocent Scorpius came from-

The screen changed again. Felix scowled, averting his eyes fully. “Jesus Christ,” he muttered lowly. “That poor bastard’s going to off himself when he takes this class.”

Cressida gulped and looked towards the picture again. It was of a family.

“Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, pictured here with their only son Draco Malfoy,” Whimbrel explained, gesturing to the picture. “Draco was the one who commandeered the vanishing cabinet and let a hoard of Death Eaters into the castle causing one of the first large fights against them for this generation. The cabinet has since been destroyed. Draco Malfoy served no time in Azkaban for his treachery as Harry Potter gave him a personal pardon. The reason behind it has never been admitted to the public. Narcissa Malfoy, also heavily involved with Voldemort after offering him their family home as a base, got out on a plea bargain. Lucius is still rotting in his cell to this day.”

The screen changed again and again. This time showing mug shots of people while Whimbrel listed their crimes. The Carrow twins. Evan Rosier. Barty Crouch Jr. Fenrir Greyback. Stan Shaunpike. Peter Pettigrew. Snape himself even made an appearance. Most of them had been Slytherins, of course, causing an uneasy tension in the room as some of the Ravenclaws all eyed up the green-clad students as if they had played a part in the mass murders themselves. Cressida's jaw clenched in anger at it. It wasn’t  their  fault. None of them had even been born when this happened… but still… it didn’t exactly look good for the house. This was a weight every Slytherin, no matter the generation had to bear, by the seems. 

“And perhaps the worst and most dangerous of them all-” The screen changed one last time to a woman Cressida had seen once before. She felt like she could already hear the laughter radiating out of the mute picture. “Bellatrix LeStrange, formally Black. Tortured and killed numerous wizards and muggles by order and for her own twisted enjoyment, including her own cousin, Sirius Black. She was considered the Dark Lord’s most loyal servant right until the very end.”

“What happened to her?” Cressida asked darkly through the horrified silence of the room. It didn’t seem fair that people like this were allowed to live, even if it was somewhere as terrible as Azkaban. 

Molly swallowed hard, her eyes firmly forward. “My grandmother cursed her right through the heart.” There was a slight pause as even Whimbrel looked towards her. “She’d been mocking Uncle Fred’s death at the time. Let her guard slip.”

“It’s people like your grandmother that got us through that awful war, Miss Weasley. You should feel very proud to be related to her… as well as Mr Potter and his family. Despite some of my choice words about him in the past, he’s still a hero.”

Molly didn’t respond. She dared not look away from the picture of Bellatrix LeStrange laughing on the projector in front of them, at the woman who had caused her family so much pain and misfortune. Cressida wondered whether the trio of boys had already had this lesson, and if they had, how James had reacted to being shown this. How Fred felt about his namesake being shown so young in front of everyone alongside his own father. Cressida was sure they knew more about the war than Whimbrel did. If given the chance they could probably deliver this class with far more compassion and truth than Whimbrel could even imagine presenting.

Nonetheless, Whimbrel continued on with his lesson, going into some gruesome details here and there with evidence to back it up. Newspaper clippings and extracts were commonly featured to show the brutality against the muggle-borns.

And then Whimbrel let something slip toward the end of the lesson that caught Cressida’s attention for a different reason. 

“There are more newspapers like this hidden away in the restricted section of the library. McGonagall kept them for older students to learn from, find some semblance of family history in them, I suppose. After all, with all the hundreds of innocent people killed in both the muggle and the wizarding community, it’s only right to assume some of their ancestors have started trickling in through here. Miss Weasley and her family being proof of that.”

“Margo had family in the war,” Arabella spoke up uninvited. Everyone turned to her then, which Cressida assumed was exactly what she’d intended to happen. Margo, however, sank lower in her chair as if wishing not to be seen or mentioned. “My own family fled when it started getting bad and took up residency in France, but Margo was telling me the other day that her relative was here in the castle during the whole thing, isn’t that right, Margo?”

The attention turned to the smaller girl, who looked less than pleased about it, but heaven forbid she not respond to Arabella. “Yeah, I had an aunt, or second cousin technically. The family tree gets a bit dicey. She was a student.”

Arabella looked pleased with herself at getting Margo to speak up. “I feel it’s important we acknowledge  everyone  who had family in the war, not just the famous ones, right sir?”

Whimbrel gave a scratch of his scruffy grey stubble. “Yes, of course. Any war story is welcome. Who was your relative, lassie?”

Margo sank even lower. “Pansy Parkinson, sir… she was a Slytherin locked in the dormitory when the attack started.”

Whimbrel stared at her for just a moment too long. “Did she fight for or against our school, Miss Smithers?”

The uneasy tension throughout the classroom grew to a new level. Margo looked like she might start crying if this conversation didn’t end soon and she could get away. “She didn’t fight at all. Once Draco broke the Slytherins out of the dungeons, she fled… all of them basically did.”

“They’d be fighting their own parents, that’s why,” Felix chimed in then.

“Quite right,” Whimbrel said with a nod of his head, but it didn't sound supportive or comforting towards the Slytherins in the slightest. He clapped his hands sharply and startled a few of the students. “On that note, class dismissed. Remember this lesson as you go forward in this school. People have likely died on the very ground under your feet.”

With that morbid thought left in their heads, the class hurried to pack their things and get out the door. Margo was the first to go, not even packing her things into her bag and just carrying them out in her hands, dropping quills and parchment paper as she ran out of the classroom.

Arabella watched her go with a self-satisfied smile. Cressida turned her glare on her. Felix paused in his packing away to remain by Cressida’s side, knowing that look often meant trouble for someone. “Why do you have to be such a bitch to everyone, Chauncey? Even your so-called friends can't seem to avoid your torture now.”

Arabella had the audacity to look shocked by the question. “What have I done now?”

“You knew that story made Margo’s family sound awful in the war,” Cressida told her firmly.

Arabella gave a shrug as she threw her book bag over her shoulder. “Facts are facts, Knightly. As I said, it’s important we know everyone’s stories from the war. Good and bad. It paints the real picture.”

“Listen, I can’t stand Smithers at the best of times but even I thought that was uncalled for,” Felix defended her then. “I mean, fucking hell, your family fled too. You can’t be on a high fucking horse about all this.”

“The difference is if my family did fight in the war, at least they would have been on the right side, to begin with,” she said as she turned and left with the rest of the class.

“Bullshit,” Felix caused her under his breath. “Wasn’t she the one going around saying how her family are still mostly pure in First Year? That’s  their  way of thinking if I ever heard it.”

Cressida and Felix’s glare followed her out as Jac and Molly joined them. Jac looked sick to her stomach.

“I think we should get out of here and put this whole lesson behind us,” Molly said haughtily ushering them to the door. “Best not to dwell on whatever Whimbrel just spouted out for the last hour.”

“Isn’t this stuff important to you though, Molly?” Jac asked as they made their way through the corridor. “I know it’s awful and I’d rather not think of the implications of any of it given my blood status but-“

“I’ve heard all these stories a thousand times over,” Molly shut her down with an irritated huff. “And trust me when I say Uncle Harry told them with far more tact than Whimbrel just did.”

That was that. For the rest of the day, the lesson with Whimbrel was not to be mentioned, but Cressida could see it on Jac’s face and could even feel it rooting deep within her own bones. People really had died right where they stood in the school they called home. It was hard not to think about that with every step they took afterwards. It was hard not to imagine that once upon a time, it could’ve been them.

 

    *

 

She never ended up meeting James after lessons. Molly had insisted they all do something to cheer themselves up, which meant wizard chess and exploding snap instead of homework for once. Cressida didn’t complain about this, it was nice to spend an afternoon just with her friends. She felt like Jac needed it to take her mind off what Whimbrel had shown them more than anyone. She’d taken the lesson to heart, not that Cressida could blame her, and so she stayed and she pretended not to think about any of the terrible things that had happened in the past for a few hours while cheery music played in the background at Felix’s request.

Those hours soon ended though and the time for bed came which left Cressida alone in a silent room with nothing to do but think. She knew sleep was a far-fetched idea that night but as she sat and fidgeted and couldn’t get comfortable, she soon realised at two in the morning that James had never come to visit.

She’d been waiting for him without even realising it, and by the looks of Rasper perched on the end of the bed with his head poking out the curtains, so was he. Then she remembered their conversation from the other day.

‘You could always come to me.’

Was he waiting for her this time? Testing whether she’d actually follow through with it? Was this some kind of punishment for not meeting him earlier?

She waited another half an hour. Not a peep from the floorboards and sleep was still a distant thought. She could not stop thinking about what Whimbrel had said during his lesson. She knew she could never go to Molly with what she was thinking. For starters, she’d made it perfectly clear she didn’t want to talk about the subject anymore. She could go to Jac, she reasoned, but then the thought swirling around in her mind might have been too much for even Jac to get on board with.

Regardless of whether she was on board or not, Cressida had promised she’d start including her in her secrets again, so she crept out of her bed curtains and crossed the room to go and hopefully talk this out with her best friend.

However, when she poked her head through the bed curtains she found they were devoid of life. Not even Groot was on the bed.

Cressida now stood in the middle of the silent dorm room at a loss. She could see Rasper’s eyes shining through the dark. He gave a quiet meow as if accepting that waiting was fruitless and he took himself to bed in the middle of Cressida’s pillow.

Accepting her fate as well, Cressida pulled on her vans and started creeping out of the dorm room.

Much to her annoyance, James had been right about her finding it easy to traverse the castle without the aid of the invisibility cloak. She hadn’t even run into Filch on her way to the tower and the Fat Lady was too tired to question why Cressida, or any student for that matter, would be returning to the dorm at three in the morning. She assumed after so many years guarding Gryffindor’s common room, she just gave up trying to enforce any sort of curfew on them. That was the teacher's job supposedly anyway.

She did run into a snag when she opened the boys' dorm door and realised if she made any noise at all, Fred or Thomas could wake up and catch her there. She removed her shoes and tip-toed as silently as possible to the bed she remembered waking up in at the Halloween party. She prayed that the three idiots didn’t randomly swap beds when it suited them.

Holding her breath, she peeled back one of the bed curtains ever so slightly and peeked inside. James was fast asleep, sprawled out like a starfish on his jumbled-up sheets. Thanking whichever gods were out there that she’d got the right bed, she slipped inside and cast a silencing spell.

James didn’t even stir, even as she clambered over him just to fit on the bed. She waited patiently, saying his name a few times in the hopes of waking him up delicately but after a few minutes of nothing but his snoring, she eventually grabbed a pillow and whacked him with it.

He woke up shortly after.

“Knightly?” He asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Are you really here or am I imagining things again?”

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “You’ve imagined me in your sleep?”

James froze, suddenly wide awake and alert. “Yep, that’s really you. What are you doing here?”

She sat cross-legged in front of him, feeling slightly sheepish. “You told me to come, remember?”

James smiled as he ruffled his already messier-than-normal mop of hair. “Yeah, I remember but I didn’t think you’d actually come.”

Cressida moved to sit beside him so she didn’t have to face him. “Plus, I’ve had an idea and no one else is stupid enough to help me go through with it.”

James settled beside her comfortably. “Glad you think so highly of me. What’s the plan?”

“Have you had Whimbrel’s lesson on the war yet?”

James sat up straight. “I don’t like where this is going.”

“No listen, Whimbrel said there were dozens of innocent people killed in the war, both muggle and magical. He only gave us a brief lesson on the more well-known cases like your family and the ones who fought in the war but there’s more information about them in the restricted section. He said so himself-”

James looked concerned. “Why do you want to know more? Didn’t that lesson churn your stomach enough as it is? Whimbrel basically outlined my whole family tree, complete with death dates and cause of demise when he taught us the other day. Fred was raging, wrote home to his dad and all about it. Not to mention he only mentioned the bad stuff. A lot of people did really good things during that war to help my dad and rally everyone together. He failed to mention any of that in his little history lesson.”

“I know, I’ve had that speech from Molly already today but this is about something important. Whimbrel said there were newspapers listing names of all the people Bellatrix and the rest of the Death-Eaters killed-”

“So?”

“ So ,” Cressida went on. “What if my dad’s parents were one of the victims? What if, by some random chance, in one of the articles they mention a baby left behind-  orphaned - with the name Castillo? They could have sent him away and changed his last name for his own protection.”

James shook his head and bit his lip nervously. “It’s nuts. That’s like a one in a million chance-”

“What if that one is all I need?” She countered eagerly. “I’ve got no other leads. No last name. No nothing. Just the fact I know my dad had something to do with muggles to end up in an orphanage and that there were a bunch of people hopped up on killing people associated with muggles around the time my dad might have been born.”

“It’s risky,” James said, running the back of his neck.

“But it’s something!” Cressida pressed. “It’s worth a shot.”

James took a long time to debate what she was asking. “I can get you in there,” he said finally. “But I’m not leaving your side, there’s some dangerous stuff in that section. Nearly had my hand bitten off by a book when I went in there myself.”

Cressida smiled gratefully. “It’s a date,” she joked, reaching over and kissing him on the cheek as a thank you. “Plus, you suggested we do something stupid, what’s stupider than this?”

James relented and smiled at her attempt to lighten the mood. “I knew those words would come back to bite me in the ass,” he said, grabbing her in a loose headlock so he could attack her face with tiny pecks.

 

Saturday 18th May 2019

 

Cressida and James had agreed to pull off their secret mission tonight so it gave James some time to get his head around the idea. Despite sneaking into the restricted section once on his own, he wasn’t thrilled about doing it a second time but Cressida was beginning to learn that James could be worn down on anything if she simply asked him in the right way.

They’d stayed up till after sunrise debating the best way around it. They knew Madame Prince left the library at ten o’clock every night and locked it up, meaning they’d need a key, and for that, they’d have to find a way around Filch. Cressida assured James that wouldn’t be a problem. After all, they’d stolen his keys once before in First Year, now with everything they knew  and  an invisibility cloak, it’d be a piece of cake.

By the time they felt like they had a solid plan, there was no point in her staying to get some sleep. The likelihood of someone opening the curtains and catching them was too high during daylight so Cressida grabbed the invisibility cloak from the end of James’ bed, pulled her shoes back on, gave James once last grin in anticipation of their plan and slipped out the bed curtains into the empty dorm room. Thomas’ bed curtains were open, meaning he’d likely already gone down for his own private Quidditch session as he often did on a Saturday morning before the rest of the castle was awake. Fred’s were still firmly shut with no sign of movement or even sound from behind them.

Glad she’d got away with a sneaky exit, she pulled the cloak over her and tiptoed across the room and pulled the door open and shut it gently behind her as she started descending the stairs, but to her annoyance, she’d only made it down two steps before she heard the door opening again.

Panicking Fred had in fact heard her, she flattened herself against the stairs to pretend like she wasn’t even there, but to her surprise it was not Fred who had pulled the door open but Jac, looking red in the face and still in her uniform from yesterday.

Cressida’s mouth fell open as Jac hurried down the stairs and then she kicked into gear knowing Jac was about to walk right into a common room full of Gryffindors heading down for breakfast with no disguise.

She ran after her but soon realised she was too late and, besides, how would she explain to Jac that she was also hiding out in the boys’ room all night without giving away her and James?

Trying to think quicker than her tired brain would allow Cressida ran ahead of Jac and made it out of the portrait hole, but even as she passed she could see people turning towards Jac as she tried to discreetly make her way through the red-cladded common room. Smartly, Jac had turned her robe inside out so no one could see the green but enough people knew her face by now, especially the likes of April and Beatrix who were sat by the fire and promptly sat up straight when they noticed her coming from the direction of the boy’s room.

Cressida made it out into the hall and immediately removed the cloak from over her.

“Cressida?”

She spun around to find Rose was on her way in, a muffin in her hand from the breakfast table. “You’re here early.”

“Um-” Cressida fumbled.

The portrait hole opened again. Jac stepped out. All three girls stared at each other.

“You’re both here early…” Rose said slowly.

Jac looked on the verge of throwing up. She looked to Cressida. She looked slightly confused about why she was there, but that was out-trumped by the fact Jac couldn’t come up with an excuse fast enough for herself.

“We- um- we had a thing with the boys,” Cressida tried, looking back to Rose.

Rose tried to hide a small smile. “Okay,” she said, passing them on her way back into the common room. She glanced back over her shoulder. “I won’t tell anyone about your  thing ,” she whispered with a knowing wink.

Once the portrait hole shut behind Rose, Jac and Cressida locked eyes.

“I stayed in Fred’s bed last night,” Jac blurted out immediately as though it was something scandalous. An older Gryffindor boy cleared his throat awkwardly as he side-stepped around them and into the portrait hole, clearly hearing her outburst.

“I gathered,” Cressida replied, pulling her to the side cautiously. "Try not to tell the whole castle about it if you can."

Jac, thinking she’d been far more caught out than Cressida had, ducked her head low. “It was  his  idea. He said we never get any time alone with Molly’s revision sessions and the trio of boys and then there’s Quidditch practice and the newspaper-”

‘Tell me about it ,’ Cressida thought fleetingly.

More people were on their way back up from an early breakfast and passing the girls with odd expressions. Cressida grabbed Jac’s hand and started leading her back towards the dungeons. There’d be no point hiding under the cloak now.

“How was it?” Cressida asked curiously as they walked. There was clearly nothing else pressing to talk about than this, and Jac looked like she was about to explode if she didn't get this off her chest.

Jac gave a small sigh, relieved Cressida had asked. “It was lovely. He showed me some of his drawings and some new tricks he and the boys had been working on. It was so nice just to be together without everyone looking at us or worrying about being interrupted. We could basically do whatever we wanted… it felt more… you know… intimate.”

It didn’t take a genius to decode what Jac was referring to. “Did anything… happen?” Cressida asked next, slightly unsure whether she wanted to know or not.

Jac turned red in the face. “Well… not this time but I think maybe if we keep this up without anyone catching us something  might  happen in the future.”

“Like what?” It was a stupid question on reflection but Cressida's childish innocence had taken charge.

Jac grimaced. “I’m honestly not sure. I mean, which bit is supposed to happen first? We’ve got kissing down but anything after that I’m clueless on. My mother hasn’t even given me the  talk  yet, how pathetic is that!?”

“I don’t think you need the  talk  to know how it’s supposed to happen,” Cressida said, but even she wasn’t exactly crystal clear on the whole thing. She knew people had sex and did more than kissing of course. She’d heard Albie and his boys brag about stuff along those lines and Callie had definitely had sex a bunch of times back in Conwell and she wasn’t much older than Cressida at all. If she was honest, Cressida hadn’t thought much about sex herself. If she felt like this over just kissing James, she couldn’t imagine how she’d feel after something like…  that .

But if Jac and Fred were starting to consider moving onto the next step, did that mean James has been thinking about it as well? Was this something he was going to start expecting soon even though Cressida was still standing firm on not being his girlfriend?

“I bet Fred has had the talk,” Jac moped then, bringing Cressida out of her thoughts. “I bet they all got sat down by the likes of Teddy and got told exactly what to do but I know I’ll be hopeless at it.”

“Do you think you’re even ready for that sort of thing?” Cressida asked then. If she was honest, she felt like she wasn’t herself.

Jac didn’t answer for a moment. “I really like him… we’ve even said I love you,” she said. Cressida tried not to show how uncomfortable she was with this conversation on her face. “I just wish I had someone to talk to about all this. Get some advice on it. I can’t exactly write to my mum about it, she’d probably storm over here and take me back home away from him myself. She still doesn’t even know I’m dating him. I’m too scared to tell her after how she reacted to Nish dating someone.”

Cressida thought hard for a moment as they started making their way down the Grand Staircase. “I’d suggest we ask my mum but she got pregnant at fifteen so I’m not sure she’s the best person.”

‘Oh god, my mother was pregnant at my age ,’ she then realised in a fit of nausea.

Jac’s redness turned to white. “I hadn’t even considered what I’d do if I got pregnant,” she muttered. “Is there a spell for that?”

“For everyone’s sake, I hope so. Muggle methods are hardly reliable or good for us from what I’ve heard.”

“Do you think they know I stayed the night?” Jac asked then, worry clearly bubbling over inside of her.

Cressida internally cursed. They’d all have a field day with this. “Well, that one guy does... but other than that we might be able to get away with it. Either way, if they try and spread any rumours I’ll curse their mouths shut.”

Jac nodded distantly. “You’re a good friend.”

Cressida forced out a comforting smile. If she was really a good friend she’d be honest and tell Jac she was in that room just as long as her, she just hadn’t gotten caught.

 

*

 

Cressida, knowing she needed some sleep if she wanted to pull off her grand plan tonight, and Jac, scared that the rumours would have got out before the toast had even gone cold at breakfast, both trudged their way back to their own green-cladded dorm room and tucked themselves away in their beds while their friends went about enjoying their Saturday morning.

Barely ten minutes had passed, Cressida had just gotten herself comfortable and closed her eyes when she felt a lump on the bed beside her. Forcing one eye open, she saw it was Jac, who apparently had no intention of sleeping.

“What were you going to the boys for this morning?” She asked as she stared straight ahead, other things clearly at the forefront of her mind. “Is there a prank happening somewhere I should be weary of?”

Cressida reluctantly sat up beside Jac. “Doesn’t Fred tell you about these things?”

“He likes to see my genuine reaction and brag about his  genius brain ,” she said. “It’s mildly infuriating.”

“No. There’s no prank,” Cressida said as both Groot and Rasper climbed their way onto the bed to join their respective owners. Within the first minute, Cressida had to restrain her cat from eating the sentient branch Jac called a pet.

“Then what were you doing there?” Jac asked, letting Groot take up residency on her shoulder under a shroud of her thick hair.

“I needed to talk to James.”

“At seven in the morning?” Jac questioned.

Cressida sighed. “It’s to do with my dad.”

Jac sat bolt upright causing Rasper to hiss and dart off the bed. Groot looked visibly relieved. “You found something on him?!”

“Not yet, but you know the lesson we had with Whimbrel yesterday?”

Jac’s mood deflated again. “It’s practically burned into my nightmares.”

“Well, he gave me an idea. James and I are sneaking into the restricted section to look for clues tonight.”

Jac took to letting Groot swing from her fingers now the threat of Rasper was gone. “Oh, are you two going to hide under the cloak before Pince closes the library for the night?”

Cressida silently thought that was a far easier alternative to what she and James had concocted. Sometimes their brains and big ideas were more of a hindrance. “Yeah, that was exactly our plan,” she lied.

“Well, I hope you find something worthwhile and don’t get caught,” Jac said sympathetically. There was a slight pause and Jac narrowed her brow. “But if you never made it up to James this morning, how do you know he’ll agree to it?”

Cressida bit the inside of her cheek. “You’re right,” she said, trying not to sound annoyed. “I guess I should go ask him now instead.”

Jac gave a small huff as Cressida got out of bed again, still without having a wink of sleep. “I guess I should get up to. Face Fred before this whole thing gets out of control. I know for a fact Beatrix and April will have seen me. They never miss anything.”

Cressida had pulled her shoes back on by the time Jac had got up to follow her out. “If you think talking to him will help, sure.”

The two girls stepped out into the Slytherin common room and were immediately met with Albus and Scorpius rushing up and blocking their exit.

“Are you sleeping with my brother?!” Albus asked a little louder than necessary.

Cressida clenched her jaw as she saw a few heads turn in their direction. One of them being Thane, who had put his book down slowly and turned his full attention to their conversation like he was relishing in the drama of it. Goyle, who had been sat stoically beside him, glanced at Thane and then lowered his head behind the latest Chatterbox issue.

Cressida ducked her head low to Albus’. “For your information, I’m not, but thanks for announcing it to the whole common room, you little shit-head.”

Albus instantly looked apologetic. “Sorry, Knightly, it’s just when we heard about someone sneaking out of their room this morning-”

“It was me they saw, not Cressida,” Jac jumped in. 

“Oh good, we were worried you’d caved,” Scorpius said relieved to Cressida.

Albus cleared his throat pointedly towards Scorpius.

“What the fuck are you two talking about?” Cressida frowned.

“James. He has a fat crush on you,” Scorpius went on. “Told Teddy so at Christmas when he was all worried about you not being there with them. Albie filled me in on all the details in our letters back and forth.” Albus tried to discreetly get him to shut up by elbowing him in the stomach. “But Albie bet Teddy that you’d never go for James. That you were too smart for him. But if you  have  gotten with James that means Teddy gets Albie’s whole Chocolate Frog collection and he has some rarely rare ones that even I-”

Albus had covered Scorpius’ mouth with his hand but it was no use. Cressida was already glaring at the younger Potter. “You bet I’d not get with your brother?”

Albus gave a half shrug. “Why would you? My brothers and idiot and you’re cool.”

Some of her annoyance slipped away. “How rare are these frog cards?” She asked.

“ Really  rare,” Scorpius embellished on his behalf, shoving Albus’ hand away. “Like even my dad can’t buy them rare.”

She rolled her eyes. “Your stupid cards are safe, and next time you confront someone about a rumour, do it with a bit more secrecy for fucks sake.”

Both boys nodded apologetically and scurried away.

Jac turned her eyes on Cressida. “If it’s already hit the Slytherins then it’s made its way through all the other houses… I’m done for.”

“If we’re lucky people might not know it was you,” Cressida tried to comfort her. “They didn’t know it was you until you told them, that’s a good sign. Plus, it’s not like anything  actually  happened.” 

“Beatrix and April don’t know that,” Jac said hopelessly. “They just saw me sneaking out of the tower in yesterday's uniform.”

Cressida grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the common room. “Let’s just get some breakfast and we’ll figure something out. How bad can this really be?”

They’d barely been in the hall for more than two seconds before Molly was storming towards them. “Since when are you sleeping with my cousin?!”

“Christ, rumours really do spread fast around this place,” Cressida muttered.

“I’ve just had Penelope run up to me asking if she can print a story on you sneaking out of their room first thing this morning in front of a dozen Gryffindors. I shut her down, obviously, but still. What the bloody hell have I missed? I watched you go to bed last night!”

“Oh and we’re known for staying put,” Cressida said sarcastically. Molly had also watched her go to bed last night and it’s not like that’s where she’d stayed either.

Molly folded her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.

“Obviously it isn’t true, Mol,” Jac defended herself. 

“Are you involved in any of this?” Molly asked, turning to Cressida.

“No, Cressida just happened to be there-”

“At quarter to seven in the morning?” Molly asked doubtfully. “Usually we have to beat her with a pillow to get up that early. What's been going on?”

Cressida met Molly’s eyes knowing she’d been slightly caught out. After all, Molly always figured everything out eventually.

“She had to talk to James about something,” Jac jumped to her defence. 

Cressida tried not to grimace. Mentioning James was not the best thing right now.

Molly set Cressida with a look that almost made her think she’d started to put the puzzle pieces together. “Fine. Just, in the future, try not to get caught looking like you’ve been doing something you shouldn’t be,” she said, making her way past them and into the common room. “And for the love of Godric, if you  are  sleeping with my cousin, spare me and my newspaper the details!”

Cressida stared in the direction Molly had gone. “We can still fix this.”

“How?!”  Jac asked desperately. “The whole castle thinks I’ve slept with him now and it only took thirty minutes!”

“Yeah, but you didn’t. I can fix this,” Cressida assured her. It could’ve just as easily been her in this situation. “Just give me some time to think.”

Once they’d made it to the ground floor, they found the trio of Gryffindors coming out of the Grand Hall just as breakfast was finishing. Thomas, as expected, was dressed in his Quidditch get-up and carrying around his broom from his early morning training session.

“Fred!” Jac yelled, running up to him instantly. “We really need to talk-” she said, dragging him away before he could even get a word in.

Cressida lingered by the stairs and nodded her head at James, a clear indication for him to come over to her. He did so without question.

Thomas remained standing there looking baffled at how he’d lost his two friends so easily within a matter of seconds. With a shake of his head, he hoisted his broom under his arm and started making his way back down to the pitch for a second solitary training session.

James joined Cressida in lingering at the bottom of the staircase. She knew she could’ve been using this time to stop the rumours being spread like wildfire but she selfishly needed to know her mission to find more on her dad was still going ahead first.

“I have a much easier plan on how to get into the library since we last spoke,” she said in a hushed voice. Even as the two of them stood there she could see people looking in their direction, Jac’s name being whispered, people wondering what they knew, whether it was even true. Why Cressida had been waiting outside in the first place. “Also, did you know your brother and Teddy have a bet on us getting together?” Cressida asked on a lighter note.

James winced. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted it when I saw those two whispering after Christmas dinner.”

“They had no trouble informing me of your apparent  big fat crush  on me,” she went on. James began to blush furiously. “If we hadn’t been sneaking around this place under their noses for the last month, that revaluation would have put a real damper on our otherwise budding friendship… Oh, and your brother thinks I’m too cool for you. Just wanted that to be known.”

James hid his amusement at her tiny gloat by opening a pack of jelly slugs and digging around for the green ones. “What did Albus bet?”

“His chocolate frog card collection.”

“Oh that’s serious,” James gawked, taking the head off a slug. “It took him ages to get those really rare cards.”

“So I’ve heard,” Cressida replied. If James noticed the looks and the whispers, he didn’t show it. She supposed now was as good a time as any to get this conversation over and down with. “Speaking of ruining budding relationships… have you heard the rumour yet?”

James continued happily eating his jelly slugs. “What rumour? Fred and I woke up late and went straight to breakfast once Tommo was done with training.”

Cressida turned her eyes on him. “So you have no idea what people are saying?”

“Guess not,” he said carelessly. “Why, is it a juicy rumour?” He gasped in excitement. “Has a girl admitted to fancying Wood finally?!”

“Um… not quite.”

“Damn it. Those flyers we made and scattered everywhere are turning out to be a real waste of time.”

“Jac got caught sneaking out of your room this morning.”

“So?” James asked cluelessly.

Cressida looked at him. “ So ?”

“I’ve nearly been caught sneaking out of your room a ton of times, it’s never been a big deal before-”

Someone cleared their throat and the two of them, craned their necks to see McGonagall making her way down the stairs. “Just a general reminder for anyone listening,” she said even though she was looking directly at James and Cressida standing together. “Inter-gender sleepovers are strictly prohibited within Hogwarts’ walls. I wish not to hear of any midnight tomfoolery or relationship advancements of  any  kind. Especially, the relationship status' of students whom I happen to write to their parents with weekly updates about.” Cressida wanted to ground to swallow her whole as McGonagall purposefully stopped and stood in front of them as if making sure they’d heard her loud and clear. James still remained cluelessly eating his jelly slugs. “That is all,” McGonagall finished as she continued on her way through the castle.

“Do you reckon she’s onto us?” James asked once McGonagall was out of sight.

Cressida internally cursed. “I’ll see you at the library at ten to ten. I’ll bring the cloak.”

With that, Cressida started making her way back down to the dungeons with the intention of finally getting some sleep and praying simultaneously that this rumour would die down on its own.

 

*

 

Cressida had taken some of her own advice and stayed clear of open spaces throughout the castle for the remainder of the day. Stowed away in the secret room wasn’t a bad way to spend a Saturday but between going over her plan for tonight and a way to try and squash the rumour about Jac, she wasn’t enjoying it as much as she usually would. She’d mainly been left alone apart from Rasper who had made his way up to join her at around noon. 

Felix had momentarily popped in to waste an hour listening to music simply because he couldn’t find anything better to do. Molly had stopped by to say it was probably best for Jac to stay clear of the meeting for Monday’s Chatterbox issue unless they wanted to be bombarded with questions from Penelope.

Jac had tried to take refuge alongside Cressida but had attempted to do so with Fred and so Cressida was forced to watch the two of them get into an argument- one of their first from what she could gather- and then both of them stormed off again.

Neither of them had been in the wrong about the argument. Jac simply said she didn’t think having any more sleepovers was a good idea. Fred said that everyone was just blowing it out of proportion and if they didn’t do that then they’d get no alone time together. Jac then pointed out how they  would  have alone time if Fred wasn’t always off doing something with Thomas and James. 

This didn’t go down well with Fred.

She didn't see either of them for the rest of the day and the argument, as far as she knew, remained unresolved.

By half nine at night, Cressida grabbed the invisibility cloak and started gearing up to go meet James at the library and was praying everything went to plan, considering everything else that day seemed to be going to shit.

She found him waiting around the corner from the library.

“You sure you want to go through with this, Knightly?” James whispered once she was good next to him. 

She gave a firm nod, the ugly fabric tucked under her arm. 

“What if we don’t find anything? You’ll only end up disappointed.”

Cressida took a steadying breath, preparing herself that she might be disappointed. “I still have to try.”

James frowned, his face focused. “Alright then. Follow my lead.”

He crouched down and went to creep forward against the wall.

Cressida rolled her eyes. “James. Aren’t you forgetting something?”

He paused and then looked at the cloak still under her arm. With a sheepish look, he took it from her and opened it up for them both to go under. “Okay,  now  follow my lead,” he whispered as they both crept toward the library doors.

The first part of the plan had gone off without a hitch. At ten o’clock precisely, Madam Pince did her final scan for any stragglers in her library and then promptly shut the doors behind her on her way out.

James and Cressida waited only a minute before revealing themselves from under the cloak.

“Right,” James said, scanning their surroundings. “The restricted section is over here.”

Cressida followed his lead and watched as he focused hard on uttering a spell that he claimed to have gotten from McGonagall herself. Whether McGonagall knew she’d given him this spell, Cressida wasn’t sure.

It took a second but the spell worked and the rope unlatched and fell away.

James threw his hands up in celebration. “Who's the daddy!?“

“I don’t know, that's why we're here,” Cressida said deadpan, walking past him.

James slowly lowered his arms and followed behind her.

As the two stepped over the threshold, she was surprised at the sudden coldness that had crept in. It was a dark and dingy corner of the otherwise extravagant library. Even the books towering over them on the shelves felt unwelcoming and cold.

“Now remember,” James whispered as he led her further into the darkness. “Don’t touch anything-”

Something had caught Cressida’s eye and she broke away from James without taking much notice of what he had been saying beforehand. He kept creeping forward, unaware Cressida had veered left towards a half-covered structure hidden in the very back corner of the restricted section.

Checking James was still preoccupied elsewhere, she reached out and pulled the second half of the sheet off to reveal an old antique-looking mirror covered in dust.

Cressida didn’t see why it’d need to be stored away in a place like this. It looked perfectly normal.

She stared at her reflection looking back at her in the glass and saw nothing out of the ordinary. However, the background looked a little murky.

Her eyes trailed the details on the side of the mirror and the ornate writing on the top but she couldn’t quite make out what it said in the darkness. It looked like a different language, but which one, she wasn’t sure.

She pulled her wand out of her tied-up hair and lit it. 

In the light of her wand, she looked back at her reflection only to find James was now by her side.

“What is this thing-” she went to ask, but when she turned to face him beside her she found he wasn’t there at all.

Her eyes snapped back to the reflection. James still existed within it, stood beside her smiling with that stupid lopsided grin of his. 

Narrowing her brow in great confusion, she reached out her hand to touch the glass. As her fingertips brushed against it a third figure appeared in the frame.

Her mother came to a stop beside James and Cressida in the mirror. She didn’t look too thin, or drunk, or haggard or tired. She looked beautiful. She looked happy again. They were all smiling back at her like they could see her watching them.

Cressida began to frown.

She didn’t understand.

Was this a different type of Boggart? Some elaborate trick of her mind?

Why did the three people staring back at her in the mirror look so content? Like there wasn’t a care or a worry in the world?

And then a fourth figure appeared. He never joined the rest in the centre. He didn’t smile like them either.

Her father, the spitting image of her photos of him, accompanied by the leather jacket he’d left behind, stood there and stared out at Cressida herself.

Cressida stared back unsure what she was seeing.

Her father gave a nod of acknowledgement of her watching him.

Cressida shook her head and took an uneasy step back, putting out her wand light.

“What happened to following my lead?!”

Cressida jumped around and involuntarily let out a startled gasp. “Shit, James! Where the fuck did you go?!”

“You wandered off, not me!” He argued back. He lit up his wand instead and looked into the mirror.

Cressida chanced looking back at it. “What is this thing?”

“The Mirror of Erised. It’s supposed to show you what you most desire.”

Cressida’s jaw clenched as she faced her reflection again. It was just showing her and James now, as they were in real life. “Well, I think it’s broken,” she muttered childishly.

“You saw something in it then?” He asked knowingly.

Cressida folded her arms over her chest, refusing to answer. She watched James staring back at his reflection instead. With another quick glance, she saw it still hadn’t changed. It was still just her and James. “See, I told you. It’s not working. It’s not changed for you.”

“That’s the good thing about it,” James smiled slightly. “You can’t see other people’s desires.”

She paused for a moment, watching James smiling to himself, or at whatever he could see that she couldn’t. “What’s yours?” She asked curiously. “What’s it showing you, I mean?”

James tore his eyes away from the mirror but he didn’t lose his smile as he faced her instead. “Just Quidditch,” he said dismissively. “I make team captain next year.” Cressida frowned again. His tone was off. He was lying. “Come on,” he said then, leaving the mirror behind. “I think I found the articles you were after.”

Chapter 91: Fourth Year: Spoken on my Behalf

Notes:

Hi all! So the original title of this chapter was “betrayal” but after a few comments I realised that was probably setting a lot of you up to expect something way worse which I hadn’t taken into consideration so I’ve tamed down the title for future readers haha :)

Sunday 19th May 2019

 

It had taken hours. Their eyes burned, fatigued from all the printed letters they tried to make sense of. Their minds were fuzzy with all the information they had sifted through. They’d gotten paper cuts on top of paper cuts from turning thousands of pages.

 James and Cressida had found any article dated from the first wizarding war until after the second had long finished and scourged every paragraph for a name or a hint or even a suggestion of an orphaned boy. 

There were orphaned boys, of course. Hundreds of them. Hundreds of girls left without families too. Innocent people doomed to live knowing someone wanted them dead simply for their blood status. Knowing that those people had succeeded to some extent.

They’d read of every torture, of every wrongdoing. Every unforgivable curse and method of madness used. It was a bloodbath. 

Whimbrel had been right. Bellatrix really was the worst of them all apart from the Dark Lord himself.

Cressida could hardly imagine the fear everyone felt during this time. The Snatcher's stories in particular made her stomach go queasy, the thought of them hunting her and her friends down.

Occasionally, during their hours of silently reading, Cressida would glance over at James sitting beside her on the floor and find him frowning deeply by wand light. She hadn’t considered how much of this would be reading about his own family while trying to find a semblance of hers. She felt bad about that now. 

Although it didn’t make up for it, whenever there were any articles with a bold title naming the insane witch she knew James feared the thought of, she would discreetly slip them out of his view and into her pile to read, not wanting to subject him to such a thing.

By the time sunrise came, there was still a pile of newspapers yet to be read and nothing Cressida could link to her father. The dates never lined up, or it was never close enough to Wales, or it was never a boy with the name Castillo.

James had closed his latest article and ran his hands through his messy hair, his eyes red from exhaustion. “Knightly, I don’t think we’re going to find your dad in these papers.”

“No, we can’t give up now!” Cressida argued, gesturing to the pile still yet to be read. “There’s got to be something. There’s  got  to be!”

James looked at her with sympathy, a hopeless kind, and there was nothing that got her back up more than that.

She sighed, rubbing her own strained eyes. She knew she shouldn’t take it out on him after he’d helped her. “Fine,” she said, unable to stop the snippy tone before it came out. “You can go. I’ll finish and let you know if I find anything.”

James rose to his feet. “You can’t stay here on your own. Plus, Pince will be coming in here any moment now. We have to go.  Both  of us.”

Cressida looked up at him. She tried not to glare but she knew it probably looked like one, but her eyes hurt and she couldn’t bring herself not to show her disappointment on her face.

James offered her a comforting smile and held his hand out for her.

She gulped, eyeing up the remaining pile of papers, and then her eyes trailed over to the mirror in the far corner with the memory of what she’d seen in it hours ago.

“You’re right,” she said, taking his hand and allowing him to pull her up. “But I’m taking these with me,” she said, quickly swooping up the papers and shoving them into her bag on her way. 

The two covered themselves with the cloak and snuck right past Pince as she sat behind her desk preparing for the day.

Out in the hall, they found a quiet corner and uncovered themselves, their eyes adjusting to the light and no longer having letters swimming around in their vision.

Cressida was so tired, and so preoccupied, that she had almost forgotten the fiasco of yesterday morning. 

“I see it’s not just Redwick sneaking off with a boy for late nights in the castle.”  

Clearly, the rumour about Jac was still going around. 

Both of them spun around to find Arabella Chauncey standing with her brother, he was in a Quidditch jersey. It would seem Thomas wasn’t the only one getting in some extra training for the last match of the year. “I wondered why no one was focusing on you two in this whole affair. Guess you two are just better at hiding it.”

“Sod off, Chauncey,” Cressida snapped, grabbing James and trying to move forward.

“I heard you were seen by the common room that morning too. Words getting around about it already. The scandal of it all. The fact you might have been involved. Can’t believe you’re letting Redwick take all the fall for this,” Arabella continued. “Does she even know about you two or is it still a  secret ?”

James and Cressida were both glaring back at her now.

“Why is it a secret, anyway?” Declan asked then. “Embarrassed about something… or  someone ?”

James strode forward, his wand in his hand before Cressida had even blinked. “You shut your pompous sodding mouth-”

A classroom door swung open and Neville appeared in the doorway. “Thought I heard voices out here,” he greeted them happily, and then he noticed James’ wand in his hand. “How’s it going, James? Everything alright?”

James shoved his wand back into his pocket, his glare on the Chauncey siblings unrelenting. “Fine, Professor. Sorry for disturbing you.”

Neville turned his attention to Arabella and Declan. “Don’t you two have somewhere to be?” He asked them pointedly.

“Yes, sir,” Declan said with a polite smile. “My sister and I were just leaving.”

Neville waited until the two Ravenclaws had rounded the corner before looking back to James and Cressida. “Flitwick and I have some tea and crumpets fresh from the kitchen in here if you want to join. It won’t be a bother.”

“No thanks, professor,” Cressida answered. “We’re a bit busy.”

“Alright then,” Neville nodded understandingly. “Well, you know where I am if you need anything.”

James gave a grateful nod and Neville disappeared back behind the door. A stony silence came over Cressida and James as they remained standing in the hallway.

“Don’t listen to them, they’re just being twats like usual,” Cressida said then, trying to ease it.

“Maybe they have a point though.”

Cressida laughed in disbelief. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

James turned to her. “They know about us, Knightly.  Chauncey  knows and Jac and Fred and all don’t. Doesn’t that seem wrong to you?”

Cressida averted her eyes as the two kept walking. “The only reason she knows is because Margo spotted us that day in the closet. They’re using it to try and torture us and there’s a reason they’ve not told the whole castle. We’ve just got to be more careful-”

“How can we be  more careful?” He whispered, a twinge of annoyance in his voice. He was too tired to hide it as well. “You won’t even hold hands with me in the hall even when no one’s around just in case.”

Cressida glanced up at him. His eyes were solely on the people passing them by in the hall. “James-”

“Maybe now would be a good time to just come out right and say it,” he blurted out. “And it’d take the attention away from Jac and Fred and then we don’t always have to hide.”

“No it wouldn’t, it’d just make it worse for you and me,” Cressida argued. “I was standing outside your common room that morning as well, remember? How long do you think it’ll take for people to put two and two together and then the situation would be doubly bad? Arabella just said people are already questioning it.”

James shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I’m just saying, maybe we should think about it. Think about telling our friends, at least.”

They’d reached the bottom of the grand staircase. Cressida paused and James followed suit. “If we admit we’re actually together then it’ll ruin everything. These last few weeks have been so good  because  no one knows, because we get to be just us. I don’t want to have to listen to rumours and comments and people making up stories about what we have and haven’t done, don’t you get that? Especially, now with this Jac and Fred thing going around. It’s better no one knows we’re not together right now.”

James pursed his lips together, staring at the floor. “Of course, you think that.”

Cressida frowned. “You’re annoyed.”

“There’s just always an excuse, Knightly,” he said quietly so they weren’t overheard, but he wouldn’t look directly at her. “I mean, this has been going on for over a month. We both like each other. Why can’t you just admit that to someone other than me?”

“Thought you liked being my secret?” She shot out harshly.

“I like being with  you ,” he said. And then he turned and walked away without another word, although this face gave away he perhaps had more to say.

Cressida stood there, watching him go.

Her shoulder ached with the weight of the papers in her bag.

Deciding to put James out of her mind until she could think clearly, she went down to the dungeons. nothing good would come out of them when they were both tired and irritable.

Upon opening the door, she found Jac in a pile in her bed, tears running down her face.

“Where  were  you!?” Jac sobbed when she saw her.

Cressida dropped the bag to the floor and rushed over, offering Jac a hug immediately. “I had that thing with James-“

“Don’t even talk to me about boys right now!” Jac wept. “I hate them. I hate them all, especially, stupid Fred Weasley II!”

It wasn’t hard to read between the lines. “You two haven’t made up then.”

Jac sniffed. “Our argument got worse. At one point we were just picking out faults in each other for the sake of it.”

Cressida thought back to her experiences with couples. The thought depressed her further. “That’s how most couples end up fighting. I think that’s normal. At least it didn’t get worse.”  Physical,  is what Cressida’s mind had sprung to. It’s what she’d seen happen in the past, but she knew Fred would never lay a hand on a girl, Jac especially. If he ever did, she’d bash his skull in herself, friendship be dammed.

“No, it’s not normal for  proper  couples to fight!” Jac went on. “We’re supposed to love each other and then when something goes wrong, all hell breaks loose. We were just as bad as my parents. I hated it. I hate him.”

Cressida pondered for a moment. It was unusual for  Jac  to be sad. Jac was never sad. She was always the one cheering everyone else up. The level-headed and optimistic one. The happy-go-lucky one of the group of otherwise stinted and depressed Slytherins.

“I have an idea,” she said, racking her brain for a way to cheer her best friend up. A quick fix while she found a solution more substantial to everything seemingly falling apart. “Want to get out of here and listen to some music?”

Jac looked up through teary eyes. “Even Taylor Swift?”

Cressida tried not to wince. She’d made it a personal rule growing up not to listen to any gooey breakup or love songs, both of which she knew Taylor was a known pro at, and that rule had extended to Hogwarts much to Jac’s dismay. Still, if Cressida could survive the month Jac had played nothing by One Direction songs after receiving a letter from her brother in First Year that Zayne had left the band, she could survive Taylor Swift.

She gave Jac a nod. “Which albums of hers do you have?”

Jac sat up preparing to leave. “All of them.”

“Fantastic,” Cressida muttered dryly as she followed Jac towards the door.

 

*

 

Cressida was extremely annoyed to find she liked Taylor Swift. Jac had sobbed and complained about Fred some more and Cressida let her while she silently listened to the music in the background. 

Jac had played her ‘ Reputation’  album only once before returning to the more heartbreaking songs but that album Cressida thought was her best. She appreciated the style of song on that one a lot more. She’d even considered asking her to play it again sometime in the future if she could slip it in without raising suspicion she enjoyed it. Jac would never let her live it down.

Eventually, after about three hours, Jac sniffed and gave a big sigh.

“I’m done being sad now,” she said.

They’d just finished listening to  ‘Enchanted’  when she’d decided this.

“Just like that?” Cressida questioned, surprised.

“Yeah,” Jac said, and she did actually pull herself together rather quickly. “I just needed a good cry. I feel a bit better now.”

“What are you going to do about Fred?”

Jac dried her tear-stained cheeks with her sleeve and gave a shrug. “I guess I’ll go find him. Find a way to make it right again… it’s not like it’s his fault people assume the worst.”

Cressida looked at her, stone-faced. She suddenly remembered James walking away from her at the stairs. Him wanting to go public.  It’s not like it’s his fault people assume the worst.  “Guess not.”

“Shall we go find Molly? I bet she’s wondering where we’ve run off to,” Jac said then, stopping the CD just as  ‘Innocent’  started. 

Thinking about how once she’d left Molly to be updated on Jac’s troubles, she’d go off and find James. Hopefully, he’d had the chance to get some sleep and would be in a better mood to talk about what he meant earlier. Maybe she’d apologize and find a way to make it up to him. Let him know she did care about him in her own weird way, even if she couldn’t tell anyone about it. 

Cressida nodded, this thought in mind, and the two girls left the secret room to return to their friends in much better spirits than when they'd left.

However, that quickly changed again when they finally found them in their dorm room.

When Cressida opened the door, she was faced with Molly and Felix waiting in the middle of it, their attention on her as she came in with Jac. 

“Cress…” Molly said in a tone that immediately set off alarm bells. It was her sympathetic tone. Cressida frowned. And then she realized in a wave of confusion that James was with them, looking extremely out of place and guilty standing in the middle of the green embellished room in broad daylight. 

She locked eyes with him immediately, firstly glad to see his face but worried about what he was doing there. Maybe he’d come to find her first. She wouldn’t put it past him. He was better at being the bigger person than she was. She was trying to see whether it was good or bad based on his expression, but she couldn't decipher it. 

“What’s going on?” Jac asked before Cressida could.

Molly revealed something from behind her back. A stack of newspapers. 

That was when Cressida remembered abandoning her bag with them on the floor when she went to help Jac. Her stomach dropped at how careless she had been. They must have found them when they came back from breakfast. But that didn’t explain why James was there. It also didn’t explain why he now wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell us, Knightly?” Felix asked, his face sympathetic as well.

Cressida gulped, her eyes on the newspaper again. One of the secrets she’d been keeping from them was being ripped out of her right before her eyes. She could play this off if she was clever, she convinced herself. They didn't have to know right this second. She wasn't ready. Jac was watching Cressida’s reaction closely. “Tell you what?" She started eventually. "I was just reading up on some of the stuff Whimbrel told us in class-”

“You don’t have to lie anymore,” Molly said softly. “James told us everything.”

The air seemed to be suddenly sucked out of the room. Her eyes snapped to James, widening in betrayal. He had his head angled towards the floor, looking up at her through his eyelashes like a beaten puppy. “You-” she had to pause to take a steadying breath, her stomach dropping. “You told them about my fucking dad?” 

There was no shoving that back down. No denying it or deflecting it. It was out in the open just like that, leaving a hole in her where it once was stored away safely.

“We needed more help,” he tried but it was no use. Cressida’s momentary state of confusion on how James could do such a thing had turned into a full-on rage, jaw clenched.

Molly strode forward before Cressida could start her rampage on him. “Why didn’t you come to us with this?”

“Because it’s my dad!” Cressida said. “ Mine!  I get to tell who I want and I didn’t even want to tell anyone then!”

“We know it’s shit, Knightly-” Felix jumped in.

“No, you  don’t  know!” she cut him off, turning on him. “You don’t know what it feels like to have basically been lied to by your mother for fifteen years!”

“He was a wizard, right?” Molly continued, forcing logic into the conversation.

Cressida was seething. James had really told them everything in the hours she’d been gone. Was this because she’d shut him down? Because she refused to go public? Had James told them as some sort of revenge, knowing how she liked her secrets kept? He refused to meet her eyes now as she stood there glaring daggers into him all while Molly kept going. She seized Cressida by the shoulders, breaking her attention from James. “That means there has to be some record of him somewhere. My dad works in the ministry, I can get him to go through the files.”

“He was an orphan, Molly,” Cressida said tightly. “We don’t have his last real name.”

“But we know he was a wizard?” Felix reiterated.

Cressida didn’t respond. Her eyes had found James again. Who else had he told? Did the other two boys know now too? Did he tell them  everything,  not just about her dad but about them as well?

“Yes,” Jac answered for her when it became clear she wasn’t going to. “At least, that's what Cressida's mum said to her.”

“And there was no suggestion of him in the newspapers you two read?” Molly asked, looking at James behind her.

James silently shook his head.

“I wasn’t finished,” Cressida snapped then, tuning back into the conversation happening around her. “There are more papers, he could be in one of them-”

“James and I read the ones from your bag,” Molly said then.

“You  what ?”

James stepped forward then, facing her head-on. “I came down to help you finish reading, only when I got here you were gone. I was just going to take the newspapers and run but Molly walked in with Finnigan.” 

“So you just told them, as easily as that?” She asked, hurt filling her chest once again. She’d trusted him. She’d confided in him. He swore he wouldn’t tell until she was ready.

And she was  going  to be ready eventually. Once she knew more. Once she knew who he was and where he came from and had the information to answer any questions they had. Once she had gotten used to the idea of him in her own mind before inviting everyone else in.

“I forced it out of him,” Molly came to his defense. “I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw him here.”

“Potter never comes down here, especially alone,” Felix went on. “Especially, looking as guilty as he did. We assumed you two just had another pointless fight. We didn’t know he’d come out with all this.”

Cressida turned her back on them, tugging on the ends of her hair. 

Jac gulped, taking the place she had previously stood. “And you’re sure there wasn’t anything in the papers you read?” She asked hopefully.

Molly and James shook their heads, defeated.

Cressida braced herself against the chest of drawers, watching them in the reflection of the mirror in front of her. “Great,” she snapped, not turning to face them. “So my only hope is gone  and  now everyone knows. That’s just fucking perfect.”

“Not quite,” Felix spoke up. “I had an idea while those two were reading. If what your mam said is true then there’s a way for us to find him ourselves.” Cressida finally turned, though she wasn’t sure Felix could come up with something she hadn’t already thought of. “All wizard children are required to attend a wizarding school when they come of age. Orphan or not, McGonagall sends a letter to them if they’re from Britain.”

Cressida froze, thinking over the information. Her friends watched her in anticipation. “His orphanage was in Wales,” she said slowly.  He would have gotten a letter.

Sometimes she still underestimated Felix’s brain. She hadn’t thought of that, after all.

“So you think McGonagall will have the information we need?" She asked, forcing calmness back into her voice as she struggled with the fact everyone knew. Everyone would be watching and waiting for what happened next. She wouldn't be able to handle them all looking at her like they were right now if this didn't work. "She'll know his last name and who he was?"

"Worth a shot, right?" Felix shrugged.

Cressida gave a noncommittal nod to Felix, hoping he knew she wasn't mad at him or Molly. Not really. She was mad at the whole entire shitty situation. She looked to James, he was still quiet but he was now looking at her with hopeful eyes as though all was well, just like that. But she was mad at him, and he knew it. He should never have told. He knew that too.

Molly stepped forward with hopeful eyes. “Now we have a plan, shall we ask McGonagall first thing tomorrow morning if we can take a look at her files?”

“You think she’ll give that information up easily?” Jac questioned. “I mean, isn’t stuff like that confidential? Would McGonagall still even have files from that long ago?”

Molly’s eyes flashed with worry. she glanced cautiously at Cressida. "Well, if McGonagall doesn't, we know someone who will. My dad-"

"We'll try McGonagall first," Cressida cut her off, keeping her head as she turned around. "Let's try and not get the whole family involved in this mess if we can," she said moving forward.

“Where are you going?” James called out when he realized she was heading for the door.

She didn’t turn around to face him. “I need some time alone.”

 

 

Monday 20th May 2019

 

Cressida didn’t return to the dorm room until curfew. Valentina had been circling the entrance like a hawk when she walked in. She saw Thane lounging on a chair not far away.

“Heard about your friend and Weasley,” he called without looking up from his book. Valentina stood by, watching with folded arms. “Should I expect to hear something about you and Potter soon too or is it just kissing you tried to keep up with?”

Cressida scowled as she kept thundering forward. “None of your fucking business, Nott.”

He lowered his book to meet her eyes. “Want some tips? I have some pretty good ones. He'll be like butter in our hands before you know it.”

Cressida paused, debating cursing Thane there and then but when she turned back to face him and saw his smug smirk, she realized she didn't have the fight in her. Not tonight. Not feeling like this. She'd just spent the last few hours crying to herself and wishing she never listened to Jac and sent her mum that letter in the first place. She wished she hadn't shared it with Potter even more.

"Can you just leave it alone for once?" She asked him. "I get enough shit from the other Houses for even being friends with Potter, I can't listen to it in my own common room as well. Especially from you."

Thane didn't respond but his face softened ever so slightly. He simply picked his book back up and continued reading, saying no more about the situation. Cressida turned her eyes on Valentina as she now perched on the arm of the chair, uncomfortably close to being in Thane's lap. She had nothing to offer but a slight raise of her eyebrow. A clear dismissal in her terms.

She turned and did just that.

When she walked into the dorm room she found all the bed curtains were closed and the room was dark. She was silently glad about that. She’d been expecting an onslaught of questions or talks about what they were going to say to McGonagall in the morning. None of her friends had come to retrieve her before she was ready to come out of hiding. She had been glad about that as well.

She opened her own bed curtains and threw a pillow into the middle of the bed to ensure James wasn't sitting there waiting for her. She half expected him to be. She was both annoyed and glad he wasn't. It was an odd feeling, but all of her feelings towards Potter were odd these days. She half hated him for telling her secret after she'd confided in him, but she also wanted him there to just... sit. Comfort her with his arms around her like they had been so many times before. Tell her it would all be okay. She hated how much she was starting to rely on him for this sort of stuff. She hated he would be the one to make her feel better even when he was the one she was mad at.

But the fact of the matter was, he wasn't sitting in the middle of her bed and she was alone with her thoughts.

The silence of the night drew on. She realized her hours of solitude wondering about McGonagall and the files and the fact James had told them were far from over.

In fact, she was beginning to think it was getting worse. At least in the day, she’d been too angry about the whole affair to really think about it deeply. She’d cursed at James in her mind and swore she’d never tell him anything ever again. She thought it would be as simple as Molly had said. They’d go to McGonagall and she’d hand the file over, confirming she  had  sent a letter to her dad and knew where he came from and then they’d have another piece of the puzzle solved.

But now that Cressida was really thinking about it, would McGonagall just hand it over? Jac had been right, after all. These things were often confidential, in the muggle world at least. For all Cressida knew, McGonagall could refuse to give them anything.

And then, even if she did, what if it just disappointed her again? What if there was nothing more than his first name again? Another dead end, except this time, it wouldn’t just be James sitting and looking at her with that stupid sympathetic face she hated so much. It’d be  all  of them.

She sat up in her bed and started tugging on her hair agitatedly.

No, that wouldn’t do. If she was going to find out something, she was going to find it by herself where she wouldn’t have to worry about keeping face in front of the others.

This is how she’d wanted to do it all along anyway. Alone.

A plan started to form in the back of her mind.

Realistically, how many Castillo’s would there be in the world? She’d surely never heard of that name before her mother had uttered it. And she knew her father had been the same age as her mum when she was born so she knew what year he would have turned eleven.

Suddenly, her plan was crystal clear. It couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning.

She’d waited far longer than she would have liked to, in case Jac or Molly appeared for a midnight chat, and then in the early hours of the morning, Cressida snuck out of bed, patting Rasper on the pillow as she departed. The kitten made no indication he was joining her on an adventure that time, and immediately closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

She had managed to sneak out of the dorm room, making sure to avoid the creaky floorboard, and once she was out in the common room she thought she was in the clear.

“Going somewhere?” Jac asked, sitting on the sofa in the alcove like a parent waiting to scold their child. How she'd snuck out here without Cressida hearing her or being caught by Valentina was beyond her.

“How the hell did you know I was sneaking out tonight?” Cressida frowned.

“Because if I were you, I wouldn’t wait until morning either,” Jac answered, getting to her feet and joining Cressida’s side. “Well, come on then. Let’s go.”

Cressida debated arguing then decided against it. Jac wouldn’t go back to bed now she knew Cressida was up to something.

Silently, the two girls walked out of the common room and into the cold dungeon hallways.

“So where exactly are we going?” Jac whispered.

“McGonagall’s office,” Cressida whispered back.

Cressida pulled back the tapestry only to find Felix standing there with his arms crossed. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Cressida complained, turning away exasperated. “Is Molly lurking somewhere too?”

“No, just me,” Felix said. “I know you two are going to try and sneak into McGonagall’s office and I’m giving you one last chance to drop it before I step in.”

“What happens when you step in?” Jac asked.

“You don’t want to find out,” Felix replied, acting unusually tough.

Cressida turned her eyes on him, not buying the act. “Right. So if we just walked past you and up those stairs, you’re going to stop us are you?”

“Yes,” Felix nodded confidently. Cressida took a step around Felix and started making her way up the secret passageway. “Hey! I'm warning you!” He called running after her. Jac followed behind, watching slightly amused even though Cressida was far from it.

“I don’t see you stopping me,” Cressida snipped over her shoulder.

“Well, it’s a bit hard in this narrow hallway, isn’t it? As soon as we break out into the halls, I’m turning your ass around, Missy,” Felix continued.

“You know, this would be a lot easier if you helped us instead,” Jac offered.

“Not sodding likely,” Felix said stubbornly.

“Then keep quiet while we do it,” Cressida said defiantly as they broke out into the hallway.

The three Slytherins stood looking at each other in the darkness.

“Well,” Jac said after a moment. “Are you going to start turning us around?”

Felix huffed, crossing his arms once again. “I’m thinking.”

“Okay, while you stand there thinking, Jac and I are just going to keep walking. Let us know when you come up with a way to stop us,” Cressida said dryly, tapping Felix on the shoulder.

The two girls had barely made it the length of the corridor before Felix was running up to them. “Fine, I can’t stop you, but just know I’m very against this idea.”

“Why’s that, Finnigan?” Jac asked as the three of them rounded the corner. “It was your idea in the first place.”

“No, my idea was to  ask McGonagall, not break into her office well after midnight,” Felix replied. “There are better and less devious ways to handle this situation.”

“And what’s the real reason you’re trying to stop us?” Cressida asked knowingly.

This was met by a very convincing death glare from Felix as they continued walking. “Molly told me to try and stop you if you snuck out tonight.”

“Knew it,” Cressida rolled her eyes. “Well, unfortunately for Molly, this is how I’ve chosen to handle the situation. Get on board or leave me alone. None of you were even supposed to know about this anyway.”

Jac and Felix shared a glance to one another then silently followed behind Cressida, choosing against arguing with her further.

They’d made it up to the fourth floor before they started hearing noises coming from the opposite direction.

“Is it Filch?” Jac panicked.

“Is it Molly?” Felix asked, more panicked.

Cressida gestured for them all to remain frozen while she listened in the dark. “Neither-”

Three bodies rounded the corner all huddled together

The three Slytherins stared back at the trio of Gryffindor boys illuminated by their wand lights.

“Don’t tell me you’re here to stop us as well,” Jac huffed. Cressida could sense the tension still lingering between Fred and Jac as they stood opposite each other.

“Actually, we don’t know what we’re doing,” Thomas said, clueless to everyone around him currently fighting with one another.

“James is up to something. Said we just had to be out here tonight,” Fred elaborated, looking only at Cressida. He didn't have his usual jovial, cheery tone to his voice.

Cressida turned her eyes on James. A risky move considering she might reach out and throttle him at any second. He glanced at his two counterparts then puffed out his chest, putting on an act for their sake. Cressida was slightly annoyed by the facade of it all. If everyone knew, what was the point in pretending they weren't in the middle of a big fight? At least last Jac and Fred weren't pretending everything was fine.

“Figured it was about time we messed with Filch as a team again,” he said. He met Cressida’s eyes, searching for an indication she was ready to forgive him for telling yet. She gave nothing away. “Keep him occupied, as it were.”

Fred rolled his eyes, clearly bored of the idea and not understanding the meaning behind James wanting to be a distraction. It was then Cressida realized the two boys didn’t know. If they did, they would have put two and two together on why she was out there as well. They’d have questions or that stupid look on their faces that everyone got when something like this happened. But there was no sense of underlying reasoning for them to be out there other than James had simply said for them to be. That must be why James was acting this way.

“James had been at Hagrid’s all afternoon before coming back and saying to trust him,” Thomas went on, also not seeing the point. “He’s been carrying around hippogriff feathers since coming back but won’t tell us what we’re doing with them.”

Even Jac and Felix seemed confused by this odd behaviour.

James’ eyes never left Cressida as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of beautiful black feathers. “Hagrid said I could borrow them. They’re  Weatherby’s  feathers. Got a lot of extra secret uses for them, so he said. One of McGonagall's favourite creatures of his.”

Cressida frowned. She knew he was trying to tell her something but he wasn’t making any sense. How would feathers help her right now? Was he trying to perform some kind of forgiveness spell on her that she’d never heard of?

“Well, anyway, Filch will be in the West Wing right about now. We best get over there and stop him from making it over this end,” James said, still keeping up the act. Cressida was still confused. “Here,” he said, stepping towards Cressida. He extended a feather out to her. “Take this with you. For luck.”

Cressida held the feather in her hand and watched as James led the two boys away with a nod of his head.

Felix and Jac looked down at the feather. “I think the boy’s finally cracked,” Felix muttered.

Cressida pocketed the feather with a roll of her eyes and led her group in the opposite reaction towards McGonagall’s office. She couldn’t think about James right now. He could be dealt with in the morning.

Luckily, they’d made it all the way there without another interruption. Filch was where James said he would be, the West Wing, and Cressida suspected if James had anything to do with it he’d be there for as long as the trio of boys were able to keep him there. 

“Okay, last chance for you two to turn away,” Cressida whispered as they came to a stop outside the phoenix statue.

“Last chance for you to give up and go back to bed,” Felix countered. Cressida only stared back at him in reply. After a beat, Felix turned away with another huff. “Fine, but just make this quick.”

“Good. You two stand over there while I get us in,” Cressida instructed.

She stood in front of the statue and then came to a halting realization that McGonagall wouldn’t be there to open the stairs for her this time, no matter how much she lingered. She’d need a password. A password she didn’t have the faintest idea of what it could be.

Trying not to show her annoyance or her cluelessness in front of Jac and Felix she crouched down and inspected the stature, searching for any sign of a hint or a button that would move it. She knew she couldn’t use a spell to open it. The trio of boys had tried that before and the spell blew up in their faces.

She stood upright again and put her hands in her pockets as she thought of a solution. Her fingers brushed against the feather and she brought it out for another look.

She ran her thumb over the soft surface as she tried to remember what James had said. He’d been to Hagrid’s in order to get it. He said something about secret uses… and then it clicked.

Hagrid was  awful  at keeping secrets. He spilt them all the time without thinking. It was a running joke she’d heard the adults at the Burrow laugh about during their stories.

Maybe Hagrid had accidentally given up the password to James. It would have been easy to get out of him, especially if it had to do with one of his creatures. She bet James didn’t even have to pry that much and just got lucky.

Oh, but  which  hippogriff was it?

She wrecked her brain, thinking back to the name James had said. She’d only ever paid attention to Beebe in the herd, but there was only one black one with feathers like this.

“Weatherby!” She exclaimed.

The statue turned with a grinding noise and soon the stairway leading up to McGonagall’s office was open. Despite being mad at him, she knew she’d have to thank him for this at some point.

The three Slytherins all looked at each other before simultaneously taking a step onto the staircase and making their way up.

Once they’d reached the top of the staircase, they were in pitch darkness.

“How’re we supposed to find the files in this?” Jac whispered as they ventured further into the office.

Cressida grabbed her wand from within her tied-up hair and lit the tip up.

“Good evening, students.” The three Slytherins all jumped back with screams when they realized McGonagall was sitting at her desk. “Out for a midnight stroll, are we?”

“Shit,” Cressida muttered as she hastily put her wand light back out.

They stood frozen in the darkness for a while. 

“I’m almost positive she already saw us,” Felix whispered.

“That I did, Mr Finnigan,” McGonagall’s voice said calmly. She clapped her hands and the whole office lit up. “Are you going to explain your reasoning for sneaking into my office at this hour, or shall I just give you your punishment now?”

Felix and Jac both looked to Cressida to answer.

Cressida took a deep breath and faced the stern Head Mistress. “We were looking for a past student’s files. It’s important.”

“Miss Knightly, the files containing information on past students are not kept in my office. All previous school documentation is kept locked away somewhere where students such as yourself cannot simply happen upon them while sneaking around,” McGonagall said, getting to her feet. “Now if that is all, I shall tell you your punishment, and then the three of you will go straight back to bed, are we understood?”

“Yes, Headmistress,” the three Slytherins chorused, hanging their heads guiltily.

“A week’s detention with all of you being assigned a different task each day,” she said firmly. “Seeing as you never accomplished what you set out to do, I shall refrain from informing your parents on this account.” Jac let out a breath of relief. “Now, return to your dorm rooms before I summon Filch. How you got this far on his watch is beyond me.”

“Oh, the Gryff-” Cressida elbowed Felix in the ribs to stop him before he could get the trio of boys in trouble. “We’re just lucky, I suppose,” Felix said instead, wincing in pain.

“Very lucky, indeed,” McGonagall hummed doubtfully. “Dismissed.”

Jac and Felix wasted no time in turning and practically running out of the office, but Cressida lingered a little bit longer. She could see the portrait of Severus Snape sneering down at her, meanwhile, the portrait of Dumbledore seemed to be watching her with genuine interest. She wasn’t ready to go yet. She needed to know and now she had nothing left to lose.

“Professor McGonagall,” Cressida started, tearing her eyes away from the portraits. “How did you know we were going to break in?”

McGonagall looked up over her glasses. “I am very good friends with Hagrid as well, Miss Knightly, and he is even worse at not slipping up around me than he is with the students. He mentioned over lunch how James had come to see him and taken away some of Weatherby’s feathers after their discussion. It was a waiting game from there on when one of you would show up.” 

“It was for a very good reason, professor,” Cressida went on. “We came all this way, aren’t you at least interested to know why we did it?”

Dumbledore’s portrait looked amused by her confidence. Snape’s, however, looked perturbed.

McGonagall quirked an eyebrow. She watched Cressida for a moment, silently assessing something. Jac and Felix watched her nervously. “In that case, do share, Miss Knightly.”

“The student's name was Castillo,” Cressida explained carefully. Snape’s portrait seemed to change from annoyance to genuine interest at what she was suddenly saying. “We think he might have lost his parents in the wars. We were interested in him once Whimbrel gave us that lesson. Wondered if we could figure out what happened to him.”

McGonagall wrote something down on her parchment. “Last name?”

“We don’t have one,” Cressida said unhelpfully. “His first name is all we have.”

“I see,” McGonagall said, setting her quill down again. “As you can imagine that doesn’t give me much to work with… but I can skim previous school records for the singular name you have given me.” Before Cressida could utter a thank you, McGonagall held her hand up, stopping her. “Now I don’t want to find you sneaking in here ever again, do you understand me? Especially at this hour in which an old lady such as myself rather enjoys what little beauty sleep she can get.”

Cressida nodded, looking down. “Of course, professor. Sorry for keeping you up.”

McGonagall clasped her hands on the desk and looked up fully. “Now go to bed before I double your punishment.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cressida said, quickly turning and descending back down the staircase with her friends.

Chapter 92: Fifth Year: How Many Secrets Can You Keep?

Notes:

There are some themes of sexism in this chapter but only mildly. Hope you enjoy :)

Wednesday 22nd May 2019 

 

It had been two days and Cressida had yet to hear from McGonagall but she held out hope. In fact, she felt the most hopeful about the situation since the letter from her mum. McGonagall would definitely  come up with something. She knew everything, after all. How she hadn’t thought of going to her sooner was beyond her.

She’d given Felix an extra box of Bertie Bott’s as a thank-you for the suggestion, even though she never said it out loud.

One person she did need to thank out loud was Potter, and she planned on doing it sooner rather than later, but with her detentions and him having Quidditch practice and revising for exams with Molly, she’d hardly had a chance to see him alone.

After one of the worst detentions on Monday evening- cleaning out Whimbrel’s pixie cages- she, Jac, and Felix trudged their way up to the secret room. It had been hard work, and Jac had to get her finger bandaged by Cressida after getting bit, but they managed to get it done and then avoid the common room in fear of Molly piling more work onto their tired brains. If they hadn’t gone over their allocated time by nearly forty minutes Cressida would have had time to catch James before he had Quidditch practice but at this hour there was no point. It’d have to be pushed back for another day at least.

They led on the floor facing the ceiling, their heads all in the middle forming a circle as they listened to music, Eminem this time. Felix had chosen it, but neither girl objected.

“Any news from McGonagall about your dad?” Felix had asked, sucking on a lollipop.

“Not yet,” Cressida sighed. Her eyelids felt heavy and the stink of the pixie's cages were still on her hands. She fancied just having a long shower and then curling up in her bed for a decent sleep, except decent sleep was hard to come by these days without the warmth of James.

“She’ll know something,” Jac said surely. “She knows everyone.”

“That tends to happen when you’re as old as her,” Felix commented. “You’ve got to give it to her though, she looks good for her age.”

“How old do wizards live, then?” Cressida asked curiously. “Some of the teachers here are still older than anyone I’ve met back home.”

“Depends,” Felix shrugged. “With all the wars we’ve had over the last few decades, I’m surprised any of them have lasted as long as they have. Dumbledore, the head teacher before Minnie, was one hundred and fifteen when Snape offed him.”

“Damn, that’s old,” Jac muttered.

“I wouldn’t want to be that old,” Cressida admitted then. If she was completely honest, she’d be quite happy to die before she hit seventy like most of the people from her village. Becoming old was always a weird concept to her. She didn’t want to be old and frail. She’d always suspected she wouldn’t have a long life anyway, although, she didn’t know why she’d always thought that.

Felix craned his head to look at the two girls next to him. “Has the thing between you and Weasley died down yet?” He asked changing the topic.

Jac sighed dismally. “No. Fred and I were only holding hands in the hall earlier and people wolf whistled at us like we were doing something outlandish. One boy a few years above made an awful comment about Fred’s  impressive riding skills  when he was in his jersey this morning. I hated it but Fred barely had a reaction.”

“But you two have made up at least?” Felix asked gladly.

Jac’s frown grew. “We both apologized but it’s not completely blown over yet. We haven’t really talked about where to go from here… the rumours aren’t helping though. Fred said Alvin Macavoy in Fifth Year high-fived him at breakfast the other day once he heard the news. How sexist is that?! He’s getting praised while I’m being slut-shamed for something that never even happened!”

“It’s pathetic, is what it is,” Cressida said annoyed.

“I reckon you should just tell them all to fuck off and shag who you want when you want,” Felix said then, waving his lollipop around. “Fred’s your boyfriend, Redwick, if you shag him what’s the big deal? I bet half the people whispering about you two have already done it themselves or want to.”

“Finnigan’s probably right, you know,” Cressida agreed. “There’s bound to be people in our year who’ve already done it and no one found out. It wasn’t the end of the world for them.”

“Apparently, Avery Bell got close to doing it with that older Ravenclaw boy she’s been seeing on and off. Heard him bragging about it in the hall the other week,” Felix divulged.

Jac started doing tiny braids in her hair to keep her hands busy. “Why are we different then? Why does everyone care what  we  do so much?”

Felix sighed, finishing off the last of his lollipop with a loud crunch as he bit down. “That’s the price you pay for being involved with a Weasley or a Potter, I guess. Everyone’s always in their business. Spectacles of the wizarding world and all that.”

Both girls went mute after that statement. They hadn’t realized the CD had ended and there was now no background music to drown out their thoughts.

An owl hooted out the window, breaking the silence.

“I’m going to go find Fred,” Jac said, sitting up abruptly. “I have to find a way to fix this.”

Felix and Cressida wished her good luck as she descended the stairs.

Cressida sat up and loaded up a new CD then. The guitar strum and beats of  ‘Do I Wanna Know’ by the Arctic Monkeys started playing, another one of Felix's favorites.

Felix watched Cressida curiously as she led back down. “Just so we’re clear… there isn’t anything going on with you and Potter… is there?”

Cressida refused to look away from the ceiling. 

‘Have you no idea that you’re in deep,

I’ve dreamt about you nearly every night this week,

How many secrets can you keep?’

The question made her shoulders tense. The air caught in her throat as if when she breathed out, an admission would come out with it. After all, it would have been easy to tell Felix like this. Like it wasn’t a big deal. 

But she wasn’t sure if there even  was  a her and Potter anymore. She couldn’t admit it while they were like this, hanging on by a thread after a stupid argument yet again.

“Nah, nothing,” Cressida answered stiffly. “Just stupid rumors.”

Felix hummed thoughtfully, questioning it no further as he started muttering along happily to the music.

Cressida turned her head toward him thoughtfully, breath still held. It suddenly occurred to her that out of everyone, maybe Felix would be the most neutral party. He wasn't in awe of being in love and being loved by someone like Jac was. He might not be disgusted by the idea like Molly would be. Maybe he would be happy for them. Maybe he’d have some good advice on how to stop screwing everything up, and before she stopped to think about it further, her mouth had opened and words were coming out. “But say there was… " she breathed out. "Would it be a mistake?”

Felix didn’t answer for a long time. That didn’t bode well.

‘Have you got the guts? 

Been wondering if you’re hearts still open,

And if so, I wanna know what time it shuts.’

“I don’t think it would be easy… I mean, he is a Potter, as shit as that is for people like..." he meandered off, averting his eyes. ' You' had been the word he was going to use, referring to Cressida. Whether that meant her being a Slytherin, from a muggle family, from a family without riches, or simply her hating being in the limelight Potter permanently had shining down on him... either way, it wasn't something she hadn't already considered herself.

"I think it would take a long time for people to accept it," he went on, ignoring the previous sentence. "Molly would take even longer. But I think maybe, once all the jokes and jabs were done... maybe it'd be alright if you're lucky,” he finished. He watched her carefully as she turned away again, putting on face. “I think you know that already though.”

Cressida chewed the inside of her cheek until she could taste blood.  "If you're lucky"  put a bad taste in her mouth. “Yeah…” she said after a moment. “Good thing it’s not true then, isn't it.”

“Yeah,” Felix agreed slowly. “Guess it is.”

They returned to listening to music without mentioning it again. After a few minutes of staring blankly at the ceiling, she felt Felix lean over and pass her a stick of Drooble’s bubble gum. A gesture.

Instead of taking the gum, she reached out and grabbed his hand instead, for something solid to hold onto. He let her without question.

Sometimes, she  really  underestimated Felix Finnigan.

 

*

 

The next day irradiated any hope of her being in a fit mood to talk to James. With the rumour still going around at full force, Cressida’s fear had come to fruition and people were going after her as well, just as Arabella had said they would. The fact that Cressida had been outside the Common Room the morning of the affair had now spiraled into people wondering whether she had been sneaking out too. It wasn’t as bad as what Jac was dealing with, but Cressida had started to be cornered with questions. 

Cressida, Molly, and Jac had stayed behind to help Neville clean up after a particularly rowdy lesson with an enchanted Venus Fly Trap at the hand of James. He’d done it as a joke to try and brighten the mood up, but as per usual, it had backfired and James ended up being sent to Madame Pomfrey with the plant’s spiny teeth firmly embedded out of his left hand.

It took a few minutes to realize Vonce and Margo had lingered after the rest of the class had long gone. However, Margo was looking in every direction but theirs as they slowly packed their things away.

“Oi, Knightly!” Vonce had called over. Cressida reluctantly looked in his direction. “Is it true about you and Potter?” He asked in a badly concealed whisper. “Have you really done the dirty with him?”

Neville knocked a plant pot off his desk as he spun around that quickly at the accusation. “Um, I think I should maybe… go over there… for a bit,” the young professor said awkwardly. The three girls watched him shuffle over and step into his storage cupboard and shut the door behind him, undoubtedly standing in the cramped space in complete darkness rather than feeling like he was intruding on this particular topic of conversation.

Molly instantly got her wand out and went about repairing the pot. Jac had seemed to tame the plant into submission for now and was looking towards Cressida for her answer. 

“Don’t you have some dark corner to be lurking in, Vonce?” Cressida quipped back, scooping up soil that had spilled everywhere. 

“Or some poor girl’s mouth to invade,” Jac piped up quietly so only Cressida could hear her.

Margo tugged on Vonce’s sleeve. “Come on, Jeremiah. Let’s just leave it,” she urged.

Vonce shrugged her off without even a sideways glance. “I’m just saying, right? If what everyone’s saying is true-”

“And who’s saying what, exactly?” Molly had stepped in sternly. Margo’s eyes averted even more.

Vonce glanced briefly at Margo, then turned back to the three girls with a shrug. “Just people… some of the Ravenclaw’s reckon there’s a reason Potter follows you around like a lost puppy. I mean, it’s not like you entertain any other guy going after you.”

“Or maybe she just didn’t want to entertain you and your foul aftershave,” Jac jabbed with a roll of her eyes.

Cressida forced herself to act like she hadn’t found Jac’s remark incredibly funny. “Yeah, well the Ravenclaw's ain’t as smart as they like to think they are,” Cressida said instead. “And the boys around here aren’t worth my time, especially those sleazy enough to hit on me while they have a girlfriend.”

Vonce’s face fell. He quickly grabbed his satchel and made for the door. “Come on, Margo. Godric, you can’t even ask a simple question anymore,” he muttered bitterly.

Cressida met Margo’s eyes briefly as she was dragged out of the room by Vonce. It was hard to determine the emotion behind them.

Molly folded her arms over her chest, shaking her head at the door the two of them had disappeared out of. “Sometimes I wonder how I was ever best friends with that girl… letting a guy ruin you like that.” Molly’s face softened ever so slightly as she turned back to repairing the mess around the room. “She used to be so nice, too.”

Jac pulled a face. “Did she?”

Molly glanced up as if not realizing she’d even said it out loud. “Whatever. No point in thinking about the past. She made her bed. She can lie in it.”

With that, Molly finished repairing the last broken pot from the incident beforehand and then went to leave the classroom. Jac hurried to follow after. Cressida heaved a heavy sigh, wondering if Molly would feel different if she knew the truth. Whether she’d perhaps even be understanding or sympathetic. But then, Cressida wasn’t sure Molly was that way inclined... no matter the reason, Molly wasn't one to forgive actions easily. It was a subject she didn’t want to touch on currently.

She grabbed her bag and passed the closet door, giving it a little knock to alert Neville he could come out, and then followed after her friends.

However, the rumors had clearly made it far past Vonce thanks to the Ravenclaw's.

McLaggen had run into her in the hall while she was on her own and immediately grinned knowing he had the upper hand, thinking she was weaker without her friends at her side. “So, now you’re apparently sniffing around the golden gates of the Gryffindors as well, does that mean you get some of Potter's fortune to buy yourself a pair of decent robes, Knightly?” He asked loudly as he approached.

Cressida sent him a middle finger, not even pausing on her way past him.

“Oh, come on don’t be like that!” He called after her. “I’m sure Potter’d pay a pretty penny to get some of your attention, even if you aren’t jumping his pedigree bones just yet-”

His feet had been frozen to the floor before Cressida could even turn around and punch him in the mouth. When she looked, she saw Albus and Scorpius behind McLaggen, Albus' wand hidden discreetly at his side. Cressida gave them both a grateful smile and turned to not give them away, leaving McLaggen to his confused swearing as he tried to shuffle his icy feet forward and fell flat on his face.

As she continued on with her day, a part of her wondered whether James was dealing with this shit too, but it’s not like she’s seen him to have a chance to ask. Plus, it might still be a sore subject between the two of them. If she was totally honest, she wasn’t sure where she and James stood at the moment between the comments about them being a secret and then him telling the others about her dad. Both had reasons to be upset with the other- furious even- but James had still helped her with Weatherby’s feathers… surely that meant they’d be okay. She  hoped  they were okay…

“I heard a juicy rumor you were sneaking out that morning with Jac too?” Penelope had uninvitedly asked Cressida in the latest newspaper meeting later that day. Margo, who had since returned to the meetings but never contributed much apart from her article with Penelope, looked up at the question. “Were you doing it to see Potter? Are you two finally together? Beatrix and April don’t think it’s true, said they never saw you, only Jacqueline, but, I mean, it’s bound to be Potter with your… history and all if it is  true.”

Cressida didn’t get the chance to respond before Avery Bell, who’d recently joined to assist with editing, chimed in. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did jump at the chance. I mean  look  at the boy. He’s drop-dead gorgeous. If it were me, I’d never shut up about getting so much as a glance from him. Plus, he’s Harry Potter’s  son!  How many people get to say that?”

Cressida turned her steely glare on her. “At least one other person.”

Avery seemed confused. “Who’s that then?”

Cressida snapped back to Penelope then. “And I do  not  have a history with Potter.”

Not one you know about anyway.

“I wish I had a history with Potter,” Avery smirked under her breath before leaning around Cressida to get closer to Penelope. “I hear he never even looks at the girls around Hogwarts though. It’s a shame, he could basically have anyone he wanted. He gets a thousand propositions and love notes every week from what I can tell-”

Cressida rolled her eyes and got up from her chair to move somewhere more secluded. Despite her best efforts to try and forget how the rest of the castle saw James, conversations with pretty much any other girl in her year that wasn't Jac or Molly quickly brought it back to the forefront of her mind. They just saw him as some stud to win over. As the famous  Harry Potter’s son  or some Quidditch-playing heartthrob. But they didn’t really know him. They didn’t know how much of a dork he actually was. They didn’t know how kind he was and that he was far more than just Harry Potter’s son or a Gryffindor legend.

She sat down at the back of the room in a quiet corner and brewed over her maneuvers list to memorize before the last game of the year. Molly had insisted she had to start using the official names of moves instead of making them up in her articles.

“Don’t listen to them.”

Cressida turned to the side to realize she’d sat a seat over from Fabian Farley. She’d forgotten he was even in the meetings lately. “People like to gossip but a lot of the time they’re just jealous,” he went on. “You figure out if you watch them all enough that they’ve done far worse anyway, they just like to distract themselves with what everyone else is up to.”

“Thanks,” Cressida replied.

“James is nice… never picks on me. None of you lot do. I- I appreciate that and I don’t think it’s fair everyone always gets in your business.”

Cressida assessed the stick of a boy in front of her. She didn’t know who he was friends with, he was mostly alone scurrying from place to place, but she noticed he had a pin on his school tie of a mandrake. “You like Herbology?”

Fabian flushed and admired the pin in question. “It’s the only thing I’m good at, I think. Plants are more predictable than people.”

“You should talk to Lana Longbottom. She’s in your year. I think you two would get on. Plus, her friend Rose is terrible at it. They’d probably appreciate your talents in the subject.”

Fabian shook his head dismissively. “Oh, they’re far too popular. Rose, especially. Everyone loves her. I don’t think-”

“Trust me,” Cressida assured him.

The newspaper finished shortly after that and Cressida left for one of the many detentions she still had yet to get through, and this time it wasn’t bandaged by the company of her friends.

 

*

 

By the time she returned to the Common Room, it was nearing curfew but she didn’t even have the energy to rush.

She walked in through the passageway and collapsed onto the green sofas in the alcove and dug the heels of her palms into her eyes until she saw spots, selfishly glad to find their space devoid of anyone.

She only begrudgingly stopped the assault on her tired eyes when she heard someone sit on the sofa opposite.

“I’m not in the mood for company,” she said, not bothering to look who it was.

“Not even if I was lover boy?”

She sat bolt upright. Thane sat opposite her, lounging back like he owned the place. Cressida quickly scoped the surroundings. Valentina was ushering the last of the Slytherins stupid enough to test her strict curfew time to bed under her vulture-like demeanor. She glanced in their direction, but Thane signaled something with his hand and she too, left the Common Room. 

They were completely alone.

Cressida turned back to Thane. “What do you want?”

“What makes you think I want something?” He asked. Cressida dignified that with a hard glare. Thane looked amused. It annoyed her further. “You looked like you could use a friend,” he said then, slightly more sincerely. “And this.”

He pulled a small flask from inside his robes and passed it to her.

Cressida cautiously unscrewed the cap and took a sniff. “Fire whiskey?”

“The good stuff too. Not the cheap one you lot drink at parties around here,” Thane embellished. “Been decanting my dad’s collection for over a year now but there’s so much of it in the house he hadn’t even noticed.”

“Alcoholic?” She asked, taking a small sip.

Thane’s face hardened into an emotionless state. “He went through a lot before I came along.” 

Cressida didn’t respond but she got it. These things didn’t need to be talked about past the acknowledgment. She took another sip, noticing how this burned a bit more than the cheap stuff but was a lot easier to swallow and didn’t taste as much like drinking petrol oil.

She passed the flask back to him and averted her eyes as he took a swig for himself.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked, offering it back to her.

She took the flask back off him. “Not really.”

Thane never pestered for her to pass it back. He let her silently sip to her heart’s content, and she did so, until after ten minutes of silence between them, the flask was nearly half empty without Cressida even stopping to think about it.

“You’ve stopped fighting, you know,” he said, finally reaching to take the flask back.

She secretly wished she still had it to hold onto as she looked back at him. “Fighting what?”

“Them,” he said. “The ones saying all this shit, making you out to be something you’re not. You’re taking it lying down. I expected it from your Muggle-born friend but not you,” he went on. There was a slight pause as he looked at her thoughtfully. “Do they even know?” He asked then. It wasn’t hard to decipher what he was referring to.

Cressida swallowed hard, the burning still in her throat. “Can’t bring myself to tell them properly.”

“Why?”

It took her a moment to answer. “I honestly don’t know.”

Thane discarded the flask on the table between them, still half full. “Yes, you do. You’re just too scared to accept it.”

Cressida scowled at him, anger replacing where the liqueur had been seconds ago. “You know, you don’t really know me as much as you fucking think.”

Thane tutted as if he knew better and got to his feet. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe your hard exterior has finally been…  softened,”  he jabbed. “You have two minutes before Val’s timer goes off,” he said with a smug grin. And then, with Cressida’s glare following him, he disappeared out of the common room whistling a happy tune.

She sat there with her arms folded over her chest. Her eyes fell on the mental flask glinting in the candlelight from the fire. 

She swiped it into her grasp and drained it to the last drop as she headed for her dorm room.

 

 

Thursday 23rd May 2019

 

Sleep had not come easily that night. Her head swam with thoughts of James, and Thane, and Jac and Fred, and her dad, and all the hopeless situations she couldn’t seem to get enough of a grasp on to fix. By three o’clock her head pounded from it all, and the flask of fire whiskey wasn’t helping either. Part of her wished James would just show up and stop it all. Let her know it’d be okay and that, if nothing else, at least they  were okay in their little bubble still. But even their little bubble seemed to be bursting under the pressure of it all. Cressida felt like she might suffocate in it soon and James wouldn't even notice until it was too late.

Nearing four in the morning, Cressida, in a fit of rage and desperation, crossed the room to Jac’s bed. She wanted to talk. She wanted to  tell  someone. Make it real. Make it so someone could know what was happening and not call her crazy for thinking the way she was. 

She ripped Jac’s bed curtains open, the words ready to spill out of her mouth. Ready to tell Jac everything she’d been keeping inside for the last few months and everything in between. But what she was met with was an empty bed, devoid of her best friend when she really needed her.

Cressida stood there, frozen. Swallowing the admission back down to the pits it came from. Her confidence in the idea going with it. Maybe it was a sign.

Maybe she  wasn’t meant to say it out loud after all. That’s what every fiber in her being was telling her to do anyway. Maybe it was a blessing Jac hadn’t been in her bed at that exact moment.

Rasper nudged his head against Cressida’s bare ankles, a tiny plea for her to come back to bed. Cressida scooped him into her arms and did just that.

By the time morning broke, she’d barely had more than an hour's sleep before she was hit in the face with a pillow.

She groggily opened her eyes, surprised to see it was Margo who stood over her, her face as hard as stone. 

“The fuck, Margo-”

“You always ruin  everything ,” Margo whispered angrily. Cressida glanced past her into the room. Molly was still snoring from within her bed curtains and Jac’s bed was still vacant.

Cressida rolled her eyes and sat up, looking back to Margo. “What have I done now?”

“You lot having sex with boys is what!” Margo said, furiously climbing onto her bunk and casting a silencing spell over them. Cressida stared at her in bewilderment. She couldn’t remember a single time Margo had been the one doing this. “Since Vonce found out what Redwick is doing with Fred, he thinks  we  should as well! He says we’ve been together longer than they have and I’ve never given him anything more scandalous than a French kiss.”

“Then he’s being a dick-”

“ Obviously  he’s a dick but that doesn’t change the fact he threatened to dump me over this!”

“So dump him first-”

“I  can’t!”  Margo said desperately. “I need him, Cressida. You don’t understand, if I don’t have Vonce then I’m just… I’ll be-” her words crumbled coming out of her mouth. She looked at her hands in her lap defeated, her jaw clenched. “You need to fix it,” she said then. “Lie or pull some of your Knightly magic bullshit but  fix it .”

“Have you considered telling him the truth?” Cressida asked. “There are other gay people in the world, Margo. You probably won’t get your head smashed in for it here.”

“Do I look thick to you?! I can’t tell him the  truth . People can’t know the truth, do you what what would happen!?” Margo retorted.

“You get to stop kissing a boy you can’t stand,” Cressida shot out. "Maybe find another girl who-"

“Fix it!” She interrupted firmly, unrelenting on the issue.

Cressida sighed, already overwhelmed with this conversation first thing in the morning. “Margo, I’m not sure how.”

“Then find a way!” She ordered as she undid the charm and got to her feet again. She set Cressida with a hard look. “Please,” she said, failing to soften her tone by much. “I know we’re not friends but…  please?”

Cressida was about to respond when Molly’s bed curtains opened and Margo darted into the bathroom at record speed, the conversation over like it never happened.

Molly yawned and stretched, looking over at Cressida with a furrowed brow. “Why’re you awake before me?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” she lied. Molly didn’t question it further.

Jac still hadn’t returned by the time the girls had all gotten dressed and headed up to breakfast. Cressida watched as Margo broke away from them in the Grand Hall and went to kiss Vonce instantly with a smile on her face. She had to give it to her, Margo was a good actress when she needed to be. 

As they sat down, Felix and Molly started filling their plates with food, meanwhile, Cressida sat and watched. She watched as Jac shuffled in through the doors and was met with glances and whispers at the sight of her as she came to sit down. 

“Where were you last night?” Molly whispered as Jac joined them.

Jac looked solely at her breakfast. “Just about. I couldn’t sleep.”

Her demeanor was off. She was sheepish, and that was something that didn't suit Jac one bit... maybe all these comments were finally taking a bigger toll on Jac than even Cressida realized.

Cressida desperately wanted to find a way to make it all go away for her. Make it normal again. She watched as her best friend started pushing her eggs around with the tip of her fork absently, her thoughts somewhere else completely. 

Cressida turned her eyes to the other end of the hall. She watched the trio of Gryffindor trio be huddled by boys from all years on their own table as soon as they sat down, not that they looked like they wanted them there. She met James’ eyes from across the crowds of people sitting chatting and having breakfast. He looked tired, his eyes staying on her as if trying to convey a message to her for the first time in days. The tables between them suddenly made it feel like they were miles apart. 

She forced herself to look away and watched Margo try and engage Vonce in conversation while his hand rested on her knee as he ignored every word she said.

She caught Thane’s eye as he walked in beside Goyle and Valentina. He nodded his head to her, a small acknowledgment of their conversation last night and she felt the anger of that conversation return tenfold.

Finally, something inside Cressida snapped. She couldn’t let this continue any longer.

She climbed over the bench and stood on the dining table, shoving all the food out of the way to make room. She emptied two serving platters and clashed them together to get everyone’s attention. McGonagall rose out of her seat at the teacher’s table in case she needed to intervene at a moment's notice.

“What are you  doing ?” Molly asked, trying to pull her back down into her seat.

Cressida yanked her arm out of Molly’s grasp and looked around at the hall at large. Everyone was staring at her now.  Good , she thought. This was for everyone to hear.

“I know you’re all dying to know the truth about the gossip of whether Jac and I are massive sluts, or whether the two Gryffindor boys are  total legends,  but just for everyone’s information, neither of us have had sex. Not with James and Fred, or with anyone, in fact!”

The hall was silent. McGonagall still was half-raised out of her seat, looking confused and conflicted on whether to stop her or not. Neville, looking horrified, was gesturing to Lana to cover her ears. Rose did it for him, immediately clasping her hands over her best friend’s head from the bench behind. Rose's own eyes, however, were trained on Cressida, not wanting to miss one bit of what she had to say.

Jac sank low into her seat, hiding her face behind her hands, wishing to disappear. Everyone who wasn’t looking at the two girls was now looking at James and Fred, who were both incredibly red in the face by this point. Thomas was doing his best hard stare to make people turn away again for the sake of his friends. It wasn't working as well as he hoped.

“But even if we  had  slept with them,” Cressida continued. “It’s none of your damn business. I mean, I know wizards are behind on a lot of modern-day stuff but are we really still doing this shit?!” McGonagall cleared her throat authoritatively. “Sorry, professor.”

McGonagall lowered herself fully back into her chair with a nod of her head, appeased.

Cressida returned to her speech. “I bet some of you have already done it. I bet some of you thought it was great and some of you knew it was a mistake. I bet some of you sit there  wishing  you could do it,” she sent a sly glance at Vonce at that bit, he instantly removed his hand from Margo’s knee and turned away. “I bet some of you can’t even remember some of the times you’ve done it. Do you see us going around behind  your back talking about it?! I realize you lot think you have a right to know the ins and outs of every Potter and Weasley’s life and therefore the people they care about but it doesn’t give you the right to talk absolute bullshit for your own entertainment. They’re not just spectacles for you lot to gossip about. You think it’s easy to have everyone knowing every move you make in this stupid sodding castle? Do you lot even know the difference between knowing their names and being their actual  friends?! Would you even care who they were if it weren’t for their parents?”

It went silent. The people sitting at the dining tables glanced around at each other guiltily. The older years looked down in shame. The huddle around the trio of boys dispersed discreetly with a few muttering and mumblings of apologizes and the odd “It was just a laugh, lads”  thrown in.

No one was smiling or found hearing the truth amusing, but when she glanced down at her friends she found Felix giving her a wide grin and a thumbs up. She felt rather proud of her outburst after that, knowing her point had been proven. 

She looked up the bench towards the older Slytherins. As per usual, their faces gave nothing away but she distinctly saw Thane raise his cup to her before taking a sip and turning his back on her completely.

“Some words to think on there, students,” McGonagall called from her seat. “Perhaps not the words I would have used, but a wise message nonetheless. Thank you, Miss Knightly. You may get off the table now. It’s mahogany and your shoes will tarnish the shine the elves worked so hard to achieve.”

Cressida obliged and clambered back down into her seat.

After a second of lingering silence, the hall erupted into hushed conversations and apologies and agreements with what she had said being thrown around. Rose in particular was saying to her friends on the Gryffindor table how right Cressida was and that she had told them all from the word go it was all nonsense gossip. 

Jac had lowered her hands from over her face but still looked appreciative about people’s reactions going forward. Molly remained tense, silently listening to the conversations going on around them to gauge how Cressida’s speech had been received.

Felix, in usual Felix fashion, stabbed a sausage with a fork and ate it with a gleeful laugh. “Christ, do you know how to put people in their place.”

Molly hummed thoughtfully, pushing a fresh cup of tea in Cressida’s direction. “Perhaps it’s time we put a stop to our gossip column as well after your outburst,” she said. “Seems a bit hypocritical now.”

“I’m fine with that idea,” Jac agreed gratefully. 

“Not sure Penelope is going to approve, though,” Felix chimed in. “Her life revolves around drama.”

Cressida glanced further up the Slytherin table as they debated what to replace the gossip column with instead. Vonce was sulking, his chin resting on his fist as he pushed his beans around in his bowl, but Margo looked actually happy. She turned in Cressida’s direction and gave a small grateful smile in her direction that no one else would even register as a smile by normal standards.

“Miss Knightly,” McGonagall said, appearing behind her at the table. The group all spun around to face her. “Can I have a private word with you?”

Cressida got up from her seat and followed McGonagall as she led her away. She looked over her shoulder before walking out the door and found James’ eyes trailing her.

Once they were in the quietness of the hallway, McGonagall stood in front of Cressida in her usual poised position.

“Am I in trouble?” Cressida asked instantly.

“No, no,” McGonagall corrected her. “We’ll leave your speech in the past for now. Hopefully, it will resonate with a few of the otherwise loose-jawed students around here…” Her face grew stern. Breakfast had finished and the halls flooded with students. She and McGonagall moved to a second, more private section of the hall. “I’m here to discuss the name you asked me to search for.” Cressida’s face lit up, looking to McGonagall hopefully. The old headmistress looked down. “I’m afraid there was no one on Hogwarts’ files under that name for the last fifty years. No letter was sent to them by my accounts, and if they did receive a letter it has been erased from the records.”

Her whole body deflated like a popped balloon. “But… but he was a wizard. He had to have-”

“Perhaps someone requested he not be brought into wizard life, they can do that if a caregiver decided to do so with proper reasoning,” McGonagall tried.

“No, he had no one. He was an orphan, who would have even decided that for him?” She asked desperately.

McGonagall put a comforting hand on her shoulder but it did nothing to stop her mind from crumbling back down into hopelessness. “Was there a reason you’re so invested in this one person? Was he a relative of you or your friends?”

Cressida's eyes stared at the nothingness in front of her, barely registering what McGonagall was asking. She clenched her jaw and met the professor’s eyes. “Will you excuse me, professor?” She asked already stepping around her, but paused briefly, remembering some semblance of her manners. “Thank you for trying.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t have been more help to you,” McGonagall said sympathetically, and then she let Cressida leave.

Cressida nearly ran through the halls on a mission for one thing and one thing only. It was time to face James. She couldn't go without seeing him or hearing his voice any longer.

Now that breakfast had finished he’d be on his way down to Herbology with the rest of her friends. She managed to catch up to them walking in a group just before they entered. James paused in the doorway, checking the time on his watch. Cressida lingered on the corner, slightly hidden out of sight.

Please see me,  she begged silently.  Don’t go in.

By some miracle, or special third sense only James had, he looked back over his shoulder and saw her there. He glanced at his friends disappearing into the class and took steps backwards towards her instead.

He met her on the corner and pulled them into a nearby alcove. “What did McGonagall say, did she threaten to suspend you for your speech or something?” He asked worriedly. “Because if she did I’ll fight her on it myself, you were only telling the truth-”

Cressida shook her head, searching for his hand to hold to stop hers from shaking, something solid to hold on to. “She couldn’t find him,” she said hurriedly. “He never got a letter. He literally  doesn’t fucking exist.  My mum was right.”

It took James a second to register what she was talking about. “How could he not have had a letter? They’re compulsory once you turn eleven.”

“She said someone could have requested he not be a wizard or some shit. I don’t know, I don’t understand how you people work half the time,” Cressida explained badly, pushing her hair out her face with her free hand.

 James pulled her in for a hug and she clung to him, glad he was just there. Glad he never held her being a bitch against her. He rested his chin on the top of her head, thinking for a moment. “So now we just have to find out who requested it.”

Cressida moved away but still held onto him, staring up at him through her tired grey eyes. “What?”

“Whoever requested that not only knew  him  but knew he was a wizard. Which would suggest they were a wizard themselves to be able to pull him out before he even got a letter. Maybe he wasn’t an orphan after all, maybe he had a relative and they’re still out there somewhere. They can lead us to him.”

Cressida shook her head hopelessly. “No, James, I’m done. I’m done chasing someone who’s impossible to find. I didn’t know him for fifteen years, maybe it was meant to stay that way.”

James held the sides of her head between his hands softly. “We’ll find him,” he said surely. “Don’t give up just yet. We’ve barely even started, we still have the whole ministry we can use to our advantage. Molly can convince Uncle Percy or I’ll go to Aunt Hermione myself-”

Cressida took a moment before she reluctantly nodded. She didn’t want to involve James’ whole family in this ghost hunt, it made her feel even more like a child, but she couldn’t shut down his optimistic attitude. She also knew she couldn't keep getting her hopes up for something that might never happen.

“I’m sorry… by the way,” she said using her jacket sleeve to wipe her nose. “For being mad at you.”

James shrugged like it was hardly an issue. “I deserved it, I shouldn’t have told-”

“No, seriously. Even when I’m pissed at you, you still find ways to help me. It’s not fair.”

James smiled down at her, that silly goofy smile that was only for her. “It’s what I do. Plus, I know you can never  really  stay mad at me. You like me too much.”

Cressida scoffed and turned away, but that was mainly to hide her blush and the fact it was partly true. Once again, he’d managed to make her smile despite the fact not even ten minutes ago she felt ready to start destroying anything that got in her path. 

She pushed her hair out of her face again, eyes to the floor. Despite the situation with her dad taking priority the last few days, she was acutely aware there was still an argument to be had. James still wanted to go public. She still had to have that discussion with him. “James,” she started abruptly, but when she looked up and met his green eyes again and he still had that goofy smile and his hand was still holding hers, the words shriveled in her throat again. “I just…” Tell him. Give him something. Take the risk.  “I just don’t ever want us to hate each other. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you around.”

Coward.

James looked confused by the admission but smiled wider regardless. “You’ll always have me, Knightly. Even if you  do  decide you hate me one day,” he tried to joke lightly.

Cressida forced out a laugh for his sake.  It’s deeper than that, James. Can't you see it too?

“Come on,” he said then, giving her hand a squeeze. “Neville’s only just forgiven me for what happened last lesson, he’ll be fuming if I show up late to this one too.”

He reached down and kissed her quickly on the cheek as the two of them stepped back into the halls and walked into Herbology together, hands now stiffly at their own sides as if it was unnatural for them to have separated from one another.

“Ah, James, I thought I’d seen you,” Neville said. He looked like he was already halfway through demonstrating how to safely extract Bubtuber pus. “Is everything alright with Miss Knightly?” He asked a tad awkwardly after her speech in the hall.

“She has a late note from McGonagall,” James excused her immediately. “You can ask her about it after, trust me.”

Cressida caught Avery Bell rolling her eyes and whispering something to Beatrix beside her.

Neville looked like he didn’t completely trust James, but once the two of them had taken their designated spots on opposite sides of the greenhouse and looked ready for him to continue, he didn’t push the issue. “Well, alright then, I suppose. As long as everyone’s okay… now, back to this beauty-” he beamed, holding up the specimen of a horrid plant.

Chapter 93: Fourth Year: A Bloody Good Game

Saturday 1st June 2019

 

Her friends knew about the news from McGonagall before the day was done. They’d all huddled around in the hexagonal room, James included, and decided on where to go from there. James’ idea had been well received, they all started listing their contacts they could get information from. Jac and Cressida sat slightly away on a pile of cushions, listening. Jac, much like Cressida, didn’t have any contacts. But unlike Cressida, Jac still held out hope for Cressida’s sake. It wasn’t long before Thomas and Fred were snuck into the secret room to join them and were brought up to speed on the whole affair. The group at large had deemed the dorm room too ‘exposed’ with this many people involved.

Cressida had no choice in the matter of people involved anymore, it seemed. It appeared as though now all was forgiven for James’ initial slip-up of letting the secret out, which meant he had permission to  actually  tell people about it. Cressida wasn’t thrilled. It still caused a queasy, doom-filled feeling in the pits of her stomach, but she refrained from having another outburst. She convinced herself that if some of her friends knew, they might as well  all  know- or at least that was how James phrased it and she couldn’t bring herself to argue with him on it.

And so, Fred and Thomas were now in the loop as well, both boys being as enthusiastic about finding her dad as James and Jac had been when they were first told.

Cressida hardly said two words the entire time. She wasn’t even the one to tell them about the letter from her mum or the talk with McGonagall. Jac had done most of it, James filled in what Jac didn’t and, occasionally Molly and Felix would pipe in with their own theories going forward. It didn’t even feel like they were talking about Cressida’s real life by the end of the week. It felt like another mission or game they’d come up with to pass the time. She knew they were only doing it to help her, but she still kind of hated having them all knowing, having them all waste their time, and getting more people involved when she’d practically given up. She couldn’t tell them that though. She didn’t want to seem ungrateful or like a bitch again. Plus, knowing her friends, they would  come up with a miracle and find her father, but she’d reserved herself to her likely fate of never knowing him.

Nevertheless, at least she knew today would be free from thinking about her father. No matter what was going on in their everyday lives, Quidditch matches took president where the boys were concerned, especially this match, being the last of the year. Thomas had practically been pulling his curly locks out about this match with the extra pressure from Lucas Aslow as it was his final game before he left Hogwarts as team captain. Fred and James had been practicing more than ever knowing they were against Ravenclaw and knew that their team usually had a smart trick up their sleeve, especially Declan if he could get away with it. They had to have their wits about them. Be on top form- no time for distractions.

Jac had complained relentlessly about it. “He’s just never got any free time anymore, and when he does he’s bloody studying!” She’d moaned late Thursday night as the group all huddled on the carpet in the middle of the dorm.

“This is important for them,” Molly had tried reasoning over the top of her homework. She was the only one still going. Everyone else had given up by that point and slumped down where they sat.

“I’m his girlfriend, I’m supposed to be important as well,” Jac muttered then, idly flipping through the textbooks still residing in front of her. “I think he might be avoiding me.”

Felix burst out laughing, sugar quill hanging from his mouth like a cigarette. “Jesus, are you paranoid or what?”

Cressida looked up from where she’d been smoothing Rasper’s fur. She could see it on Jac’s face. Something was bothering her, something different. “If it helps, none of the boys have been around unless it’s to study or talk about my stupid dad. They haven’t even pulled any pranks.”

“Tell me about it, it’s been so boring lately,” Felix huffed then. “Maybe  we  should-”

“No!” Molly shut him down instantly.

The conversation derailed quickly after that.

By the time the day of the match arrived, Jac’s paranoia hadn’t wavered but she kept insisting everything was fine when Cressida or Molly asked in the days leading up to it.

“Has anyone seen Fred this morning?” Jac asked sitting down at the breakfast table with the others. She looked stressed again.

"I thought that was where you went this morning?" Cressida asked.

"Couldn't find him," Jac huffed. "Rose said Thomas dragged them both off somewhere at dawn."

“Didn’t you see him after class yesterday though?” Molly asked, pouring her a cup of tea.

Jac shook her head and sipped on her tea.

“When  was  the last time you seen him?” Felix asked less than delicately.

“He’s just been busy with Quidditch,” Cressida jumped in to comfort her quickly. “After today, and once the first few exams are out the way, it’ll be back to normal. Just wait.”

If she was honest, even James had been seeing less of her because of it in the day, and if he did have enough energy left to sneak down to the dungeons for a late-night visit most of it was about her dad. She was starting to miss just hiding in cupboards and snogging his face off. It felt like they hadn’t done it for ages now. Not that she’d admit it, but a part of her was also waiting for everything to return to normal soon, but she also knew the end of the school year was sneaking up on them and Conwell was fast approaching. It filled her with dread every time the thought crept up on her.

“It’s like we’ve been telling you,” Molly continued then. “You know how important this match is to them all. I bet they’re out there having one of their stupid pep talks now as we speak-”

There was a low rumbling noise somewhere in the distance. Eyes turned toward the hall doors as they burst open and the source of the noise became abundantly clear.

The whole Gryffindor Quidditch team came into the hall already dressed for the game, their Quidditch robes flapping behind them like kings. Fred and James were at the forefront, Fred had Jac’s CD player on his shoulder and it’s clearly been tampered with magic to make it extra loud as the song ‘ Pump it up’  took over the hall. Thomas, despite the noise, had a pile of parchment in his hand as he scanned every inch of the notes with his eyes as if studying for an exam no one else was taking.

“Oh for Godric’s sake,” Molly muttered disapprovingly.

Felix, however, looked thrilled. “Now we’re bloody talking!”

James used his wand to create the illusion of a lion that started walking along the table and roaring mightily over the top of the song.

The Ravenclaws looked extremely pissed off about the whole show. Cressida had to admit that added an extra perk.

McGonagall let it continue for exactly five minutes before delicately getting her own wand out and exploding the prowling lion into a puff of butterflies and promptly turning the CD into doves.

“I think McGonagall broke my CD player,” Jac frowned.

“Thank you for reminding us all of the importance of the match about to take place today,” McGonagall said diplomatically to the hall. “I wish  both  teams the best of luck.”

The Ravenclaw Quidditch team looked like they doubted that statement.

Despite the premature celebrations being cut short, the Gryffindor team kept their high spirits up all the way to the start of the game.

Cressida arrived at the Gryffindor tent to do her interviews a couple of minutes early hoping to catch James and wish him good luck but when she arrived she soon realised any hope of getting a word out of anyone apart from Lucas Aslow was going to be impossible.

“There you are, Knightly, we’ve been waiting for you!” Aslow exclaimed, jumping down from the bench where he’d undoubtedly been giving his speech moments before.

Cressida had to admit, the energy in the room was ecstatic. Aslow had done a good job of pumping them all up. She had high hopes for the game ahead if their strategy went to plan. “You have about five minutes before we go on, it’s going to be a good day!” Aslow continued, walking past her towards the exit where it would be quieter for her to interview him. “Weasley, keep the vibe going while I step away! I’m going to explain  exactly  what we’re going to do to win this, step by step!”

Fred gained a manic grin stood beside James. “WHO’S THE BEST?” He yelled immediately.

“GRYFFINDOR!” They all chorused back.

James jumped up onto the bench, throwing his arms into the air. “HE SAID  WHO’S  THE BEST?!”

“ GRYFFINDOR !” They shouted back louder.

Thomas was too busy memorizing the blackboard full of strategies and plans they’d come up with to partake in the yelling.

Cressida turned as they all erupted into a large group huddle filled with cheers and immense amounts of testosterone, any chance of catching Potter alone was gone. She didn’t want to admit it, but hidden underneath her jacket was one of James’ Quidditch jerseys she’d stolen from his trunk, his number plastered proudly on her back. A sort of peace offering or branding to say  ‘Look, I’m trying. I’m yours deep down.’

Looked like she was going to have to wait to show him her little bit of extra support. She was well aware Jac and Fred weren’t the only ones struggling to return to normalcy. After all the trouble last week, the comfortableness between her and James didn’t seem as comfortable as it had once before it all. There was an odd stiffness to them when they were alone for more than a few minutes. Cressida silently thought James kept talking about her dad just so they didn’t have to talk about anything else that had been bubbling up between them. He also excused himself earlier than he would have before, claiming he had early Quidditch practice and she always let him go, pretending like she didn’t want him to stay. She knew there was an argument lingering deep down between the two of them. She could always feel when something was about to erupt like this. She’d always been able to sense an argument happening between Alice and Gareth days before it actually happened, she never thought that skill would apply to her and James. The weird thing was, both of them were being perfectly fine with the other, as though if they just ignored their problems for long enough they wouldn’t matter…. Cressida could only hope that was true.

By the time Aslow had run through his high hopes for the game and how he planned to smash it out of the park all within the five allocated minutes, he disappeared again for one last look at his team before going on. Cressida thought she’d never gotten through an interview so fast with so much material. 

Once she’d left Aslow and started heading up to the stands to watch the game, she ran into Arabella coming from the Ravenclaw tent. She didn’t seem to have an extensive amount of notes on her, but she was smiling. That wasn’t a good sign where Cressida was concerned.

“Have a good interview, Knightly?” Arabella asked as she got closer.

Cressida was skeptical. “Read my article like everyone else and find out.”

The other girl's eyes glinted in that horrible way that meant she knew something she shouldn’t, preventing Cressida from continuing on her way. She pulled her jacket up higher around her neck to prevent the collar of the jersey from being on show. “I must say, I admired your little speech the other week at breakfast. It’s a shame, really, that people can’t see the blatant truth.”

“I don’t have time for your bullshit this morning, Chauncey,” Cressida huffed, rolling her eyes and trying to push forward.

Arabella reached out and stopped her. “Your little friend… Jac. She did it with Weasley after all…. looks like she’s no longer as innocent as you’d like to make her out to be.” 

She could see on Cressida’s face that it’d thrown her slightly. “What-”

“Want to know how I know?” She went on mirthfully. “Margo found her crying about it. She said she would... oh, what were the words- never listened to them all?" She asked theatrically. "Makes you wonder who she'd been listening to, doesn't it?” Cressida stared back in confusion. Surely not. Surely Jac would have  said  something. “Oh, and speaking of Margo… have you noticed she seems to be pulling away from Vonce a bit? Poor boy can’t seem to get anywhere with her lately, don’t happen to know anything about that either, do you?”

Cressida’s staring turned to glaring. “Why don’t you just mind your own business?” She said, shoulder barding past her.

Cressida ran up the stands as the team walked onto the pitch to the sounds of cheers and shouts. She passed Scorpius still sat amongst Thane, Valentina, and Goyle. She passed Albus still looking mad about it a row in front of her friends. And finally, she came to a halt.

“Knightly?” Felix asked, noticing her expression through shoving jelly slugs in his mouth. “Christ, you look like you’ve seen a ghost! The Bloody Baron’s not wandering around here, is he? Miserable git always gives me the heebeejeebees.”

Cressida met Jac’s eyes. She had Fred’s jersey number drawn delicately on her cheek in eyeliner but her arms were folded as she stared over the stands to watch the field.  Jac would’ve said something.

Jac finally clocked onto Cressida’s staring. “What? Did I smudge my make-up?”

She hadn’t realized how hot it would be in the direct sunlight with her leather jacket done all the way up.

“AND THEY’RE OFF. GRYFFINDOR COMING OUT OF THE GATES HOT. IT’S GOING TO BE A GOOD GAME, FOLKS!”

 

*

 

The game had been going for twenty minutes by now. Gryffindor had scored twice, Ravenclaw once. People were cheering. Banners were waving in the air. Moves and maneuvers Cressida hadn’t seen done before were happening on the pitch, and yet, her one resounding thought was about Jac. About what Arabella said. About how she knew  something was off with her lately but she didn’t know what.

“Cressida! Are you even writing any of this down?!” Molly chided her as Cressida’s attention was on Jac once again instead of the game.

“What?” Cressida asked, breaking her attention.

“Aslow just performed a flawless Wollongong Shimmy,” Felix explained.

“Oh,” Cressida replied lazily. “Yeah, he mentioned doing something like that earlier.”

She went back to staring at Jac. Even watching the game she had a slight frown that wasn’t natural to her features. If what Arabella said  was true, it would explain her weird behavior. Why she and Fred weren’t ‘quite right’  still.

“OH, A SNEAKY BLOW FROM RAVENCLAW THERE!” Georgina announced over the game, followed by a small booing from the Gryffindor stands in retaliation.

But surely if Jac  had  done that, she would’ve told her, Cressida continued thinking. She wouldn’t have gone crying somewhere to be found by Margo. She was smarter than that. 

Jac caught Cressida’s staring with a narrowed brow. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

“ROSE GRANGER-WEASLEY ALMOST KNOCKED OFF HER BROOM THERE BY CHAUNCEY! THEY AREN’T GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT THIS TIME!”

Molly seized Cressida’s chin and forced her attention toward the pitch. “Would you pay attention?! We’ve started getting clobbered out there!”

Felix quirked an eyebrow. “ We ?” He questioned.

Molly folded her arms defensively. “Them.  They . The Gryffindors. Whatever, just watch,” she huffed.

Albus turned around from the row in front. “I wouldn’t worry about them losing. Rose said they’ve been training to the bone. There’s no way James would allow it.”

“Never mind your brother, I think Aslow would beat them all to death with his broom if they lost. Wood would have already drowned himself in the lake to save Aslow the trouble,” Felix joked. He offered down his packet of Bertie Bott’s and Albus happily took a handful and returned to watching the game.

Cressida continued staring at Jac trying to put two and two together unaware that Fred had retaliated to Declan going for Rose by aiming a Quaffle at his head while blocking them from scoring.

“Seriously, what is it?” Jac asked when everyone had leapt out of their seats to get a closer look at the rising tension on the pitch.

“Are you  sure  you and Freddie are okay?” She asked quietly.

Jac’s demeanor changed slightly. Her shoulders stiffened. “‘Course we are.”

Cressida really hoped that was true. “It’s just that Arabella said… well, she said you and Fred….”

It didn’t need to be said, apparently. Jac knew exactly what Cressida was referring to.

Her face fell, the smallest shake of her head. “How?” Was all she asked, barely louder than a squeak.  “ How the  fuck  did she know?”

“RAVENCLAW NECK AND NECK WITH GRYFFINDOR AFTER THAT SCORE!”

“Margo,” Cressida answered.

“What’s the she-devil done now?” Felix asked, tuning into the tail end of the conversation.

“She knows I-” she choked back a nervous gulp. “She knows something she shouldn’t about me and Freddie but I don’t know  how  she knows!” Jac said distressed, not pausing to think what she was saying out loud- what she was admitting to. 

Felix idly threw another sweet into his mouth. “What’d you do, jump his bones?” He laughed as if it was a joke. 

Jac’s face paled. Her eyes welling up. Felix suddenly realized it wasn’t a joke .  “I- I- it just happened. I didn’t go there with the intent to sleep with him at the time-!”

“You  what ?!” Molly asked, spinning around to face them.

“Shit…” Felix sank low in his seat, continuing to nervously shovel jelly beans in his mouth.

“This is not going to go down well with Aunt Angelina if she finds out,” Albus muttered looking over his shoulder at them.

“I cannot  believe  you’d be so stupid-!” Molly started furiously.

Cressida stood in front of Jac, glaring hard. “Not now, Molly. Your two pence doesn’t matter right now.”

Molly chewed the inside of her cheek but said no more on the issue.

“WEASLEY- FRED WEASLEY THAT IS- GIVEN A YELLOW CARD THERE FOR FOUL LANGUAGE ON THE PITCH AND UNSPORTSMANLIKE BEHAVIOUR. TOTALLY UNJUST IF YOU ASK ME. CHAUNCEY AND MCLAGGEN DESERVED TO BE CALLED THAT AFTER WHAT THEY JUST PULLED! RAVENCLAW ARE PLAYING DIRTY AND APPARENTLY, IT WAS A SMART MOVE!”

Molly took a deep breath to compose herself and faced Jac again. “Right, in that case. What do we do now?”

Everyone looked to Cressida. She shrugged in response, at a loss herself. “I went around pledging we did the opposite of this the other day. I’m out of speeches-”

“I could kill her!” Jac vowed, putting her head hopelessly in her hands. “How did she even know, that spying little rat-”

“POTTER ON THE SCENE NOW. AFTER A QUICK IN-AIR CHAT WITH ASLOW HE LOOKS DETERMINED TO BRING IT BACK FOR THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM! WOOD BETTER HOLD OFF FINDING THAT SNITCH UNTIL HE DOES IF THEY WANT TO PULL IT OFF!”

"Who did she tell? Did she tell  everyone ?!” Jac asked desperately.

“Obviously, Arabella knows-” Cressida started but Jac was up and out of her seat before she’d even finished.

Cressida, Molly, Felix and even Albus quickly followed after Jac as she thundered through the stands in search of Margo. What Jac, the mild-tempered girl who couldn’t hurt a fly would do, they didn’t know, but Cressida had some good ideas she could throw out at a moment's notice.

Unfortunately for everyone, they found Margo sitting beside Vonce, a row in front of Thane, Goyle, Valentina, and an innocent Scorpius. However, the younger boy looked visibly relieved to find Albus now standing in front of him.

“Someone looks mad,” Thane antagonized them over the top of his book when they came to a stop in their vicinity.

“GRYFFINDOR SCORE THANKS TO A HAWKSHEAD ATTACKING FORMATION LED BY POTTER!”

Margo, unaware the sudden arrival was for her, continued eating her sugar wand and giving them all a confused glare when she realized their presence.

Felix, Molly, and Cressida remained a step back, letting Jac set the tone on how they handled this. Albus crept silently around the side to be beside Scorpius. there was a faint whispering of him bringing Scorpius up to speed. Scorpius brought his hand up to his mouth with a silent gasp.

It took Jac a few seconds to build up the courage to start. “How did you know?” She stuttered out eventually, chest rising and falling.

“Know what?” Margo asked.

“About Fred.”

Margo gained her signature scowl. “Weasley?”

“Yes, Weasley. Fred Weasley. How did you know what we did?!” Jac snapped impatiently.

Jeremiah Vonce scoffed under his breath. “Told you they were all doing it and the speech was bullshit.”

“Don’t be such a virgin, Vonce,” Felix scowled at him.

“OOH AND RAVENCLAW BACK AT IT WITH ANOTHER SNEAKY SCORE DESPITE FRED WEASLEY’S BEST EFFORTS! MALCOLM HAVOVK MIGHT END UP BREAKING MORE THAN JUST HIS LEG THIS TMIE IF HE’S NOT MORE CAREFUL AROUND THOSE BLUDGENS FROM THE RAVENCLAW BEATERS!”

Margo turned her glare onto Cressida as if this was her fault. “I didn’t know,” she said, looking back to Jac. “If you ask me, you’ve all lost your damn minds.”

Thane’s book was replaced with a bucket full of popcorn with a wave of his wand and he was happily focusing on the group in front of him rather than whatever commotion was happening on the pitch. Scorpius was tugging on Albus’ sleeve, desperately searching for Albus to give him a way out but the younger Potter was suddenly too focused on watching Rose and his brother out on the pitch to take the hint.

Cressida stepped forward, adamant about not letting Margo worm her way out of this one. “Don’t act dumb, Smithers. Arabella told us you saw Jac crying about it.”

Margo shook her head. “I never-”

“Smithers, did you or did you not tell Chauncey about Jac and my stupid cousin?” Molly interrupted accusatorially.

Margo turned her eyes onto Molly with a small flicker of hurt in them. “No. I didn’t say anything to Arabella-” 

“How’re we supposed to believe you?!” Felix jumped in. “You’d take any chance to get back at us since we booted you.”

Margo got to her feet in an attempt to stand her ground but it didn’t help that she was barely an inch bigger than Cressida at this point. “I never told!”

“POTTER’S COMEBACK WAS SHORT-LIVED. RAVENCLAW UP TWO POINTS. ASLOW WON’T BE LEAVING WITH ONE FINAL VICTORY IF RAVENCLAW KEEP PLAYING THIS WAY!”

“Then why did Arabella tell me you did?” Cressida asked, more mild-tempered than she perhaps should have been if Margo was lying through her teeth as they suspected.

“I don’t know!” Margo insisted.

“Well, she found out from somewhere!” Jac pointed out angrily.

“Have you considered Weasley and his big mouth told?” Jeremiah pointed out stonily. “Maybe even Potter said it, you know how much he likes the sound of his own voice.”

Cressida turned her steely glare on him. 

“I wouldn’t go against precious Potter, mate,” Thane chimed in then unhelpfully. “They get a bit uptight about it when you do.”

Valentina rolled her eyes and walked away, tipping Thane’s bowl of popcorn off his lap as she did so. Scorpius remained deadly still, hoping this would all be over before he somehow got dragged into the conversation. Albus’ eyes snapped back to the conversation at the mention of his brother.

“Don’t you start, Nott!” Cressida snapped at him.

“It’s not starting if it’s basic fact,” Thane countered. “We all know Knightly wouldn’t stand for such defamation.”

“Bet you she lied about  that  too,” Vonce accused. “Probably been doing it just like Redwick and Weasley.” 

Margo gave a sideways glance to Cressida. 

“Knightly is not going to get with my brother. She’s way better than that!” Albus defended her.

“You won’t find me disagreeing with that,” Thane said, leaning back comfortably in his chair. Albus, despite being the one to say it, now looked enraged Thane had agreed with his statement and took offense on behalf of James. Cressida didn’t understand siblings at all and held the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming on.

“Knightly’s not shacking up with anyone for Godric’s sake, especially Potter,” Felix snapped on her behalf. “And even if she was, that wouldn’t mean Margo had to put out for your sake.”

Vonce turned sour-faced at Felix’s comment. Meanwhile, Margo and Cressida locked eyes. Both of them equally aware this could go one of two ways. Margo could give Cressida up there and then or she could keep quiet. She could tell them all about James. She could tell the truth, just like she’d told Arabella.

“A GOAL FROM GRYFFINDOR FINALLY BUT CHAUNCEY IS HOT ON POTTER’S TALE. WOOD BETTER FIND THAT SNICH FAST NOW IF THEY WANT A CHANCE AT A DRAW!”

“What on earth is going on over here?” Slughorn asked, clumsily making his way through the crowd of students to reach them. “You’re all causing quite a fuss and it’s frankly distracting people from the game.”

“Basically, everyone’s learning about the birds and the bees apart from Smithers and Vonce,” Thane answered smugly. Slughorn looked like he regretted coming over.

“For the last time, Cress is not sleeping with Potter!” Felix insisted again.

“That’s not what I heard, right, Smithers? Guess you and your little friend better check your facts,” Thane came back with like it was nothing, but Cressida suspected he knew exactly the weight of his words at that moment.

Albus nudged Scorpius and gestured for them to sneak off. Scorpius protested slightly. “It’s just got interesting, why are we leaving now?” He whispered. Albus grabbed his hand and ducked them away from the scene.

“WOOD HAS HIS EYES ON THE SNITCH. IF POTTER AND ROSE CAN KEEP CHAUNCEY AND THE RAVENCLAW BEATERS AT BAY, THEY MIGHT GET ONE LAST SCORE IN AND PULL THIS BACK FOR GRYFFINDOR!”

Margo gulped guiltily and turned to Cressida who was already glaring at her. Turned out Margo wasn’t going to out her and James to her friends, but everyone else instead.

Which meant Margo’d told.  Again. 

She hadn’t confronted her the first time, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to make that mistake again. God knows who else she’d told but Margo would never utter another word to anyone once Cressida was finished with her.

“Oh my,” Slughorn muttered sensing this was not going to end well any time soon, but he was unable to stop what happened next quick enough.

Cressida was on top of Margo before anyone could react, her wand to her throat as Margo thrashed trying to get her off.

“Why can you never keep your mouth shut, huh?!” Cressida yelled to be heard over another Ravenclaw scoring. Cressida hadn’t beaten Margo or even hurt her when she found out about the fact she’d blurted to Chauncey. She’d given her a chance to redeem herself. To make up for it by being better. But in actual fact, maybe Margo didn’t want to  be  better. Maybe she’d always intended to keep spilling Cressida’s secret while Cressida swore to keep hers.

“It wasn’t me!” Margo started crying.

“Bullshit! That’s bullshit! It’s  always  you!” Cressida spat. “You told Chauncey. You tell everyone everybody else’s business but your fucking own, and for what? A bit of attention?!”

“Miss Knightly!” Slughorn tried to intervene. Goyle and Molly were in the process of trying to pull Cressida off Margo. Felix and Jac were quite happy to let her continue throttling the other girl. Thane seemed indifferent to the whole affair no matter the outcome. “Miss Knightly, please control yourself! This is not acceptable behavior! I will have to issue a detention-!”

“WHAT’S THIS- POTTER’S FUMBLED THE QUAFFLE. HE APPEARS TO BE LOOKING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION- WHAT'S HE-! LOOKS LIKE THERE’S A FIGHT HAPPENING IN THE SLYTHERIN STANDS! IT’S DISTRACTED POTTER ENOUGH THAT RAVENCLAW ARE IN POSSESSION OF THE QUAFFLE ONE MORE!”

Cressida kept her stance, pinning Margo to the floor. She leaned in close enough that only Margo could hear. “I kept your fucking secret and this is how you repay me? This is how you repay  Jac?  She was always nice to you even when you  were  a bitch!”

“WEASLEY’S LEFT THE GOAL UNDEFENDED. HE APPEARS TO BE JOINING POTTER IN HOVERING NEAR THE SLYTHERIN STANDS WATCHING THE FIGHT. ASLOW’S THREATENING THEM WITH EVERY SPELL UNDER THE SUN BUT NOTHING SEEMS TO BE BUDGING THEM! ROSE GRANGER-WEASLEY HAS NOW TAKEN UP FRED’S POSITION IN GOAL BUT WITH HER SMALL SIZE AND LACK OF EXPERIENCE IT WON'T BE AS EFFECTIVE!”

Tears had started running down Margo’s cheeks, taking her eyeliner and mascara with them. “It wasn’t me!” She sobbed again.

Cressida raised her wand, tuning out any of the noise and commotion around her, and aimed it at Margo.  “Oscausi!”

Margo’s mouth disappeared as though it had never been there in the first place.

“WOOD IS IN PURSUIT OF THE SNITCH BUT AT THIS POINT GRYFFINDOR DON’T STAND A CHANCE UNLESS ASLOW HAS ONE LAST MIRACLE UP HIS JERSEY, BUT WITH POTTER  AND  WEASLEY SEEMINGLY IMMOBILISED IT APPEARS UNLIKELY!”

Cressida had got to her feet and glanced out past the stands for the first time. She saw James and Fred hovering meters away, watching silently, and in the distance past them, she was sure she could see Arabella smirking as if she’d planned it.

James flew barely an inch closer on his broom, a question clear on his face. ‘ What the hell happened?’

Cressida hoped he knew the look on her face was an apologetic one. She knew she’d be blamed for costing them the game.

“WOOD HAS THE SNITCH BUT IT’S A RAVENCLAW WIN AFTER ALL THAT. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNING TEAM. BETTER LUCK NEXT YEAR GRYFFINDOR.”

Unable to face any of them, she turned to Slughorn, who looked mortified she’d performed the spell so easily. Thane was raised slightly out of his seat, but his face was different to her friend’s around her. They all looked shocked or guilty. He looked slightly impressed.

McGonagall was now rushing through the stands with Longbottom at her side. Neville performed the undoing spell on Margo while Slughorn helped her up before McGonagall had even reached them.

“I’m ready for my punishment now,” Cressida said calmly as the headmistress came to a halt in front of her. She looked disappointed.

 

Tuesday 4th June 2019

 

She’d received a detention every Sunday night until the end of term. McGonagall said it was to cover  all of her behavioral lapses in judgement lately- the sneaking into her office, the speech, the late curfew marks from Valentina, and cursing a fellow student.

Cressida thought it was justified. Luckily, she knew some of them would be with Hagrid doing odd jobs around the forest. Those ones would be more manageable than the others. In fact, they didn’t even feel like detention.

Hagrid was a soft touch, everyone knew that, but he was especially soft if you were one of  ‘our lot’  as he called them. The Potters and the Weasleys. The family.

Cressida felt honored when he’d counted her in that category so easily as they drudged through the forest looking for unicorn dung.

“So you and this Margo girl… take it yer don’t get on?” Hagrid had asked.

“No,” Cressida had answered. “Never have, really.”

“Well, I say you’re not missin’ much from what I hear. Saw her folks a few times at parties and whatnot. Always looked like they had brooms shoved up their backsides,” Hagrid said which brought a smile to her face. She loved the way Hagrid talked about things. “What did she say to get you so riled up? She didn’t mention yer dad did she?”

Cressida took a deep breath in. She should have expected Hagrid to know. After all, she couldn’t expect James to go one lunch without bringing up his favorite topic lately to everyone he deemed fit to know. “James told you about my dad as well then, did he?”

“Only mentioned it a bit,” Hagrid said slowly, sensing Cressida suddenly tense up. “None of my business, really I know, but he though’ I might know people. Low life’s sort of thing. Dragon smugglers sometimes smuggled more than just dangerous creatures over the years.”

Cressida frowned. “He thinks my dad was  smuggled  now?”

Hagrid gave a hefty shrug of his large shoulders. “It was just a theory they had.”

“Yeah, they have a lot of those,” Cressida replied, her eyes on the floor.

“Well, it’s like I said to ‘em, if they want to know anything about that sort of thing… dark wizards and what they got up to and all that like, then it’s no use askin’ me. I wasn’t involved with the ins and outs of their operations. Who they should really be askin’ is the likes of Snape or a Malfoy if you can track one down, not that you’d get any sense out of them. Most of ‘em are dead or mad by now. If yer dad was somehow involved with that lot and got away… they’d be the ones to know about it. Probably have a list somewhere with his name you’re searching for on it.”

Cressida thought deeply. “Why would a Malfoy have a list with his name?”

“To go back and kill em later, I ‘spect. They did that thing back then, Lucius and Bellatrix and all, if one got away they didn’t get away for long-” he paused when he realised the horror on Cressida’s face. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that…” he muttered guiltily to himself. 

“You think-” she started quietly. “You think they went back and killed him? Found him after I was born in the middle of nowhere and just… just-”

Hagrid itched his unruly beard. “Definitely shouldn’t have said that,” he repeated to himself again. “Look, don’t listen to me, Cressida,” he said cheerily then in an attempt to comfort her. “It don’t mean that’s what happened… they just want to cover all bases.”

Cressida gulped, forcing the image out of her mind. Hagrid cleared his throat awkwardly. “Right en, I think it’s time we headed back for some tea, don’t you? That’s enough detention for one night!” He said then, changing course back to his hut for the remainder of her detention for the night.

Unfortunately, on top of her new detentions and exams taking over in a few days, she had little time to try and fix everything Margo was so intent on destroying for both her and Jac or to ponder on what Hagrid had said to her in the forest.

After the game Saturday, Cressida had been banished to spend the remainder of the day in McGonagall’s office, and all of Sunday Molly was so intent on not talking about what Jac had been getting up to with her cousin, or what Cressida had done to Margo, that she wouldn’t relent from piling exam prep and flash cards on them.

“The first exam for all of us is this Friday!” She would keep repeating as the day drew on and on. “We have to be ready! McGonagall’s exams are always the most tricky and if we fail Transfiguration we’ll never be able to take the N.E.W.T’s we want!”

“But can’t we have  one  break, Mol?” Felix begged, his eyes were red and droopy by this point. Plus, his quill-pen had malfunctioned and spilled black ink all over his hands. “Even prisoners of war get an hour to stretch their legs a day and we’ve been doing this since breakfast!”

Molly cast a sideways glance at Jac and Cressida sat on the sofa opposite her and Felix. Neither girl had contributed much to the study session. “Not until all of you can turn this beetle into a button,” Molly vowed.

“Hate to break it to you, Molly, but your beetle killed itself two hours ago,” Jac pointed out.

“I think the beetle had the right idea,” Cressida grumbled, picking at the skin around her nails.

Thankfully, Molly relented in the following days. Cressida suspected if she hadn’t, Felix would’ve formed a revolt against her.

However, despite, not having Molly breathing down their necks, none of them had addressed the obvious elephant in the room. Cressida had told James to stay away from her room for a few nights so she could talk to Jac, but every time Cressida crossed the room past midnight to try and get some explanation on what’d happened, Jac was sound asleep or was really good at pretending to be, and Cressida felt bad about waking her, especially if she clearly didn’t want to talk about it.

But if Jac wasn’t talking to Cressida about it, it appeared as though she wasn’t talking to Fred about it either. Every time the Slytherins had a run-in with the Gryffindor boys, there was a slight awkwardness between them. I, it was made worse by the fact everyone knew, too. It also didn’t help that Thomas wasn’t particularly in the best mood with any of them after what was pulled during the Quidditch match and he made it abundantly clear he blamed them all for their team losing.

Either way, she knew Jac had to talk to someone about it eventually but Cressida wasn’t going to force it out of her. In a selfish way, she was glad this was the new topic of the week instead of her non-existent dad.

Cressida, being fed up with debating whether or not it was worth just waking Jac up and forcing it out of her at this point, left the dorm room and sought out some solitude in the hexagonal room to think. If she was going to confront Jac about it, she had to be delicate- which wasn’t her strong suit. She had to think about what to say and how to say it. 

She’d only been there two minutes before James’ head popped up through the top of the spiral staircase.

“How’d you know I’d be here?” She asked.

“I knew you’d need time away sooner or later,” James admitted. “And luckily for you, I just so happened to be passing by when you did,” he smiled, dropping down into the pile of cushions next to her. That new-found unspoken tension started creeping back in. “We’ve hardly had a chance to see each other lately,” he said in an attempt to ignore it.

“That might have something to do with all the detentions,” Cressida quipped.

“What’s your punishment from McGonagall?” He asked.

“Banned from the Hogsmeade trip next week.”

“That’s shit,” James huffed. “Was hoping we could sneak away to Madam Puddifoot’s for a bit without the others noticing.”

Cressida scoffed. “You hate that place.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, but I was going to make it special. Cause all of her cupcakes to explode or dance the mambo on our way out or something to spice it up a bit. Leave our mark.”

Cressida laughed at the thought for a second. “Not like it matters anyway. We never would have got away with it. Someone would have seen us.”

“We would’ve if we were a real couple,” he said without thinking.

Cressida didn’t respond. She didn’t have it in her to talk about this again, to try and make James see what she clearly could. To bring the waiting argument to the surface before she wanted to face it.

When she produced no answer, James continued, looking down at his hands. “What was the fight with Smithers about?”

“Stupid stuff,” Cressida replied vaguely. She didn’t feel like telling him she’d done it because Margo had told someone about them, or that Jac and Fred were dealing with problems none of them knew how to deal with yet, or that Thane had gotten under her skin after the conversation in the common room.

“That was a pretty dark spell you used…” James said then, almost carefully. Calculated. Cressida met his green eyes. “Where did you learn it?”

She returned to staring at the wall ahead of them, following the cracks in the wall with her eyes. “I think I read about it in one of those newspapers from the restricted section… I just- it just came out of me before I could think to stop it.”

James nodded like he understood but Cressida knew he didn’t. “Did she deserve it?”

Cressida would liked to have said yes without a doubt, and although she knew Margo deserved  something , she wasn’t sure that was it.

“She was spreading rumors about Jac and Fred,” Cressida said instead, almost to justify it to herself out loud. It wasn’t a lie. She was defending Jac as well as defending herself. It wasn’t fair for Margo to tell anyone any of their business. It wasn’t hers to tell in the first place.

“She was telling people they… well, they...  you know ?”

Cressida’s eyes snapped to him. “You knew?”

“Of course. Freddie told me a day or two after it happened. Said it happened out of nowhere. I wasn’t expecting it mind, we were running Quidditch drills on the pitch and he just came out with it at six o’clock in the morning,” he said as though it was obvious. And then it dawned on him. “Wait, didn’t Jac tell you?”

“No.”

“Oh,” he said flatly. “I assume in girl terms, that means something bad?”

Cressida gave a vague sort of shrug. “I haven’t had a chance to get her on her own with all my detentions and exam prep taking up my free time.”

“Fred didn’t talk about it much. Just told us it happened and that was it, we went back to Quidditch. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact they actually did it,” James said. “I mean… I knew they would start doing stuff like that eventually, being in love with each other and all that, but still… I thought there’d be more time. It always seemed like such a grown-up thing to start doing.”

“Yeah,” Cressida agreed. “I know what you mean. I just don’t know how to talk to her about this.”

“Yeah, I only just managed to process it when Freddie was talking about it,” James admitted.

There was a lull in conversation then as they both thought to themselves.

Cressida looked at him again. “You don’t want to do it, do you?”

James immediately turned red in the face as he faced her. “Do  it ?” He squeaked.

“Talk to Jac,” Cressida elaborated. The redness in his face subsided a bit. “You have Fred’s point of view on it all. You have a  guy’s  point of view… I don’t know how to help her with this. I can’t fix it for her if it’s all gone wrong. It’s not like I know much about fixing relationships as it is.”

“I had noticed,” James tried to joke.

Cressida frowned. “Well, that’s exactly why you should do this and not me,” she said haughtily. “As you’re clearly the  expert. ”

James rolled his eyes. “I was only joking, Knightly,” he said. When she turned her grey eyes on him, he nudged her with his elbow lightheartedly. “If you want me to talk to Jac, I will,” he said. “But it’ll cost you,” he threatened with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Some of Cressida’s frostiness melted as she suppressed a smile. “Cost me what?”

“I’ll let you know,” James grinned.

“You can’t be-”

“I’m deadly serious,” James cut in knowingly, reaching over and pulling her over to lie in his lap with a laugh. “I do this and you owe me big time.”

“You’re seriously not going to tell me?” She asked, staring up at his beautiful face leaning over her own.

“Nope,” he smirked smugly, reaching down and pecking her on the tip of her nose. “You’ll have to wait and suffer but I can assure you it’ll be good.”

Somehow, Cressida didn’t find this as amusing as he did. With James, that could be  anything . 

“Fine, well when you  decide  what you want, let me know-” she said, attempting to sit up.

James had other ideas, however, and tugged her back down to the cushions with him, wrapping his arms around her waist and preventing her from going anywhere. “Not so fast!” He said. “Haven’t seen you for days and now you’re trying to run off on me!” 

With a tongue-in-cheek grin, she gave in, relaxing back onto his chest. This was the most contact they'd had with each other in days and she forgot how much she missed such a simple thing as having Potter's arms around her or how good he smelled when he was this close.

“Just think, Knightly,” he said then, resting his chin on her head. “In a few weeks, none of this will even matter. We’ll all be at the Burrow, soaking up the sun and everything will be perfect.”

Cressida’s smile suddenly faded. The reminder of the summer creeping up on them had turned her mood sour. She knew for a fact her summer wasn’t going to be as perfect as James made it sound. She had a hoard of different problems waiting for her in Conwell that she’d been putting off since January. Problems that would likely prevent her from even setting foot in the warmth and sunshine of the Burrow.

Her stomach turned queasy and she struggled out of James grasp and stood. James looked disappointed. “Um, just watch what you say around Jac when you get around to it. She can be sensitive… and be discreet.”

“Whatever you say, Knightly,” he agreed softly, not understanding what had made her get up.

Cressida lingered in front of him, debating saying anything further. Try to explain to him just how bad the situation back home was going to be for her. 

Deciding against it, she bid him goodbye with a quick kiss and then didn’t look back over her shoulder as she went down the spiral staircase and headed back to the dungeons.

However, when she walked back into the common room, she locked eyes with Valentina perched on a chair by the fireplace, awaiting her arrival.

“I had a late detention-” Cressida shot out quickly.

“Past midnight?” She pointed out. “Come on, Cressida, I know you can lie better than that.”

“Alright, fine,” Cressida relented, defeated. “Just give another late curfew note to Slughorn and he’ll chuck another detention on top of the twenty I already have.”

Valentina slowly got to her feet and came to a stop in front of her. Her heels made her three inches taller than necessary and Cressida had to crane her neck upwards.

“He’s still got a thing for you,” Valentina said unexpectedly.

Cressida scoffed and went to move around her. “Look, if you stayed up late to ridicule me about Potter-”

“I’m on about Nott,” Valentina cut her off. Cressida paused and looked back at her. “He won’t admit it. He’s too proud, especially since you rejected him in favour of the aforementioned golden boy.”

“What do you expect me to do about it?” She asked haughtily. 

Valentina sighed as if Cressida was being childish. “He didn’t tell anyone about you and Potter, alright? He just wanted you to know he knew so you’d… go to him for advice again or something. He wanted you to know Margo isn’t a friend. I know his logic was flawed and his execution was worse but I think he misses talking to you, and the only time you graced him with your company was when you were asking for his help. To make  Potter  like you, as if he hadn’t this whole time and you’d been too dumb to see it. I don’t know how you do it, honestly.”

“It’s not like I asked for any of it to happen,” Cressida argued.

Valentina quipped a doubtful eyebrow. “Well, either way, I thought you ought to know he’s not the bad guy you’ve made him out to be in your head. In fact, when that middle-class cretin Arabella Chauncey told him about you and Potter the first time, he told her if she ever uttered a word of it to anyone else he’d personally rip out her brother’s tongue. He’s had Goyle stalking them ever since to make sure she stays good on that.”

Cressida took a moment to take that in. “Arabella told him? Not Margo?”

“Smithers was there but Arabella did all the talking, as usual. If you haven’t noticed, Smithers doesn’t seem to resemble much more than a beaten dog these days. She’s hardly the mastermind trying to ruin your perfect little life around here but she’s playing a part in it whether she means to or not.” There was an awkward silence as both girls looked at each other, sizing the other up, silently wondering if this would ever be an alliance or a general disliking forever. “Anyway, that’s all I had to say about it. Don’t be late again or I will give another report to McGonagall,” Valentina said, cutting the thought short and turning away.

It was Cressida’s turn to stop her this time. “Aren’t you sleeping with him though?” She asked before thinking better of it. Valentina faced her again, her features giving nothing away. “I mean, you two look awfully cosy sometimes.”

“Given your speech about other people minding their business on who sleeps with whom, I’m surprised you’d ask such a question, Knightly,” Valentina quipped smartly. “Pot calling kettle black, and all that,” she smiled smugly as she disappeared down the hall, not towards the girls’ dorms but the boys.

Cressida tried not to dwell on it and returned to her own room, and when she entered, her eyes fell on the open bed curtains.

Jac was awake.

 

*

 

Cressida lingered in the doorway for a second. Jac met her eyes, tears streaming down from her own. With a confirming nod from her, Cressida crossed the room and clambered onto Jac’s bed in front of her.

Jac uttered the silencing spell as Cressida cleared away the tissues surrounding them.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Jac blubbered instantly.

“No need to be sorry,” Cressida comforted her. “We all keep secrets for a reason.”

Jac’s bottom lip quivered as she looked up at her best friend. “I think I made a mistake…”

“Sleeping with Fred?” Cressida asked.

“No. I don’t know… I don’t regret it. He was really sweet about it all-”

“Then what’s the problem?” Cressida asked.

“I just, I think I did it for the wrong reasons. I was mad everyone kept whispering about something that didn’t even happen and then Felix said to just do it… and I started thinking he was right… it was my idea and Fred triple checked I wanted to go through with it before it happened and afterwards, he made sure I was okay and it was lovely… and then, when I left him and I was on my own for the first time all I could think about was my mum, and how mad she’d be if she found out… and about the fact that whatever people were whispering about now wasn’t a made-up rumour anymore… and the fact that maybe I rushed into it and now Fred and I can’t go back to the before. We’re stuck in the after… and that after is… is forever. Neither of us get that back, you know?”

Cressida stared at her for a moment, taking it in. Thinking about what Jac had sacrificed for the boy she loved at only fifteen, and the fact she was right. She’d done it now. She could do it again, with different people but she couldn’t get that first experience back. That would always be linked to Fred even if those two should ever break up and become strangers. It was a scary thought.

“Well… it’s like you said, you and Fred love each other, whatever that means. Maybe it means figuring out how to get through this part together,” Cressida said carefully. 

Jac sniffed and brought her knees up to her chest. “I just- I just panicked now we started it, that’ll be it… I’d never been that vulnerable before. It felt weird, but in the moment it felt perfectly fine… it’s just a bit confusing, is all. To make sense of where to go from here… how to act.”

“Have you told Fred any of that?” She asked sympathetically.

Jac shook her head, blowing her nose into a clean tissue. “How can I? I don’t think boys freak out about this sort of thing. They don’t understand what it’s like. He’ll think I’m crazy!”

“You can’t keep awkwardly avoiding him forever.”

“He was avoiding me first!” Jac protested. Cressida gave her a moment to reconsider. “Alright, fine, he had Quidditch, I know that,” she sniffed, more coherently. “It probably didn’t help I acted a bit nuts and on edge every time after it… I just, I didn’t know what to say or how to act anymore. Whether he expected it again or hated it or thought I was no good.”

“Jac,” Cressida said slowly. “Fred wouldn’t have hated it.”

“But how do you know that?!” Jac asked desperately.

“Because he’s a boy!” She answered bluntly. “They’re supposed to just… like it, I think. That’s what Callie always says back home.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Also, I think Molly hates me now. She won’t look at me properly anymore since the match.”

“Well, it is her cousin-”

“Do you reckon the boys know?” Jac jumped in then anxiously. “Oh God, I’ll off myself from the nearest tower if they all know as well. I can only imagine the jokes James made about it.”

Cressida pressed her lips into a thin line, not wanting to tell Jac the truth. “Do you need more Taylor Swift songs?”

“No, I don’t think she can help me right now,” Jac sniveled again. “Can you just stay here with me?” She asked hopefully. “We haven’t slept top to tail in a while.”

Cressida agreed with a smile and shuffled her legs under the bottom of the duvet.

Both girls led there, the faint sniffs from Jac interrupting the silence every few seconds.

“You know… Felix left a stash of sweets from Honeydukes in my trunk so Molly couldn’t get to them,” Cressida offered. 

Jac sat upright and broke into a small smile herself. “Sweets might work.”

Chapter 94: Fourth Year: James' POV

Wednesday 5th June 2019

 

James awoke with his duvet threatening to suffocate him from moving around too much during the night. He lifted his head from lying on his stomach and blew his mop of hair out of his eyes and was met with Thomas staring at him at eye level, stone-faced. 

James had no immediate reaction. “Morning, Wood.”

“I hate you,” Thomas replied coldly.

James smiled sleepily. “Nah, you don’t.”

“You cost us the win of the year. My father and I are furious at you.”

Fred came out of the bathroom stark naked, shower steam trailing behind him. “Starting to sound oddly Malfoy with that sentence, Woodie.”

James quickly retrieved his camera from his bedside table and snapped a picture despite Fred’s best efforts to hide his manhood. “Brilliant! I’m sure Sikander is going to love that shot,” James laughed to himself.

Thomas turned from James and threw a blanket over to Fred as he came over to them. “Put some clothes on.”

Fred smirked, wrapping the blanket around his torso. “Don’t be a prude.”

James got up and stretched his arms above his head. “You going to talk to Redwick today?”

Fred slumped onto James’ bed. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore.”

“Well, you did the ultimate dirty with her-” Thomas huffed. “What did you expect to happen?”

Fred ripped the blanket from over him and threw it on Thomas’ head, which was met with a dramatic protest as the smaller boy fought it off him. “Before we go around judging me, let’s not forget you still haven’t found a girl whom you deem worthy enough to snog yet,” he teased.

James went about fixing his hair in the mirror. “Forget about Wood’s lack of women skills. I was talking to Knightly and she reckons it’ll all be okay if one of us just talks to Jac.”

“Ah, so if  Knightly  says that it  must  be true,” Fred embellished, finally pulling his uniform on.

“She is your girlfriend’s best friend, mate,” James countered. “I’d take all the help you can get. Godric knows what Molly’s already done to make the situation worse for you.”

“Wait, she reckons one of  us  should talk to her?” Thomas asked, pulling his tie on over his head and not bothering to tighten it. “What could we possibly say that would help?”

“That Freddie doesn’t hate her or isn’t going to break up with her or something,” James shrugged. “I’m not really sure, now you mention it… I’ve come to realise I don’t actually know  anything  about girls apart from the fact they’re batty, but I’m going to do it anyway.”

Fred coughed into his arm. “ Whipped.”

James threw his left shoe at Fred’s head which was skilfully avoided by the other boy. “I’m not whipped. I’m trying to save  your  relationship by helping Knightly!” He looked in his trunk, pulled out a crinkled school shirt, and then peered back in with a narrowed brow. “Hey, have either of you nicked my jersey? It’s missing from its spot.”

Neither boy admitted to taking his jersey and instead mocked the fact his jersey even had a “spot” then the three of them headed down for breakfast.

 

*

 

The first few hours of the day were filled with the usual. Greetings and jokes with their fellow Gryffindors from all years. Girls giggling themselves silly as they passed the boys in the hall. Questions on when the next prank would be, it appeared as though people were aggy for one with exams taking over their fun time. Aslow was still refusing to acknowledge the three of them in the hall or the common room after throwing the game.

James didn’t really care about that. Aslow was leaving in a few week's time never to be seen again anyway, but he had been a damn good captain while he was there. He only hoped whoever made captain next year (cough cough, himself) would be just as good and respected. Plus, he knew he wouldn’t have to deal with himself doing stupid shit during practice without notice, which made being captain ten times easier in his opinion.

“Have you and Jac broken up now then?” Penelope had asked Fred, appearing at their side as they left Defense Against The Dark Arts.

“No,” Fred answered. “We haven’t broken up to my knowledge, anyway.”

“Is that your official statement?” Penelope pressed, quill at the ready.

“Is this for the newspaper?” James asked, peering at her parchment. 

“Molly put a stop to writing about you guys all the time,” Penelope frowned. “But, that doesn’t mean I have to be out of the loop completely!”

“So, why are you writing it down?” Thomas asked.

“I have muggle friends back home that are very invested in your lives,” she answered.

Avery Bell sauntered up to them then, eyeing up James as she joined them. “How’s it going, James? Found a girl for yourself yet? If Weasley  is  back on the market, you’re going to finally have some competition again.”

James shoved his hands into his pockets and kept moving forward. “Good thing Weasley’s not back on the market then, isn’t it?”

“Wood is though,” Fred jumped in. “If either of you are interested.”

“I’m not a pig at the auction, you two!” Wood protested storming off ahead.

Penelope and Avery watched him go. “You know, I imagine Wood would be seen as a lot more desirable if he wasn’t traipsing along behind you two all the time,” Penelope mused then.

James and Fred both snapped their heads towards her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Penelope gave a sheepish shrug. “It’s just… well… he’s over-shone by you two all the time. If he was a Hufflepuff you wouldn’t  have  to auction him off like a pig.” James and Fred had no response to that, not realising they may have played a part in Thomas being overlooked by the girls around Hogwarts. James had always assumed the hoards of giggling and blushing schoolgirls were in response to them  all .

“Anyway, enough about Wood,” Avery cut in. “I came to ask if anyone had asked you to Hogsmeade this weekend, Potter?”

James turned to Avery and found her smiling sweetly at him with her hands behind her back, pushing her chest forward. Penelope had her quill to paper ready to write down his response in anticipation.

“Um… no thanks,” James replied averting his eyes. “I have plans.”

Avery’s smile fell quickly. “Fine, looks like I’ll have to go with that handsy Ravenclaw boy who keeps pestering me. Come on, Penny.”

And with that, the two girls linked arms and turned the corner. Fred turned his eyes to James as they made their way out onto the grounds. “What plans? You don’t have any plans.”

“You don’t know what plans I have,” James argued, tugging on his robes purposefully.

Fred rolled his eyes. “You’ve not come up with some boneheaded scheme to get time alone with Knightly, have you? You know she’ll never go for it.”

“She might!”

“James, you’re my cousin and I love you, but you’ve got to find a girl that isn’t Knightly eventually. She’s cold as ice when it comes to that stuff. I’ve had boys admit they’re too scared to ask her out because of the look she’ll give them.  A look  scares boys off, James.”

“Well, I’m not scared of a  look ,” James said. 

“That’s because you’re a blind idiot,” Fred countered. “I mean, seriously, does she even know you like her in that way?”

“I  don’t  like her in that way,” James said. He was lying of course. Fred knew he was lying. He felt like everyone knew  he  was lying. What always seemed to save them from being caught was the fact no one seemed to believe Knightly could like him back. He didn’t want to admit that always slightly irked him. If he was honest, he had been dying to tell Fred and Thomas the details about him and Knightly's little rendezvous ever since they started but she’d sworn him to secrecy… something he wasn’t very apt in when it came to his two best friends but he thought he was managing to pull it off to some extent so far. “We’re friends. Good friends.”

“Okay, uh-huh, you keep telling yourself that. The rest of us in the real world will carry on with our lives while you sit there in your delusional fantasy about a girl who’s never going to give in.”

“My fantasy is not delusional!” James protested as they joined the group of students waiting outside Hagrid’s hut.

They’d all shown up to their Care of Magical Creatures lesson to be greeted by Hagrid standing there waiting for them. There was no deadly animal or cage in sight and with Hagrid that was hardly a good sign of what was to come for that lesson.

“Gather round, gather round. That’s it, get in ‘ere,” Hagrid was coaxing them over.

James spotted Cressida and Jac in the crowd and forced Fred to come over with him. His eyes lingered on Knightly as she turned to watch them approaching. Holy Merlin, she looked beautiful, he thought. Especially with the sun shining down on her like some sort of angel in emerald. She had two tiny braids pulling her hair back out of her face that morning. He’d have to remember to compliment it later when they were alone.

“Alright, girls?” James greeted them cheerily, tearing his eyes away so he didn’t look like he was staring at her.

Both girls gave non-committal grumbles in reply. They both looked tired. For Cressida, this wasn’t out of the norm. He’d noticed the bags back under her eyes within the first week he hadn’t snuck down to keep her company. He’d been meaning to go back down there, but he knew Knightly wanted this thing with Jac and Fred resolved before that could happen. 

“So, Redwick, what are your thoughts on pumpkin juice?” James asked, turning to her. No better time than the present. He could get the conversation done in one afternoon, all problems solved and then be back in Knightly’s dorm before midnight.

Jac looked confused by his question. “Pumpkin juice?”

James gave an enthusiastic nod in return. “Yes, I thought maybe we could go get some-” he stopped mid-sentence when he realised Cressida was signaling for him to shut up out of Jac’s view, running a finger across her neck. “-I thought maybe we could… um… go get some for my birthday party this year. What do you reckon?” 

Fred shook his head and walked away from the three of them completely, muttering curses at James.

“I guess, pumpkin juice would be nice,” Jac answered, still confused.

“Great, it’s sorted then,” James conceded, facing Hagrid at the front. He could feel Knightly’s steely glare on him without even looking. Chancing a glance at her, he could see why some people would be scared of that glare. He just found it dazzling and slightly threatening. 

“Right ‘en, hope you’re all ready for today!” Hagrid said excitedly. “If all goes to plan it should be right up some of yours alley.”

“What’ve you got for us this time, Hagrid?” Fred asked. James nodded along with his question. Both boys always loved Hagrid’s lessons mainly because they never felt like lessons and their ‘idiotic bravery’ as McGonagall had called it often worked in their favour with Hagrid’s wacky creatures.

Hagrid clapped his hands and looked around for something, eventually he reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled-up piece of parchment. “Well, for starters, McGonagall says you have the full hour to complete the exam-”

“Exam?!” Beatrix Swinley screeched in surprise.

“Hagrid, you never said  today  would be our exam,” Cressida pointed out. Excellent observation, James thought.

“You never said any day for the exam, come to think of it,” Fred added on.

Hagrid scratched his wiry beard, deep in thought. “Didn’ I?” He asked. When they all confirmed, he had in fact, not told them about the date of their first exam. He pressed his lips together guiltily and stomped around in a circle for a bit. “Right en, guess that’s my bad.”

The class had now grown increasingly nervous the longer Hagrid kept quiet and stared off into space. “Well, there’s only one thing for it then, ain’t there? I’ll make it easier on you lot, I know you’re all smart deep down. I know you know your stuff,  really . And while we’re at it, let’s keep this little mishap quiet from Headmistress McGonagall, ay? She’ll have my bloody head fer not tellin’ yer otherwise,” he muttered quietly at the end.

“So what is our exam?” April asked nervously. She’d started chewing her hair in anticipation.

“Well, it was going to be labeling and diagramming a real-life unicorn. Getting up close and personal and all. Wrangled one out of the forest special for ye,” Hagrid said. The class quickly changed their tune from dread to excitement. Although Hagrid had shown them plenty of pictures of the allusive unicorn, he said finding one in real life was near impossible these days. Something to do with people poaching them for their horn's magical properties, or so James remembered him saying. Beatrix and April especially had been begging to see a real unicorn since Third Year. “But I guess since I messed up and all, our exam will be to examine the behaviours and natural instincts of the Bowtruckle. Much easier for you all, considering they’re only over there and it’s nearly feeding time.”

Jac smiled wide for the first time in over a week, whereas the rest of the class looked utterly disappointed. James didn’t much care what animal they were examining, he knew enough to get him by on all of them. Fred however, was a much more practical learner, and having not prepared for an exam about a creature he barely paid attention to, he did not look confident as he trudged after Hagird trying to recall any fact he could from all their lessons when he and James weren't messing around with their own agenda for the hour.

James turned to the two girls beside him as Hagrid started heading off with the group toward the Bowtruckle tree. “Good luck, girls.”

“Oh, I won’t need luck for this one,” Jac said confidently heading off after Hagrid. “I’m going to get an O in this for sure.”

James remained beside Knightly. He leaned a bit closer. “Take it the plan’s off then?”

Cressida gave an irritated roll of her eyes. “Jac doesn’t know you all know. Think she wants to keep it that way for now. It’s alright though, I have a different plan to get those two on the same page again.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that then?”

“The Molly method,” she answered ambiguously, following the rest of the class.

James kept in toe with her. “What does that mean, exactly?”

She glanced up at him with her piercing grey eyes. They gave nothing away, as usual, and she didn’t say anything further on the matter before the exam started.

 

*

 

The exam went swimmingly if James did say so himself. Fred thought differently. James could tell by the frown on his cousin’s face once Hagrid had called time on their allocated hour. He also knew better than to ask about it.

Instead, he turned to Jac and Cressida. Jac was strutting around with a confident air about her all of a sudden. If James was honest, he never really understood Jac much. She was lovely and she was funny and Fred raved about her all the time but he supposed he just couldn’t see what he could. Sure she was pretty too, but not as pretty as Cressida, and James secretly thought that she wasn’t as smart either- not where it counted. Jac never helped with pranks and some of his best pranks came from Knightly.

“Good exam, girls?” He asked perkily, shoving his hands in his pocket.

“Bloody brilliant,” Jac beamed, walking off ahead dragging Cressida alongside her. James couldn’t help but blush when Knightly looked back over her shoulder and smiled at him as she was swept away. The exam had clearly gone well for her too.

“James!” He jumped to find April and Beatrix beside him. Fred was still off sulking to the side. Neither of these girls looked pleased. “You have to complain to McGonagall about this surprise exam!” Beatrix demanded.

“It was totally unfair of him to spring this on us!” April agreed. “We need a do-over that we’re actually prepared for!”

“And preferably with the unicorns we were promised,” Beatrix added on, folding her arms.

“Right,” he nodded absently, sidestepping towards Fred for a quick escape. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said, with no intention of following through on it. He grabbed Fred, despite his pouting, and pulled him towards the castle to reconvene with Thomas for Transfiguration.

The final lesson of the day was Potions and, not that James would admit it, what with it being his dad’s least favourite subject when he was at school, but potions was his favourite class. He loved making something out of nothing, and even if it went wrong, he could use whatever concoction he came up with for a prank somewhere. Waste not want not and all that. Plus, it had the added benefit of forcing him to work with Knightly more often than not, especially when they were all currently sharing the book.

He took his assigned seat at the table, awaiting the group of Slytherins to enter. He discreetly shoved a wod of thistle onto Molly’s usual stool and gave a proud grin when she sat on it and promptly blamed Fred, whose mood had not improved since Care of Magical Creatures.

“What’s up your arse, anyway?” Cressida asked him as she sat beside James.

Fred gave a side glance to Jac collecting her cauldron from Slughorn and then returned to staring at the tabletop, picking at an unidentifiable goo with his fingernail. “Who says there’s anything wrong?”

“Your face,” Cressida shot back. Fred’s frown grew and he strode off the start collecting ingredients Slughorn had written on the blackboard.

Cressida looked to James expectantly. James leant towards her. “Redwick… and a bad exam.”

“How did he do bad at the exam with Groot running around all the time?”

“What the heck is a Groot?” James asked, incredibly confused.

“He knows Jac has a secret pet Bowtruckle, doesn’t he?” Cressida whispered back.

“You what?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed, nonchalantly reaching into James’ back pocket to get the book out for herself. “For almost a year now. How has he not noticed?”

James shrugged, struggling not to focus on how that simple move from her almost made him swoon. “Guess he doesn’t pay that much attention.”

“Hmm,” Cressida mused, flicking through to the necessary page. “Makes you wonder what they actually talk about sometimes.”

James frowned, looking towards Fred. She made a good point. What  did  Fred and Jac mainly talk about?

“Alright class, calm down, find your seats!” Slughorn babbled, strolling around as the last few people trickled in. “As you may know our exam is coming up very soon and I’m sure you’re all eager to know what it’s going to be on, but following Headmistress McGonagall’s rules, I can’t give anything away-”

“It’s going to be Antidotes,” James whispered to the table.

Molly looked abashed. “How could you possibly know that?”

“We saw Neville leaving this classroom with a rash on his face. Slughorn was checking which ones would be hardest to cure at our skill range,” Thomas elaborated. “Clearly, the one that causes the rash will come into effect next year.”

“Sometimes the older professors forget Neville is an actual teacher here now and not one of their old students,” Fred pointed out.

“Is there anything you lot don’t figure out?” Jac asked, impressed.

“Very rarely,” James boasted. He watched Jac turn to Fred out of habit to praise their antics but once she saw the expression on his face, she hastily turned away again. James locked eyes with Knightly. She gave a nod, confirming she saw it too, and the look on her face gave away she had a plan brewing. Unfortunately, Slughorn was demanding their attention for the lesson ahead. Their scheming would have to wait.

 

*

 

Annoyingly, once Potions was done with, Knightly was first out the door. He didn’t know where she was rushing off to. He’d silently hoped she’d drag him along with her and fill him in on her grand plan for fixing Jac and Fred. And if they happened to get a kiss in here and there while doing it, who was he to complain?

Still, his hope disappeared along with Knightly around the corner.

“What’re we going to do now?” Thomas asked as they all piled out of the dingy classroom.

“I’m going for a lap around the pitch,” Fred grumbled going off ahead with his hands in his pockets.

“What’s bitten him?” Felix asked, lingering around them. Somehow he was already munching on a Pumpkin Pasty. James was mildly impressed that boy always seemed to have a constant supply of fresh food and sweets. It meant he had a good rapport with the house elves… that or he was really good at stealing.

“It’s me,” Jac said suddenly, tears welling in her eyes, bringing James out of his own thoughts. “ I’m  what’s the matter with him!” With that, she ran off in the opposite direction to Fred. 

Molly looked up from her textbook with faint annoyance. “Oh, for Godric’s sake,” she muttered. “Can’t we all just put this relationship nonsense on hold until after exams?” She huffed, grabbing Felix against his will and going after Jac.

That left Thomas and James standing in the now abandoned corridor after the last lesson of the day. 

“I take it Knightly’s plan isn’t working?” Thomas said looking in both directions. 

“She hadn’t started it yet,” James defended her.

“Well, she wants to do something soon… or get you to. Looks like they’re getting worse by the second,” Thomas pointed out. “I’d better go join Fred, he seems like he needs to get something off his chest. He’s not good when he’s trying to bottle things up.”

“Fly at a distance,” James warned him. “He might try and batter you with a Quaffle if you say the wrong thing.”

After that, Thomas left as well, leaving just James. He huffed to himself, grabbed a jelly slug from inside his robe to snack on and headed up the stairs. It felt like a fine afternoon to visit Hagrid and avoid homework until later. If he was lucky maybe he could get Hagrid to give Fred a better score than he actually got.

 

*

 

After choking down two rock cakes, three large cups of tea and having a good long chat about how Fred wasn’t on his game today because of some ‘grave illness’ which causes fogginess of the brain and lack of interest in most things of a green nature (even James was amazed he’d managed to convince Hagrid of this) James left satisfied that Fred’s final result on the exam would be higher than it was before he went there. Not by much, but just enough that Fred wouldn’t sulk come the summer when results were delivered.

He checked his wristwatch and realised it was the perfect time for a leisurely stroll over to the green for their pre-arranged group revision. Although, he wasn’t sure he’d find anyone there after the affair earlier. Still, if he was lucky he’d finally bump into Knightly again and she’d have her plan ready to go then and there. He was itching for something interesting to happen that day. 

He approached the green outside and briefly passed Neville hastily moving in the direction of the greenhouses with bundles of parchment spilling out of his hands. He picked one up off the floor that the young professor had dropped and placed it back on the pile.

“Oh, cheers, James,” Neville said gratefully, his eyes barely peering over the top of everything he was carrying. “Just getting the notes ready for the exam at the end of the week. Hope you’re all ready for it… I’m hoping it’s a good one. Not too boring like last year.”

“I’m sure it’ll be great, Neville… you know, as far as exams go,” James replied comfortingly.

Neville nodded with a smile and bid him a rushed goodbye before carrying on. He dropped another parchment as he went but some First Year was eager to help him that time, so James continued on.

To his surprise, all his friends were sat around in a huddle taking in the sunlight and some pre-homework snacks before Molly ultimately bombarded them.

Looked like the initial drama was done with now as both Fred  and  Jac were present on the blanket. However, Molly and Thomas managed to convince them to get on for the sake of revision was beyond him. He’d come up with a good prank to take Fred’s mind off it soon enough, he thought. One last blowout before the summer. He just didn’t want to do it yet and screw up whatever Knightly was planning to get them on old terms again. Plus, if Molly found out he was devising a plan for a prank before exams were finished, she’d have his head or worse… tell his parents.

Best keep the pranks on the down-low, for the time being, he reasoned to himself.

“Don’t we all look like fine fellows,” James greeted them extravagantly on the green. James snapped a picture of them as he joined them on the grass.

“How many bloody photos do you need?” Fred asked, rolling his eyes. He was still in a mood clearly. 

“I’m doing a daily diary of my very interesting life as my project. I have to capture everything!” He explained, turning the camera around so he was in the frame as well, throwing up a cheesy grin and peace sign with his friends behind him.

“Would you stop that!?” Molly demanded of him. “We are trying to study!”

“Technically, this is for school,” James said cleverly, taking a second close-up of Molly looking annoyed. He had an album just of those kinds of photos by now. Molly looked annoyed a lot and James had started compiling them into an ‘annoyance scale’ for future generations to learn from.

Molly snatched the camera from him and hid it in her bag to prevent him from taking any more. James happily shook the Polaroids he’d already managed to get with a self-satisfied grin. “Hang on,” he said then, looking up from the photo. “Where’s Knightly?”

“Ten seconds!” Wood called out to Fred. “That’s a knut on you, Freddie.”

Fred begrudgingly rummaged around in his pocket and placed the required amount in Thomas’ hand.

“Sorry, I’m late, Mol!” Her voice came then as she was running up to them. “I got caught talking to the Fat Friar in the hall,” she huffed, plonking herself down indelicately on the grasses in between Jac and James. 

James discreetly swore at Thomas and Fred behind Knightly’s back for their bet beforehand.

“Right then,” Molly said primly. “Shall we get started?”

Molly went about dishing out who would be best explaining each subject while James shuffled a bit closer to Cressida.

“Any updates?” He whispered.

“I’m working on it,” she said. “Heard about the tears earlier. Have to tread lightly. Especially where you lot are concerned.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” James faked offence quietly. “We’re nothing if not helpful.”

Cressida glanced sideways at him, a smirk and a remark tugging at her lips. “I’ve been looking into certain spells… making people just say what they feel. Figured it’d be useful in this situation,” she explained instead.

James leaned back on his hands, making sure the others were still listening to Molly and not them. “Maybe if it works for those two, you could take a swig after we’ve finished,” he joked lightly. She turned her eyes on him. She was stone-faced. No emotion on her face. He’d said something wrong again. He was beginning to know that look well. He sat up straight again so he was closer to her already trying to back pedal. “I just meant-”

She turned to face Molly instead of him. “Felix and I have good notes on Charms for the group,” she said, completely ignoring his remark and engaging in the conversation as if she'd been listening intently the whole time. James recoiled away from her again, facing the group trying to hide his own annoyance at how his mouth often ran off before his brain could catch up.

 

*

 

Cressida had left as soon as Molly allowed her to, rushing off on her own with notes in her hands and deep thoughts in her head, as she often did. James sometimes wondered if her mind was ever not working on something. She always seemed to claim to be ‘fixing things’ James had noticed. Sometimes he wondered why she felt the need to, but he knew there was always a reason behind it. Sometimes, though, he just wished she’d just let her mind go quiet and let things figure themselves out. It’d be easier that way, but she wasn’t the type of person to just accept ‘easy’ he’d come to learn.

Either way, with Fred in a mood and Thomas seemingly there to run Quidditch drills with him for as long as he needed to take his mind off it, James found himself with nothing to do again. He was beginning to debate whether he needed new friends that weren’t his family or the Slytherins to hang out with but he wasn’t sure he wanted to open that can of worms.

Still, James was making his way through the secret passages with the cloak shoved in his bag searching for something to do. He could go and find Knightly and drag her into the secret room for some time alone- one, to discuss the Fred and Redwick situation- and two, because… well because he wanted to see her.

That would depend on her mood though, he second guessed as he broke out into the hall. He liked that Knightly was unpredictable a lot of the time but sometimes, especially when it came to him apologising or saying the wrong thing, it was more of a hindrance. Hopefully though, with a few jokes, she’d forgive him like every time before. She knew he never really meant when he said dumb shit anyway.

As James strode along, Rose came up beside him with Lana Longbottom trailing at her side as she often was. Considering they were from two different houses they seemed almost inseparable which made James slightly proud. He wouldn’t be surprised if Rose had somehow managed to convince McGonagall to put all Gryffindor lessons on the timetable with Hufflepuff just so there wasn’t a waking moment they were apart. He would have done the same if he, Fred and Thomas had been placed differently, after all.

“These are for you,” Rose said straight to the point handing him a wod of letters and rolled-up parchment. “Be careful with the letters from Cerys MacDonald and Serene Davies. I think they’re love potioned.”

“Will do,” James huffed, shoving the letters into his robe pocket to never be looked at again. He hated getting all these pointless letters from girls from years above and below him. In the beginning, he’d read a couple of them to boast to Freddie and Thomas more than anything else. They always claimed he was a hero and a   “brave soul” . James knew  he  didn’t save the wizarding world. That was all his dad. He just came from him. Still, he was glad to see his name held some respect with the ladies. It meant he was desirable, more and more as he got older it seemed, and that meant Knightly  must  see it too. And she didn’t even have to love potion him to get his undivided attention. She managed it naturally. 

“Is Knightly and her lot joining us for your birthday this year?” Rose asked once that ordeal was done with.

James gave a shrug. “Suppose so. Why do you ask?”

“Grandma Molly wants numbers and, well, with us all being in Hogwarts now, we all have friends we want to bring too. Lana is invited this year, obviously-”

“Nice of you to join,” he nodded at the quiet girl. She smiled in response. He’d known her since she was born, being Neville’s daughter and all, but they weren’t exactly… close.  In fact,  James could count on one hand the amount of interactions the two of them had had over the many years.

“- And I’m sure Albie will try and invite Scorpius,” Rose continued.

“Are you taking the piss?” James laughed. Rose did not laugh along with him in response. “Dad will never go for it. I’m surprised  you  hang out with him if I’m honest. He’s a Malfoy.”

“And Cressida is a Slytherin. Fred’s even dating a Slytherin and you didn’t bat an eye at that- something you swore when you started First Year would be the last thing  you’d  ever do, might I add. We all pick our friends in our  own  way. Can Albie and I invite friends or not?” 

James frowned. He hated when Rose flaunted the fact she had Hermione’s smarts and debating skills. “Fine, invite who you want but Grandma Molly will have to make a damn big cake at this rate.”

“Perfect, I’ll tell Grandma Molly to order in extra flour,” Rose smiled, leading the other girl away, who was already writing down a list of names on parchment as she went.

“Speaking of Knightly-” James started calling after her.

“She’s on her way to the library last I saw,” Rose called knowingly without looking back.

Perfect, James grinned to himself. Knightly couldn't yell at him in a library even if she was in a bad mood. Feeling good, he set off in search of her, hoping she was alone and not with Molly or Felix.

 

*

 

He was thrilled to see she was alone when he walked in. He was even preparing a joke in his head to brighten her mood as he went to approach her, but as he moved forward, something else caught his eye and he had the good sense not to move any further. Up ahead, Knightly placed an old book back on the towering shelves, and to her left, peering obviously around the corner in her direction was the distinctly large Slytherin boy James knew as Goyle failing to hide his face behind a book. 

James remained there, unseen by either of them, watching Goyle sceptically and untrusting. 

After a couple of minutes of Cressida doing nothing of interest as James saw it, Goyle, having never read a book that thick in his life, dumped it back on the shelf in a way that would make Madam Pince go into a coma and slinked out of sight. James, not caring he was standing in the middle of the library, pulled the cloak on over himself and shoulder barged into a confused Sixth Year Hufflepuff as he followed after Goyle. 

He went two aisles over where Thane Nott was sat with his feet up on the desk, a book not from the library but his  own personal  collection in his hands. Valentina Zabini was there too, seemingly doing homework in far more detail than James could ever imagine doing. They both stopped when Goyle appeared in front of them.

James edged closer. 

“She here?” Thane asked.

Goyle nodded.

“She got company this time?”

Goyle shook his head. This was  clearly  the answer Thane wanted. He removed his feet from the table as if to get up from his seat.

Valentina huffed. “This is a waste of time,” she muttered to herself. “I thought we’d gotten over committing ourselves to the lives of unimportant muggle-borns.”

“Hey!” James’ eyes snapped sideways. Scorpius Malfoy had joined them, a pile of books in his hands towering above his white-haired head. James frowned. Would his  own  brother pop up next? Would his brother surround himself with the likes of all these… these…  pure-bloods?  “Cressida’s my friend. She’s nice!” Scorpius continued putting the pile in front of Valentina.

At least his brother befriended the one of them with taste, James thought feelingly.

Valentina slid a book from the top of the pile and used her wand to flick through the dust-covered pages. “Don’t humour him. This whole Knightly fascination with the lot of you is beyond me.”

“Don’t start, Val,” Thane warned her, still on the edge of his seat. “I’m telling you, there’s something you’re not seeing in her.”

“Like fashion sense?” She jabbed. “That tatty jacket she traipses around in should’ve been in the bin years ago by the looks of it. And don’t get me started on her ridiculous shoes… I know she’s a muggle-born but she could at least have a sense of pride in herself if she’s going to be the high-esteemed Slytherin you’re making her out to be.”

“Albie told me she wears them for a reason-” Scorpius tried coming to her defence. ‘Something to do with her family… I think.”

“Considering you’re not even supposed to be talking to  Albie  anymore, I’d be careful what you repeat around us,” Valentina shot out then.

“Leave the boy alone, Val. It’s not like either of us are going to go running to his daddy because he’s still talking to a Potter,” Thane jumped in.

Valentina glared at the older boy. “That’s exactly what we’re supposed to be watching him for. To stop them fraternising, as his grandmother put it.”

Scorpius slumped his shoulders, his eyes on the floor. “You know… he’s  really  not like his dad. Or his brother , really .” James’  own  shoulders began to tense, awaiting the next words out of Malfoy’s mouth. Whether Albus being different to him and their father was meant as a good thing or a bad one. “Sometimes he says he doesn’t feel like he fits in with them at all,” Scorpius went on. James’ heart nearly sank through the floor. His  own  brother feeling that way struck a chord with him. “That’s why he liked having Knightly around so much… she makes him feel normal. Sticks up for him, sort of thing.”

“Told you,” Thane said smugly. “Knightly  is  one of us, like I said. Sticks up for her own.”

“If only she fancied her own, right, Nott?” Valentina mocked him harshly.

James set his glare on Thane. The older boy fidgeted in his seat at the comment. 

“Yeah well, that’s her  own  burden to bear,” he said stiffly. Thane’s eyes trailed to where Knightly was standing. She’d moved closer now to peer through the shelves of books, James realised in an instant. She was practically at the bottom of their aisle, if she turned around she’d see the group of Slytherins all sitting there talking about her. James wanted her to turn around. To put them all in their places in the way she did with everyone. Shut them down in their tracks. Prove she  wasn’t  one of them, after all.

James turned back to Thane. His eyes were still on Cressida. Valentina’s we’re set on him. Neither of them was giving away any emotion. James wondered how they did that so effortlessly… then he realised he sometimes wondered that about Knightly too. 

“You can’t change the way it is, Thane,” Valentina said quietly.

“Who said I’m trying to?” Thane asked, his demeanour cool and nonchalant again as he replaced his feet  back  on the table, no intention of going anywhere.

Both James and Thane went to turn to Cressida again, only to find she was gone.

James was quick to leave as well, wishing to hear no more of the Slytherin’s hushed conversations. He exited the library and found Knightly a few feet ahead of him, books shoved indelicately into her hobo bag swinging on her shoulder. He pulled the cloak off him and rushed after her, making it look natural as he came up beside her in the hall.

“Alright, Knightly,” he startled her. “Got some heavy reading there, don’t you?” He asked, nodding down to her bag.

“I thought I’d look into my truth spell idea,” she answered him.

“Oh, right… come up with anything good?” He asked, ruffling his hair.

“No, actually, but I’ve come up with something just as good. Can you get Fred to the fourth floor at five o’clock?” She asked eagerly, the spark in her grey eyes unmistakable. 

“‘Course,” James assured her, glad to see she wasn’t holding the earlier comment over him.

“Great, I have to go sort out the first part of the plan, you go make sure Fred’s in the mood to talk,” she said, hurrying forward again.

“Wait,” James called. “Can’t I come with you?”

She shook her head, a wide smile on her lips. He wanted to follow her more than ever now. “Can’t. You’ll give it away.” With that, she gave him a mystical look as she  basically  skipped around the corner. Whatever plan she had up her sleeve, it was  clearly  a doozie to make her  this  excited. 

James slumped against the wall and ruffled his hair again, watching her disappear with awe and admiration. How long he hung there silently admiring her in his  own  mind, he didn’t know, but soon enough he spotted a familiar face in the crowd up ahead that made his brain take a left turn. 

His younger brother.  Albie , as people had started calling him. James was never fond of that nickname but Cressida had come up with it, and he seemed to like it. But, to James, Albus had always just been… Albus. His grumpier, less fun, loner little brother. Although, he suspected Albus wasn’t always alone anymore now he was at Hogwarts. He had Scorpius. Who, by the looks, was his only friend, if he discounted Rose being related to them. And Cressida, of course, but James didn’t know if she counted either. I mean she was  his  friend first.

Still, he supposed if his brother had chosen Scorpius as an ally or a friend, there must have been a reason. Cressida had never spoken bad about the Malfoy kid- another thing that slightly irked him. He knew if she just  knew  the history behind the family she’d think the same as him… but still, he was Albus’ big brother no matter what. He’d always look out for him, even if Albus claimed to hate him some days. 

He could suck up having a Malfoy at his party just for one day. After all, like Rose pointed out, James himself was affiliated with Slytherins now- Slytherins with no ties to the wrong side of the  war-  but Slytherins nonetheless. Surely, he could get his dad to agree to the idea, for Albus’ sake.

Taking a deep breath, he approached his brother.

As soon as James was in front of him, Albus gave a questioning look. “Are you looking for Cressida?” He asked instantly.

“No, I came to talk to you , actually .”

Albus frowned. “Why?”

“It’s about my birthday.”

Albus tried to keep moving through the hall, conversation done. “Don’t worry, I’ll stay out of the way like every other year.”

James kept up with him. “No, I’m on about the guest list. You can invite…”  Just say it. Invite the Malfoy kid.  “Um, invite whoever you want, yeah? Someone to talk to or whatever… if you want.”  Close enough.

Albus set him with a thoughtful stare. “Will Cressida be there this year?”

That was not the response James had been expecting. “‘Course she will.”

Albus set off once again. “Then I already have someone to talk to. Problem solved.”

James stayed put, watching his brother disappear into the crowd.  How close was Knightly to all of these Slytherins, exactly?

Before he could think any deeper about it, his watch started beeping. 

It was half past four. Time to carry out Cressida’s plan.

 

*

 

To James’ annoyance, Fred had not been at the Quidditch pitch, and when he eventually flagged Thomas down, he claimed he hadn’t been since half three. That left James to go on a scavenger hunt he hadn’t anticipated, but despite that, he delivered his end of the deal as close to five o’clock as he reasonably could.

“You’re late,” Cressida whispered to him as he met her at the designated spot.

“Sorry, couldn’t track Fred down,” James excused himself. “Eventually found him down Hagrid’s.”

“Moping about Jac?” She asked.

“Naturally,” James nodded. However, he wasn’t sure how much help or advice  Hagrid  would have on the matter of girls. But still, Hagrid always cheered them all up.

“Why am I here, exactly?” Fred asked, peering around James to face her.

Cressida smiled. “Because we’re all friends.” 

Fred looked panicked. “You’re not here to kill me, are you? Did Jac send you to do something terrible?”

“As if I would,” Jac huffed, appearing from around the corner. There was an instant tension now both parties were facing each other. James pressed his lips into a thin line and looked to Cressida, hoping her plan was as good as she made it seem.

Amazingly, Cressida still looked completely in control  stood  between the two of them.

“Seriously, Cressie, why are we here?” Jac asked, glancing at Fred.

“Because I have something for the two of you,” Cressida said, reaching into her bag. “Brownie anyone?” She offered them.

Everyone immediately looked suspicious, even James. “Did you make them?” Jac asked slowly.

“I had Winky’s help to make them edible,” she admitted. 

“Okay, but… why?” Fred asked sceptically. 

Cressida shrugged, brownies still outstretched in her hands. “I just… I wanted to do something to help. Make this easier for the two of you. I read a book that said baked goods always help ease a situation.”

“That is what Grandma Molly says,” James offered helpfully.

Fred sighed. “Alright fine, I’ll have one if you went to all the trouble,” he said, taking one and shoving it in his mouth.

Jac quickly followed suit and took a small bite. “Thank you for trying, Cressie. It’s actually kind of sweet of you.”

James held off eating one just yet. Cressida’s smile had grown. That meant something had gone to plan.

“Oh, just one another thing…” she said as she watched the two of them go to grab a second helping. “There may be a hint of truth serum in them.”

There it was.

Fred spat  his  out indelicately. “You  really  are batshit sometimes, Knightly, do you know that?!” He cursed, scraping the brownie off his tongue.

Jac, however, looked disappointed at the fragment of brownie left in her hand. “I knew you’d never  bake. ”

“And now  that’s  out the way, you two are going to talk,” she told them firmly.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Fred argued. “You can’t just-”

Cressida took to shoving them backwards into the cupboard then while they were too busy focusing on the brownie and arguing with her to realise what else was happening. She pulled the door shut just as Fred clocked onto what she was doing.

“ This  was your plan?” James asked her.

“Don’t agree with it?” She asked, holding the door shut with the same proud smile.

James looked to the door in front of them containing their two friends. “I definitely wouldn’t have come up with it,” he said admirably, if not somewhat scared of her brain let loose on its own.

Cressida magically sealed the door despite the protesting coming from inside. “And you can’t come out until you two have made up!” She yelled through to them.

There was a pause.

“This is ridiculous,” they heard Fred huff.

“Just trust us,” Cressida replied. “Talking in the open  clearly  wasn’t doing you two any favours!”

It was silent again. Cressida gained another self-satisfied smile, feeling as though she’d won that argument.

“How the hell did you get truth serum within the hour?” James whispered amazed.

“There isn’t any truth serum, dipshit. Do you think I can work miracles?” She scoffed quietly. “It’s called a placebo.”

James thought back. “I think Aunt Hermione's used that word before…”

Cressida looked incredibly pleased with herself. "I got the idea from you. I've heard you three tell the story of how your Uncle Ron made the Quidditch team enough times to know it off by heart myself. While I was looking for the actual truth serum, I remembered the story and came up with this idea instead."

"Oh," James said, unaware just how many times he probably repeated stories to her for her to remember them to this extent. "Well, glad I could help... in a roundabout way." The two of them then lingered in the hall outside the door. “So… what now?” James asked.

Knightly pursed her lips in thought. “Well, we can’t leave them. What if they get out or something goes wrong and no one knows they’re in there?”

“In other words, we’re stuck here too?” 

Cressida gave a small wince. “In all fairness, I hadn’t thought this far ahead.”

“In that case-” James spread his arms out, offering her the floor in an overly dramatic way. “Sit with me, won’t you?”

She glanced sideways at him as she hid a smile behind a look of disdain he knew was a front, but she sat down nonetheless. James sat beside her, as close as he could get without raising suspicion if someone were to pass by them, grinning back at her unabashed.

He pulled out a pack of jelly slugs from his robes and dug around for a green one. Neither of them said anything as he bit the head clean off.

He began to go back to his thoughts from earlier in the day. Scorpius and Albus seeming to look up  to  her. Thane keeping tabs on her. As much as he’d always liked to believe Cressida was one of them, (and she was really, if it hadn’t been for the green robes) he was beginning to realise she wasn’t  just …  theirs.

It would appear as though everyone who knew her had a reason to love Knightly, not that she’d be able to see it herself. 

“So…” he said then, not only to distract his  own  thought but to break the silence. “You come here often?” He asked. Cressida scoffed out a laugh like she hadn’t been expecting it. Loving the sound of it, he continued, offering her a slug. “I hear the  fourth floor  broom cupboard is lovely this time of year.”

She took an orange slug and chewed on it, her smile still wide even as she turned to face forward. “You’re such a dork.”

James didn’t care. He thought being called a dork was worth it if it made Cressida Knightly smile. He often thought that making her smile was perhaps the best thing he could ever do. It didn’t happen often, but good Godric, when she smiled-  properly  smiled- he just about melted. He felt sorry for anyone who hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing it in real-time. The girl most people thought was hard and jaded and scary let her guard slip, even for just a second. He thought it was a wonderful thing to behold. He didn’t think he’d ever get tired of seeing it.

He went to reach into his pocket to pull out his camera, something he knew Knightly would hate, but her smiling was something he  needed  proof of. Except, in an annoying realisation, he remembered Molly still had his camera from earlier.

“What is it?” Cressida asked when he looked disappointed.

“Nothing,” he shook his head. “Just thought you’d make a lovely photo.”

Cressida rolled her eyes, turning away, but James spotted the tiny blush on her cheeks. “Don’t talk crap. I’m the least photogenic person in the world. That’s the reason my mum doesn’t have any baby pictures, I think.”

“Nah, you’re beautiful, what are you talking about?” James argued fiercely. “If anything, the camera would let you down on how much you… you…” he’d begun to fumble as she stared at him with those piercing grey eyes of hers.

“ Shine ?” She mocked. 

“Exactly!” James went on unabashed because it was true after all. She did  shine . Radiantly and beautifully and otherworldly. “Like my favourite star-”

“Satellite, you mean,” she pointed out. 

“Well, either way,” he went on, pulling out the photos he’d already taken that day only to find Knightly wasn’t in a single one. “I think you should let more people see you.”

Cressida had no response to that, it would seem. She’d turned away again, fiddling with the ends of her hair. James remembered then he wanted to compliment her hair in the braids, but as he opened his mouth to do so, she beat him to it. “Can I see them?” She asked, holding out her hand expectantly.

“Sure,” James said, passing the photos over. He watched as she flicked through them. There were probably about fifteen in total from that day. Most of them were of him and the boys dicking around, annoying Molly, or random bits of the castle James thought were interesting.

“They’re good,” she said and then she got to the last one he’d taken. Of them all on the green for the revision session. Felix led down with a lollipop hanging out his mouth. Fred wearing his sunglasses to hide his less-than-pleased expression. Thomas laughing at something Jac had said under her breath, Molly pulling pens from out of her hair, and of course, James’ stupid grinning face in the corner as he took it. Cressida seemed to linger on that one for a while. “Is this from today?” She asked, staring at it still. James gave a nod. “Can I have it?” She asked then, looking up at him. “I just… I think my mum would like to see it… the fact I have friends.”

“Take it,” he said without a second thought. “Tell her I’m the handsome one though, yeah?” 

“I’m not sure you’re her type but I’ll try,” she joked back. She returned to staring at it for a while and then carefully slipped into the inside pocket of her robe, saying nothing more about it.

James went back to watching her. She looked deep in thought. He always wondered what she thought about. He often debated whether it was worth interrupting her when she was like this… sometimes he knew those thoughts weren’t always good ones, but this one seemed to be, so he let her continue.

In the time James hadn’t said anything further, the silence had returned. No sign of life or voices from behind the cupboard door. It felt like it was just them alone in the hall.

Cressida glanced up and down the corridor to double check no one was coming and then, to James’ surprise, he felt a weight on his shoulder. She had rested her head against him. In broad daylight, her smile  still  on her lips, even though it was small. James didn’t dare move a muscle, she might change her mind at any moment and then it’d be over. There’d be space between them again and James revealed in the small moments like this, especially after missing so many nights down in the dorm with her lately. Their knees  touching  under the desks, their fingers  brushing  as they passed things back and forth.  Him  adjusting her arm for a wand technique in Charms.  Her   pulling  him closer to point out a passage in Astronomy under the watchful eye of Professor Sinistra. Every time it happened, no matter how subtle or insignificant, he was positive he could feel his skin spark at the contact. She just had that effect on him, it seemed. For far longer than he was willing to admit.

And then in a second, he realised a tiny snore had escaped her lips and Knightly had  actually  fallen asleep. He should have expected as much, the bags under her eyes were bad again and if he could offer her this moment of peace after everything she’d done trying to fix Jac and Fred, he’d sit there until she was ready to move again.

But then there were footsteps approaching from up the hall. James internally panicked wondering whether he should wake her or just accept that whoever was coming was likely to catch them like this. Before he could react, they were upon them and with a sigh of relief he realised it was Professor McGonagall. The old headmistress slowed down in her patrolling when she spotted them on the floor. She glanced at Knightly with a fond smile and then looked at James. “Ensure yourself and Miss Knightly are returned to your dorms before curfew,” she said quietly  so as to  not disturb her. “And, for the record, Mr Potter… I think you and Miss Knightly here could do a lot worse than each other.”

James blushed. “Thanks, professor.”

McGonagall turned and continued on her way. “Your mother seems to share my opinion too… last we spoke.”

“ My mother !?” James jumped forward just as McGonagall made a sneaky escape around the corner, and at that movement, Knightly was awake and rubbing her tired eyes.

“What’s the matter?” She asked with a yawn. She glanced around the abandoned hallway again. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” James said hastily, clambering to his feet. “It’s coming up to an hour, do you suppose they’ve made up?”

Cressida got to her feet with a stretch. “Only one way to find out, I suppose,” she shrugged. She provided her wand and unlocked the door before pulling it open.

A second later, before James had even had a chance to look in, she slammed it shut again, turning very red in the face. “They’ve made up,” she said, turning to him.

Jac pushed the door open and poked her head out, her lip gloss miraculously wiped off and her tie loosened. James quickly averted his eyes up the hall. “Sorry, Cress. We didn’t know you were still out here-”

“Don’t stay out here talking to me, get back in there!” Cressida said shoving her head back in the door and pulling it shut again.

James and Cressida remained frozen for a bit, assessing what to do next.

“We should probably go-” Cressida said breaking the silence.

“I agree,” James nodded heading off down the hall. “See you later tonight?”

  Cressida turned and hastily went in the opposite direction. “ Twelve o’clock  sharp!” She called back over her shoulder.

James headed straight for the tower, hoping to have a shower and get some homework done for Neville before going back to meet Knightly, but as he got off the Grand Staircase on the sixth floor, he suddenly felt a presence next to him. 

Glancing sideways he realised it was Goyle, and he wasn’t very good at pretending he wasn’t following him on purpose.

“Something I can help you with?” James sipped.

“Not exactly,” a different voice said. James faced forward again to see Thane himself was standing there now. He had  clearly  planned his meet-up based on how smoothly he had appeared in front of him. If it had been anyone else, James might have been impressed with his mysterious flare. “But I think it’s about time you and I had a chat, don’t you, Potter?”

 

*

 

Thane and Goyle had practically escorted James to a secondary location. The potting shed behind the greenhouses. James had never been there before and he couldn’t say he’d be thrilled to return any time soon, but the two older boys seemed right at home there in the dark corners and shadows.

James didn’t say a word the whole way there, and he even watched silently as Thane produced a cigarette and lit it up. The older boy puffed on it once. James hated cigarettes. Teddy went through a phase of smoking them not long ago. Victoire went on endless rants about how awful they were for his health. Grandma Molly refused to let him in the house if he had one lit. Fred had tried to steal one from Teddy last summer and when Aunt Angelina caught him in the act, Teddy swore he’d stop to set a better example. He hasn’t touched them again since, to James’ knowledge.

“They’re bad for you, you know?” He said finally. It wasn’t his proudest moment.

“Gee, thanks, mum I had no idea,” Thane replied coolly. He nodded his head towards Goyle lingering behind him, a clear dismissal.

James’ eyes followed him as the bigger boy plodded out of sight. He turned his eyes back on Thane who was leaning against the wall, assessing him. “I’m  clearly  here for a reason,” he spoke up, already having a sneaking suspicion of the  reason  for himself. “So what is it you want?”

Thane put out his cigarette with his foot. “What’s with the hostility, Potter?”

“Oh, maybe it’s the fact we can’t stand each other and yet you felt the need to kidnap me.”

Thane rolled his eyes. “I’d hardly call it a kidnapping if you didn’t come kicking and screaming.”

“Get on to the point, Nott,” James said impatiently.

“Alright, alright,” Thane embellished, holding his hands up in a fake surrender. “Don’t start throwing punches now.”

James' jaw clenched, averting his eyes. Not one of his proudest moments either. Thane seemed to bring them out of him… but based on what he heard in the library, James realised perhaps he was more reasonable than he first gave him credit for if he was willing to not rat Malfoy out for still talking to his brother. “Look, I still don’t like you but I’m sorry I hit you before… I shouldn’t have done it, no matter how much you pissed me off.”

Thane looked slightly taken aback. “Right… well, I didn’t drag you out here for an apology but I appreciate the sentiment.”

“What  did  you drag me out here for then?”

“Cressida…” he said lighting up a fresh cigarette.  There it was.  “Or Knightly as you so fondly refer to her,” he mocked, exhaling.

James' back went up, the reason why he punched him the first time becoming very clear again. “What about her?”

“I’m not here to tell you how to be with her, I’m not here to mess you two up despite what you’re probably thinking-”

James scoffed. “As if you could in the first place.”

Thane took another long drag, his eyes unmoving from James. “Believe it or not I’m trying to help you here, Potter.”

“Why?” James frowned.  You just want her to be one of you.

Thane gestured vaguely. “Fuck if I know, but I am.” James didn’t reply. Thane took another moment to gather his words and exhale more smoke. “Look, the basic fact of the matter is, words got out about you two to the wrong people. People who do nothing but prove Cressida’s fears about all of it. People who make her feel like she’ll never be good enough for you.”

“That’s bullshit-”

“That’s the truth of the matter,” Thane countered calmly. “That’s what you’re refusing to see, meanwhile that’s all she  can  see.” James didn’t say anything again. “Look, we both know who you are and who you come from and all that crap. Same as everyone knows who I am and who I come from. The same goes for every Malfoy or Weasley or Potter or Longbottom that’ll ever have to walk through these ancient shitty doors. Cressida doesn’t have that… but she doesn’t have anything else either. She doesn’t know who she is past being some small-town muggle-born who can’t afford her  own  robes, but everyone knows who you are.  What  you come from. How much money  you   have.  No matter what you do, that doesn’t change.”

“What’s your point?” James asked, lost.

“You can treat her like one of your lot all you want but it won’t change who she is deep down.”

“And how would  you  know who she is deep down?” James snapped defensively. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll keep doing exactly as I am and-”

“And what? Eventually, she’ll give in and you two will ride off into the sunset?” He interrupted knowingly. “I know two have the hots for each other but unless you open your fucking eyes, it’ll never be as simple as that.”

“So, what? I’m blind to everything around me, is that what you’re saying?” 

Thane set him with a firm stare. “She’ll never let you love her like you want to. Not yet anyway. She doesn’t know how to. She’s not used to it.”

James puffed out his chest. “Then I’ll love her enough that she’ll eventually get used to it.” 

After all, it’d be easy, James thought to himself. Loving Knightly was easy, that had been proven time and time again. Loving her was like breathing. If James was honest, he wasn’t sure how to stop. He wasn’t sure if he even could.

It was getting her to love him back that proved difficult but he knew she would… one day. He could feel it, if only things just stopped going wrong for long enough, she’d see it wasn’t so bad. He just had to keep going, keep making her smile. Keep being there for her and her brilliant mind. Like Ron had for Hermione. Like James had for Lily. And his mother had for his dad. It was what they did when they loved someone in  his  family. They waited because they knew it was right. And Cressida was right. He just knew it. He knew it since the first time she beat them at their own game, maybe before they even stepped off those boats in  First  Year. He just  knew it .

Thane sighed, pity suddenly on his gaunt features. “It doesn’t work like that for people like her, Potter. You can’t fix it by forcing sunshine and rainbows down her throat. Trust me, I know… you just… you just got to let her figure it out on her own and be there for her when she’s ready.”

“She is ready… nearly,” James assured him but he couldn’t stop the slight weaver that came with that comment. “She just- we just have to get through this last little thing and then it’ll all  be- ”

“Perfect?” Thane finished for him. “Are you really this dense, Potter?”

“Oi, watch it, Nott!” James strode forward defensively. “Knightly likes me. I know she does!”

Thane didn’t move an inch. “I know she does too… but I’m the one that also knows you sure as hell don’t have  one little thing  left to get through with her.”

James stared at him. “But I’ve done everything-”

“And I’m telling you it won’t make a difference if she’s not ready for it,” Thane told him bluntly. “You can’t break her down, you have to let her do it herself, and  you  pressuring her to just come out and tell everyone is making it harder for her.”

James shook his head. “But… but we’re supposed to be together. What’s the point if we can’t tell everyone and be happy together? It’ll prove everyone wrong-”

Thane rolled his eyes and pinched his nose as if he was getting a headache. “How are you not getting what I’m saying? Look, people like Cressida,  they  keep everyone at a distance. She’s been let down and hurt and abandoned so many times that’s all she knows how to do to stop herself  getting  hurt again. She may have let you look in the doorway but you’re not in the sodding house yet. You’ve still got a while to go, my friend. She’s waiting for that moment you hurt her like everyone else has so she can slam that door in your face and convince herself it didn’t matter anyway. It’s called self-preservation.”

“How do you know that?” 

“Because it’s what I’d do,” Thane replied. “Pain recognises pain and you’ve never felt true pain a day in your life, Potter.”

“So, you’re saying no matter what I do, it’s  basically  pointless?” James asked slowly. “That she’s just waiting for me to screw up and then pretend we never happened? That’s why she won’t tell anyone?”

Thane got out a third cigarette. “I’m just saying that she’s giving you everything she’s got and you’re still expecting more. You’ve got to be patient with her. Don’t expect too much too fast because I think she might just like you enough to convince herself she can handle it.”

“How do you know she can’t?” James asked hopefully… desperately.

Thane exhaled. “Just for once look at life through her eyes, Potter. Look at what you’re asking of her. Look at  what  she comes from.”

James’ eyes fell to the floor. He didn’t like one word of what Thane had said, but although he hated to admit it, he knew there was some truth behind it. Something he hadn’t wanted to see for himself since the beginning.

When he looked it again, Thane was gone and there was a sudden chill in the air around him.

Chapter 95: Fourth year: Who To Believe

Friday 7th June 2019

 

James never came to the dorm at midnight to see her. She’d waited up for him that night and the night after hoping to see his disembodied head pop up... but it never did.

She couldn’t figure out why though. They’d been having fun getting Fred and Jac back together. They’d been laughing and for the first time in a while, it felt like they didn’t have any other impending problems about to crush them. There had been no mention of her dad, no threat of being caught, no exam talk.

It had been perfect. So why did he decide not to come?

At around half two in the morning, when it became apparent he wasn’t going to show, she even snuck up to him. Mainly to chew him out for not coming, but when she entered the tower, she quickly realised he wasn’t there either.

Facing defeat, she trudged back down to her dorm room and waited until sunrise without even a wink of sleep, which wasn’t ideal with the events of today coming up. Two exams one after the other would certainly kill her off even with a full night's rest. And still, her main resounding thought was of where James could have possibly been. She knew there wasn’t a prank on. James always let her know when he was planning something, and the other two boys had been fast asleep in their beds when she’d gone up. It just didn’t make sense.

Knowing she had limited time that day to get it out of the way, as soon as breakfast was done, Cressida caught up with him in the hall.

“Have something better to do last night, did you?” She asked bluntly coming up beside him. Thankfully, he’d been alone.

James looked surprised by her sudden appearance. “What? Oh… yeah, sorry. Something came up.”

“Like what?” She asked.

James’ eyes followed the crowd moving past them as they waited for their friends to catch up with them. His eyes locked onto the group of older Slytherins coming out of the Grand Hall. Cressida followed his eye-line but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Thane had his head in a book. Valentina was barking orders at Scorpius who was carrying a mound of books at her request, and Goyle silently skulked along behind them like a bodyguard.

“Just exam stress,” James said then, looking back to her.

Cressida’s brow furrowed. “It’s not like you to stress about exams?”

“Haven’t had much time to study,” he dismissed her. That was a lie. Molly had made them relentlessly study. Her frown grew. James noticed and he offered her a smile. “Look, I’ll make it up to you. A kitchen raid later? Maybe a picnic by the lake behind the big tree, just the two of us?”

Cressida spotted their friends exiting the hall. “If you can fit me in, sure,” she tried to joke. James didn’t seem to pick up on it.

“Who’s ready to have their asses handed to them?” Felix greeted as the groups joined together.

Cressida was glad to see Jac and Fred hand in hand once again. Balance had been restored. It gave her hope.

“Just remember, McGonagall wouldn’t give us something we’re not ready for,” Molly tried to encourage them as they all headed off.

“Yes, she would,” Thomas countered dismally. “She thinks we have great potential . She wrote to our parents about it.”

“She also thinks we’re a bunch of backwards thinking, unfocused miscreants,” Fred chimed in then, although with a smile . “I read the letter she said that in myself. Teddy sent me a copy with a note saying how proud he was we were upholding the legacy.”

“Well, whatever the exams going to be, we’ll be ready for it,” Molly said firmly. “If not, I’ve wasted the last two months teaching you lot for nothing.”

And with that, they all entered the exam room with one last wish of good luck to one another.

 

*

 

Cressida had been right. Two exams in one day had just about killed them all off. Jac had nearly chewed off the ends of her hair from stress by the time the second exam was done with . Molly had gone temporarily mute and gained a persistent twitch in her left eye. Not that anyone would blame her. McGonagall’s exam had been particularly pain-in-the-ass difficult this year and everyone came out of it close to tears or swearing profanities about failing when the time for results came in the summer. Then, to make matters worse, they walked into their Astronomy exam. None of them had been confident in passing that one even before entering the room.

Cressida herself had gone through nearly a whole pack of gum simply because she kept nervously swallowing it whenever she didn’t know a question or a teacher walked by assessing her work silently over her shoulder. Felix, annoyingly, was the only one that seemed fine. All the girls had begun to hate him for that.

Even the trio of boys hadn’t come out of either exam looking hopeful or boasting. That really wasn’t a good sign. It appeared as though Hogwarts was finally putting them in their places in terms of brainpower . Separating the cats from the pigeons in regards to who would go on to study N.E.W.T.S and which ones would barely pass and go onto some low-level ministry job, as Molly put it.

Cressida was ashamed to admit she’d grouped herself in with the latter, and even that was at a push. She’d be lucky if she got a wizarding job at the end of Hogwarts at all . Still, she had three more years before that tumble of bricks descended on her, she couldn’t stress about that now.

Despite the pressure of their futures looming upon them with every passing day and hard exam, the day was done and Cressida was looking forward to relaxing with James in the sun, just the two of them.

She went to the designated spot under the tree facing the lake and waited for him. He was already five minutes late. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Maybe he was going to stand her up again. Maybe she’d done something to annoy him and hadn’t even realised it this time. Either way, she could tell something was off about him.

But when he arrived at the lake with a smile just for her and his pockets overloading with sweets and pastries, she convinced herself she had imagined it.

James plonked himself down and opened a bottle of pumpkin juice fresh from the kitchen. “Don’t suppose you brought me any of that?” She asked, already helping herself to a chocolate wand.

“I brought you something better,” he smiled reaching into his robes. He pulled out a small glass jar and unscrewed the top before passing it to her.

She took a cautious whiff before indulging herself. “Coffee!”

“Specially made by Winky herself,” James said. “Figured you could use it after the exams and, well… I assumed you hadn’t slept.”

“You’d have assumed right,” she said, taking a big sip gratefully. “Not your fault though. Can’t expect you to be there every night.”

“I still should’ve come,” James said, staring out at the lake in front of them. The water was still. Not a sign of life brimming underneath in the depths. It was peaceful.

“Jac and Fred seem to be getting on again,” Cressida said cheerfully . “A good thing , really . I’d hate for the last few weeks of the year to be about fixing them.”

James hummed thoughtfully. “At least now we can go back to figuring out more about your dad.”

Cressida frowned. “Maybe we can just focus on enjoying what’s left before summer,” she said instead . “Especially, once exams are done.”

James frowned then, matching hers. “I thought you wanted to find your dad?”

“I do,” Cressida assured him. And she did. But how could she explain now that everyone knew… it felt a bit too real. A bit too close to her heart. She couldn’t admit to him she was more optimistic about her dad when it was just him and Jac who knew. She’d make him feel guilty about telling everyone all over again, and she didn’t want to ruin these last precious weeks. Not when she knew what she was going back to in Conwell . A whole summer of sleepless nights without him. “I don’t know, just not optimistic it’ll be good news in the end, I guess,” she said finally, leaning back on her hands. She’d suddenly lost her appetite.

“Well… good news or not, at least you’ll finally know… right?”

“Yeah,” Cressida said. He really doesn’t get it.  “I guess you’re right.”

There was a lull between them then. Cressida took to staring at the lake, imagining the squid swimming around down there. One day she’d hoped to take James out into the common room to watch it through the window. She’d hide him under the cloak, of course, but she’d always thought he’d enjoy seeing it like she had.

James’ attention had gone elsewhere in that time. He suddenly jutted his chin out , bringing Cressida out of her pleasant thought. “Nott’s watching you again.”

Cressida glanced back and found Thane was sitting on the green up ahead, his nose in a book. Goyle sat beside him staring blankly at a potions book as if none of the words made a lick of sense to him.

“He just happens to be there, Potter,” Cressida said, turning back around.

“Trust me,” James said, still glaring in that direction. “He’s there for a reason.”

Cressida tugged on his tie discreetly to get his attention on her. “James, you’re being paranoid.”

He finally met her eyes. He still didn’t look convinced but he forced a smile nonetheless. It didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’re right,” he said. “We should get going,” he said then. “ I think Fred said something about exploding snap in the hexagonal room with your lot. Jac’s idea or something.”

With that, James started gathering their picnic back into his robes and got to his feet. Cressida watched him with a narrowed brow. He’d barely eaten a thing.

Feeling as though their picnic in the sun had been cut short, she reluctantly got to her feet and followed behind James back toward the castle.

 

*

 

Jac had indeed commandeered everyone into their secret room for some games of exploding snap and music to unwind from the awful day of exams, and for the first hour it was fun , but Cressida couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong with Potter and playing a fourth round of snap wouldn’t solve that.

She left her friends to their fun and excused herself, claiming she was going to go catch up on sleep- not a far-fetched lie- and trudged her way back down into the dungeons to scour her brain on what could’ve sent Potter into such an odd mood since yesterday.

She situated herself on her favourite sofa by the window showing the lake surrounding them and silently pondered. Her eyes scanned the common room as she thought.

She debated just asking him if something was wrong but she knew James well enough that she knew he’d just blame it on exams or try and brush it off. That’s what he’d been doing all day anyway.

Her eyes fell on the bookcase opposite her in the common room and her thoughts switched to that as a distraction . A second mini library just for the Slytherins. What the Slytherins would need to read about that the rest of the castle didn’t was beyond her. Probably just a bunch of centuries-long history on every Slytherin known to man…

And then it occurred to her that a solution that James couldn’t come up with had been staring at her in the face. There were books dating back decades in Slytherin heritage in her very own common room. If James seemed to think her dad was somehow linked to them, maybe there’d be some semblance of a clue in these very books lining the walls. If she did find a clue here though, she’d never be able to tell James that.  She could only imagine how much he’d flip out if anything alluded to the fact her dad had been involved with Slytherins from the past unless it was opposing them. She didn’t really believe she’d find anything here… what odds would that be? But still, it gave her something to do to kill time and take her mind off James for a bit.

She got to her feet and started scanning her way through the shelves lining the common room. Her eyes found nothing of note. A lot of it was old spell books, natural remedies and anti-curse cures and potions. Most of it wasn’t even in English from what she could see, although she was surprised to see one with a Welsh-sounding title, but the fact it had a massive badger on the front gave away it’d snuck its way in from the Hufflepuff’s library.

She turned the corner, still scanning, and momentarily looked away from the mass of books to find Thane leaning against the archway with his arms folded over his chest. She paused, assessing him. He had a book poking out of his side pocket, but the simple fact it was put away meant he was waiting to talk.

Cressida rolled her eyes, turning away to not give him the satisfaction of her full attention. “Stalking me now, are you?” She jabbed replacing a book on the shelf.

Thane shrugged. “I’ve been around.”

“So I’ve heard…” Cressida muttered, thinking back to Potter’s odd reaction about Thane earlier. She turned to face him then and found he was intently watching her. Perhaps this conversation had been a long time coming. “Valentina told me you stopped Arabella from talking shit. I’d been meaning to thank you for that.”

A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. “What stopped you?”

Cressida didn’t answer. She turned back to scanning the bookshelf in front of her. Thane pushed himself up off the wall and came to stand next to her, perusing the dusty books for himself. “I spoke to your boyfriend.”

She turned on him. “You what?”

That would explain it.

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist. We just had a friendly chat-”

“Oh yeah?” Cressida asked skeptically. “And how did that go exactly?”

“Rather well,” he answered cheerily. “He even refrained from punching me this time.”

Cressida glowered at him. “What did you two talk about?”

“You,” he answered, leaning back on the shelves.

“Is your life really that boring that I’ve become your favourite topic?” She shot out at him.

Thane shrugged, even grinning at the comment. She rolled her eyes and returned to scanning the books. “Do you love him?” He asked suddenly.

“Have you ever considered asking me a normal question?” She quipped, deflecting the question completely. “For instance, hi, how was your day-”

“Okay,” Thane obliged. “Hi, how was your day… did it involve Potter and his puppy dog stare by any chance?”

She set her eyes on him. “Grow up, Nott.”

“I’m content with all the growing I’ve done recently, thank you. In fact, this whole affair is my attempt at being… better… or whatever you chose to call it.”

She faced him fully, brow narrowed in scepticism. “How exactly is this you being better?”

“You might not see it, but trust me, it’s getting there. Val is complaining relentlessly about it.”

Cressida scoffed and went to walk away.

"I only ask because he does. Love you, I mean,” Thane called after her. She stopped in her tracks. “Or his version of love, whatever that is.”

Against her better judgment, she turned back toward him. “Potter doesn’t actually love me. He’s not that stupid.”

“Love makes people stupid,” Thane countered with a shrug. “Just ask your friend. Didn’t she lose her mind just this month about her own Gryffindor boy-toy ?”

“What Jac did wasn’t stupid… it was just,” Cressida trailed off, trying to find the words. “She thought it was the right choice.”

“And was it?”

“How the fuck am I supposed to know?” She shot back. “What’s this got to do with me and Potter anyway?- Who by the way, isn’t my boyfriend.”

Thane poked his tongue into his cheek. “Only that, at least Jacqueline wasn’t afraid to put herself out there for the boy she loves-”

“Stop using that word!” Cressida snapped, averting herself again, recoiling ever so slightly.

Thane’s lips promptly shut, attempting to hide his grin as if watching a mouse walk into a trap he’d set specifically for it. 

“So you don’t love him then?” He asked bluntly after allowing her a minute to regain her stance.

Cressida picked out a random book with French writing on the spine just to occupy her hands. “What’s it got to do with you?”

“Call it morbid curiosity.”

She chewed the inside of her cheek, glaring at Thane from the side eye. She knew he wasn’t going to relent on this topic. He’d clearly come for an answer, but what answer she didn’t know. The only sense she could make of it was that this was just another one of Thane’s weird mind games.

But still, she’d shown her cards, so to say, when she snapped at him for simply uttering the word she avoided like the plague. And still, against her own will, her thoughts were swarmed by images of her mother. Her mother during Gareth. Her mother after losing Dayle. Cressida didn’t believe she wouldn’t eventually be scorned by ‘love’ like her mother had, even by someone like James. It had a way of breaking people, good or bad.

Isn’t that why her mother had told her to run, after all? To keep her from the same fate in the long run?  

Isn’t that why she couldn’t even stand the notion?

Thane smiled slightly to himself when she failed to produce an answer aloud. For what reason she didn’t know. Cressida huffed, getting irritated by the conversation quickly. “Is this fun for you?”

“I’m the only one trying to help you here.”

“How is this helping me, Nott?” She snapped. “You want to stand there and watch me admit that one day Potter might just wake up and- and decide I wasn’t worth it after all? That as soon as someone better comes along- someone happier- that he’ll still be with me ?” She asked turning on him again. “You want me to admit something you already know, is that it?”

Thane acted aloof. It irritated her further. “I don’t already know-”

“Yes you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be asking the right questions,” she countered. “Like you said, Slytherins don’t do anything without a reason. You made me realise that. So… what’s the reason?”

Thane clicked his tongue like the façade was up. “I’m just here to say he really loves you, his version of love. Not the lying bullshit you and I have been fed our whole lives.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“No,” Thane said honestly. “But I think that you might love him too deep down if you just allowed yourself to feel anything real for more than a second- ”

“Get fucked, Nott!”

“You must see how this is going to end, Cressida,” he continued. Her whole body tensed. “You have to accept that he’s waiting for something you aren’t ready to give him and that it’s eventually going to go up in flames and he’s not the one that’s going to get burned in the aftermath.”

“And that’s what you want, isn’t it?” She shot at him unfairly. “For me and him to be done with? Valentina told me about that as well.”

Thane’s jaw clenched, averting his eyes. “It’s no secret I don’t think you and Potter aren’t properly suited. I don’t think he gets you… the side you’re so desperately trying to hide, anyway. And it’s also no secret he’s still against Slytherins as a general concept despite you being one through and through. That doesn’t mean I want your dark and twisty thoughts to be proved right in the end . I’d hate to see that happen to you because I know you’re better than it.”

She shoved the French book into her bag if for no other reason than to make a quick exit. “Great, well, I’ll keep that in mind. And for future reference, stay out of my fucking  love life!” She snapped, shoving past him.

“Always a pleasure, Cressida,” Thane grinned dryly as she stormed off.

Cressida left the common room and stood in the breezy air of the dungeons. As much as she hated it maybe Thane had a point. Maybe today was proof that she was losing Potter bit by bit if she didn’t step up soon. She could physically feel him pulling away as it was during their picnic and this morning. What had the smug bastard said to Potter that would turn him against her so easily?

Either way, she knew she knew she had to do something to prove that she could be with James… for the time being anyway while he still wanted her.

She wasn’t sure what she was going to say, or how she was going to prove it, but she’d figure that out when she got there. All she knew was that the gesture had to be big, despite her fears and feelings. James was more important. Thane was wrong about them. He was wrong about her.

With this thought in mind, she made her way through the castle. She ignored Peeves floating above, dropping rotten tomatoes from the kitchen on passer-bys . Some Second Years cursed at her as she used her wand to redirect a tomato aiming for her straight into them instead.

Sirius opened the passage to the hexagonal room without requesting the password after seeing her face upon arrival. She climbed the spiral staircase to find music still blasting and games still taking place, all her friends talking and laughing.

James looked up upon her arrival, everyone else simply carried on.

“You’re back! Quick, come and join the game, Cressie!” Jac encouraged her, not even looking up from her turn.

“Hang on, she should be on my team!” Felix complained through a mouth full of chocolate frog, his eyes examining the game closely as each move was made. “That way I have a chance at winning. Molly’s being a killjoy as usual!”

“Hey!” Molly protested, looking up from a pile of books on the cushions beside her “We have another exam in two days and I want to be ready!”

“If you’re not ready then Tommo and I have no chance,” Fred laughed, smacking down a card that sent the whole pack up in sparks.

“I don’t care if I pass every exam, I just need to pass enough that McGonagall lets me back on the Quidditch team next year,” Thomas said then , reshuffling to start the game again.

“Do you ever think about anything but Quidditch, Thomas?” Jac questioned with a teasing grin.

“Not really, no,” Thomas answered dead-pan .

Cressida looked between James and all her friends surrounding the room. The noise began to feel like cotton in her ears. Her chest began to tighten. Shit, what did she come here to do? Snog his face off in front of them all? Was that what he would want? Would that prove how much she needed him, in more ways than one? She could just blurt it out. Tell them she and James had been running around together right under their noses... but then Jac would be beside herself that Cressida hadn't told her. She dreaded to even consider Molly's reaction . Would it cause issues with Fred and Thomas that James hadn't told them himself?

“Well,” Molly prompted her , bringing her out of her thoughts. “Aren’t you going to sit?”

Cressida snapped into action and, suddenly losing confidence in the idea, sunk into a cushion beside James and tried to slow her breathing back to a normal pace. She reached into her pocket, grabbing her last piece of gum and chucked it in her mouth.

Neither of them looked directly at each other as she sat.

The game continued, retaking the other’s attention spans away from her and her dramatic entrance.

Her chest was still rising and falling as she brought her knees up to her chest. She angled herself towards Potter discreetly. She had to say something. To him. To only him. “Whatever Thane said… it’s all bullshit,” she whispered.

James immediately turned to her at the declaration then thought better of it and stared down at his hands instead, but clearly he had been thinking about Thane's words himself for him to be ready to jump straight into the conversation. “But- but what if-”

“No what ifs . Who’re you going to believe more, me or him?” She questioned, meeting his eyes purposefully this time, her stare hard and purposeful.

James took a moment to answer. Eventually, he gave a firm nod. “You. Always you.”

Cressida gulped, relief taking over her body and finally slowing her heart rate back down to a normal rhythm.

“Oi-” Fred’s voice came followed by a hoard of rock-hard candy thrown in their direction to get their attention. Jac was now residing in his lap, a content grin across her features now she and Fred were back to their normal ‘lovey-dovey’ selves. “Are you playing or what?!”

Cressida blew a bubble with her gum. She nodded, gesturing at him. “Deal me in.”

Felix's eyes narrowed at the pair contemplatively as he shuffled the cards, then started throwing them out to the group in the circle.

Cressida ignored his scrutinizing look as she and James settled back into their separate cushions. However, Cressida leaned back on her hands and secretly intertwined her and James' pinkie fingers behind their backs.

James’ smile grew and suddenly his enthusiasm for winning the game increased tenfold.

Thane was wrong . He had to be. 

 

Saturday 8th June 2019

 

After the affair in the secret room, it was no surprise James had indeed ended up back in Slytherin’s dungeons under the cover of night.

He’d arrived just after midnight and the two of them led intertwined in each other’s arms, joking and talking until early hours of the morning .

Cressida had wanted to ask about what exactly Thane had said to him, but when it felt like this again after so long she hardly wanted to bring it back up.

Eventually, the two had fallen asleep and Cressida’s head resided on James’ chest listening to his heartbeat until a louder, less pleasant, sound filled her ears instead.

She sat up abruptly, hearing multiple footsteps outside of her bed curtains. She frantically slapped James’ chest to wake him up.

“What, who’s in trouble-!” James asked sleepily sitting up.

Cressida, without thinking, grabbed his head and shoved it down under the covers until he couldn’t be seen and then led back down herself, pulling the blanket right up over her face.

Jac’s fingers gripped the curtains, preparing to rip them open not even a second later.

“Wait- don’t wake her just yet!” She heard Molly whisper from across the room.

Jac’s hand fell away. “Why?”

“She’s banned from coming remember? McGonagall's punishment for… well, for everything lately.”

Cressida herself winced. She'd completely forgotten today was the final Hogsmeade trip. Seemingly it had slipped James' mind as well. If one of them remembered, James would have been gone before sunrise to avoid this exact situation.

Jac huffed disappointed. “Oh yeah. Well… maybe we can get the boys to sneak her in again-”

“Who’s ready to get sick to their stomachs on Butterbeer?!” Felix alerted himself, swinging the door open loudly.

“ Shhhh ,” Molly berated him. “Cressida is still asleep.”

“She not coming?” He questioned and then, without warning, his head appeared between the bed curtains.

Cressida stared back at him, watching as his eyes scanned the slightly obvious lump that was James Potter beside her under the blanket.

His mouth flew open, a look of scandal across his face. Cressida frantically shook her head, a silent plea.

Felix's head retreated almost as fast as it had appeared.

Cressida held her breath, wondering whether Felix's mouth would run off before his brain kicked in.

“Doesn’t matter anyway," she heard his voice say next. "She’s out like a light in there. Must have been up all night like usual.”

Thank God for, Finnigan, Cressida thought silently to herself.

“Shall we wake her to say we’re going?” Jac questioned then.

“No, best let her sleep,” Molly dismissed her, and then Cressida headed the door shut gently behind them.

The dorm room was empty.

James’ head popped up from under the blanket. “Christ. That was a close one.”

“Yeah…” Cressida laughed lightly. He didn’t realise just how close it was. “We must have overslept. How’re you going to sneak back into your tower now?” She panicked.

James untangled himself and sat up fully, stretching his arms above his head with a yawn. “I’ll find a way. Say I had some late-night pranking idea or something… Are you sure you don’t want to come? The Madame Puddifoot’s offer is still on the table?”

Cressida chewed the inside of her cheek and shook her head. “I have detention with McGonagall at lunch so she knows I’ve not snuck down there… plus, Jac and Fred are having their date there today anyway.”

James’ shoulder slumped. “Well, in that case, I could always stay-”

Cressida leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “Go and have fun. I need someone to bring me back some of that magic bubble gum I like. It’s way better than the muggle equivalent and I’ve gone through my whole stash.”

James kissed her back with a wide grin, soaking every ounce of her features in . “Your wish is my command.” He rolled off the bed and pulled the invisibility cloak around his shoulders. “Say hi to Minnie for me, will you?  I feel like she might be missing telling us off considering we’ve not pulled anything lately,” he joked.

“I’m sure you lot will give her a reason before the week is done,” Cressida smirked back.

James stole one last kiss and then lingered in front of her as if contemplating if he really had to go.

“Don’t miss me too much while you’re gone,” she whispered, pushing him away gently on the chest.

James smirked back at her as he stood upright. “Impossible.”

He went to turn towards the door when he suddenly thought better of it. His smile dropped slightly. "You know... we never actually spoke about yesterday? The whole Nott thing. Maybe now with everyone gone, it would be- "

"We don't have to," she interrupted him instantly, wanting to think about that no more.

He tried to read her face. "You sure? You looked like you had something to say yesterday. Something... bad?"

Cressida brought her knees up to her chest, shaking her head with the best smile she could muster. "Everything's just how I like it. Go enjoy Hogsmeade. I'll be here waiting when you get back."

James debated arguing against it for a second but eventually relented, leaning down for one last kiss before returning to his stance in front of her.

She watched him completely disappear under the cloak and then she was left to watch the door magically open and shut itself before being left completely alone.

It was a shame really . The sun shining outside already meant it was going to be a perfect day to wander around Hogsmeade.

 

*

 

After lolling about in the comfort of her own bed for an hour longer than she should have, entertaining Rasper with a feather and enjoying her thoughts of James snuggled up next to her all night, just how she liked it, she eventually pulled clothes on and ventured out into the world beyond her dorm.

By the looks, almost everyone apart from First and Second Years had left for the final trip of the year, and even most of the ones left behind had decided to go out and enjoy the sun shining on the grounds.

Cressida herself, much rathered the thought of staying down in the cool dungeons that day. Being out on the grounds would only make her jealous that she hadn’t been able to join her friends. Plus, after last night, most of her thoughts would have been filled with all the nooks and crannies of Hogsmeade she and James had yet to explore on their own terms out of sight of their friends.

Trying to steer her brain in a less… interesting … direction, she decided to finally try and get some of her piling up homework done. At least that way, she knew Molly would be pleased when they returned and let Cressida off studying that night, meaning she’d have ample time to find James and pick up exactly where they’d left off that morning.

After nicking some of Felix’s sugar quill stash he’d left out from the days beforehand, she tried opening her books to get some revision done, but after half an hour of her brain refusing to focus on anything scholarly, all the words started to jumble into one and not make any sense , and Cressida wasn’t even sure if she was trying to study Astronomy or Herbology.

She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms and discarded the books to one side.

Cressida started digging around in her bag again for something- anything- to kill time until the others came back .

Her hand landed on the book she’d grabbed while talking to Thane.

It wasn’t school work so she had high hopes of maybe just learning something interesting about some old wizard tradition or possibly a new spell or two if she was lucky.

It would definitely kill an hour or two at least, though, and that was enough to warrant opening the first page.

Her eyes took a moment to focus and fearing she was having a stroke or her mind truly was starting to turn to mush inside her head, Cressida started to sound the words out loud.

“Ce livre contient les histoires sinistres et les récits véridiques de la grande histoire de la noble maison des Noirs…”

She took a moment. “No wonder I can’t read it. It’s not pissing English!” She huffed turning the pages frantically as if it would magically change to a language she could understand. That had happened before, according to Felix. He’d picked a random book out of the library that changed languages depending on who was reading it. For him, it came out in traditional Irish Gaelic- which, unfortunately for Felix, he couldn’t read a word of.

“It’s French,” a disembodied voice called out to her.

Cressida looked up, surprised to see Regulus in his frame for the first time in months. She’d naturally come to assume the portrait had disappeared in fear of a random visit from his brother or an intrusion from Remus at the boy’s request.

“I managed to decipher that for myself,” she replied. “I’m not a complete dunce.”

Regulus gained a smug look. “Can you read French?”

Cressida chewed the inside of her cheek. “… It would appear not.”

“Then why did you pick it up in the first place?”

“It looked interesting at the time,” Cressida admitted.

“Oh, I’m sure it is once you figure out what the book is actually about.”

“Do you know what it’s about?” She countered snippily.

“Well, for starters I can actually speak French,” Regulus outwitted her. “And the translation on the cover reads La Famillie Noir… which, unless French has miraculously changed since I’ve died, roughly translates to The Black Family. ”

“Of course it does,” she sighed dryly. Her mood deflated slightly. The one family she didn’t want to learn more about. She closed the book and held it up for the portrait to see fully. “So this is about your family history? All of you lot going mad and stuff?”

Regulus’ smile turned tight. “One would only assume.”

Cressida examined the over again. It was clearly very well made, with silver embellishment on the cover depicting a tree with loads of twists and turns over a green cloth cover. It appeared as though it had never been opened before Cressida’s hands fell on it. The spine was still stiff. The pages were unwrinkled and still perfectly white and pressed inside. The only indication the book had been there for some time was the fact it was covered in a layer of dust on the outside.

Cressida ran her hand over the ornate detailing. It reminded her of the ones in the restricted section of the library while searching for information linked to her father. “I know a bit about your family. I read the newspapers,” she said to the portrait conversationally as she recalled that night and everything to do with her dad- or lack thereof- since. Regulus merely quirked an eyebrow. “It got my thinking… if you had the chance not to know what you came from, would you take it?

“That’s a heavy question,” Regulus replied calculatedly.

Cressida chewed the inside of her cheek, staring out into the murky waters beyond the window pane. She had been trying to articulate the swinging pendulum of these thoughts for a while now in her own mind. To still have hope or give up completely. Whether finding him was an answer to any questions she had or a big mistake she was never meant to peruse.

All while knowing she could never voice them out loud to James or Jac. But maybe the likes of Regulus could have the answer or validation she was looking for. After all, no one could have a worse family than him and Sirius, from what she had learned.

“There’s been a lot of speculation lately… about where I come from. Everyone’s so desperate to find out the truth, and I am too, really… but I can’t help feeling like it’s going to be bad. So I guess, my real question to you is; is it better knowing what you come from, even if it’s bad, or never knowing at all?”

Regulus’ eyes scanned the common room as if checking no one else was present around them. “From my experience… it doesn’t matter who or where you come from deep down. It’s about your values… your own beliefs. I went against my own family right under their noses to do good while those who were on the right side from the beginning turned to the dark. Good and bad aren't set in stone or bones. It’s set in who we are as people. Who we choose to be despite it all.”

Cressida let Regulus’ words wash over her. She brought her knees up to her chest and her eyes fell on the book again, thoughts whirring. “Do you think there’s anything in that book that explains why your family ended up the way they did? Some generational curse or something?”

Regulus looked down at the book as well. “When I was a child that was always’ Sirius’ theory…” he said distantly.  “He thought that he would be the one to break it. Make them all see that we didn’t have to be mean and cold and hard. Try to make them laugh. Then, as we got older, he realised they never laughed, just punished him for speaking out of turn. He watched Narcissa turn cold and poised. He watched Bellatrix go mad and torment for the fun of it. We watched Andromida run away from it all and be shunned… he watched me be the perfect son that our parents wanted him to be. Past a certain point, Sirius realized there was no rhyme or reason for our family to be this way. They just were, and what they were was evil and unforgiving and unwilling to change… and the sad part is Sirius thought I was just like them in the end.”

“Were you?” Cressida asked bluntly.

“I had to be,” Regulus said stone-faced. “I had no house to escape to. If I wanted to be free of them I had to destroy them from the inside out… so that’s exactly what I set out to do.”

“Guess that’s why you were a Slytherin and he wasn't,” Cressida shrugged. “Cunning and all that.”

Regulus gave a single, stiff nod. “I’ll leave you to your book now,” he said, and before Cressida could object, his frame was devoid of life once more.

Cressida hugged her knees a little tighter, having no desire to try and decipher what was inside it.

The grandfather clock chimed twelve o’clock . She got up from her seat and discarded the horrid book back on the shelf where it belonged before heading to her detention with McGonagall.

The stairs leading up to the office were already visible and waiting for her to step on when she arrived at the office .

“You’re late,” McGonagall’s voice came as she stepped into the ornate room. “By five whole minutes.”

“Sorry, Professor,” Cressida apologised taking the obviously placed seat in front of her desk. Her eyes followed McGonagall as she descended the stairs behind her desk, book open in hand . “I got distracted.”

“With what, exactly?” She asked, taking her seat opposite.

“Reading.”

McGonagall glanced up doubtfully from her book. “Well, either way, you’re here now. That’s the main thing.” She shut her book and discarded it into the air where it promptly flew up the small set of stairs back onto the shelf it originally came from. Cressida thought that was a neat trick that’d save Molly a lot of time and space.

A second later, McGonagall was on her feet again. Cressida sat and watched her move to and fro her office filing things, checking off lists, and packing away boxes.

“Why aren't you having me do something around the castle for detention?” She asked through the silence of the office. 

“Because you can't be trusted,” she said, her back to her. “Plus, I imagine if I did give you a normal detention... the others would somehow intervene.”

Cressida couldn't really argue with that. She rested her chin against her fist. “So you just want me to sit here for hours until they come back from Hogsmeade?”

“Exactly,” McGonagall answered.

Silence again. McGonagall acquired a large stack of parchments and started marking them slowly, one by one.

“Can we at least talk?” Cressida asked after a long time had passed. “I know when the Gryffindor boys have detention in here you get to talk.”

“ They talk,” McGonagall corrected her. “I, unfortunately, just sit here and keep them contained in one space.”

Cressida huffed and went back to aimlessly staring around the room. McGonagall glanced up from her parchment, watching her now instead. 

“Fine,” she said, although she sounded like she already regretted it. “You may start a conversation but only for ten minutes. After that, we resume this detention as intended. It is supposed to be a punishment, after all. If I wanted you to have it easy I would have sent you to Hagrid.”

Cressida smiled, wracking her brain for something to talk about with the old headmistress. “Do you like the Beatles?” She asked, looking for common ground between them. Jac had always said that any conversation would be easier if you got them talking about music they liked. McGonagall raised a thin eyebrow. “They were from your era, right? Or someone older... Frank Sinatra maybe? Jac played one of his albums once... not a big fan, myself.”

McGonagall produced no answer. “Why is it whenever I try and punish one of you lot, it is I that feels punished instead?” She muttered, returning to her work.

Cressida shrugged her shoulder. “Unlucky bunch of students, I guess.”

McGonagall hummed, but Cressida caught the twinge of a smile on the corner of her lips. “Unlucky bunch indeed.” She continued writing. “And for your information, I’m more inclined to listen to the likes of the Weird Sisters. I find their music… catchy.”

“The Weird Sisters,” Cressida repeated with a smile. “Felix likes them.”

“Then Finnigan has good taste,” McGonagall quipped without looking up.

The old headmistress said nothing further as she retrieved a new quill from her impressively engraved pink pot and continued jotting things down on numerous bits of parchment.

Cressida sat awkwardly in front of her, twiddling her thumbs, listening to the rhythmic tick of the clock.

Every minute and a half she heard a tiny clink of the quill being dipped back into the ink pot. Her brain began to focus on it, counting it. Four… five… six.

“You know, we found a way to get rid of ink pots altogether,” Cressida offered up, relaxing down in the chair. “It’s save you some time. I imagine you go through a lot of ink-”

“I’m well aware of you and your friend’s hybrid quill situation,” McGonagall interrupted without stopping. She dunked her quill again. “But, as Head Mistress, it is my job to set the example of the right way to go about things. The way we’ve always done things, such as using ink and quill and perfecting our calligraphy. Future job prospects will look for that sort of skill, you know.”

“Oh, I don’t have to worry about that,” Cressida shrugged off .

That had made McGonagall pause briefly. “Oh?”

Cressida didn’t like the lecturing look on McGonagall’s face. It reminded her too much of Molly. “It’s just, I doubt I’ll get a wizard job at the end of all this. And Muggles like fountain pens just fine. No calligraphy required. Half the people can’t spell properly in Conwell anyway, so being able to do that alone ups my chances.”

“Hmm.” McGonagall pushed her parchment away from her and clasped her hands in front of her. “You plan to reside in Conwell your whole life, Miss Knightly?”

“No,” she scoffed. “No one ever plans to stay there… they just do.”

“And you don’t think you’re above that?”

“I don’t believe I’m above anything, professor,” Cressida answered bluntly.

McGonagall’s gaze lowered. “Well, I do believe you’re destined for a better life than that,” she said, getting to her feet. “Much better. You’re a bright young witch, Miss Knightly.”

“So is everyone if they try.”

“You remind me of a past student quite strikingly sometimes,” McGonagall said scanning her shelves. “One I was very fond of. He, too, tended to use his brightness for things other than school work assuming it was easy for everyone if they just tried . He, too, had equally smart friends who got some of the highest grades of their year. He, too, thought he was heading for nothing.” She looked back at Cressida still sitting in her seat. “Don’t end up doing nothing, Cressida, I beg of you.”

Cressida shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Who was that, then?”

McGonagall smiled ever so slightly. “You’ve already met him... or a stunted version of him, anyway.”

She sat up straighter, intrigued when the door opened.

It was Longbottom.

“Professor!” He panted, leaning on the doorway for support. He’d clearly come here in a rush. “We need your help.”

“Neville,” McGonagall rose to her feet. “What’s happened now?”

“They did something, didn’t they?” Cressida asked knowingly.

Neville managed a nod inbetween catching his breath. “They sort of exploded the post office.”

“The post office?” McGonagall frowned.

“ Apparently, it was something to do with a request for a mass invitation- the whole school and then half the village by the looks,” Neville said, finally losing that concerning purple colour to his face.

McGonagall braced herself on the desk with a deep sigh. “Don’t move,” she instructed Cressida as she moved towards the door. “Lead the way, Longbottom.”

Neville, much to his displeasure, pushed himself up off the support of the door and traipsed along after McGonagall, who had already stormed ahead.

Cressida looked back around the now empty office, unsure of what to do with herself.

“Considering how often your face appears in this office, I would have to agree with your statement about not going anywhere of value...”

Cressida looked around for the source of the judgemental-sounding voice.

“Leave her be, Severus,” another voice said. “She’s just having fun.”

“Well, having fun doesn’t equate to getting in trouble in my book.”

Cressida’s eyes went up to the portraits hanging on the walls around her. Snape’s portrait was looking down at her with a sneer. “Honestly, you’d think they’d have better things to be doing with their time than wasting it on frivolous pranks with everything going on… but then again, the Potter boy is more like his grandfather than his own father was. Making jokes until his last breath.”

“Hey, James never did anything to hurt anyone,” she argued on his behalf.

“Funny. That’s what his namesake always claimed, and yet…” he trailed off.

“Ignore him, Cressida,” Dumbledore stepped in kindly. “Being a portrait often makes people… bitter of time moving on.”

Snape’s portrait huffed and turned his eyes fully on Cressida below them. “Tell me, did you ever find what you were looking for after that night?”

“What night?” Cressida asked.

“The one where you deemed sneaking in here in the dead of night as a good idea.”

Dumbledore cleared his throat, although his attention seemed to be flitting around the room.

“No,” Cressida answered Snape, sinking down in her seat, annoyed by just the memory of it. “McGonagall couldn’t find anything on the person I was looking for.”

There was a lull then, as Snape seemed to smooth out a crease in his cape, although it reappeared not even a second later. “I heard of a Castillo once… a long time ago,” Snape’s portrait drawled.

Cressida raised her head slowly to face him. Dumbledore’s portrait did too, almost apprehensively. “You what?”

Snape seemed to ignore Dumbledore’s expression. “A baby born with the name. It’s an old name, you were right about that… not that it was hard to decipher.”

“Severus, perhaps-” Dumbledore tried to intrude calmly.

“No. He knows something!” Cressida insisted, jumping out of her chair and approaching the two portraits hanging high above her. He was the only person who’d even admitted to knowing someone with the same name, even if it wasn’t actually him. “Who was the baby? What happened to him?!”

“I never knew what became of the child. Just whispers in the dark… rumours of frivolity, of course. Nobody even saw the child. Nobody could prove he existed. A potential martyr shrouded in mystery… as it were.”

“Severus,” Dumbledore said again, more demanding this time. His eyes stern over his half-moon glasses.

Snape side-eyed them both. “I believe Mundungus Fletcher heard these rumours too, in whatever gutter he was dwelling in at the time. I imagine the information he heard would have gone for a pretty penny to the right person… if only to dispel what was being said.”

“Enough, Severus!” Dumbledore shut him down. “Whatever stories you heard in your lifetime are not to be discussed here, not in this manner. Especially over something that was never proven. You cannot give the girl false information… you cannot lead her to a dangerous path she has no business being involved in.”

Snape quirked his eyebrow, turning to the side. “Fine. Let her continue this endless goose chase. Makes no difference to me,” he drawled once more , leaving his frame completely.

It took Dumbledore a moment to lose the frown on his features. When he eventually turned back to Cressida he dawned the usual comforting smile he always did. “Take no notice of Severus, Cressida. The war was a long time ago. Facts and faces get muddy afterwards. People cling onto useless rumours for some sort of comfort.”

“Why would my dad’s name offer anyone comfort?” She asked slowly, untrusting of the conversation that just took place.

Dumbledore had no immediate answer. That rang odd to her. These people knew something… did McGonagall also know? Had she lied to her when she said she knew nothing before?

The door clicked open and the woman in question returned. Cressida spun around, turning her back on Dumbledore.

"Sorry to have to leave you in such a hurry, Miss Knightly but as you can imagine, it's better to nip their plans in the bud before things get more out of hand than they already are-" she stopped herself, sensing the tension in the room. “Is everything alright?” McGonagall asked, eyes trailing from Cressida up to Dumbledore’s portrait hanging above them on the wall.

“Is my detention done now?” Cressida asked bluntly.

“I suppose so,” McGonagall replied. Her eyes were only on Cressida now as she moved through her office to sit at her desk. “The three Musketeers are being brought up here any second now for their punishment, so it’s probably best you’re out of sight for it.”

Cressida went for the door immediately.

“Miss Knightly,” McGonagall stopped her.

Cressida reluctantly turned back to face her, although her eyes couldn’t help trailing up to Dumbledore hanging just above them. “I expect you here tomorrow evening to finish the second half of your detention.”

“Yes, Head Misstress,” she agreed without argument.

McGonagall assessed her for a minute. Cressida edged closer to the door. Her eyes went to Dumbledore again, looking over them. He still had his smile on his face, but somehow it didn’t feel as comforting as before. “Very well,” McGonagall said, snapping Cressida back to her. “You may go.”

“Thank you, professor,” Cressida muttered, wasting no time in getting the hell out of that office.

Mundungus Fletcher.

She had a new lead.

Chapter 96: Fourth Year: I Know, You Know

Monday 10th June 2019

 

Cressida was awoken late the night after her revelation in McGonagall’s office. She was led on top of her sheets, still fully dressed, after not intending to fall asleep at all, but instead, staring aimlessly and thinking over in her head if she had ever recalled that name before.

Mundungus Fletcher.

Had James ever mentioned him?

Was he dead or alive?

Was Snape simply lying?

Would he even know anything about her father, if it was the same baby?

What did Dumbledore know that he wasn’t telling?

Suddenly, Cressida was shaken awake and she opened her eyes expecting to find James, only it wasn’t him at all.

“You got some serious explaining to do, Missy,” Felix whispered.

Cressida sat upright, suddenly fully awake. Her hand reached behind her searching for the lump that was James’ body, just to be sure, only to find the other side of the bed was luckily devoid of life.

Cressida scanned the other beds containing the girls. She should’ve expected Felix to question her sooner or later. “Not here.”

Felix nodded and stepped back to allow her room to get out of her bed.

She pulled on her knitted jumper and led Felix out of the dorm room into the common room. They took up residence on the sofas in their usual alcove. Considering how early it was, there was very little risk of being interrupted or overheard until the breakfast rush came out.

Cressida used her wand to light the candles for some light in the large dark room. The portraits on the wall groaned and turned away from the disturbance to their sleep.

She took residence on the sofa opposite him and wrung her overhanging sleeves around her hands. Felix, meanwhile, foraged for a chocolate wand from the box he’d left the day before.

“Well?” He started, plonking himself down finally, chocolate waggling from the corner of his mouth.

“Well what?”

“You and Potter is what, Cress,” he said bluntly. “What the fuck is going on there?”

Cressida shrugged. “Just… stuff. He likes me-”

“And you clearly bloody like him!” Felix retorted. “How long has this been going on? Why haven’t you told anyone!”

“You know damn well why I haven’t told anyone.”

Felix finished the last of his wand with a sigh. “Stupid question in hindsight, I suppose… but still, Cress… you haven’t even told Jac? She’s going to go mental when she does find out.”

“She’s been so wrapped up in Fred she hasn’t even noticed. Plus, if I did tell her I imagine all my free time would then be taken up by her demanding double dates between the four of us.”

“Your idea of hell.”

“Pretty much,” Cressida agreed, taking a wand from the box for herself. “And then there’s Molly-”

“And Albus, and Rose and Fred and Thomas and Teddy and Victoire-”

“Exactly,” Cressida cut him off. “It's just… too much. I like it just being the two of us. In our own little bubble no one knows about. No one can shove their nose in our business this way.”

“Does Potter see it that way?” Felix asked.

Cressida took a moment, looking down at her hands. “Not exactly,” she shook her head. “He wants to tell people. We’ve had a few arguments about it.”

“Am I the only one that knows?”

“Arabella knows. Margo… Thane.”

“Oh, so all the important people know then,” he said sarcastically.

Cressida shrugged. “Margo found us. She told the others. Thane managed to stop Arabella from spreading it like wildfire despite her best efforts.”

Felix leaned back on the sofa comfortably. “Unpopular opinion, but I think he’s a decent bloke. Only had nice things to say about you. Still checks up on me sometimes when he catches me alone.”

“He has his moments,” Cressida agreed. “Just wish he wasn’t such a dick more times than he is thoughtful.”

“So this thing with Potter?” He asked, getting back on track. “Is it serious?”

“I don’t know what it is.”

“You love him?”

Cressida frowned deeply, rolling her eyes. “Is that everyone’s go-to question in this castle? No, I don’t love him… I just… he’s just James.”

“Right,” Felix said, coming to his own conclusion silently. “And not to be a Debbie Downer but are you sure this is a good thing… for you, I mean?”

“You mean because everyone will immediately turn against me if it gets out?” She asked bitterly. “The low-life Slytherin dating the Gryffindor heartthrob.”

Felix sat up, clearly thinking carefully about his next words. “Do you remember in First Year when I stayed with you over Christmas?”

Cressida’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Did you ever wonder why I did it?” He asked. Cressida shook her head. “I did it because even after only knowing you for three months… this tiny, Welsh firecracker who didn’t know her ass from her elbow in this place… even I could see that the thought of you being alone killed you.”

Cressida turned away, choosing to distract herself with the lake outside the window pane instead of hearing the hard truth Felix was saying.

“Look, I don’t have a boyfriend taking up all my time like Jac and I don’t go into hyperdrive about exams like Molly. I’m basically Sweden in this situation. A neutral party that doesn’t particularly care what happens… except that you’re probably my bestest friend and I couldn’t bear to see you hurt. Or Potter for that matter, purely because he’ll likely make it everyone else’s problem too… but, what I’m trying to say is, Potter is a big risk for you considering everything that comes with him.”

“Funny,” Cressida scoffed, turning back to him. “Margo said something similar when she first caught us. She said if James and I ever went in the crapper, I’d end up like her. Cast out. No more Burrow… no more family.”

Felix didn’t say anything.

She gulped nervously. “She’s right, isn’t she? If I lose James, I risk losing it all?”

“You’d still have Molly and us,” Felix tried to lighten it. “But, could you handle it? Seeing him like that? Pretending like you didn’t care for him?”

Cressida brought her knees up to her chest. “No. I don’t think I could.”

Felix moved to sit next to her, pulling her head down to lean on his shoulder for comfort and then rested his head on hers, knowing the weight of what she had said. He didn't voice it though, and Cressida was grateful for that as the two sat silently in the early morning of the common room together until daylight came.

 

*

 

She’d woken up still leaning on Felix for support, except he was snoring and clearly out for the count. She saw Regulus in his frame hanging above them.

‘ Psst! ” Regulus’ eyes trailed down to her. “What’s the time?”

“By my count, half six.”

She nodded in gratitude then went about slinking herself out from under Felix’s weight. He flopped down on the sofa without even noticing.

She brushed her fingers through her hair and returned to her dorm room to get ready for the day.

Once the sun was full up, and Felix finally awake, he acted as though their conversation had never happened, but Cressida took some comfort in knowing that someone she trusted knew. Someone who would be honest with her, even if it was just confirming her own fears on the matter.

She tried not to dwell on that fact for the rest of the day. She and James were in a really good place. She didn’t want to ruin that again so soon.

Luckily, even if she did have her own doubts, James was apparently as happy as ever.

He’d come up behind her and dragged her by the elbow into a secret corner they used for spying on Filtch, his grin ear-to-ear visible even at half eight in the morning.

“Miss me?”

“Never,” she lied back, reaching up and stealing a kiss.

James smoothed her knotted hair back out of her face. “I would’ve found you sooner but we got sectioned to McGonagall’s office for the rest of the night after Hogsmeade and then Tommo and Fred wanted to sort out how to right our wrong,” James explained.

That sparked Cressida to remember the whole reason she’d even been left alone long enough to have the conversation with Snape in McGonagall’s office in the first place. “I heard snippets from Neville about what happened. A mass invitation?” She questioned, thinking back.

James shrugged, clearly still proud of himself. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. I remembered the end-of-year party they’d entrusted me with organising. I figured, kill two birds with one stone, get the invites out to everyone in Hogsmeade where McGonagall will never even see them, and I’d have an excuse for where I’d been all night. That was until Thomas set the invite list to everyone and Fred’s spell took that literally and… off they went.”

“To everyone?”

“To everyone ,” James confirmed.

She tried to contain her amusement. “So, the party’s off then?”

“No. The party is still on. We just changed the date and uninvited the random forty-year-old drunks from the Three Broomsticks that seemed well up for it when letters landed in their fire whiskey.”

Cressida wrapped her hands around his neck comfortably. “You know she’ll put a stop to it once she figures out it’s still going ahead.”

“Nah, she won’t,” James said confidently. “She hasn’t stopped one of our parties yet. I think she secretly likes them. Keeps her young.”

“Keeps her stressed, more like.”

“You should hardly be complaining,” he countered then. “Thanks to our mishap you got out of detention early.”

“Nah, got to go back and finish it today instead now. Technically, you’ve extended it.”

“Ah, well, I’m sure you would’ve done something to end up with one again today anyway, being the untamed miscreant that you are,” he joked, lifting her face up enough to plant another kiss on her.

She smiled and went in for a second, and a third after that. James’ smile grew wider with each one.

Once she pulled back and had firmly twisted her fingertips into the brown locks of his hair, she realised now would be as good a time to ask her question about Mundugus as ever. And he’d surely answer it because James never kept anything from her. Especially when he thought it made him look important or useful. But having James in front of her with that goofy grin of his, and that longing gaze in his eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to bring up her dad. Not right now, anyway.

Surely, if this was a real lead he would come to it on his own eventually. And he loved to think he’d been the clever one in any given situation. So, for now, she saw no harm in keeping this tid-bit to herself, tucked away in the back of her brain for later use.

“What are you thinking about?” James whispered, putting his forehead to hers and bringing her out of her thoughts.

Cressida couldn’t help but hold onto him a little bit tighter. “Nothing,” she replied softly. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Good, because look what I brought you,” he said then, reaching into his robes. He pulled out two handfuls of Drooble's Best Blowing gum. “As requested by my lady. Just in time for our last few exams of the year.”

“You’re a saviour,” she smiled, placing one in her mouth. She couldn’t resist blowing a huge bubble right in his face. James reached down and popped it with his teeth, and then planted another firm kiss on her bubblegum-tasting lips.

“Meet me in the secret room later?” He asked, eyes wide and mischievous. “The lads and I are party planning, I figured your lot would like to get involved.”

“I can surely ask them,” she replied, straightening out his tie just for an excuse to have her hands on him. “We should head to class before Molly sends out a manhunt. We’re already two minutes late,” she said, lifting his hand clasped in hers to bring attention to the watch ticking away on his wrist.

“Damn my cousin and her prompt schedule,” he grinned then, kissing the tip of her nose quickly before departing from their spot with effortless ease, popping his collar proudly as he went back out into the busy halls.

Cressida thumped back against the stone wall, hugging her stomach. From her hiding spot, she could clearly hear a group of girls go running past, shouting and giggling for James’ attention at the sight of him.

She could hardly blame them, he looked especially good that day, but that didn’t mean she liked it either. Little did they know he already belonged to someone. To her.

She doubted even if they did know that, that it’d make much of a difference.

If anything, it’d just make them hate her more that she had his affection and they didn’t.

She peered around the corner to find the gaggle of girls had cornered him and took their chance to pass him envelopes and ask about his plans for the day. James was polite, as he always was. Flashing them smiles and taking the envelopes on principle, shoving them into his robes as if he were a celebrity on the street. He bid them farewell with a nod and the girls would disperse, heads close together giggling and blushing furiously, then he carried on as normal, strutting his way through the halls.

Cressida remained hidden, watching him go. A small part of her wondered if he secretly liked all the attention he got from the girls around Hogwarts. He didn’t actively encourage their affections but never seemed to shut them down completely either.

Trying not to dwell, she carefully slinked out from the darkness and made her way towards Defense Against the Dark arts without so much as glance from the crowds around her.

When she arrived, she was greeted by Felix waiting for her at the doorway. “And where did you disappear to?”

“ Now you notice when I disappear for a few minutes,” she replied, entering with him in toe.

“I noticed before I just didn’t know what you were doing while you were gone,” he whispered to her then. “Knowing you’re likely getting snogged by Potter before lessons even start feels a bit… invasive .”

“I’m not always getting my face snogged off,” she said bluntly. “Sometimes we’re just arranging when he will snog my face off. Other times we talk about the weather.”

Felix checked people were still filing in before he sat beside her and leaned over on her side of the desk. “You want me to pretend like I don’t know that’s fine, but for Godric’s sake, at least don’t come to class with your lip-gloss smeared everywhere,” he said settled back in his chair. “How you two have lasted this long without being outed is beyond me.”

“Took you long enough to even catch us,” she replied light-heartedly.

He hesitated a moment, assessing her deeply. “Are you… are you happy ?” He asked, as though the notion itself was beyond comprehension.

Cressida met his eyes. A self-satisfied smile tugged at her lips. “I am not un- happy.”

He was quiet a moment longer, then he relaxed back into his chair with a shake of his head. “I will never understand you women,” he mumbled.

Then their moment of contentment was ruined by the arrival of a body doused in Chanel perfume and adorned with pearls.

“You’re looking cheery for once, Cressida,” Arabella said as she took her seat. “Was someone finally brave enough to ask you out?”

Cressida turned to the rotten Ravenclaw girl, determined to not let her get a rise out of her. “When was the last time you got asked out, Arabella? I don’t exactly see you wandering around here with a long line of options.”

Felix let out a chortle as Arabella’s mouth clamped shut.

She focused her attention on the front, ignoring the remark. “You know, Margo was awfully upset about what you did to her at the Quidditch match.”

Cressida’s jaw clenched. Her winning remark was short-lived. Felix’s humour went away too, as he waited cautiously for Cressida’s reply. “Well, then, maybe Smithers should learn to keep her mouth shut and I won’t curse it away next time.”

“I quite agree,” Arabella smiled smugly.

Cressida glared at her. ' I’d love to curse your mouth away,' she thought.

Arabella looked back at her. “I told her not to go around spreading those nasty rumours about your friend. But… gossip is golden around this place, as you know.”

“You expect us to believe you had no part in this?” Felix chimed in.

'She had a part alright,' Cressida thought to herself. Valentina had told her as much herself.

Arabella’s eyes were still only on Cressida. “You can’t force someone to tell people anything. Margo offered up the information all on her own.”

“I bet she fucking did,” Cressida said bluntly. ' She’d do anything to keep you happy. You’re all she has left.'

“Don’t be absurd,” Arabella said, throwing her hair over her shoulder and facing the front as Professor Whimbrel started ranting about Imps. “Margo didn’t just do it to appease me, she did it because she was concerned for Jacqueline’s well-being. I think secretly deep down the poor girl misses you all… Especially, Molly. Everyone knows how close those two were.”

‘What is Margo thinking , being friends with you?’ Cressida thought to herself, shaking her head and turning away, done with the conversation.

“I’ll have you know Margo and I are good friends,” Arabella carried on then, almost offended. Cressida’s head lifted slowly. “She rather enjoys my company, but then again, compared to what she had before it’s like comparing spam to steak.”

Cressida’s eyes turned on Arabella. Felix, fed up with Arabella and uninterested in the conversation, was focusing on Whimbrel doing a ridiculous imitation of the creature at the front. It seemed as though Arabella herself, hadn’t quite realised what she had said.

Arabella had seemingly answered something Cressida had only thought .

The Ravenclaw girl looked back to Cressida when she offered no response, only to find her staring at her blatantly.

“No smart comeback, Knightly?” She challenged. “No retort about her missing you?”

“Did she tell you that, did she?” Cressida asked calmly.

“She didn’t have to tell me. It’s written all over the poor girl’s face,” Arabella replied.

“Interesting,” Cressida mumbled, finally breaking eye contact.

She faced the front and crossed her arms over her chest, paying no mind to the acts of Whimbrel prancing around like an idiot in front of her.

Once lessons were done for the day, Cressida left with a multitude of thoughts forming in her head. thoughts she was trying to keep to herself.

Jac came up and linked arms with her, happily leaning on her for support as they walked through the halls. “Fred reckons there’s a good chance of seeing the squid on the surface of the lake because of the hot weather today, want to come and see if he’s right?”

“Absolutely fucking not,” Felix bailed almost instantly at the mention of it. No doubt he’d take refuge in the kitchens until they went to retrieve him later on.

“Fred also reckoned this last year and the year before and failed to be right a single time,” Molly reminded her. “I think our time would be much better spent preparing for our last remaining exams.”

“Fine, you lot be boring,” Jac pouted, separating herself from Cressida. “It just means I get Fred all to myself,” she smiled then.

“Unless dumb and dumber are there waiting with him,” Molly pointed out. “Then, I’m afraid you’ve lost your boyfriend to them for the afternoon.”

“I heard from James that they’re holding a party planning meeting later on,” Cressida threw out. “They want us to help, apparently.”

“Oh! I love their parties! I should find Fred and establish a playlist as soon as possible!” Jac said excitedly, rushing off to do so.

That left Cressida strolling alongside Molly. “Have you managed to get your project for Sikander ready yet?” She asked as soon as Jac was gone.

“I’m working on it,” Cressida waved away.

“ Are you?” Molly asked doubtfully. “I’ve not seen you pull out that wretched camera once to start it.”

“I have plenty of time-”

“It’s due on Monday afternoon, Cressida.”

“I have a plan!” She insisted, throwing a piece of gum into her mouth and blowing a bubble.

Molly’s eye began to twitch like it had been all throughout exam season. “Cressida, if you don’t pass Muggle Studies it means you won’t pass all your required classes and that will determine what N.E.W.T. courses we will be permitted to take after next year!”

Listening to Molly talk about exams and upcoming years was like listening to a reciting textbook over and over again, and Cressida had much more important things on her mind.

“What do you know about mind readers?” She asked, veering the conversation suddenly in a different direction.

Molly looked confused, which was an odd and unnatural expression on her face. “Mind readers?”

“Yeah,” Cressida confirmed. “Are they a real thing in the wizard world? Is it like a special potion or spell-”

“What on earth do you want to know about that for?” She questioned.

“Curiosity.”

“Your curiosity often leads to trouble…” Molly stated.

She wasn’t wrong. All Cressida could do was shrug in response. “Fine, if you won’t tell me I’ll find out some other way-”

“Wait!” Molly stopped her as she started to move ahead. Cressida settled back into walking along beside her, knowing Molly too well.

“I don’t know much,” Molly relented with a huff, although she was hesitant. “Just that we call it Legilimency instead of mind reading and it’s near impossible to find someone apt in that skill these days. Aunt Hermione asked anyone training or gifted in the ability to state it with the Ministry to keep track of it. It could be quite dangerous if left unchecked… having your every thought read is a terrifying thing.”

“But it’s possible for someone to do it?” Cressida pressed.

“I guess but-” Molly shrugged. “-where are you going ?!”

Cressida had already abandoned Molly in the hallway in favour of going to the library to further her new interest. Molly had given her just enough to pull the right books on it.

 

*

 

Only stopping to carry out a quick detention with McGonagall, in which she glared at the two portraits looming above her on the wall the whole time, Cressida spent the rest of the evening cooped up in the library pulling and searching for any books mentioning or referencing the use of Legilimency.

She knew while she was doing this the rest of her friends were currently in the hexagonal room planning the party of the year. She wasn’t very good at planning parties, she reasoned to herself, and this was important if her theory was somewhat true. Besides, she knew she would likely see James later tonight regardless, so she wasn’t worried about letting him down. At least she’d delivered the message to the others so they could attend and offer input or some sense on the matter.

Unfortunately, her research had been tedious and not very productive. There were only a handful of books about the subject and most of them contained stories of famous Legilimens such as a Queenie Goldstein, who had been born with the gift, and people such as Dumbledore who used it for good and Voldemort who used it for bad.

It appeared as though the act itself had been around for as long as wizards had, as Salazar Slytherin himself possessed the gift and enchanted the Sorting Hat with it.

Cressida had always thought there was something invading about that sodding hat when it had been plonked on her head in First Year.

But still, it gave her no help or specifications of the gift or how it looked or felt when someone was using it.

In fact, her research was so unhelpful to her, she began to think perhaps she was being delusional and had completely wasted her evening. Surely, someone like Arabella Chauncey wouldn’t possess such a thing, especially with how hard it seemed to be to do.

Figuring she was giving the rotten girl too much credit and that it was just a coincidence earlier in Transfiguration, she pushed her piles of books away from her and sipped on her now stone-cold coffee.

“Late night studying?” A voice interrupted her solitude. “How very un-Cressida of you.”

“Why do you always show up when I least want company?” Cressida said without even looking to confirm it was him.

“Sixth sense.” Thane sat opposite her regardless, his eyes peering at her over the books. “Maybe I can help.”

“You can help by leaving me alone,” she shot back.

He ignored her jab and picked up a book, flicking through it effortlessly. “Paranoid much?” He questioned, holding up the book  ‘Legilimency- secrets untold .’

Cressida ran her hands through her hair. “It was just a stupid thought I had.”

Thane rested his feet up on the desk, taking more care to look through the pages of the book this time. “Who do you suspect?”

“How did you-?”

“You don’t research this unless you think it’s a possibility,” he answered knowingly.

Cressida huffed, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms. “It doesn't matter. I doubt anyone our age could do this sort of thing based on what those books said.”

Thane placed the book back on the pile. “Well, I wouldn’t assume that.”

Cressida’s interest was piqued. “You know someone who can?”

“I know families who used to train in it from the moment they could form sentient thought,” he answered. “It’s an old skill. One that takes years, as you may have read, but not impossible to have the knack of by the time they reach our age. Depends on how relentless the family is at using it on one another. Or how old-fashioned it is.”

There was a moment of hesitation. Thane simply sat opposite her, waiting as if he knew she’d eventually give in.

“Arabella Chauncey,” Cressida offered up.

Thane quirked an eyebrow. “You have any proof?”

“Just a hunch.”

“She’s certainly smart enough to do it,” he mused. “What about her brother?”

“You reckon he could do it too?” Cressida asked.

“There were siblings not long ago that could communicate with one another through Legilimency and visions. If you want more proof, watch the brother. He’s your best bet at catching her out. They’ll be comfortable using it around one another if it’s true,” he said, getting to his feet.

She watched Thane turn to leave the library with the rest of the late-night readers being glared at by Miss Pince to leave before curfew hit.

“Nott,” she stopped him. He looked back over his shoulder. It was a split-second decision, one she didn’t quite know why she was making. “What do you know about a Mundungus Fletcher?”

He began to smirk. “Now where did you hear a name like that?”

 

Sunday 16th June 2019

 

Turns out Mundungus Fletcher was a low-life criminal. Traded stolen goods, and although was on the ‘right’ side during the war, Thane was adamant on the fact Fletcher was neither good nor bad, just simply out for himself.

He never pressured why she wanted to know more about the man.

Just answered any questions she had- which, in itself, weren’t many.

The one thing that did give her a glimpse of hope was the fact that, according to Thane, he was still very much alive and in hiding since the war.

And he had a location. A 'familiar lurking spot' as Thane called it. A place called Knockturn Alley.

“If you want to dig him up out of hiding, he’ll likely be there. I’ve heard a few people over the years have managed to strike a deal with him,” Thane had told her. “But for someone like you to find him won’t be easy. He’s not fond of strangers and he’s even less fond of strangers who can’t offer him anything in return.”

Nevertheless, Cressida felt like this wasn’t a complete bust.

“Thank you, Nott,” she said getting to her feet after multiple urges and comments from an inpatient Miss Pince. “For once, you’ve actually been useful to me.”

Thane bowed ever so slightly. “Sometimes it pays to have friends in low places.”

It sounded like a joke or some self-deprecating comment, but Cressida wasn’t completely sure of his use of the word ‘friends’ in it. She could’ve corrected him, but after he had just helped her, she saw no point in burning a badly built bridge as it was. Like Felix said. He could be decent when he wanted to be.

Instead, she offered no further comment and left the library. She could feel Thane’s eye follow her the whole way out, and then the distinct yelling of Miss Pince demanding Thane leave her precious library shortly after.

 

*

 

After her conversation with Thane, Cressida had spent the majority of her weekend on the hunt for clues that Arabella was a so-called ‘Legilimens’.

This greatly frustrated Molly, who after relentless badgering, came to the conclusion Cressida hadn’t even started her picture project for Sikander which was now due the following day. “You can’t do a whole project in one day, Cressida!” She shrieked as the group moved through the grounds.

“You doubt me, Mol,” Cressida wafted her concerns away. No sign of either wretched Chauncey sibling as of yet, and it was nearing late afternoon. She was losing daylight.

“You haven’t taken a single picture,” she continued on. “You haven’t got a theme. You haven’t started dissecting the meaning behind said pictures. Do you even know where your camera is ?”

“I’ll borrow yours,” she shrugged.

“You certainly will not!” Molly protested. “I’m having no part in this blatant lack of preparation.”

“You know for someone who wants no part in it, you’re rather persistent about being involved,” Felix pointed out, throwing a jelly bean into his mouth.

There. In the arches, Arabella was talking to her little fan club of friends along with her brother.

“I am not!” Molly huffed. “I just don’t want her to get a bad mark. This stupid project could affect our whole future!”

Cressida took the oncoming rant about grades and future prospects as a chance to swan away to a ledge on a corner where she’d be close enough to see and hear whatever Arabella was saying without being in plain view of her.

“Well, it’s no secret I’m aiming to get the best grades in the year gain,” Arabella was boasting to the group surrounding her. Now that Cressida was closer, she could see Margo was nestled in amongst the group and if she wasn’t mistaken, she swore she and Arabella were wearing matching headbands.

“Didn’t Molly Weasley win last year, though?” Declan pointed out in his usual bored drawl of a tone.

Arabella glared at him. Cressida leaned closer, waiting for the sign. The give away that they were communicating with one another without talking.

“I’m well aware Molly Weasley likes to parade around claiming to be the smartest witch of our year but that’s only because the poor girl has no other life than studying,” Arabella replied, throwing her hair over her shoulder with an airy laugh at her own comment.

Margo lifted her head from staring at the ground for the first time. “She is rather smart though… and most of her time was spent teaching the others-”

With one harsh look from Arabella, Margo’s mouth promptly closed without finishing her sentence. All eyes in the group were now on Margo as she shrunk herself back down to stare at the floor.

“I don’t know why you still insist on standing up for her, Margo,” Arabella went on. “She abandoned you for Knightly.”

Margo seemed to have no retort other than a small nod of agreement.

Appeased, Arabella flashed a smile to the group. “If you want my opinion, I don’t know why everyone thinks the girl is worth their time. I mean look at Potter. He follows her around like a lost puppy half the time when she’s hardly what you’d call… his standard.”

“I heard she’s still in the same robes from First Year,” Deliah said to the group.

“No wonder they hardly fit her anymore,” another replied.

“Maybe Potter will buy her some new ones for next year if he plans to continue parading around with the girl,” Declan added. “It appears as though he and his little crew are the only ones that can’t see what we can.”

“And what is that… exactly?” Margo asked.

“That Cressida Knightly is clearly using her friends to hide from the fact she’s a penny-less muggle-born,” Declan replied.

“Perhaps Knightly and her little friends aren’t as stupid as they seem, cosying up to the Potter and Weasley fortune this way,” Arabella continued. “I mean they have the largest fortune after the Blacks all died out. And you know what they say, Slytherins are known for being cunning…”

“Well, whatever she’s doing to Potter is clearly working,” Deliah said, following behind Arabella as she started to move on.

“Perhaps it's a love potion,” another one of the group laughed. “I can see no other explanation for why everyone loves her so much in that group.”

Cressida’s jaw clenched. Unbeknownst to Arabella she was leading her group in the direction Cressida was lingering, and as they got closer it was Margo who spotted her standing there first, and she knew from Cressida’s face alone that she had heard every word.

Despite fighting the urge to reach out and smash all their heads together, Cressida remained silent as they grew nearer. She had been there for a reason and she’ll be dammed if she left without significant proof now.

Margo lowered her gaze back to the floor as she shuffled along amongst the group still laughing at Cressida’s expense.

Arabella suddenly stopped laughing when she noticed Margo.

‘Come on,’ Cressida thought. ‘Look over here.’

And then, as if hearing her exact words loud and clear, her eyes found Cressida. Arabella’s face fell as she continued walking. Cressida’s eyes widened. Had she heard her?

It wasn’t enough proof, and then before she could do anything further, Arabella was gone around the corner with her friends.

Cressida’s jaw clenched in frustration. Mainly, because she was no closer to solving her self-inflicted puzzle, and secondly, because she had heard their harsh mutterings.

She wouldn’t be human if those comments didn’t sting. She looked down and pulled at the loose threads on her robes, the tiny burn from a spell gone wrong at the hands of Felix from Third Year, the way they were now too small for her after drowning her for the first two years she’d owned them.

“That’s not a very happy face,” a voice brought her out of her over-thinking.

She looked up to see James leaning against the wall beside her, an easy smile on his own face. “You never showed up at the lake with the others… or at the party planning. Where’ve you been hiding?

Cressida swallowed down her doubts. “Just about. Is everyone still at the lake?”

“I believe when I left them, Jac was trying to convince Finnigan to join to Quidditch team next year.”

“Good luck with that, Felix hates anything that involves movement or effort on his part,” Cressida replied.

“Why don’t you go and tell them that… or,” James checked there was no one around before wrapping his hands around her hips. “You and I could go somewhere, perhaps a kitchen raid followed by lolling about in the secret room while we kiss each other silly?”

“Are you sure the party can survive without your precious input?” She quipped, her mood brightened back up a bit.

“Molly’s already debunked my disco ball idea, I have nothing else to offer,” he said, turning her around and giving her a gentle push in the direction of the kitchens- decision made.

“Shame. A disco ball would’ve been cool,” Cressida mused as she followed James’ lead.

 

Wednesday 19th June 2019

 

Come Monday, Cressida knew her deadline for Sikander’s project was up. She could feel Molly’s eyes burning into her from the moment she woke up.

By lunch, she apparently couldn’t keep it contained anymore. “What exactly are you planning on giving Sikander in an hour's time?!” She’d whispered furiously over lunch.

“I have it sorted,” Cressida replied coolly, taking a bite of her sandwich. Truth be told she'd been up all night unable to sleep for a multitude of reasons. Arabella. The comments. Mundungus. The project.

But within her tossing and turning and after hours of staring at the pictures she possessed under her cushion to pass the time, an idea had struck her just in the nick of time to solve one of her problems.

Molly sighed. “I didn’t want to have to do this, Cressida.”

Felix and Jac took interest then, peering over to see what Molly was about to do.

From within her bag, Molly pulled out a second scrapbook and pushed it across the table to her. “It’s full of information and pictures of Bowtruckles. Figured it made sense considering you do Care of Magical Creatures.”

Jac snatched the book and flipped through it. “You extorted Groot for school work without telling me?”

“How did she get him to pose like that?” Felix asked impressed, looking over Jac’s shoulder. “More importantly, did you Reducio my old Halloween costume?”

“I don’t need to steal your work, Mol,” Cressida said, ignoring the image of Groot in a tiny cowboy hat at the hands of Molly.

“Oh, that’s not mine.” She pulled out a scrapbook overflowing at the sides and filled to the brim with a strong scent of lavender. “ This is mine.”

“Wow, do you need a life,” Felix muttered. Molly scowled at him, snatching the book back from the pair of them.

“Honestly, Mol. Thanks, but I don’t need it.” Cressida pulled out her own seemingly empty scrapbook. It had taken her less than five minutes to do but she thought it was perhaps the best thing she could’ve done. And it actually meant something to her. If that didn’t hit Sikander’s brief she didn’t know what would.

“Give us a look then!” Felix persisted, reaching over for it.

Cressida placed it firmly back in her hobo bag. “It’s not for you to judge. It’s for Sikander.”

“What did you do it on after?” Jac asked curiously.

Cressida shrugged, getting to her feet. Lunch was nearly over. “I’m sure Molly will tell you once the lesson’s over,” she said departing from the table.

Molly’s eye gave a faint twitch as she watched her go. “I hate when she does that.”

Felix and Jac used their sandwiches to cover their amused grins.

 

*

When it came time to submit their projects, Sikander called each person up one by one and asked them to explain what their project had been about and why they had chosen it.

Molly, as expected, had gone with her idea of categorizing Hogwarts’ natural flora and fauna and gave the second longest presentation- only beat by James, whose project had been on his favourite topic. His own life.

It had detailed pages explaining the family tree, some pictures he had drawn in of his family that weren’t in Hogwarts. The family who were in Hogwarts didn’t fare much better, however. Rose had been caught off guard by the pictures on her specific page it seemed, as they were all slightly blurry and she wasn’t looking in James’ direction. Cressida wondered if she even knew James had taken photos of her or if he was simply hiding in a bush or behind a pillar in order to capture them. Molly wasn’t smiling in a single picture James had put in of her, although, she at least looked like she had expected to have her picture taken and wasn’t a blurry mess in any of them. And there was only one picture of Albus. It was of him walking towards James in the hall, hands in his pockets and overgrown fringe in his eyes. He was apparently really photogenic without even trying.

Obviously, the majority of the book was taken up by any pose and photobomb Thomas, Fred and James could manage themselves. There were photos taken with the three of them hiding under desks. One where Thomas looked like he was floating in mid-air. James holding an abnormally large Mandrake beside Neville in Herbology. The Quidditch team during practices. Somehow, and even Sikander seemed surprised by this, they had managed to get a selfie of the three of them with McGonagall.

Their group of friends were featured too, in small amounts. The odd photo of Jac and Fred. Thomas and Felix sharing sweets. Cressida and Molly covering their faces with textbooks.

Clearly, James was very proud of himself and Sikander deemed his scrapbook a job well done as he retook his seat.

Thomas’ presentation wasn’t much of a mystery even before he went up. They had endured a ten-minute talk on Quidditch with documentation of every single piece of kit used in a game, and every bit of uniform along with an explanation about its importance. He even had diagrams, with Fred and James acting out an array of different positions and tricks.

Cressida thought it would be mildly impressive if only she cared half as much about the game as much as he did.

Finally, toward the end of the lesson, Sikander called her name and she took her place at the front.

“And what is your scrapbook about, Miss Knightly?” Professor Sikander asked.

Now that she was here, and after seeing everyone’s amount of detail, she was beginning to wonder whether this was too much of a risk on her part. “Family,” Cressida answered finally. 

Molly instantly looked confused, knowing- in her opinion anyway- that Cressida didn’t have a family worth presenting. She instantly turned to James, who seemingly had the same perplexed expression.

Sikander nodded and started flipping through the scrapbook. His face fell when page after page was empty. It appeared as though there were no photos in it at all until he got to the very last page.

The professor met Cressida's eye line and gave a small smile.

He never said anything further. He never even showed the class the one and only picture in the book. He simply closed it and passed it back to her for safekeeping. 

“A touching scrapbook indeed, Miss Knightly. Thank you for sharing it with me.”

Cressida returned to her seat contently.

There had been pestering. Of course, there had been. She'd expected from both the boys and Molly alike. Even April had sneakily tried to ask what was in her scrapbook and why Sikander hadn't shown hers like he had the others. 

Cressida never told them and she never showed them. They didn't need to know as far as she was concerned. It was her project and hers alone. 

It was her photo. She had been given it after all. Only it wasn’t to show her mum she had friends. It was to remind herself she had them, at least for now.

Four boys and two girls. No uniforms in sight. Just happiness and laughter. Enjoying each other's company on the grass.

It was the most important thing to her. 

It was a photo of her family. Those closest to her. The ones she hoped to never live without.

Once the lesson was done with, Cressida didn’t even make it a step out the door before she was whisked out of sight and into a tiny hiding hole by James, leaving Molly to wander around in circles wondering where she'd gone.

“Nice job in there, Knightly. Very secretive. Had Molly pulling her curls out,” James said as they settled against the cold stone walls facing each other. “Come on then, fess up. What was in the book?” He asked.

“Nothing of your concern,” she replied. “It was designed to be a secret and stay that way.”

James’ intrigue only seemed to grow. “You said it was about family?”

“It was,” she confirmed.

“But-” he faltered, clearly not wanting to say the words he and Molly had both been thinking. ‘ You don’t have a family.’

“Alright, how about this,” he offered, veering left of the subject. “I’ll show you my secret thing if you show me yours.”

“Sounds dirty,” she joked.

He poked his tongue in cheek, amused by the comment but pushing forward.

James pulled out his wallet and produced a folded-over Polaroid from within it, offering it out to her.

Intrigued, she took the Polaroid between her fingers and opened it.

It was of her sitting in Charms, on the desk in front of his. She’d been turned around in her seat slightly towards him, as Flitwick had come to learn Cressida was often ‘helping’ the three boys perform whatever charm or spell he’d required of them that day and didn’t care she spent half the lesson backwards now. This time, however, Cressida was simply facing the tiny professor as he gave a demonstration, chin resting on her fist, eyes staring off into the distance. Wand secured firmly in her tied-up hair. She looked at ease. In fact, considering this was one of the few pictures she’d seen of herself in the fifteen years she’d been alive, she felt James had somehow made her look… pretty.

She didn’t even know he’d taken it.

“I took it when you weren’t paying attention,” James said, taking it back once Cressida had taken it in. “The best one I took, personally. Far too good to waste on a scrapbook.”

She watched him fold it back in half, slip it back into his wallet and shove it into his robe pocket for safekeeping.

“How long have you been carrying that everywhere with you?”

“Since the day after we got the cameras,” he smiled, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Now, you going to tell me what was in your scrapbook?”

Cressida pushed herself off her side of the wall and fell forward into him, wrapping her hands around him, smiling to herself. “Just know that it was very special to me... and that you don't need to see it for yourself."

He eyed her up suspiciously. "You're being very cryptic. Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm feeling sentimental," she replied. "It doesn't happen often."

"Well, I like you being sentimental in that case," he smiled back. "Shows you actually have emotions like a normal person."

She swatted him on the side of the head lightly. "And you had to ruin it by being an ass," she said moving herself away from him.

James grabbed her hand and pulled her back for a kiss before releasing her again. "How would you and your newfound emotions like to join the others for some last-minute party planning?"

"Depends if there will be snacks," she bargained.

"If Felix is there, it can only be assumed," James said leading the way.

Chapter 97: Fourth Year: Countdown

Monday 24th June 2019

 

The final exam of the year had been to meet Whimbrel in the basements of the castle and enter a dark room one by one to use the appropriate hexes and curses to repel a Red Cap like they had been ‘revising’ over the last few months. The only issue with that was Whimbrel failed to mention which spells were most effective and tended to veer off more so into stories about how he repelled them… which half the time, wasn’t effective at all.

It appeared that the results when students came out of the room were fifty-fifty. Molly, as expected, had claimed to do it by the book- a book Whimbrel had not provided by the sounds- and subdued the creature without causing it harm. Whimbrel, although finding nothing wrong with this approach, seemed bored by it as ‘there was no fight from either party’.

Felix had come out fairing rather well, even if he was a bit longer in there than some of the others and out of breath by the time he resurfaced. “Scrappy little bastard, isn’t he?” He commented as he rejoined the others waiting.

Margo had apparently managed to freeze the creature to one spot long enough for Whimbrel to allow her the win.

Jac had come out victorious, although she had a nasty scratch on her ankle from the creature that required her to be sent to Madam Pomfrey for closer examination.

“Great, I’m going to end up with rabies right before summer,” she complained limping over to the group after exiting the room.

“If it helps, Red Caps aren’t known to carry rabies,” Molly tried to comfort her.

“That does look like it’ll need stitches though,” Felix frowned at her new wound.

With a roll of her eyes and a glare at Whimbrel as she went, Jac limped off towards the infirmary while the others stayed to watch the last remaining students go in.

Arabella was next, and even Cressida had to admit she didn’t look confident as she lined up to go in.

Still thinking in the back of her mind about her theory, and about Arabella's cruel words and how she deemed herself the smartest of them all, Cressida ventured a bit closer to the door, just behind her. If this didn’t work, she didn’t know what would.

‘I hope she doesn’t use the Bombarda charm,’ Cressida thought to herself . ‘That is going to be my secret trick to ensure a good mark.’

“Are ye ready Miss Chauncey?” Whimbrel asked, hand on the door handle.

Arabella took a deep breath, suddenly straightening out her shoulders with new-found confidence without even looking back. “I’m ready.”

She and Whimbrel entered the room. The others waited outside patiently like they had with every other person.

Cressida watched the timer Whimbrel had set up to count everyone’s times. The quickest to dispel the creature would get a better mark, and there were extra points for flare.

It had only been two minutes before there was a loud bang from within the room.

Everyone crowded around closer, wondering what was going on inside the room as smoke billowed out from under the crack in the door.

Cressida remained exactly where she was, a smile creeping onto her lips.

“What do you suppose that was?” Molly asked, as curious as all the others.

The door was pulled open and Whimbrel and Arabella reappeared.

“We are going to have to take a brief intermission as Miss Chauncey has exploded our Red Cap subject,” the professor said, holding nothing but a scorched piece of red fabric in his hand. “Luckily, Hagrid and I wrangled a second one just in case something like this happened. I’ll only be a wee moment.”

Arabella suddenly looked very sheepish as she joined the back of the group, saying nothing on the matter as Whimbrel left the corridor.

“Why on earth would she explode it?” Felix pondered. “Even I know the whole point of the task is to disarm it.”

“Guess she had some bad advice from somewhere,” Cressida shrugged nonchalantly. She felt Arabella’s eyes seek her out at her comment and glare at her.

Cressida looked back unabashed. ‘I know what you are,’ she thought.

Arabella's eyes grew wide and her jaw clenched. She had fallen right into Cressida's trap.

Cressida’s smile grew a tiny bit bigger. Even if she did shit in this exam, she’d know she won in one way or another.

After another couple minutes, Whimbrel returned and released a second, seemingly even angrier Red Cap into the room and shut the door on it.

“Right. Back to business. Dalia, you’re up,” Whimbrel ordered.

Dalia did not look pleased to be the first up against the new creature, but like everyone else, walked up to the door to take her turn.

She came out looking worse than she went in, and Whimbrel commemorated her efforts, but with a time of nine minutes, it was at the lower end of the class performance.

There were two more people before Cressida’s name was called.

“Good luck, Cress,” Felix patted her on the back.

“Don’t forget, they move fast but aren’t the smartest,” Molly whispered to her as she started walking. “Don’t think, just do-”

“No more hints, thank you, Miss Weasley!” Whimbrel called over the top of her as Cressida came to a stop beside him.

The door opened and they both went into the dark room.

Three minutes and twenty seconds later, Cressida came back out after successfully disarming the tiny dwarvish-like creature with a nasty attitude. She wasn’t the fastest of the class, but she wasn’t the slowest either, and that was something she could be happy about.

 

 

Thursday 4th July 2019

 

Now that all the exams were done with, Cressida knew the time would fly by before the end of the year came.

She had been counting them down day by day.

Sixteen days was all that was left.

Three hundred and eighty-four hours until another year at Hogwarts was done with. How many of those hours would be spent laughing with Jac? Learning new spells from Molly? Sharing sweets with Felix? Being around Potter? Being able to sense Thomas and Fred sneaking around a nearby corner after a run-in with Peeves.

Either way, Cressida was very aware that in September she’d be a Fifth Year. After that, only two more years at Hogwarts existed. The thought was perhaps scarier than returning home to face her mum during summer in the first place.

Maybe she should’ve taken Molly’s talk about the future more seriously.

Until then, however, she vowed to enjoy every second of those three hundred hours until the day she got on that train to go back to Conwell.

That meant, no more worry about Arabella and her apparent secret skill. That could wait until September. She couldn’t do anything to benefit from that bit of knowledge right now, but she knew next year she’d have Arabella right where she wanted her.

Instead, she was indulging herself in her friends.

If all went to plan, the remaining two weeks at Hogwarts could resume peacefully. To Cressida and her friends, that meant endless days spent by the lake laughing and taking in the summer sun. The boys were still steaming ahead with their party plans and even Molly in her new relaxed state didn’t deter them from their grandiose ideas.

Unfortunately for Cressida, however, that meant being roped into the final bit of party planning before the big day that was fast approaching.

“As it’s the end of year party, it’s got to be big!” Fred embellished as they had all gathered on the grass by the lake.

“Naturally,” Felix agreed, with only a small hint of sarcasm. He and Cressida were sharing a packet of Doritos Seamus had sent Felix as a treat for having half as many detentions as the previous year. Cressida secretly thought that McGonagall just gave up writing home about all the trouble they got up to as a collective. Still, she was glad for the Doritos in front of her. Muggle snacks were a rare commodity in Hogwarts.

“And that means we’re going to need an extra big and bouncy play-list from our resident DJ Jacqueline,” James went on.

“Um… well, about that,” Jac frowned. “McGonagall blew up my CD player… so I have nothing to play music on.”

“No music?!” Thomas repeated appalled. “How can we have a party with no music?!”

“I wouldn’t argue with her, Wood,” Molly chimed in over her book. “You lot are the reason McGonagall had to destroy the thing in the first place.”

Thomas shrank back down slightly. “Oh yeah…”

“No matter,” James said then. “We can borrow Teddy’s old record player.”

“A record player?” Cressida questioned skeptically. “Isn’t the music for that thing going to be… you know…”

“Shit and old?” Felix finished for her.

“Not if it belonged to Teddy,” Fred corrected them. “He’d have all the classics from over the years. I think it used to belong to Remus too, so he has some of his vinyls too.”

“From the seventies and eighties?” Jac perked up.

“Probably,” James confirmed. “It’s still down in Hufflepuff’s Common Room somewhere. He hid it under his floorboards and left it there.”

“Looks like we need to sweet talk some Hufflepuffs then,” Felix said.

“Clover Macmillan would be the best in,” Fred said.

“Who’s Clover MacMillan?” Cressida asked.

“Hufflepuff Quidditch Chaser,” Thomas said. “Could easily talk her into helping. She’s got a soft spot for us, I think. Always congratulates our team even when we beat her side.”

“ Everyone has a soft spot for you,” Molly grumbled. “Godric knows why.”

“This Clover… is she cute?” Jac asked suddenly.

“Not swapping sides on me are you, Redwick?” Fred joked.

“No, not for me! ” Jac rolled her eyes. “I’m thinking for Wood.”

“Of course!” Felix twigged on then. “You still never found a bird to snog.”

“You put it so elegantly, Finnigan,” Molly quipped.

“Shit, I completely forgot about that,” Fred said, a bit guilty. “Don’t suppose you managed to sort this out yourself did you, Woodie?”

Thomas’ mood deflated instantly. “What do you think?”

“Even after the flyers and reward money you put out?” Cressida teased.

Thomas did not see the funny side.

“I genuinely thought those would work in your favour, Tommo,” James said apologetically.

“It’s fine,” Thomas moped pathetically. “I’ll just die alone like some old spinster.”

“Oh, for Merlin’s sake!” Felix sighed. He shoved the Doritos into Cressida’s lap and hoisted himself up to look around. He spotted a target and whistled loudly. Georgia Jordan turned around, startled. “Jordan. You know Wood pretty well, right?”

She curiously edged closer to them on the green. She offered Thomas a friendly smile once she saw him sitting amongst the group. “Sure, we spent a whole day recapping Quidditch history once. It was well fun. No one else will listen to me talk about Quidditch anymore-”

“Amazing news,” Felix interrupted her. James and Fred were watching it unfold in front of them with silent admiration. “Hey, Tommo here reckons he needs a date to this stupid end of year thing.”

Thomas suddenly became beetroot red. “Oh, now hang on-”

“I’d love to!” Georgia jumped in.

“You would?” Molly questioned.

“I would,” Georgia confirmed.

“She would!” Felix said elated. “Brilliant. He’ll pick you up from your common room at about eight. Wear something… quidditch-y, I guess, if that’s what you’re both into.”

“Alright, sounds fun. See you then!” Georgia smiled, waving goodbye to them and hurrying off inside the castle.

“What the ever-loving fuck just happened?” Fred asked after a moment of silence.

“ I just got Tommo a date, which hopefully, if he doesn’t bore her to death, could result in his first snog,” Felix said proudly, shoving another Dorito in his mouth.

“Finnigan was the secret all along!” James embellished, shoving himself across the group to be shoulder-to-shoulder with him. “Say, Felix, we’ve been workshopping having a fourth-”

“Absolutely fucking not,” Felix stopped him, shoving James back a bit causing him to land comfortably in Cressida’s lap. “I’ve got my girls, I have no interest in whatever the hell you lot get up to in your pass time. Quite frankly, it seems like too much effort to keep up with.”

“I’m sorry !” Thomas spoke up then, in a haughty tone that wasn’t much like him. “Can we just circle back to the fact I now have a bloody date and no idea what to do with her?!”

“Talk about sports, dance, try and kiss her if you think she won’t punch you in the face afterwards. You’ll be grand,” Felix said, passing the bag of crisps to Cressida.

“And we’ll be there for when this inevitably goes up in flames,” Cressida teased with a smile, bringing a Dorito to her mouth.

James, now residing across her legs still, reached up and stole it for himself. “Don’t listen to the known pessimist, Wood. Take Felix’s advice. You’ll be grand ,” he repeated in a terrible Irish accent that ventured slightly Scottish.

Felix tipped the bag up over his head, covering him in cheesy crumbs as punishment for such blasphemy of his accent.

 

*

That night, much to Cressida surprise, she was shaken awake by Jac near midnight. Annoyingly, she had been just drifted off to sleep alongside Rasper in her bed after getting back from a quick wander through the hall in the moonlight with James an hour before Jac's disturbance.

Needless to say, Cressida was up and about again whether she liked it or not. 
“Just come on!” Jac urged her as they went through the secret passageway. “It’s been ages since we snuck out just you and me. I wanted to do something before the end of the year like we used to!”

"The reason you and I haven't snuck around as much this year is because we've already explored everything. Plus, you've been all cozied up with Freddie," Cressida whispered as they poked their heads out of the other side of the tapestry, checking for Filch.

Jac looked back at her with a small frown. "Hey, you've been busy too. You always used to drag me out of bed and it feels like this year... I don't know, it feels like you've just been elsewhere."

Cressida looked back at her guiltily. She hadn't considered that while she was up with James, Jac was hoping she was around like she used to be. "I guess I have been..."

Jac offered her a smile. "It's not just your fault. I've been putting a lot of time into Freddie this year, too, you're right about that. I just don't want us to get so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to hang out, just us. Like we used to."

"I promise when we come back from summer, we'll make time to sneak around just us," Cressida said. "Like before. Even if it's just us listening to music until sunrise."

"Pinky promise?" Jac asked.

She held out her pinky finger. Cressida interlocked her own around it with a smile.

"Pinky Promise."

With that, the two girls continued on their way.

Jac led Cressida all the way up to the secret room.

“So, what’s the surprise?” Cressida asked.

Jac grinned, placing a large trunk Cressida had never seen before in the middle of the room. “Fred and the boys saw Clover earlier today after our talk on the green.”

Cressida’s interest was piqued. “Is that-”

Jac opened the box and wafted away the puff of dust that came after. “Teddy’s old record player. Including all of his albums.”

She wasted no time pulling it out of the box and setting it up while Cressida sifted through the records and vinyl. “Christ, James wasn’t kidding. Some of these are originals from the eighties.”

“ABBA, Pink Floyd, Cher, The Beatles, Queen, Bowie, Billy Joel,” Jac beamed. “There’s even a few Elvis in there too. Teddy’s dad had good taste.”

“Remus was always in charge of music,” Sirius said then suddenly in the room with them, trying to peer down from his portrait at all the vinyls he probably spent so much time with when he was at Hogwarts. He had a soft reminiscent look on his face like he missed it. “Couldn’t stand ABBA though, that was Lily’s.”

Cressida found a pile of much more recent music. Bruno Mars, Nirvana, The Killers, 1975, The Kooks. “These must be Teddy’s additions.”

“Start gathering a pile for the party!” Jac said, already setting aside a large pile.

The two girls continued sifting through at rapid speed, holding Vinyl sleeves up to one another for a yay or nay and discarding them into the appropriate pile.

“My mum loves this album,” Cressida said pulling out ‘Eyes Open’ by Snow Patrol. “Her favourite song is track three.”

Jac took the album from her and immediately put it on the turning table and searched for the beginning of the song with the needle.

The familiar piano notes filled the room.

‘We’ll do it all. Everything. On our own-’

Cressida found herself smiling at the memory of the song. At the memory of Dayle and her mum when she was happy.

“It’s a bit dreary,” Sirius commented unimpressed.

Jac looked to Cressida and saw her face as she listened contently. “It’ll be good for towards the end of the night,” she said. “I’ll add it to the list for the party.”

“If you’re looking for a good party song, Mott The Hopple always got everyone in a good mood,” Sirius mused then. “I think their album should still be in there. Remus wouldn’t dare part with it.”

“What’s the album?” Jac asked.

“All the Young Dudes,” Sirius said.

 

 

Friday 5th July 2019

 

Leading up to the big day, Jac and Fred continued to be their usual love-dovey selves gushing to one another about how they were going to miss each other over the summer and that they had to make the most out of their ‘last hoorah for Fourth Year’.

But following their new promise to one another, Cressida and Jac spent at least an hour every night alone in the hexagonal room continuing to go through the vinyl box to find the best ones to play at the party.

During this time, Jac admitted that her mum had only agreed to let her go up to visit the Burrow one night, and that was for James’ birthday. Apparently, Cressida’s bad influence had finally caught up to them and nothing could change Shari Redwick’s mind once it had been made up. In Jac’s words, her mum saw more than one night in the company of them all as ‘an invitation for trouble’.

Cressida had apologised but Jac claimed she didn’t care. She knew her mum was only going to get worse as she was older, and she secretly thought her mum had twigged onto the fact she was seeing Fred after last year’s letters over the summer… so it wasn’t entirely Cressida’s fault in Jac's eyes.

What was Cressida’s fault, however, was the fact she couldn’t give James a straight answer on when she would be going to the Burrow and how long for.

She’d snuck up to his room and was lying beside him in the early hours of the morning as James gave her his best puppy-dog eyes. Considering the big event they’d been waiting for was less than forty-eight hours away, James was instead fixated on badgering her about the summer rather than talking about the big party for once.

“But why aren’t you spending the whole summer at the Burrow?” He’d asked for the third time that night alone.

“Because I have stuff I need to sort with my mum.”

“Is that stuff really more important than an invitation to sneak into my room for the whole summer and eat my grandmother’s cakes?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” she’d said dismally, momentarily thinking back to Christmas. She’d decided to herself on her now occasional night of aimless thinking and pondering that she and her mother couldn’t go on this way. Cressida was determined to find a way to break her trance and get her old mother back- with or without Dayle. After all, nothing could be worse than when she was with Gareth, so things could only go up from there. And, truth be told… she just missed her mum. She had been upset at the time, but knowing how she left things back at Christmas, it had been dwelling on her with every minute closer returning to Conwell came.

She sighed and rolled over to face James on the bed. “As lush as that sounds, I don’t think you’re family would appreciate us sneaking around under their noses in your own home and then me eating all your food.”

James rolled onto his stomach with a wide grin. “I love it when you use the word lush. It’s so Welsh.”

“Maybe that’s because I am Welsh.”

“Go on then, speak Welsh to me,” he waggled his eyebrows enticingly.

Cressida rolled her eyes, shoving his face away playfully. “I’m not very good. I can only say one or two things I learned as a kid. No one back home even speaks it.”

“Say what you can then,” he pressed

“Wouldn’t you rather talk about your grandiose party tomorrow?” She tried changing the subject.

“There will be music, we’ll dance, you’ll look dazzling, I’ll be my usual charming self, our friends won’t even notice us kissing right in front of them. What’s more to talk about?” He listed off methodically. “Now. I’m feeling rather worldly and demand to learn a new language. Clearly, Irish is off the table but Welsh … now that’s a tiny country I can get behind.”

Cressida remained silent.

James poked her in the ribs until she bucked with laughter. “You know I won’t give up until you do it-”

“Alright, fine!” She surrendered, just so he’d stop making her laugh. She took a moment to think back; it’d been so long since she’d heard any Welsh be spoken at all that it was hard to recall even the basics now, but luckily, some things had stuck. “Dw i’n hoffi coffi.”

James was holding back a laugh. “What does that mean?”

Cressida was trying not to laugh herself now. “I like coffee.”

James’ laugh spilled out of him. “That’s brilliant!” He gushed. “I think I love the Welsh language now. What is love in Welsh?”

Cressida racked the very back of her brain. “Cariad, I think.”

“Cariad,” James repeated softly, his thumb making tiny circles on her arm as they both led there. “I like it. What’s that other word you use… the one when we’re in bed sometimes?”

“Cwtch?” Cressida asked.

“Yeah, that one,” James smiled at her. “I cariad cwtching with you.”

Cressida laughed at his overly posh and English pronunciation. “Close enough,” she grinned as she entangled herself with him under the covers. “I cariad cwtching with you too.”

James’ green eyes were fixated on her as they were nose to nose. He momentarily took a breath in as if to say something further, but as Cressida stared back at him, he seemed to think better of it.

Cressida, knowing the word love had been thrown around without thought, suddenly feared what James would have said and decided against asking. Now finding his gaze far too intense to even look back at him fully, she instead buried her face into the nape of his neck and took a deep breath in for herself.

“So, about this party,” she changed the subject quickly. “What time do you want us there?”

“Um,” James started, clearly with his mind elsewhere. “Seven should be good. That way Jac can get the music going before other people start arriving”

“Seven it is then,” she agreed softly. They still weren’t looking at each other. “Goodnight, James.”

“Goodnight, Cressida.”

She knew James’ breathing pattern well by now. The distinct rise and fall in his chest. She’d fallen asleep to its rhythm countless times. Only tonight, something was off.

James was holding his breath.

 

*

 

As soon as morning broke, Cressida pulled her knitted jumper over her strappy pyjama top and grabbed her Vans from under James’ bed. Luckily for her, she knew Thomas and Fred slept like the dead, especially when there was no fear of a surprise early morning Quidditch training session. So, with one last look over her shoulder at a still slumbering James, she slipped out of the covers and made her descent down the tower before the rest of the castle woke up.

She’d made it all the way back to the dungeons undetected, something she was getting rather good at now with the use of the secret passageways, and broke into her dorm room only to be nearly be taken out by a book as she opened the door.

“What the fuck are you doing?” She asked, ducking under Jac’s hair brush hurtling towards her next. “It’s six in the morning?”

“It’s gone!” Molly shrieked from the middle of the room.

Cressida rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked to Jac’s bed, to find Felix sitting beside her on it- both looking like the walking dead at this early hour. Margo’s bed was empty, but that wasn’t out of the norm lately. She’d been bunking with Vonce more this year than in her own room since the falling out. “What’s gone?” She asked, looking back to Molly.

“The book,” Felix yawned.

“Where were you all night anyway?” Jac asked curiously.

“Never mind where she was?!” Molly continued on her rampage. Cressida was slightly glad to avoid the question. “ Where is the damn book!?”

“Which book?” Cressida asked, hoping Molly would calm down soon. It was an amazement she hadn’t woken the whole castle at this rate.

“ The book! Potter’s book, our book!” She explained irritably. “It’s gone!”

“Did you put it somewhere you haven’t looked yet?” Felix offered unhelpfully.

Molly froze, slowly turning toward him with a murderous glare. “Meeting. Now.” She suddenly ordered, storming over to the dresser and hastily scribbling something down on parchment paper.

“A meeting?” Jac frowned. “But we’re all here.”

Molly folded the paper into an airplane and sent it flying out the opening door with a flick of her wand. “Not all of us.”

With that, Molly stormed out after the airplane. Soon after, all of Molly's books rose themselves into the air and shot out after her in an orderly queue. The three remaining Slytherins glanced at each other and then, silently and keeping their disgruntlement to themselves, they too left the dorm room.

Twenty minutes later, the Slytherins and the Gryffindors were all groggily and dazedly huddled around the hexagonal room to varying degrees of alertness.

Molly was standing in front of the window, arms folded and tapping her foot irritated. Beside her were three neatly piled stacks of books of all shapes and sizes.

“Are we starting an early-bird book club?” Fred had joked through a yawn.

“We most certainly are not,” Molly replied sternly.

“Are we about to get yelled at?” James asked.

“My bet is yes,” Thomas muttered to them. They all knew that look on Molly’s face well. A lecture was coming, and it wasn’t about to be a good one.

“You may have noticed my pile of books from this year, categorized and organized meticulously to the utmost accuracy,” Molly started. “Would you like to know what wasn’t in my very specific and organized collection of books?”

“A guide to overcoming a compulsive need to organize?” Felix asked light-heartedly.

“No,” Molly frowned.

“That much was obvious,” Fred quipped.

“What I didn’t find was the very important and crucial book of potions passed down from Uncle Harry,” Molly went on, ignoring the jokes. “Would someone like to explain where the Advanced Potions book has gone containing all of those annotations that basically prove we cheated for the last year!”

The group went silent, looking at one another.

Molly’s paranoia grew. “Please tell me one of you numb-nuts has it and forgot to mention it.”

Cressida snorted out a laugh at the fact Molly used the phrase she had clearly picked up from Felix.

James and Fred looked at one another instantly. “I thought you had it.”

“Well, if neither of you has it, Tommo must have it,” Cressida reasoned.

“Don’t look at me, Fred had it last I saw!” Thomas protested.

“And I gave it to Molly,” he offhanded the blame.

“And I kept it safe in my trunk where it belonged until James came searching for it,” Molly said then.

“And I gave it to Knightly to quiz me,” James admitted.

“I had it in my bag until Felix and Jac took it from me the night before the exam for some final revision,” Cressida shrugged.

“To which they were instructed to return it to my trunk at the end of my bed in the morning,” Molly pointed out.

“I haven’t seen it since that night, come to think of it,” Felix mused then.

They all sat staring at one another then, at a loss on where the book had gone.

“Oh my God, it’s my fault!” Jac gasped suddenly. “Felix decided he was too tired to study, so he went to bed. I must have dozed off myself, and then when I woke up I came back to the dorm room for some sleep but I must have left the book on the sofa.”

“So anyone could have it right now?” Molly paled.

“Worse- anyone in Slytherin,” Fred muttered. All three girls frowned at him. “No offence to you lot, but you get why this is bad… right?”

“Freddie’s right,” Thomas agreed. “Don’t forget there are some nasty potions and spells in that book that shouldn’t be.”

“And who’s fault is that?!” Molly snapped. “I told you not to put those ridiculous spells in there like the original!”

“Hey, the book hasn’t gone missing in all the time we were the only ones in charge of it,” James argued back.

“This wasn’t Jac’s fault completely,” Cressida stood up to him on Jac’s behalf. “We all left the book unattended at one point or another. Jac just got unlucky she was the last one to have it.”

“So what are our options?” Jac asked meekly. “How do we find it?”

“We search our common room as a first point of call,” Molly said. “Leave no cushion unturned.”

“We’ll get into Filch’s office through the trap door and check he’s not confiscated it from someone,” James suggested then.

“In that case, we should check the Potions classroom,” Cressida added on. “Slughorn keeps a pile of spare books at the back. Could’ve gotten mixed up with those.”

The group all dispersed to follow their suggestions with urgency. The trio of boys headed towards Filch’s office, and Molly and Jac went to Slughorn’s classroom. Meanwhile, Felix and Cressida ran towards their common room.

“When we get in there, look for Nott,” Cressida said as they rushed down the stairs.

“You think he’s seen it and not said anything?” Felix asked doubtfully.

“If anyone will have seen it and not said anything… it’d be him,” she said surely.

 

*

 

By noon, it was apparent the book had alluded them completely. Flich’s office had been a bust- and led to a detention once Filch saw the three heads handling out of the ceiling of his office. McGonagall assured the miserable caretaker that that secret way into his ‘private space’ would be promptly blocked off.

Molly and Jac had spent two hours searching Slughorn’s collection of books and his classroom cupboards from head to toe. Only when Jac suggested breaking into Slughorn’s office as well, did Molly call it a day saying that them all getting detention for snooping around would look suspicious and draw more attention to the book missing in the first place.

Cressida and Felix had even less luck. Upon entering the common room, there was no sign of Nott or any of his usual crowd. Not even Scorpius had seen him in the last few days.

“I think they leave the grounds,” he said off-handedly to the two of them in the middle of playing exploding snap with Albus. “They think they can get away with it. I heard Valentina say so when she was berating Goyle for not going to the Hog’s Head with them once their last exam was done.”

“Hog’s Head?” Felix pulled a face. “Jesus, why would they go there ? It’s an absolute dive.”

“No eyes on them,” Albus pointed out. “The owner of that pub doesn’t care who comes and goes as long as they pay. If they wandered in the Three Broomsticks looking for trouble every night, Madam Rosmerta would let McGonagall know before they could even get a fire whiskey in.”

“How they’re leaving, I have no idea,” Scorpius admitted then. “I tried catching them out, but now Valentina doesn’t need me carrying her books around they want me out of sight and out of the way.” He put down a winning card, much to the displeasure of Albus. “At least they aren’t banning me from hanging out with Albus anymore. It means I can spend the last few weeks exactly how I want them.”

Cressida and Felix glanced at each other, and without saying anything further to the two Second Years, they turned away.

“I have a way into town,” Cressida whispered as they moved through the common room. “James has shown it to me. No one would see us. It’d be easy.”

“Cressida, are you mad?” Felix retorted. “We don’t even know if Nott has seen this stupid book, never mind leaving school grounds to go ask him. Molly’s already said to try and keep a low profile after the Gryffingang’s mishap with Filch. If we get caught all the way out there, with Nott no less, we won’t have time to find the book with the amount of detentions we’ll be given.”

Cressida came to a stop in the middle of their alcove. Begrudgingly, she knew he was right. “Well, don’t just stand there like a lemon then,” she sighed. “We’ll have to look for the book ourselves and hope it’s in here.”

Chapter 98: Fourth Year: Saturday Night's Alright pt.1

Saturday 6th July 2019

 

The book, much to everyone’s annoyance, hadn’t miraculously appeared in the common room either.

The Slyther-squad had even skipped breakfast the next day to up-turn every inch of their common room a second time just in case.

By lunch, Molly was beginning to get incredibly worried about its whereabouts. So much so, that she nearly begged the boys to cancel the party so they could keep scouring the castle looking for it.

“We need this party, Weasley!” Felix had told her desperately over the table.

“I agree,” Jac chimed in, adding croutons to her soup. “After how hard exams were this year, we need a break to have some fun. And you never know, the book might just show up-”

“The book will not just show up ,” Molly huffed. Her shepherd's pie had gone stone cold from being untouched.

Felix and Jac looked to Cressida. She was mid-bite of her own lunch. What they expected her to say to cheer Molly up she didn’t know, but clearly, they were waiting for something profound. “Look Mol, let’s just get through this party tonight and then first thing tomorrow we’ll find it.”

“Barring the extreme hangover I plan to have,” Felix added unhelpfully.

Molly glared at him.

“Have we thought to use a spell to find it?” Jac suggested.

Molly mushed her pie around with her spoon dismally. “I tried a summoning spell earlier. All it did was send every Advanced Potions book in the castle hurtling towards me.”

“That’s an image I would’ve loved to have seen,” Felix laughed.

Then, the conversation was quickly altered by McGonagall's approach. “Good afternoon, ladies… and Finnigan,” she greeted them before plonking a large and bulging package on the table in front of them. “This arrived for you this morning but seeing as none of you were present to collect it, I figured now would be a suitable time to pass it on.”

“Thank you, Head Mistress,” Jac said, trying to contain her excitement for what was inside the package they’d just been given. It appeared as though Victorie’s dresses had arrived for the party tonight. McGonagall quirked an eyebrow. “I must say, it’s odd for a package such as this to arrive so late in the year. A special occasion, is it?”

The group all glanced at each other. “My birthday?” Felix tried. Molly looked down in immediate defeat.

“Your birthday is in March, Finnigan,” McGonagall dead-panned. Her eyes looked across the hall to find the Gryffindor table devoid of the three boys. “Hmmm,” she murmured turning back to them. “And where exactly are the other three of your mismatched co-ord of mischief makers?”

The group in front of her were all aware the Gryffindors were currently sneaking in the alcohol and decorating for the party later that evening.

“Would you believe us if we told you they’ve been really into poetry lately?” Cressida tried, knowing no matter what she said, it was no use.

McGonagall gave a small sigh as she turned away from them. “What I don’t know saves my sanity. Just don’t get anyone in the Medical Bay.”

With that, McGonagall retook her leave. They watched her catch up to Longbottom as he was about to leave the hall, no doubt pre-warning him about the party.

“Looks like we’re getting a curfew now,” Jac frowned disappointedly.

“Perfect. That means there’s a limit to how much witches brew you lot will be able to get down you. With any luck, we’ll be able to keep looking for the book as soon as the party finishes.”

Molly finished her pumpkin juice got to her feet and walked off, taking the package with her.

*

The rest of the afternoon had been reserved for getting ready for the night’s activities.

“I don’t get why we can’t just go and see what they’re up to,” Cressida had said lying on her bed beside Felix as Jac rummaged around in the packages for her chosen dress. Truth be told, she hadn’t had the chance to speak to Potter properly since the whole ‘missing book’ affair. She wanted to make sure he was being his normal self after the weirdness of the other night.

“Because they’ll be too busy setting things up,” Jac pointed out. “Plus, I don’t want Fred to see me until I’m ready.”

“It’s not your sodding wedding day,” Felix teased. “He’s seen you in a dress plenty of times.”

Jac gasped as she pulled out a knee-length purple dress with a petticoat under it. “Not this dress though!” She beamed, holding it against her and spinning around in the mirror.

“Yes, his own cousin’s old dress,” Felix deadpan. “I’m sure he’ll find that so enticing.”

“Well, you know what they say about wizards and cousins,” Cressida teased under her breath. She was suddenly hit in the face with a ballet flat.

“I heard that,” Jac scolded them.

Molly rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you’ll look lovely and Freddie will love you, no matter what dress you're in. Ignore the chuckle twins over there.”

Felix pulled a face at Molly, which she promptly ignored by sticking her head into a book of locating spells. He instead turned his attention to Cressida lounging beside him. “Shouldn’t you be diving head first into the pile of frills this year?” He questioned.

She quirked an eyebrow. “Why?”

He checked Molly and Jac were too invested in their own things to listen to them. “Because of Potter and all-”

Cressida sat upright, cautious even after Felix had lowered his voice, they’d still heard him. “You think I want to dress to impress him or something?” She whispered back.

“Don’t you?” He asked.

Cressida glanced over at Jac matching eye-shadow palettes to her dress. No doubt she wanted to look her best for Fred. She always wanted to look good for Fred, it seemed, even in something as stupid and mandatory as lessons each and every day. It must be exhausting, Cressida thought. But maybe if she put a bit of extra effort in, James would be so surprised he wouldn’t even remember the conversation from the other night.

She shrugged, deciding to lounge back nonchalantly. “I’ll just pick a dress I like… See where that gets me.”

“Such a romantic,” Felix joked. Cressida elbowed him in the side.

Molly had slammed her book shut with a huff, bringing the attention to her. “These spells are proving as useless as everything else.”

Jac turned towards her with an enticing grin. “I’m sure picking a dress will help you feel better…”

“We have three hours before the party starts,” Molly pointed out.

“Yes, but it takes an hour for you to decide how you want your hair,” Jac pointed out. “And then there’s make-up. Cressida takes twenty minutes to do eyeliner because of her hooded eyes.”

“It’s hard to get them even!” She defended herself.

“Just pick a dress with the girl before she explodes, will you!?” Felix begged of them.

Molly got to her feet and crossed the room to the packages. “Only if you leave.”

“Why do I have to go?” He complained.

“Because this is a girl’s room where girls are going to be getting changed and shaving their legs,” Molly said bluntly, dragging him to the door. “We may be close, Finnigan, but we’re not that close. You can come back in an hour.”

Felix sulked in the doorway. “What am I supposed to do in the meantime?”

“Find something decent to wear yourself?” She suggested, folding her arms.

“Ah, but you see, I don’t have a fancy rich cousin sending me her cast-offs to twirl around in,” he mocked.

Molly shut the door in his face. “For Godric’s sake, Cressida, pick a dress so we can get this over with,” she said, massaging her temples.

Cressida rolled off her bed and approached the open packages of fabric. After pulling Rasper out of the box, much to his displeasure, she dug around in it for herself.

It appeared, after four years, there were some repeat dresses, not that Cressida had any right to complain about it. In fact, her hands fell on the black flowy dress she wore to the end-of-year party in Third Year. It had been a size too big back then. Now it looked like it’d fit perfectly.

Still, despite knowing that the dress looked nice enough on her, her eyes fell on the dress that was hidden underneath the one in her hands.

It was emerald green. Something reminiscent of what Valentina would wear just to run errands on a Sunday probably. Flowing pleats stopping an inch above the knee. A corset-like top. Small straps tied on the shoulders. Cressida picked it up and ran her fingers over the soft fabric. For so long it was such a bad colour for her. It still was, really. But it was also James’ favourite colour, she recalled. Maybe that made it worth wearing.

“I’ll wear this one,” she said to the girls.

Even they looked slightly baffled by the choice. “Are you sure?” Molly asked.

Cressida nodded. “I like it.”

Jac came up beside her and examined the dress for herself. “I like it too,” she agreed. “Now, how do you want your hair and make-up?”

“Simple,” Cressida told her, looking at herself in the mirror as she held the dress up. “And I think I want my hair in a braid. The nicest one you can do.”

Jac’s smile widened like a genie granting a wish. “Done!”

*

Two hours later the girls were nearly ready to head up to the ivory tower. Jac had been the first ready- as expected- and Molly had indeed taken an hour to decide how she wanted to try and tame her hair.

That left Cressida with some extra time once Jac had finished her make-up and hair.

She pulled on the high heels she’d been given by Thane and, while listening to the bickering of Molly and Jac in the bathroom as Jac tried to get a brush through her curls and add some sort of gel, Cressida stood in front of the mirror.

She looked pretty. Jac really was a wonder with these sorts of things. She had done exactly what Cressida had asked of her.

The only problem was that Cressida always struggled to feel like herself like this. Her hair was pulled back out of her face in a nice tight braid down her back instead of loose tangles from running around with hastily done pig-tail braids all day. Her small patches of dry skin and freckles covered up so none of it was even visible, making her pale skin look porcelain-like. Even the corset and high heels made her subconsciously straighten out her posture instead of slouching.

It was odd to see herself so pristine. The one thing preventing her from roughing up her appearance just a little bit was the thought of what Potter would think. Maybe he’d like her this way... but then, if that was true, what did that mean for how she normally looked?

Forcing herself not to dwell on it, she decided she had to get away from the mirror completely and do something else until it was time to leave.

Jac and Molly didn’t even notice her shutting the door behind her.

Out in the common room, she took some steps forward, remembering how awful heels were to walk in as she looked around for a distraction. Albus and Scorpius were bound to be somewhere, they were always good for a pick-me-up. Or even Regulus in his portrait would give her something else to think about for half an hour.

Unfortunately, the one person she did find was the least likely to make her feel better.

Margo was sitting in an armchair in the far-off corner. She was snivelling and wiping her eyes with tissues. She looked up and caught Cressida’s eye for a moment, and then her attention went to the dress.

Cressida remained stood there like a statue, waiting to see if Margo would initiate anything. Almost daring her to, despite her clearly vulnerable state. It’d been so long since words had been spoken between them, but then again, she supposed they were past talking it out. Not that Cressida even wanted to. Any words spoken would only get repeated back to Arabella anyway. But still, they both knew secrets about each other. Except Margo was acutely aware she had broken their code, while Cressida still held onto her end of the deal.

Margo was the one to break the eye contact, like a mouse scurrying away from a cat. She collected her things and vacated the armchair, getting lost in the hustle and bustle of the common room.

Cressida remained there, trying to seek her out still, wondering how she had disappeared with such ease until a familiar voice took her interest instead.

“Heard you were looking for me.”

She spun around to find Thane leaning against the bookcases. He seemed to take no notice of her difference in appearance. He met her eyes and offered a smile. “What can I do for you, Cressida?”

“I’m looking for a book,” she lowered her voice, edging closer to not being overheard. “Got lost in this room somewhere but we can’t find it.”

“This book,” Thane questioned. “What’s so special about it?”

“It’s got anecdotes in it from Potter’s dad or something,” Cressida explained. “Tells you how to do the potions right the first time without fail.”

Thane grew a tiny smirk. “I’ve heard of this book from the Inner Circle. It was the cause of a nasty scar left on Draco Malfoy or so the stories say. They say this book originally belonged to a Slytherin. Ironic how it ended up back in its birthplace, don’t you think?”

“I don’t have time for your cryptic shit right now, Nott,” Cressida rolled her eyes. “Point is, anyone could have it, and that’s apparently not good.”

“You’re telling me,” he agreed. “Unfortunately, I have not seen it. Swear on my life.”

“Has Valentina?” She pressed. “Maybe Goyle?”

“Wherever this book is, it’s not in this room, Knightly,” he shrugged. “But I hope for your sake you find it before someone starts using it to their advantage.” He pushed himself up from the wall. “Those shoes match the dress perfectly, might I add. Green’s clearly your colour.”

Cressida glanced down and smoothed out her pleats as Thane disappeared into the boy’s dorms. Felix passed him on his way out and the two shared a familiar nod before he rushed over to meet Cressida.

“You found him then. Any joy?” He asked.

“He’s not seen it,” Cressida huffed, looking in the direction he went. “But if Nott’s agreeing that this book could be dangerous we have to find it before someone else does.” Her eyes went back to Felix as he was staring at her with a perplexed look. “What?”

“You just look… off?” He said. “Nice and all that but… too put together? Did Jac enchant your face or something?”

“Not that I know of, but her makeup brushes do suspiciously seem to move on their own now,” she grumbled. “Lend me your wand. This thing doesn't have pockets for mine.”

Felix handed over his wand without question. Cressida pointed it at her shoes and cast a cushioning spell to soothe her feet. It was an instant relief she hoped would last all night.

Jac and Molly were coming out of the dorm room looking for the pair. Molly’s hair was in a bunch on top of her head with two pieces delicately hanging out the front. Cressida assumed it had taken a lot of gel and arm strength from Jac to accomplish.

“It’s the hair, isn’t it?” Felix pondered as the two ventured over to meet them. “Did you brush it?”

“Leave it alone, Felix,” Cressida warned him as the four left the dungeons to head up to the party.

*

By half eight the party was in full effect. Jac had taken great joy in utilizing all of Teddy’s old records, and Cressida swore she could see Remus and Sirius moving from portrait to portrait tapping their feet and bopping their heads along to the music as if they themselves were mingling amongst the party.

Molly, despite being sat on a sofa in the middle of the groups dancing around her, still had her head stuck in a locating spell book and muttering under her breath in between sips of the witch’s brew Felix kept topping up when she wasn’t looking.

Now that Cressida was standing in the red-clad room wearing their opposing colour so blatantly, she slightly regretted her choice. She could see people looking her way as she entered. Hear them whispering and pointing her out. She suddenly missed the anonymity of the masks from the last party.

She had been grabbing a drink from the table when Beatrix and April appeared next to her. Clearly, in their dim-witted minds, starting a conversation excused their obvious staring.

“It’s so nice you and your friends can come up here and join in our party,” Beatrix started a tad awkwardly. Cressida gave no response. “Nice dress by the way… is it an heirloom of some kind?”

Cressida’s face grew a tight smile. “Actually, it’s from James’ cousin.”

“Oh,” Beatrix backtracked. “It suits you.”

April, after taking a large gulp from her cup, edged closer. “So you and James are still close then? Pulling your funny pranks and stuff in your own little club?”

“The pranks aren’t really my department,” Cressida replied.

“I tried to tell her that, but she’s convinced you’re some sort of secret mastermind,” Beatrix tried to joke then. “Having them all wrapped around your little finger and all.”

Cressida sipped on her drink slowly. “Is that what you think?”

The two girls exchanged a glance.

Cressida finished her cup and set it down with a shrug. “Tell me, April, in all that time you spent trailing behind James, did he at all give you the impression he does what anyone else tells him to? Or Fred for that matter? Even Thomas?”

April looked a bit stunned by the question. “Um… no-”

“So what makes you think they’d listen to me?” She went on. April looked to Beatrix for an answer but even she didn’t have a good response. Cressida refilled her drink and smiled at them as they floundered. “Always a pleasure, girls. Make sure to tell the bathroom dwellers I say hi.”

With that, she downed half her cup in one and found a quiet spot against the wall observing as more and more people filed in and waited to be found by the Gryffindors when they saw fit. If she was honest, she rather enjoyed watching them flit back and forth hosting and offering people they otherwise wouldn’t say hi to in the halls a drink and exchange pleasantries.

They were good at it too. They often evoked a laugh from the group they were entertaining, or had a funny anecdote to pull out of nowhere. James often led the conversations with Fred being his wingman and Thomas nodding along happily to whatever nonsense they were talking about. Cressida noticed people had made a bit more of an effort for this party too, it seemed. Girls wore more make-up, bigger heels, and shorter dresses. Boys wore cologne that was slightly too strong and experimented with gel in their hair. It was odd, watching and feeling the change in herself and those around her getting older. No longer the awkward and gangly twelve-year-olds they started out as. Most of them were far past that now.

People arrived with dates, arm in arm, or simply scouted out who they’d like to chat up and dance with once they arrived on the scene. From what Cressida could overhear, James had already had to deny four requests for a dance later on. Each with a different excuse for a different girl.

James had been trying to politely turn down Avery Bell’s request, saying ‘he had two left feet and wouldn’t want to ruin her new shoes’ when there was a record scratch and the music suddenly changed from Bruce Springsteen to Abba's ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ .

This in itself caused a lot of cheers and salutes in response and seemingly took the pressure off the three boys hosting in favour of everyone heading towards the allocated dance floor.

That was when James spotted Cressida. She raised her cup at him and he, in return, gained that goofy smile and excused himself from Avery before heading towards her. He grabbed a bottle of fire whiskey smoothly from the table as he approached.

Avery, offended and dumbstruck James had turned her down considering she had been deemed the most sought-after girl in their year, followed his eyeline and found Cressida standing there waiting.

The two girls locked eyes, and then Avery turned and walked in the opposite direction with a scoff. Cressida half debated giving her a pig’s tail when she wasn’t looking until James appeared in front of her.

“I’m assuming you’re the culprit for the half-empty bottle already?” He asked, shouting to be heard over the music.

“I had to pass the time somehow,” she joked, knowing that Felix had already drank his fair share from the bottle as well. Cressida extended her now empty cup for him to refill. “I see Tommo and his date are getting along well.”

She jutted her chin in the direction of Thomas clearly struggling to recall a Quidditch game from 1987 over the volume of the party to Georgia who looked like she couldn’t hear a word he was saying.

“Why doesn’t the daft git move away from the speakers if he just wants to talk to her?” James laughed.

He took a swig from the bottle for himself. Cressida turned to James. She could see a love bite she’d left on his neck poking out the top of the collar of his white button-down shirt and gained a self-satisfied smile. He caught it and narrowed his brow. “Why are you grinning like that?” He asked nervously.

“Nothing, I just-” she met his eyes. “You look nice, is all.”

“Godric, the drink’s not gone to your head that fast, has it?” He teased.

“Don’t make me take it back.”

James settled against the wall, shoulder to shoulder with her, filling her cup once more. “Can’t take it back now, Knightly. What’s done is done.” He took another swig for himself to hide his growing smile. “But if we’re throwing compliments out willy-nilly… I must say you look absolutely radiant.”

 “Thanks,” she replied coolly. “I thought I’d dress up as your favourite jelly slug and then maybe you’d notice me amongst the sea of dazzling and eligible women trying to get your attention.”

James laughed into the bottle lingering on his lips. “I’d take a jelly slug over the rest of these girls any day. They’re all incredibly boring. All they want to talk about is my dad half the time anyway.”

“Lucky you got me then, isn’t it,” Cressida joked. “Never really got on with the topic of dads, me.”

James glanced down at her beside him, tone a bit more serious. “You haven’t happened upon any more clues about him, have you? I’m afraid my well of knowledge has run dry.”

Cressida sipped her drink. She could’ve told him about Snape and Dumbledore then, but considering they were at a party, that was the last thing she wanted to talk about right now. “Same as you. No leads to follow,” she shrugged.

James’ shoulders deflated, looking out over his guests. “Something’s bound to come out eventually, right? I mean, a man can’t just disappear -”

“Oi, Potter!”

Cressida let out a sigh of relief at the distraction.

They both turned to see Fred beckoning them over excitedly alongside Felix and Jac.

“It’s Wood!” Jac beamed. “He actually pulled it off!”

Cressida and James joined them in staring in the direction they were making such a fuss about, only to find Thomas locking lips with Georgia in the middle of the dance floor.

James, in all his excitement for his friend, let out a loud yell and used his wand to send sparks flying into the air- which, in turn, cut their kiss short as everyone turned to watch them float down over the party-goers.

“Subtlety really isn’t in your vocabulary, is it?” Felix chided him. 

James shrugged in response, watching as Thomas broke away from her and made his way over to them instead.

“So?” Fred grinned. “How was it?” He asked, almost like a proud father himself.

“It was… fine,” Thomas shrugged. “Nothing to write home about,” he said as he wandered off again to seemingly get a drink.

James watched him go, shaking his head. “I could kill him. He finally gets a snog… from a girl … and suddenly he’s as cool as a cucumber.”

“Maybe it makes a difference if you like the person?” Jac reasoned.

“She’s a girl obsessed with Quidditch,” Felix emphasized. “If she’s not his type, I don’t know who is!”

“Maybe his type is simply a snitch in a tiny wig,” Cressida joked.

“They are far easier to understand than girls, anyway,” Fred added. “Maybe Thomas has the right idea.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jac asked offended.

“You got mad at me the other night because I said Taylor’s ‘Red’ album was only okay, ” Fred retaliated.

“It’s one of her best albums!” Jac argued back.

“You think every album is her best one depending on your mood,” Fred rolled his eyes.

“Ay, I rather like her. She’s got some good songs,” Felix chimed in.

“See! Felix doesn’t mind listening to her CDs with me!” Jac pointed out.

“Oh my  Godric! ” Fred groaned, walking away completely. Jac scoffed and followed after him, clearly not done with this particular argument.

James looked at Felix. “Do you really like her?”

Felix grinned as he sipped from his cup. “Not overly, but it’s entertaining watching them argue about something so bloody stupid.”

“That’s cruel,” James replied

Cressida, meanwhile, had started laughing. “That’s brilliant ! I’ve heard her talk about Taylor Swift for four hours straight before now, she’ll never let Fred live this down.”

*

Two hours had passed and the party was proving to be the best one they’d thrown yet- if you discounted the fact Thomas had basically disappeared on Georgina and she was rather put out about it, Fred and Jac hadn’t left each other’s side in between arguing about petty things and snogging each other's faces off at different internals, James kept getting roped into hosting and fending off girls from all years hoping for a dance or a drink or just even a conversation, and Molly refused to lift her head out of that ridiculous locating spell book.

Sirius had taken up residency in Remus’ frame, which had been pulled off the wall and brought down and leaned against the wall in the common room as if allowing the two portraits to enjoy the party from themselves at eye level.

“I forgot how good your music taste was, Moony!” Sirius was dancing around the frame as Remus took to reading a book in his comfy armchair, but was tapping his foot along to the music.

“Wait until you hear the Hot Space album by Queen,” Remus replied. “You would’ve loved that album under different circumstances.”

For once, it appeared as though Felix and Cressida were to be the lives of the party out of their groups, but even that was proving difficult.

Cressida stood against the wall sharing a bottle of fire whiskey with Felix. This, by her count, would be their second bottle between them and they were rapidly hurdling towards a third. She was beginning to get that pleasant tingling sensation in her limbs that seemed to wash away all her problems.

All problems, apart from those blatantly staring at her from across the dance floor.

She took the bottle from Felix and had a swig, fighting the urge to pull a face as the liqueur slid down her throat.

“They’re looking again,” she said.

“Who?” Felix asked, taking two swigs.

“ Them -” Cressida gestured vaguely, stealing the bottle for herself.

Felix followed her eye-line to find Avery Bell, April Cattermole, Beatrix Swinley and Penelope McFadden all huddled together, trying not-so-discreetly to look at and talk about Cressida.

“Ay, they’re just jealous,” Felix comforted her. He took the bottle from Cressida before she could get a swig in for herself.

She frowned and pried it back off him. “Jealous of what?”

“I know I said you looked all prim and proper- which is still weird- but to them, you look knock-out. I mean, you’re not my type, but by normal standards, you’re not exactly hard to look at, Knightly.”

“Be for real, Finnigan-” She rolled her eyes.

“You think Potter only likes you for your wit?” He countered, raising his eyebrows.

Cressida ignored his comment and went back to watching the group of girls watching her. Penelope was the only one with enough sense to angle her back towards Cressida, and even when she did glance over her shoulder and get caught, at least she offered a smile.

Avery Bell, however, seemed to not care if Cressida saw her staring. She always thought so highly of herself around Hogwarts. Was never hard done by with finding a date. Seemingly friends with everyone. She even had Beatrix and April following behind her in their red-cladded capes through the halls this past year. She was basically the female version of Potter.

Cressida took another swig from the bottle. If only she could hear what they were saying.

“Speaking of Potter, I see you and him are being rather nonchalant around one another,” Felix commented, taking the bottle back. “ Now I understand how we didn’t see it a bit more.”

They both took swigs.

“Yeah, well, it’s a lot easier to not look like a couple when you’ve got every girl in the castle cozying up to him,” Cressida replied.

“There’s one simple solution to that.”

“Which is?” She questioned.

“Tell them all that you’re his girlfriend.”

Cressida scoffed, handing the bottle off. “That wouldn’t stop them.”

“Do you see girls trying to talk to Fred?” He pointed out.

Cressida’s eyes found Fred and Jac embracing each other as they swayed to the music, staring lovingly into one another’s eyes.

“Potter and I aren’t like Jac and Fred,” Cressida said, turning away again.

“You could be,” Felix offered, passing her back the bottle.

“I don’t think I want to be,” Cressida said, this time wincing as the third shot struggled to go down as smoothly as the first two.

“Then what do you want?” Felix asked.

Cressida paused, mulling over the question. She could still feel eyes on her from around the room. She tried to ignore them. “To not have to worry about how it all ends. Whether I’m making the right choices or a wrong one.”

Felix took a long swig. “Ah, but worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow. It only saps today of its joy.”

Cressida frowned at him. “Have you been secretly hanging out with Nott behind my back? Where did that shit come from?”

“Yes, I have been, and it’s the one sound bit of advice he’s given me all year!” Felix said, starting to slightly sway as he spoke. Clearly, he’d had a few shots before even coming over as well. “If you spend your whole life worrying about what’s going to happen you’ll never be where you want to be.”

“I’m fine with how things are now-” she shrugged.

Felix grabbed her by the shoulders and directed her in the direction of the dance floor. James was in the centre of it doing the robot very badly opposite Wood. “Look at that specimen of a man and tell me he doesn’t brighten your whole day, at least a little bit. Tell me, a small part of you wants to walk over there and kiss Potter on his stupidly handsome face without having to worry about what everyone else has to say.”

Cressida allowed herself to imagine it and then quickly shook her head. “You said yourself Molly and Jac would-”

“Screw Molly and Jac. They’ll get over it eventually. They’ll understand why you didn’t tell them because they love you and they want what I want.”

“Which is?”

“For you to be happy!” Felix exasperated, throwing his arms up and spilling the rapidly emptying bottle. “Which is what you deserve, Cress. You deserve to be happy. I want to see you blatantly and ridiculously happy.”

She shrugged his hands off her shoulder and glanced around the dance floor. Her eyes met them once again.

Avery was whispering something to the three others. Beatrix let out a small laugh. That was it. She had to know what was being said about her.

“Save me a drink for when I get back?” She asked, moving herself forward.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Felix asked, frowning at her departure.

She didn’t answer as she powered onwards, briefly brushing shoulders with April as she passed. Neither girl uttered a word as she moved past them on the crowded dance floor, but they turned along with her to keep their eyes on her as she went.

Cressida was just about to reach the staircase to the boy’s dorm when a hand reached out and got her attention.

She spun around to find it was James. “Where are you running off to? Not leaving the party already, are you?”

Cressida tucked a loose bit of hair that had fallen out of her braid behind her ear. “I just fancied a bit of a break,” she lied. “Thought your room would be a good place to hide out.”

“Want company?” He offered, edging a bit closer.

That was when she realised her hand was still intertwined with his. She met his eyes. Felix’s words replayed in her mind, but she also knew if she was ever going to give in and be public with Potter she had to know what would be said. She had to be prepared for the backlash. She had to hear that conversation before she did something she’d regret. Before making the wrong choice.

“You’re needed out here,” she deflected. “You’re the party host, after all. Can’t go disappearing on your adoring fans.”

James looked disappointed. “I’m sick of hosting. I’ve hardly had any time to spend with you and the others.”

“I’ll be two seconds,” she said. “Two seconds and then I’m all yours.”

“You swear?”

Cressida quickly checked they were concealed enough by the doorway before reaching up and pecking him on the lips. “I swear.”

“Good. Because when you come back, I’m cashing in my request,” James said diplomatically.

“Didn’t you already cash it in when you made me teach you Welsh?” She questioned.

“Nope,” James grinned. “You gave into that on your own.”

She was well aware she was missing out on the very conversation she desperately needed to hear for her own sake. “Alright then. What is your request?”

“A dance.”

She quirked her eyebrow. “A dance? That’s all you want? You had the chance to make me do absolutely anything and all you want is a dance ?”

James shrugged happily. “I’m a simple man. I want to dance with a beautiful girl in a beautiful dress one last time as a Fourth Year. A good way to end the year as any, if you ask me.”

Cressida rolled her eyes at the gushy comment but couldn’t help but blush. “You know I can’t dance.”

James gained that goofy grin as he looked down at her. “Then I’ll teach you.”

“People will be watching,” she pointed out.

“Let them.”

“James-”

“One dance. That’s all I ask.”

Cressida met his eyes, chewing the inside of her cheek as she thought quickly. “Jac has an album she plans on playing tonight. Has a special song on it. When that plays, I’ll dance with you.”

James’ eyes lit up. “What’s the song?”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way to figure it out,” she challenged.

It seemed that James had been dying for a bit of entertainment to pass the time for himself as his grin grew tenfold, already trying to scout out Jac in the crowd. “Alright then, Knightly. I'll play your game,” he agreed.

Cressida reached up and quickly pecked him on the cheek before removing her hand from his. He kept his eyes on her as she turned away from him and ventured up the stairs and away from the party.

Chapter 99: Fourth Year: (For Fighting) pt.2

Saturday 6th July 2019 (cont'd)

 

Once Cressida broke into the boy’s room it was a small hunt before she found the invisibility cloak crumbled underneath their wardrobe. Honestly, considering how useful and important this thing apparently was, they didn’t take good care of it at all.

She threw it over her shoulders and rushed back down the stairs, nearly falling on the stone stairs thanks to the ridiculous heels and the alcohol in her system.

Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she took a moment to seek out the group of girls again. Luckily, they were still huddled together, only this time, by the drinks table.

Cressida, concealed under the cloak, wormed her way through the crowd to get within hearing distance.

“The future king of Hogwarts himself,” Avery Bell was whispering to her friends, a wide smirk on her red glossed lips as she swirled her drink around in her hand. They were watching James on the dance floor along with Fred, Jac and Thomas. “Godric, you’d think he’d at least be interested in a dance with someone other than his friends.”

“He’s just very… cliquey. He always has been,” Beatrix said. “They all are.”

“I’m telling you, Potter doesn’t go for girls around here,” April pouted. “Trust me, I tried.”

“Not girls we know about anyway,” Penelope hinted.

Avery Bell’s eyes widened with curiosity. “What do you know?”

“It’s just a theory,” she brushed off.

“Come on, Pen. Share with the class,” Avery pushed her.

Penelope didn’t need much of one before she started spilling with jubilation. “Well, over the last few years I’ve had this theory about him and Cressida-”

“That Slytherin girl?” Avery interrupted with a scoff. “I know you lot have had run-ins with her and we said her dress makes her stand out like a sore green thumb, parading her House around like that in our common room and all-”

“I still think she looks pretty in it-” Penelope tried to defend her.

“There’s no doubt she looks drop-dead gorgeous, Pen. But the point is, surely James has more sense than that,” Avery went on.

Beatrix brought her drink up to her lips with a roll of her shimmery eyes. “It’s not a far-fetched theory if you’ve actually paid attention to them when they’re together.”

“You can’t be serious,” Avery laughed at them all. “I mean, I know she’s got those big eyes and freckled nose but come on. She’s not even a Gryffindor-”

“It didn’t matter for Weasley,” Beatrix grumbled bitterly.

“I know but Potter’s a Potter . His dad is the most famous wizard in the world. A wizard, might I add, who’s notorious for hating Slytherins. He basically destroyed them all.”

“Well, that’s not exactly true, Harry Potter disabled the Death Eaters-” Penelope spoke up.

“They’re one and the same, Pen. All the Death Eaters were Slytherins, remember? Or at least, that’s what my dad always says.” Avery carried on. “I mean, if Potter went around with a Slytherin, it would be a slap in the face to his dad, surely. Plus, she always looks sort of… you know… rough around the edges most of the time.”

Cressida shuffled in her dress uncomfortably at that comment.

“Maybe Potter likes it that way,” April joked with a grin.

“It’s just a theory anyway,” Penelope reiterated, feeling less confident in the statement. “And, besides, I know Knightly is a bit hard to approach, and she doesn’t really ever hang out with other girls, but… once you get to know her she’s not too bad.”

“Do you actually know her or are you just good at making up stories for your friends back home?” Avery questioned with a hint of a joke.

Penelope didn’t answer. Avery took no notice and turned back to the two Gryffindor girls and started talking again.

Cressida had no interest in their new topic of conversation, the only noise she cared for hearing was the surprised gasp of the three girls when suddenly all their drinks fell forward and spilled down the fronts of their dresses as if by an invisible force. All apart from Penelope’s which stayed suspiciously secure in her hand.

Cressida ripped the cloak off of her as she stormed away.

She found herself in the stairwell once more, cloak in a pile at her feet as she plummeted to sit on the cold stone steps.

It wasn’t just Arabella saying it. It wasn’t just her own doubts saying it. By the looks, it was everyone saying it. She didn’t know why she felt hurt or surprised by what she heard. It had been what she’d been expecting.

But at what point would it stop? Would it ever stop? Would she ever be more than a Slytherin? Would James ever be any less than a Potter? Would it be a slap in the face to his dad? She had always thought Harry was nice, considering his notorious past. Or was it just an act for the sake of his son? Would his feelings change if Harry knew James was dating her?

She knew how highly James thought of his dad and, by extension, his opinion.

Cressida wiped her nose with the back of her hand, getting a grip on herself. She clambered back to her feet and went to return the cloak up the stairs to its original spot under the wardrobe.

A memory wafted over her as she moved up the stairs.

James and her in this spot last year.

Him asking to kiss her for real. No jokes. No games.

A part of her wondered whether they would’ve ended up where they were now if she hadn’t kissed him during that game. A small part of her wondered if it was for the better or for worse.

She threw her braid over her shoulder and dumped the cloak inside their doorway before returning to the party.

She found Felix dancing to ‘Under Pressure’ blasting from the record player, a bottle of fire whiskey sloshing around in his hand. Jac was beside him using her wand to line up the next record on the top of the pile.

“Give me that,” she said, taking the bottle from him and downing half of it.

Felix paused in his dancing and blinked slowly.

“You alright, Cressie?” Jac asked.

Cressida swayed slightly on the spot. “When are you playing the Eyes Open album?”

“It’s about four albums down currently. Do you want me to move it up?” She offered. “James came asking about it a minute ago. Hope you don’t mind, I told him about the song you liked-”

“No, it’s fine where it is,” Cressida said. “I want music to drink to-”

“ That’s my girl!” Felix exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, causing them to both verge left suddenly unable to hold their own weight. “Molly, another three bottles if you will!”

Molly didn’t bother looking up from her book. She seemed to have compiled all of Felix’s empty cans and bottles around her on the sofa. “No.”

“Buzz-kill,” he frowned at her.

Jac happily used her wand to summon two more bottles for the three of them to share.

Felix, jubilated, immediately untwisted the cap and poured it into his mouth, getting half of it down his chin.

The two girls took the more dignified approach and shared the bottle between them, taking generous sips each.

“Why aren’t you with Freddie, anyway?” Cressida asked.

“We’re both a bit put out about summer being so soon and not seeing each other for six weeks,” Jac pouted. “It’s putting us a bit on edge, hence the petty arguing.”

“Tell me about it,” Cressida agreed. “I’m dreading summer this year.”

“Your mum?” Jac asked sympathetically.

“Among other things,” Cressida sighed.

“Forget about bloody summer-” Felix said, lacing his arms around the two girls’ shoulders. “Drink. Dance. Have fun while we can. It’s the last time we’re going to be Fourth Years getting trollied.”

Jac had to change the album. ‘Baggy Trousers’ by Madness filled the room. Felix was pleased with this, although Cressida thought Jac could’ve played Mozart and Felix would’ve still exclaimed he ‘loved this album’.

Fred and Thomas appeared beside them then. Fred passed the cup in his hand to Jac. “Fancy a dance?”

“Are you going to stand on my foot again?” Jac asked.

“Depends, are you going to get more make-up on my nice white shirt?” He countered.

“ Touché ,” Jac smiled at him, taking his hand and letting him lead them to the dance floor.

Thomas was watching Felix with a mix of horror and awe. “How much have you had, Finnigan?”

“More than I should have, but not as much as I could have,” Felix answered profoundly.

“Right,” Thomas nodded unsurely. “And how does some nice cold water sound?”

“Divine, my dear Wood. Absolutely divine. Take me to it could you?” Felix asked, clearly struggling to see straight at this point.

Thomas put an arm around Felix and led him off too.

Cressida shrugged, now standing alone, and took another swig of her bottle.

“No one coming to whisk you away as well then?” Molly spoke up.

“It would appear not,” Cressida answered, flopping down on the sofa beside her.

“Are you enjoying the party?” She asked conversationally.

“I’m enjoying the drinking,” Cressida answered truthfully. “What about you?”

“I’ll enjoy the party a lot more once I have a way to get that sodding book back where it belongs,” Molly huffed.

“Seems like you could use a drink,” Cressida said, extending the bottle towards her.

Molly paused, looking at the bottle and then at Cressida. “Fine.”

She gave in and took a small swig. Her eyes scanned the party. So did Cressida’s.

Both of them saw James yet again fending off a girl from Ravenclaw who was trying to ask for a dance.

They both watched as he backed away as politely and discreetly as he could until he could turn around and look for someone to save him or distract him.

Eventually, he met Cressida’s eye and went to make his way over until he got pulled sideways by a group of Quidditch boys demanding he come and drink with them.

Molly passed the bottle back to Cressida with a thoughtful hum. “I suppose it can’t be much fun for him.”

“What can’t?” Cressida asked, taking a generous sip for herself.

“Having everyone think they’re your friend, deserving of your time, when in reality James can barely remember their names,” Molly said. “I think if I were him, or even Fred, by this point I would’ve lost my mind having to appease them all.”

“I think they like the attention sometimes,” Cressida admitted. “Makes them feel…”

“Superior?” Molly finished for her. Cressida gave a nod. “Sometimes I think back to when we were kids before we really knew about the stories of our parents. James used to be the shy one before Albus, Rose and Hugo and all came along. Used to be terrified of getting in trouble or doing anything wrong. And then it was like something changed as we got older. James understood who his dad was, who we came from. The importance of it all. He and Fred would spend hours with Teddy having him retell them stories so they could memorise them for themselves. He wanted so much to live up to his dad’s reputation that sometimes I miss when we were kids. When he was softer. When he didn’t care how he was perceived. When he wasn’t a walking reminder of what came before us.”

“He can still be soft,” Cressida said then, absent-mindedly. “When no one’s looking, I think he’s still like that deep down.”

There was a slight pause. If Cressida had been less intoxicated, she would’ve been able to see the cogs turning in Molly’s head and prepare herself for it. Unfortunately, she was rather preoccupied with bobbing her head along to a Madness song she wasn’t familiar with.

“He looks at you, you know,” Molly said bluntly.

Cressida's head rolled to the side, the fire whiskey spilling in her hand. “Come again?”

“My cousin,” Molly said, looking over the top of her book at Potter dancing in the middle of the room, performing for the crowd. “When everyone's laughing and making jokes... he looks at you. As if his joke doesn’t matter if you didn’t laugh.”

Cressida tore her eyes back, trying to act normal. “So?”

“So, back when I asked you in October if you fancied him, you said no. Is that still true?” She asked. Her eyes were hard. Cressida couldn’t decipher the emotion behind them, what answer would be the right one.

She attempted to sit up a bit straighter, not liking the turning feeling happening in her stomach. “Mol-”

“It’s fine if you do,” she cut her off then as if anticipating the answer for herself. “But I just worry that, if it is true, you only like one side of him. The side you and I can see. His soft side.” Molly took a breath. “But unfortunately my cousin comes with a lot of baggage. Baggage you don’t need. You have to like his other side too, even if it’s too much for you.”

Cressida swallowed hard, despite not taking a swig. Her eyes were focused on Molly as she tried to find some words, any words, to come out of her whiskey-soaked mouth.

She blinked hard, finally looking away. “I’m out of fire-whiskey.”

Cressida left the bottle on the floor beside Molly and got up, making her way through the crowds of people dancing and laughing. The spell on her heels was starting to wear off, she could feel the pain seeping in as she limped forward.

“Looking for someone?”

Cressida’s head turned sideways to see Rose sitting at a round table near the fireplace with her Divination crystal ball in front of her. She was wearing one of her Gryffindor scarves around her head in a funny interpretation of Trelawny.

“Felix?”

“Oh, I just saw him,” Rose grinned, shuffling tarot cards in her hand effortlessly. “He asked for his fortune and I told him romance was in his cards. He ran off in search of his true love thinking they would be here somewhere.”

“Aren’t they?” She asked.

Rose shrugged. “Maybe. My timings aren’t exactly exact yet. For all we know, it could come true today or in a year’s time.”

“But it will come true?”

Rose straightened her shoulders proudly. “I haven’t been wrong yet. Even if it does take a while to come true. My mum really hates that about me. Dad just called me a know-it-all while secretly asking for the upcoming Quidditch winners.”

“You can do that?”

Her confidence faltered a bit. “Specific things in the future are harder. I’m really better at reading palms and tarot. Sometimes I have dreams though! I had one of you at James’ birthday party three days after he left for First Year. Obviously, I didn’t know who you were back then so it didn’t make much sense.”

“Go on then,” Cressida said, sitting in front of her and extending her hand. “Tell me my future.”

Rose eyed her hand excitedly. “But of course!”

She put her own hands on top of Cressida’s and closed her eyes, breathing in deeply.

When she opened them again, Cressida noticed a small frown on her face. “I think I did it wrong.”

Cressida tried to slide her hand out from hers but Rose’s grip tightened as she examined them further. Her eyes went up to meet Cressida’s again, forcing an airy laugh she knew wasn’t genuine. “I’m sure it’s nothing but…”

“What?” Cressida pressed.

“Your lifeline,” Rose pointed out slowly. “It’s rather… shorter than I expected. And you're very…grey… aura wise.”

Cressida forced her hand away this time, tucking it under her leg as if hiding it. “What does that mean?”

“It can mean a few things,” Rose admitted. “Sometimes it means you’re a bit of a skeptic… other times it can mean you’re not quite in the right state of mind. Not aligned properly. Out of place with your surroundings.”

Cressida got to her feet, her face firm. “Guess it pegged me as a skeptic then.”

“Cressida,” Rose called out as she started to turn away. Her expression was grave. “I’m really sorry.”

“For what?” Cressida frowned.

Rose didn’t get a chance to answer. Felix had come up and whisked Cressida away urgently.

“Arabella’s here,” he whispered, leading Cressida through the party.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Cressida followed Felix’s lead the short distance to the portrait hole where Declan and Arabella stood, clearly awaiting someone to approach them first.

“Not exactly who we were hoping to see first, I must admit,” Arabella spoke first.

“You can’t be here,” Felix replied instantly.

“Is it your party, Finnigan?” Declan countered.

“I thought it was an all-inclusive party,” Arabella added breezily. “Considering you’re here.”

“We were invited. That’s the difference,” Cressida scythed.

“So get someone to make us leave,” Arabella challenged with open arms. “I didn’t see a doorman on duty, or are you acting as bouncer tonight? We know you don’t tend to shy away from a fight or physical violence.”

Cressida turned and without even needing to search for him, James was making his way through the crowd towards them, having spotted Arabella and Declan for himself.

“Here comes the knight in shining armour,” Declan muttered dryly.

“Potter,” Arabella greeted him with a polite smile.

“Chauncey,” James replied, eyeing the space between the two girls. “Something we can help you with?”

Cressida scoffed his his formalities instead of just getting straight to the point of kicking them out.

Arabella decided to focus solely on James, mimicking his demeanour. “We heard about the party all the way on the other side of the castle. We wondered if you had room for two more, considering half of our Common room is already in here, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Cressida scanned the crowd and found, unfortunately, Arabella was right. There were too many Ravenclaws to count on both hands mingled in amongst everyone else.

James also seemed to notice this. “Can’t promise there’ll be much drink left to get as drunk as your lot are, but… I suppose I can’t exactly say no.”

“Yes you can,” Cressida argued.

Arabella’s eyes glinted joyfully at her remark.

James smiled awkwardly, looking from the Chauncey siblings to her and Felix on the offence. “Knightly, it’s just a party-”

“And they have no business being in it,” Cressida went on.

“Margo isn’t with you, is she?” Felix asked then.

“She’s burrowed away crying somewhere probably,” Declan rolled his eyes.

Cressida grabbed James’ arm and pulled him to one side. “James, letting them in is a bad idea-”

“What harm can they do, Cressida?”

“A lot,” Cressida frowned.

“It’s going to look like I’m playing favourites-”

“Then play them,” Cressida said instantly.

James looked displeased with the direction of the conversation. He ran his hands through his hair and then with a huff, he returned to face the others.

“Look, maybe you guys arrived a bit too late to really-”

“We know your parties go on until the early hours of the morning,” Arabella stopped him. “It’s only eleven.”

“By our calculation, there are still four more hours until this party will be declared dead and buried,” Declan chimed in.

“Unless there’s a different reason for us being turned away?” Arabella asked falsely. Cressida’s glare hardened on her. “I wonder how people will react to a Slytherin deciding the Gryffindor guest list-”

“Would you just give over,” Felix sighed irritably. “Knightly isn’t deciding anything.”

“Isn’t she?” Arabella asked. Her eyes focused on James. “What’s it going to be, Potter? Can we stay or are we banished for no reason?”

“Oh, I have a fucking reason-” Cressida said, striding forward.

Felix intercepted and grabbed the back of her dress to stop her from moving knowingly.

Fred and Thomas arrived on the scene at that moment. “What’s all this about then?” Fred asked, gaining the attention momentarily.

“Are they giving you guys trouble?” Thomas asked softly, sensing the tension.

“They want to join the party,” James caught them up with no great detail.

Fred and Thomas glanced at each other briefly. “Don’t see why not,” Fred shrugged.

“Fabulous!” Arabella cooed before Cressida and Felix could argue. “Would you be a gentleman and show us the drinks table, Weasley?”

Fred looked off-put by the request. “Uh- sure. It’s just this way.”

Arabella followed behind Fred with a self-satisfied grin towards the drinks. Thomas followed behind her, an uncertain glance back at James before he went.

Declan, tongue in cheek, put his hands in his pockets and went to move forward.

“I guess all that time on your back in Potter’s bed was for naught,” he chided as she passed by her. “Must not be as good as you think you are-”

Cressida’s glare went to him as she started seeing red. Only, as fast as Declan’s face had appeared in front of hers, it was suddenly veering left with a trail of blood behind it.

His quiet jab was cut off abruptly by a strong right hook to the face, causing his nose to stick out at a funny angle instantly. James towered over him as he crumpled to a bloody pile on the floor.

“Who’s on their back now?” Cressida belittled him, peering over beside James.

“Fucking, Christ !” Felix exclaimed, jumping back in surprise, cradling the bottle of fire whiskey safely against his chest.

“You bastard!” Declan groaned, holding his bleeding nose.

Cressida turned to see a crowd had formed around them. Thomas and Fred had rushed back to the scene and were now physically holding back James. “I’ll kill him-!” James was swearing angrily, trying to go in for a second hit.

“Relax, Jamsie,” Fred told him. “I think he got the message.”

Declan got back to his feet, assisted by his doting sister. Cressida locked eyes with her. Arabella dared to smile at her.

“I heard what you said, Chauncey!” James spat at him. “Take it back right now!”

“Come on, brother,” Arabella said. “It’s obvious we’re not welcome here.”

“Too fucking right you’re not now,” James snapped. “Cressida was right. Get the fuck out of my party.”

Declan and Arabella didn’t protest and turned back toward the portrait hole. A couple of their house members ran out after them too, clearly wanting to be caught up on the drama.

Most of the partygoers awkwardly watched and gawked as Fred and Thomas let go of James.

Jac used her want to turn the music up as high as it could go to drown out the gossiping. Molly had put her book down and was on her feet, eyes focused in Cressida and James’ direction.

“What did he say to get you so riled?” Thomas asked once Fred had deterred most of the on-lookers.

“He went after Knightly,” James said vaguely, still glaring out the portrait hole as the siblings left. “Said something he shouldn’t have.”

Fred and Thomas glanced at each other. “Right,” Fred said calmly. “Well, there’s still a party to be had. Let’s get you a drink, yeah?”

James gave a small nod and Thomas and Fred ran off in search of the strongest drink they could muster.

Cressida touched his arm softly, hoping to calm him down. “You didn’t have to-”

“He disrespected you,” James said. “He deserved it.”

“Nice one, Potter,” Felix chimed in then, jubilated from the entertainment in his own eyes. “Knew you’d protect your girl.”

James’ eyes slowly turned to him. “What?”

“He’s just joking,” Cressida tried to step in with a nervous laugh.

“Nah, I had my apprehensions about you two being an item but after that-”

James looked to Cressida, taking a step back from them. “Hang on… He knows?”

“ Shit ,” Felix mumbled guiltily into his bottle.

Cressida winced.

“Finnigan knows !?” James exclaimed irritably.

She grabbed the two of them by their arms and pulled them out into the staircase where there wasn’t an audience.

“He found out, I didn’t tell him,” Cressida tried to explain once they were alone.

“I should go,” Felix said awkwardly.

“Don’t go,” Cressida told him. She turned to James. “This is a misunderstanding.”

“Oh, is it?!” James scoffed. “Because it looks pretty damn clear from where I’m standing. Cressida, I just hit someone again because of you, because of my feelings. Because keeping it all bottled up like you do is driving me mad, and this whole time Felix knew !? Does anyone else know that I’m unaware of? Is Jac about to come in here all caught up on the situation as well?”

“I’m going to go,” Felix decided, slipping away with ease.

Cressida blew her hair out of her face, her braid had startled untangling itself down her back. “James, just calm down. He’s the only one. We can trust him-”

“You know who else we could trust?!” He asked rhetorically. “ All of our friends .”

"What's gotten into you?" Cressida asked.

"The fact that I can't move in that party without someone wanting something from me or shoving a drink in my hand. I've hardly had a chance to hang out with my real friends. I've barely spoken to you- which might I add, is all I really wanted to do at this stupid party. And then this! I mean, come on, Cressida. If we'd just let Declan and Arabella into the party without a fuss they wouldn't have had ammunition-"

"You're saying that was my fault?!"

"No, I'm saying sometimes it's easier to just let stuff slide-"

"You wouldn't say that if you knew what they'd done and have been saying about me. About us!" Cressida went on. "That comment doesn't even scratch the surface of what I've heard over the last year-"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot that they knew too until that lovely interaction back there," James huffed. "Honestly, Knightly, for a secret it's doing a pretty shit job at being one."

“Look, I get you're upset bout Finnigan knowing but he won't tell anyone-"

"He just blurted it out right in front of me!"

"And he won't do it again, I'll make sure of it. It's just Felix, it'll be fine, I can handle it-"

“It’s not just Finnigan though, is it?” James asked rhetorically. “It’s him, and Chauncey and Margo, and Nott. Everyone who shouldn’t know somehow does and our friends are none-the-wiser!”

“I didn’t want it this way!” She argued.

“Didn’t you? Did you think you and your ridiculous rules would prevent this forever?” He said exasperated. “It doesn’t matter that it’s just Finnigan . It matters that he knows. You always went on about how bad it would be if anyone knew. How it would ruin everything, and now I find out you got to tell your best friend and talk about us behind my back?”

“It wasn’t behind your back, Potter,” She argued. “If anything Felix has tried to convince me everything will be fine and then Molly got in my head-”

“Finnigan had to convince you?” James asked, hurt. “Convince you of what exactly? What could Finnigan tell you that I couldn’t? Do you know how much it killed me not telling Freddie and Thomas?!” James went on. “How I had every opportunity to just blurt it out and claim they found out for themselves, and I still somehow managed to avoid it for your sake?!”

Cressida’s frustration grew. The fact James wasn’t listening, that she couldn’t get her words or her point across how she wanted to. She suddenly cursed Felix and that bottle of fire whiskey at that moment.

“Oh, you want to talk about blurting out secrets?” She shot back without thinking. “Let’s start with you telling everyone about my fucking dad after I trusted you, or did you forget about that-”

“You’re bringing that up now?” He frowned deeply. “You telling Felix about us is vastly different than Molly finding me that day-”

“How is it?” She challenged.

“Because this matters-!"

This was it, months and months of pent-up conversations they kept putting off were spilling out of them. There seemed to be no stopping it.

“Oh, I see how it is. You get to decide what’s important and what’s not.”

“You practically begged me not to tell anyone about us-”

“I begged you not to tell people about my dad until I was ready too!”

“But you’re never fucking ready, Cressida, don’t you see that?!” He went on.

“I’m getting there!” She snapped back.

“ Are you?” He cut her off as he continued going. Her eyes blinked back to look at him. “You’re not ready to find your dad. Every time I bring it up now you change the subject. For Godric knows what reason, you’re not ready to be my girlfriend despite everything we’ve gone through. I don’t understand why you insist on having all these secrets that do nothing but make life harder for yourself. I mean, for fuck’s sake, sometimes I wonder if you’ve even told me everything or if I’m at arm's length like everyone else around you.”

That one stung. Her brow narrowed. “You make it sound like you don’t trust me.”

“Of course, I trust you, Cressida. I love you-” James blurted out.

Cressida’s eyes widened but even she couldn’t control her feet taking a few steps back, hitting the stone wall behind her. “You don’t mean that,” she uttered, shaking her head. “Not like this. Not arguing ,” she told him, eyes welling up.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you for days but you wouldn’t let me!”

She pushed her hair back out of her face, trying to slow down her breathing. “Just take it back-”

“Is that such a terrible thing for you? To be loved?” James asked. She didn’t answer. Her mouth had dried up and her muscles turned to stone. Hurt spread across James’ face. “Thane was right, wasn’t he? Nothing I can do will make it right.”

“Why is everyone talking to fucking Nott all of a sudden?”

“He cornered me because he could see something I clearly can’t-”

“Do you have any idea how hard I’m trying here?” She started, hands trembling. “To let you in? To be with you and everything that you come with?”

“What I come with?” James repeated.

“Yes, what you come with! You and your family and the Burrow and fucking Christmases-!”

“Is that the reason you won’t come visit over the summer?” James asked offended.

“The reason I won’t come a visit for a whole summer is because my mum has gone to shit back home and I’m the only one left who can help her!” She cut him off angrily. “How can I come to the Burrow and… and eat fucking cake and be happy knowing my mum’s drinking herself into a stupor in our stupid flat that probably hasn’t been cleaned since I left?!”

“Then let me help you,” James pressed. “Let me come to you. Maybe I can-”

“That’s the thing, James. You can’t !” She shut him down. “You have no idea what my real life is like.” Her thoughts began to race out of her control. Thoughts of her mother after Gareth. Her inconsolable sobbing. At all the times she had been let down and hurt and the shit she’d had to put up with from men that claimed to love her mother. “You can’t fix where I come from, James. No one can.”

“Maybe I have no idea what your real life is like because you never sodding tell me about it!” He argued back. “Maybe if we can just fix whatever’s wrong back there then maybe eventually it’ll-”

“It’ll what?” She asked heatedly. “Fix me ?”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” James backtracked.

She turned away from him in frustration, trying to refocus her mind on anything but her past sneaking in and adding fuel to a seemingly already blazing fire. “I’m trying here, James. To be better. To be good . I have a reason for all my secrets and I have a reason for keeping things close to my chest and yet you never seem to see things like I do! Despite how much I fucking care for you, this isn’t easy for me-”

“Love is supposed to be easy, Cressida,” he said then. “It’s supposed to just make sense.”

“We have never made sense and you know it,” she said turning back to him.

“Maybe we haven’t,” James agreed, hurt. “Maybe I am just living in a fairytale like everyone said.”

Cressida could hear it then- the distinct piano chords.

The song was playing.

She took some deep breaths, wiping her eyes and smearing her make-up.

‘We'll do it all,

Everything,

On our own.’

“James, can we just talk about this tomorrow when we’re not drunk and girls haven’t been pawing at you all evening and I have time to just think ?”

“You shouldn’t have to think about whether you love me back or not, Knightly,” he said, a small crack in his voice. “You shouldn’t be scared to let me in…”

She could feel the tears streaming down her cheeks. “That’s not fair-”

“Well, this isn’t fair on me either!” James countered.

‘I don't quite know

How to say

How I feel.’

“I don’t want to argue with you,” Cressida said. “I don’t want to be like my mum.”

“Then just tell me you love me too,” James asked of her. “Tell me I’m not crazy for feeling this way.”

‘Those three words

Are said too much

They're not enough’

His words had hit her like a ton of bricks. “James…”

‘If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?’

“You can’t do it can you…?” His voice quivered. “You don’t love me back?”

Her mouth opened. Nothing came out. A tear ran down her cheek as she hopelessly stared back at him without a single word to utter.

‘Forget what we're told

Before we get too old

Show me a garden that's bursting into life.’

His eyes started welling up and he turned away from her, and the next thing she knew, he had started walking away.

“James!” She called, lump in her throat. It was the only word she could seem to manage at that moment.

‘I need your grace

To remind me

To find my own.’

“James!”

He ignored her.

She could see him getting further and further away from her.

“Potter!?”

It felt like her chest had concaved in on itself. Her dress was suddenly suffocating her and her knees went from under her as she fell to the floor in a fit of tears. The music trailing out from inside the party seemed to be mocking her as it carried on its melodic tune while she was left there alone in the wake of the argument.

‘All that I am,

All that I ever was

Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see.

I don't know where

Confused about how as well

Just know that these things will never change for us at all,’

Felix came rushing into the staircase and found her. Without saying a word, he fell to his knees beside her and gave her a shoulder to cry on.

‘If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?’

Chapter 100: Fourth Year: All You Love, You Lose

Notes:

TW. Some mention of homophobic families and people in this chapter

Sunday 7th July 2019 

 

Cressida eventually left the staircase concealed behind Felix to avoid drawing attention to herself at the party.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Felix was comforting her in the hall.

“No,” Cressida fought him. “I can’t just leave it like that-”

“Cress, my love, you’re a mess,” Felix said softly, wiping her tears. “No good can come of going back in there.”

“I’m not leaving.”

Felix looked around desperately. Cressida suspected he wished Molly or Jac was here instead of him right now. “Well, you can’t stand here looking like a bride left at the altar. Come on now, let’s just go over there, we’ll sit in the window and wait for sunrise.”

Cressida reluctantly let Felix move her.

It hadn’t taken long for Jac and Molly to come bursting out of the party in search of the two of them. Luckily, Felix sprung into action and met the girls before they had a chance to spot Cressida's curled-up silhouette in the window. She wasn’t sure what he said, but after a moment he seemed to be leading them away.

Felix never came back.

Neither did Molly or Jac looking for her.

Evidently, the party finished somewhere around 3 am.

Cressida was still perched on the window sill like a statue, watching as everyone dragged themselves back to their own common rooms.

By 5 am, the alcohol had worn off. She wished it hadn’t. She preferred the numbness that was there while it was still in her system.

Her brain was racked with images of what was going on inside the portrait hole. Whether James had continued on with the party like nothing had even happened. Whether he’d danced with one of the many girls after all. Whether he drank himself silly, or whether he just went to bed.

Part of her wondered whether he’d even left the common room without her seeing . Snuck off somewhere like the Honeyduke’s cellar or the forbidden forest, making her sitting there completely pointless.

Still, even if Potter did appear in front of her miraculously, she didn’t know what she’d say to him.

She clambered out of the position she’d been sitting in all night and took a tentative step towards the portrait hole. Her legs ached and her head hurt from the hangover that had crept in without her realizing.

As she stood in front of it, she heard the distinct click of it opening and tried to turn her back on it to go and hide once more, deciding against facing it just yet.

“Cressida?”

Cressida reluctantly turned around again to find it was Rose. “You been here all night?”

Cressida thought her eye-bags alone would have given that away but she nodded regardless. She supposed if anyone was to come out of there and see her like this, Rose wasn’t the worst option. She didn’t know how she’d explain it away if it had been Thomas or Fred. God forbid it had been Avery or Beatrix. Despite not knowing how to redeem herself after last night, she still wished it had been Potter who stood in front of her.

She sniffed and wiped her nose pushing the thought of his face out of her mind. “I assume you saw that coming? Me and James? Did you know all along? Divine powers and mystic knowledge and all that crap.”

Rose fiddled with her hands awkwardly. “You could say it was in the stars.”

Cressida couldn’t bear looking at her. “Is there a way to make it right again?”

Rose gave a small apologetic sigh. “I can’t see everything, as much as I wish I could. Some things happen and some things don’t… but for you and my cousin’s sake, I hope you figure it out. I could see how happy you made him. His aura practically lit up whenever you were in a room.”

Cressida hugged her stomach. Rose had called her own aura grey. Unaligned. Out of place. If she was lost before, she couldn’t bear to think what she was now. For all she knew, her aura had gone completely black at the thought of losing James.

“Cressida, can I ask you a question?” Rose said after a while.

“Sure,” Cressida agreed, despite wanting nothing more than to just slink away back into her window sill and wait it out again.

“Why are you so… blocked off?”

Cressida laughed at the question, even though there was nothing funny about it. It hadn’t been the type of question she would expect from Rose, especially given the current situation. “Honestly… I don’t know. Maybe James was right, maybe I am just broken.”

“Did he say that?” Rose asked shocked.

“No… but he knows something about me needs fixing.”

“Do you think you need fixing?” She countered.

Cressida shook her head, biting into her chapped lips until they began to bleed. “I didn’t ever think there was something wrong with me before I came here and met your cousins. I used to think I had it all figured out… and yet, here I am sitting in a window with make-up running down my face crying over a boy, ruining a designer dress that doesn’t belong to me, and shoes I couldn’t even afford to look at through a shop window. If my mum could see me now, I don’t even know if she’d recognise me.”

“Grandmother always said growing up was hard,” Rose offered softly. “Maybe this is the hard part. Figuring out who you’re supposed to be.”

Cressida’s glassy eyes went from Rose to the portrait looming over them concealing the common room within it. “Can’t you just tell me who I’m supposed to be? Can’t you see something in my future worth working towards?”

“I’m sorry,” Rose said sympathetically. “It doesn’t work that way.”

Cressida nodded resolutely. “I should go,” she said then. “I’m going to go.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait for James?” Rose asked.

Cressida hesitated. He could come out any moment now.

Her eyes fell on Rose again. Her words filled her brain. ‘ It was written in the stars.’

“No,” Cressida answered her. “I just want to go to sleep.”

Cressida held her shoes in her hands and turned and turned her back on Gryffindor Tower, traipsing barefoot back down to the dungeons.

 

 

Sunday 14th July 2019

 

It had been a week since the party.

With exams over now, there was nothing to fill the students of Hogwarts time except lounging in the sun and soaking up the last fortnight they all had together before summer.

Jac had expressed that this was usually her favourite time of the whole year. “Nothing but parties and happiness” she’d said in the past.

This time, it wasn’t as happy as Jac would’ve hoped.

Cressida, since the party, refused to come out from her bed curtains, claiming she was sick. Neither roommate seemed to believe her, but through the persistent shooing of Felix whenever he could, they had no choice but to go along with the excuse.

Evidently, it seemed as though James had gone slightly underground for the first few days after the party too.

This had caused an argument between Jac and Fred themselves, each claiming the other knew something and wasn’t telling.

“You must know if they had another argument, she’s your best friend!” Fred had said to Jac in the doorway of their room late at night. Cressida assumed he had the invisibility cloak draped over his shoulders for discrepancy.

“Well, she’s not talking so that means James must have messed up. Why don’t you try badgering him about what’s gotten into the pair of them instead of me?” She’d argued back in a not-so-discreet whisper.

“Why don’t the lot of you just leave them alone?” Felix huffed from the rug in the middle of the room where he’d taken up residency.

“Do you know something, Finnigan?” Fred asked then.

She heard Felix cover his face with his pillow dramatically, muffling the words that came out of his mouth and making them unintelligible.

The next thing she heard was the door shut.

A second later, her curtains were being pulled open by Jac.

Cressida used her wand to shut them again.

Jac forced them open once more.

Cressida rolled over and buried her face under the blankets.

“Come on, Cressie. This is ridiculous now!” Jac lectured her, clambering onto the bed and trying to force her head out of the cover of the blanket.

Cressida fought her off and finally sat up with a glare. “It’s three in the morning, Jac.”

“Like that’s ever bothered you,” Jac scoffed.

Cressida led back down, not having the energy to fight.

Jac led down on the pillow facing her, her brow narrowed in concern. “What happened to telling me everything? What’s going on with you?”

Felix appeared then. Cressida’s tired eyes went to him lingering behind Jac beyond the parted bed curtains.

“Just give her some space, yeah?” Felix tried, putting a hand on Jac’s shoulder.

Jac spun around to face him, her concern growing more by the second. “Why? What’s happened?”

Molly appeared then, pulling open the opposite curtains closest to Cressida. “ Obviously, she doesn’t want to talk-”

“She can’t be like this until we leave!” Jac tried to argue. “Summer is less than two weeks away!”

Molly’s eyes went from the pair of them to Cressida. She took a deep breath in. “Cressida. Is this something we can fix?”

Cressida looked to Felix. He shook his head in response to Molly’s question.

“Right,” she said resolutely. “Then what can we do?”

Cressida had no answer.

Molly grew frustrated with the conversation quickly. “I swear, you and my cousin are nothing but a headache when you’re together! Might I remind you all that the book is still missing-”

“Sod the crappy book. Your friend is clearly upset, Weasley!” Felix snapped back.

“I can see that, Felix, but-”

“I’m fine,” Cressida said then unexpectedly cutting Molly off. Her voice was coarse and rough from days of not talking and trying to hold back sobs. All three of them turned to stare at her. Cressida forced herself to sit up again and move to the end of the bed, slightly shoving Molly aside. “You want to find the book. Let’s go find the book.”

Felix and Jac turned their unapproving eyes on Molly. Cressida could see the guilt already spreading across her friend’s face, already regretting her words, but she didn’t much care.

“Well?” Cressida instigated.

“We don’t even know where to start,” Jac said reluctantly. “We’ve already looked everywhere-”

The bedroom door opened and all of them turned to see Margo standing there. It had been so long since Margo had been spotted back in their dorm room, it only added to the already tense atmosphere in the room .

“No snuggling up with Vonce tonight, Smithers?” Felix antagonized her through the silence.

“Mature, Felix,” Molly huffed, rolling her eyes. Felix looked like he was going to start on Molly until Jac shook her head, knowing turning on each other wasn’t going to solve anything.

Margo didn’t respond or react to Felix. Her eyes were set solely on Cressida.

Cressida stared back, unphased. If she had been feeling more up to it, she might have tried to coax the reason why Margo was looking at her like that out.

“I know where we can start looking,” Cressida said, pushing past Margo and leaving the room.

*

Once again, they had come up empty in their search for the book, not that Cressida expected to magically find it . She’d only done it to try and prove a point to Molly.

She had a feeling even the others weren’t really  looking. Molly clearly felt bad about what she’d said. Felix was struggling to bite his tongue, waiting for Molly to say anything else against Cressida. Jac was just there to try and keep the peace.

They’d not returned to the dorm room at all and by Wednesday afternoon they were all showing their exhaustion apart from Cressida, who was used to the bags under her eyes as opposed to the others.

“This is hopeless,” Felix had complained as they traipsed around the Fourth Floor for the third time.

“It can’t just grow legs and walk off,” Molly retorted, minding to watch her tone.

“In this place, maybe it did,” Jac sighed. She turned to examine Cressida walking silently beside her. “Maybe we should call it a day-”

“There they are!”

The group turned to see Wood rounding the corner towards them. Behind him came James and Fred in tow.

Cressida’s stomach dropped at the sight of James. The feeling of being stood desperately in front of the portrait hole returned with a vengeance.

As he walked towards them he looked nothing less than his usual self. His hair wasn’t dishevelled, he didn’t have bags under his eyes from no sleep. He looked as perfect as always. No one would even suspect there was anything wrong with him.

And yet Cressida looked and felt like… this.

Did he simply not care about what had happened between them?

Was he over it so easily while she’d spent days torturing herself over what had been said?

He wouldn’t even look at her.

“We went to the dungeons looking for you this morning but you weren’t there,” Fred said coming up and greeting Jac with a quick peck before looking at the others.

“Merlin, are you alright, Knightly?” Thomas asked then concerned, noticing her appearance. “You look like you’ve been hit by a bus.”

Felix was obviously staring at James as he avoided eye contact with everyone.

“I’m fine,” Cressida said pointedly. “Never better actually.”

No one looked convinced by that statement. James finally met her eyes. He looked like he wanted to ask something but his mouth remained clamped shut.

“You were looking for us?” Jac said, changing the topic abruptly.

“Yeah,” Fred said, tearing his eyes away from Cressida. “We got a hit from one of the portraits on the wall in Gryffindor Tower. Said they think they saw the book we were looking for.”

“Where?” Molly asked.

“A First Year in Slytherin had it, was showing her friends all the weird writing in it as they were walking down the hall on the Sixth Floor.”

“The guy in the portrait reckons it was the day after the party,” Thomas said. “We’ve sent Remus and Sirius out to scout the castle in any portrait they can get into to try and spot it again.”

“Did they know the name of the First Year?” Jac asked. “Maybe we can track them down.”

Fred shook his head. “All he can remember is that she’s ginger-”

“There can’t be that many ginger First Years in Slytherin,” Molly said. “I can ask Slughorn for the student list-”

“And let him know what we’re looking for, are you mad?” James spoke up suddenly. “We’ll be in detention every day before we leave and McGonagall will write to our parents before we can explain. Our summer will be ruined before it starts.”

"Given everything going on, you're worried about your sodding summer?" Felix questioned him.

James looked down guiltily, having no answer. Only he and Cressida knew the true intent behind Felix's statement.

“Well, if we can't go to Slughorn, do you have any other suggestions?” Molly asked impatiently.

“We sit and wait outside our common room,” Cressida spoke up, avoiding eye contact with them all . “If they’re a Slytherin, they had to go to sleep eventually. We’ll stop any ginger girl who looks like a First Year until we find the one the portraits spotted with the book.”

“That could take ages,” Felix said unhelpfully.

“Do you want to find the book or not?” Cressida asked, looking purposefully at Molly.

Molly gulped and looked to the floor. “I’ll do it. I’ll wait outside the common room and keep my eyes out. You guys can search for her in the halls.”

“No one will be wearing uniforms. It’s impossible to know who’s in Slytherin and who’s not,” Jac pointed out.

“Don’t you guys know everyone in your house?” Thomas asked.

“No. Unlike you, we tend to get left alone by people who don’t know us,” Cressida said, folding her arms and glancing up the hall as if the girl would miraculously come to them.

Fred and Thomas seemed to be at a loss on where to go from here . “We’ll find Remus and Sirius and see if they’ve found anything in the meantime,” Fred suggested.

“We’ll ask around if anyone knows who we’re looking for,” Jac said then.

Decided, everyone started moving to carry out their new tasks. Everyone except James and Cressida, who remained stood as if the others were still there talking.

Neither would look at the other.

Neither said a word.

Finally, Cressida looked up. For once, James’ face was hard to read.

James opened his mouth to speak when Thomas reappeared. “James! Are you coming?”

James’ mouth clamped shut again. She wished it hadn’t.

Whatever he was going to say, he clearly decided against it with a shake of his head.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he turned and went after Thomas.

Cressida choked on the breath she’d been holding. Wanting to be nowhere near where people could see her, she darted through the halls until she came to a bathroom.

She burst in through the door and gripped the sink in front of her, trying to regain her composure.

Thankfully, for once, given the sun shining brightly outside, the bathroom was empty.

“My, my,” a shrill voice said from above. “That’s a big emotion for someone like you.”

Cressida’s tear-filled eyes looked up to see Moaning Myrtle lounging across a pipe descending from the ceiling. She looked almost joyous to find Cressida in this state.

“Normally, the girls are in here crying about you,” the ghostly girl went on . “What’s wrong? Did someone finally get through that tough exterior of yours? Told you your hair isn’t pretty enough ?”

Cressida turned her back on the sink to find Moaning Myrtle floating directly in front of her.

“What do you mean?” She sniffed. “Who comes in here crying about me?”

“All sorts,” Myrtle was thrilled to divulge. “Gryffindors. The blonde one and her other pretty friend. I’ve seen a Ravenclaw girl curse your name plenty of times. And then, of course, there’s your old friend who you all abandoned-”

“April and Avery cried about me?” Cressida asked confused.

“You stole the boy they liked,” Myrtle sing-songed. “Caused quite a stir amongst them all. If it hadn’t been for Margo-”

“What’s Margo done?”

“Oh, I don’t know-”

“Tell me now!” Cressida demanded as Myrtle started floating up again.

“Just that, she thought you and this boy everyone’s after- Harry Potter’s son- wouldn’t be like this forever. Too many secrets, she said. Bound to crumble, the Ravenclaw agreed.”

“Those bitches,” Cressida spat, feeling the anger rising in her chest again.

“Mind, that Ravenclaw is one to talk,” Myrtle went on. “She seems to know everyone’s secrets. Spills them like water every time she’s in here to someone or another. Bribes people with them. Gets them to do stuff for her. I think she’s got some sort of plan brewing. I heard her say it.”

Cressida looked up at Myrtle slowly. “What’s she going to do?”

Myrtle shrugged nonchalantly. “She didn’t give specifics. Looked like she was keeping notes of it all, though.”

“Notes?”

“She was flicking through a book the last few days she’s been in here,” Myrtle said, floating through the air. “Lots of writing in the margins-”

Realization struck Cressida like lightning. She was gone, leaving the bathroom door swinging behind her as she left.

Out in the corridor, Cressida didn’t take much notice of her surroundings until she found her friends.

If it hadn’t been for that reason, Cressida might’ve had enough sense to stop and wonder what people seemed to be crowing around in groups to look at, rushing from person to person to share whatever they were concealing in their hands.

Three floors down, she found Jac and Felix in the hall, practically tackling them with how fast she was running . “It’s Chauncey- she has the book!” She was panting. “Moaning Myrtle just told me she’s been reading through it for days-”

Molly strode up to them too, barely a second later, a grave look on her face. “Forget the book, we’ve got bigger problems.”

“We’ve been separated for less than an hour, what the fuck could possibly have happened?” Felix asked.

Molly opened her clenched hand to reveal a folded piece of parchment paper.

“Is that our newspaper?” Jac asked confused.

“I didn’t write this,” Molly said disgustingly, holding it out for the others. “The last issue of the Chatterbox went out over a week ago. Someone else printed this to look like a page out of our newspaper and spread it around the whole school at lunch. We were too preoccupied with our own thing, we completely missed this going around.”

“Well, what’s it about?” Felix asked eagerly.

They all scanned the page. Their faces dropped. Cressida paled. Oh no.

Slowly, their eyes lifted to each other in their huddled circle.

“Margo’s a-” Felix went to exclaim until Cressida shut him up abruptly.

"She's gay?" Jac realized.

"And, according to this, she's in love with Molly," Felix went on, looking at their friend in question.

“We need to get these destroyed right now!” Cressida demanded the others, snatching the paper and incinerating it on the spot with her wand.

“You knew?” Jac asked, shocked.

Cressida gave no answer . She instead looked to Molly. The ginger girl looked dumbstruck. “How did you…?” She started, meeting Cressida’s eyes. 

“I figured it out myself,” she admitted. “Margo thinks I’m the only one that knew.”

“Until now,” Felix pointed out.

Molly snapped into action then. “Destroy them all,” she said already storming off in search of more. “If anyone finds Margo, get her out of sight until I get to McGonagall. She’s going to lose her mind over this!”

“Why, what’s so bad about being a lesbian?” Jac asked innocently.

Felix snatched the paper right out of the hands of a passer-by and shoved it into his own pocket. “Some families are a bit behind on the whole thing. Especially, older families. Margo’s is unfortunately one of them,” he explained.

“What will they do to her?” Cressida asked concerned.

Felix shrugged, unsure of what to answer. “I don’t know. My dad’s bi and living with a man. I’m not exactly from that type of family.”

“My mother. She was against my brother being gay for a long time,” Jac spoke up. “But she came around. Parents always come around for their children, don’t they? They’re supposed to love us no matter what.”

“Not everyone’s that lucky,” Cressida said knowingly. “We have to find her. Let her know she’s going to be okay.”

The three of them set off through the halls.

*

After over an hour looking they came up empty on finding Margo’s whereabouts. It was getting dark now too. Curfew would be upon them within the hour and they were running on less than an hour’s sleep between them all.

“She’s nowhere!” Jac said hopelessly.

“She’s gone into hiding,” Cressida deducted. They had checked all her usual hiding places. She’d even checked some of the places only she and James knew about just to be sure.

“Conveniently, so has Chauncey,” Felix huffed. “You sure she had something to do with this?” He asked Cressida.

“I’m sure of it,” she answered.

Molly rounded the corner and found them, her bag overflowing with the parchment pieces containing the article. “I’ve informed McGonagall. She’s going to try and get the rest handed to her by the students. Any luck finding her?”

Felix shook his head.

Molly ran a hand over her face, her mind a million miles an hour. “Why didn’t she just tell me?” She cursed to herself.

“It’s not exactly something you can just blurt out, Mol,” Cressida reasoned with her.

“But where is she?”

“ Sobbing Sniveling Smithers, tears all down her face. Rushing through the halls, oooh what a race!”

“Peeves,” Felix paled, watching as the childish poltergeist came thundering down the halls. He had his arms full and was throwing the pieces of parchment everywhere, raining down on them like confetti.

“He’s seen her. She’s out in the halls somewhere,” Cressida realized as he repeated his rhyme over and over as he approached. “Hey, you little shit!” She yelled, grabbing her wand and throwing it at him to get his attention.

Peeves halted his brakes in mid-air and spun around on Cressida, forcing her to step a few feet backwards from how close he came in. “ Tiny little Knightly, face screwed up all tightly !” He taunted her, his orange eyes widening with excitement. “Can’t mess with you. Oh no, oh no. Was told no, no, no . No more pies for you, they say.”

Cressida stood her ground, ignoring his teasing. “Margo. The one you got all these from,” she said holding up a fistful of the parchments. “Where is she?”

Peeves laughed in her face, somersaulting in the air away from her. “Not where is she, but where is she not?!”

Cressida and the others glared at Peeves as he disappeared down the corridor still singing a crude song.

“What the fuck was that supposed to mean?” Felix asked confused, watching Peeves go alongside Cressida.

“I think I know,” Molly muttered, nudging the two of them to turn back around.

Margo stood at the very end of the long hallway, worse than they had ever seen her look. Even from far away, her eyes were red and bloodshot, her hair in tatters around her face. Her face was puffy, her knuckles bleeding.

“Cressida,” Felix said quietly beside her. “She has her wand out.”

“I noticed,” Cressida replied without moving a muscle. It was aimed at her as Margo started coming toward them.

She tried to look behind her for her own wand. In hindsight, throwing it at Peeves was the worst thing she could’ve done beforehand.

It was too far away to grab.

She turned back to face Margo.

“Take mine,” Jac offered, realizing as well.

“You can’t fight her,” Molly objected instantly. “Look at the state of her-”

“Exactly, and she’s bee-lining for Cressida,” Felix warned them.

Margo was barely a few feet away now.

Molly, without warning, moved forward. “Margo, we’ve been looking everywhere for you-”

“Oh, have you?” Margo asked sarcastically as she still kept coming. Now she was closer they could see just how deranged the poor girl had made herself in the last few hours. Not once did she lower her aim away from Cressida. “So you could gloat? Is that why you were looking for me?”

“We wanted to help you,” Cressida said, moving to stand beside Molly. If this did go the way it appeared to be, Cressida was adamant none of her friends would be caught in the crossfire- with or without her wand.

“I came to you last night for help!” Margo admitted. “I expected you to be asleep. Alone. Only, as usual, you took no notice of me over the rest of your clique. Now, after today, I’m not much interested in your help. ”

“How were we supposed to know that?” Felix asked.

“What happened last night, Margo?” Jac asked softly.

“Jeremiah Vonce dumped me last night, is what!” She yelled. “Says he knows what I am. How? How could he know what I am unless you told him?”

Cressida held her hands up in surrender. “Margo, I swear I never-”

“Why should I believe you?” She snapped, cutting her off. Her wand trembled in her hand. “You didn’t believe me when I said I never told about Jac!”

“But you did,” Molly stepped in.

“I didn’t !” Margo insisted, turning her wand on Molly. Felix imminently stepped in front of her. “I don’t know how Arabella found out but it wasn’t from me. Myrtle told me she saw Jac crying, yes, but I never told! I swear I never told but you didn’t believe me and this is how you’re getting me back!”

Cressida looked behind her again. Margo seemed to realize what she was looking at.

“Accio wand!” She yelled just as Cressida and Jac both made a dart for it.

Her wand flew over her head right into Margo’s free hand.

Felix had his wand out now, pointing at Margo in retaliation.

“Felix, put it away,” Molly told him calmly.

“Fat- fucking- chance.”

“Put it away!” She ordered.

He looked to Cressida. She gave him a nod.

Reluctantly, Felix lowered his wand, but he didn’t put it away.

Margo wiped the tears from her vision with her cardigan sleeve and then threw Cressida’s wand as far away as she could in the opposite direction to them.

Cressida still had her hands up in surrender as she looked at Margo. “You’re right. You didn’t tell. I know that now. I’m sorry, I didn’t know back then but I do now. And you have to believe that I never told-”

“You’re the only one that knew!”

“No I’m not,” Cressida said slowly. “Arabella knew too-”

“No, she didn’t. I wouldn’t dare tell her. I wouldn’t speak of it!”

“She can read minds,” Cressida told her.

Molly’s eyes widened in horror. “Oh, my Godric… that’s why you wanted to know about legilimens. You should’ve told us-”

“Not the point right now, Weasley,” Felix muttered, agitatedly.

Cressida ignored her friends and focused only on Margo and any twitch of her hand. “She knows everything about everyone. She has all year-”

“Don’t try and trick me, Knightly!” Margo tremored. “Arabella can’t read minds. You’re the only one who knew. You printed this and told the whole school. It’s your newspaper, I’d know it anywhere!”

“We swear it wasn’t us, Margo,” Jac tried. “But we’ll find whoever did this. We’ll get rid of the newspaper like it never happened-”

“But it did happen,” Margo wailed, hands gripping her hair as tears streamed down her cheeks. “It’s out there now. They know. My parents will know . I’ll be-”

“It’s okay to feel like this, Margo,” Cressida comforted her, edging closer in the hopes of grabbing the wand from her flailing hand. “It’s okay to be gay.”

“Not for me it’s not. Not in my family.” Her eyes locked with Molly’s. “And you . I bet you’re loving this.”

“Why would I want you to be in pain?” Molly asked in return. “Especially, a pain I seemed to have caused you. Margo, I assure you I had no idea how you felt.”

Margo sniffed, lowering her hand briefly. “Hardly matters now anyway. You’ve got Finnigan and Knightly and your pathetic family back. Turns out all those years I was just a placeholder until you fit in .”

“That’s not true,” Molly shook her head. “I liked being your friend-”

“Until they came along!” Margo sneered, raising her wand at them again. “Then I just became a nuisance. In the way. Arabella overheard you. She told me what you said!”

“Margo, Arabella is playing you,” Cressida tried again. “She’s been playing all of us. Twisting words and turning people against each other. As soon as you became friends with her you became just another pawn to her-”

“She took me in after you lot abandoned me!” Margo argued. “She told me you weren’t worth it. A bunch of nobodies trying to be something you’re not. Hanging around the Gryffindors all the time like you belong with them.”

“And you believed her, just like that?” Jac asked, slightly hurt. “After everything we’d done for you?”

“What had you ever done for me?”

“We were your friends,” Cressida said bluntly. “Sure, we didn’t always get on, but we didn’t cut you out, Margo. You did that to yourself.”

“No, I didn’t !” Margo began manically laughing. “You all made me the bad guy!”

“You trusted Chauncey,” Felix argued.

“I had no other choice,” Margo said firmly.

“Listen, Margo. Just put the wand down and we can talk this through,” Cressida offered. “Forget about whatever Chauncey said, it’s all lies. She’s the one behind this,” she said holding up the newspaper parchment.

“She wouldn’t do that to me,” Margo shook her head.

“She can read minds,” Cressida pressed again. “I know she can. I’ve tested it. That’s how she knew about Jac and Fred. That’s how she knew about you-”

“No, it’s not possible,” Margo continued stubbornly. She readjusted her wand firmer in her hand. “She said you’d try and turn me against her.”

“Of course she did,” Felix said dryly.

“Margo, please,” Molly begged. “Just put the wand down and listen to us. We can fix this-”

“No, you can’t !” She insisted. “You can’t fix everything. All you’ve ever done is make things worse!”

She swung her wand and abruptly missed Molly with whatever spell she’d tried to cast through her blubbering tears.

That was when footsteps approached from behind Margo. She froze, wand lowered to her side, trying to gauge if it was a teacher or just another student.

from their view, Cressida and her friends could see it was the trio of Gryffindors.

Cressida tried to gesture for them to go away. None of them seemed to notice her as they kept coming.

“I told you they’d still be out here looking,” they heard Fred say as they got closer. “You know Filch will be out soon, don’t you?” He called to them.

“Once he’s done clearing up the dung bomb smoke in the greenhouse,” Thomas laughed.

“Is that Smithers?” Fred realized then, as they were a few steps away.

At the mention of her name, Margo spun around, wand raised once more, her breathing growing rapid.

The three boys stumbled back a step. “Merlin, what’s gotten into you, Smithers?” Thomas asked.

James looked to Cressida. While Margo’s back was turned she tried warning them again.

“RUN!” She was mouthing to them.

Jac was gesturing furiously with her arms for them to go. Felix raised his wand to Margo’s back once again while he had the chance. Molly remained frozen in place.

The three boys grew concerned and confused. Cressida saw James reach for his wand and hold it inside his pocket ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice .

“I should’ve known you three wouldn’t be far away,” Margo laughed dramatically at them, waving her wand around in rage. “Let’s hear it then. Where are the jokes? I bet you’ve been keeping them in for years waiting for this moment! That’s what you lot do best, tare people down and mask it as humorous-”

“What jokes?” Thomas said cluelessly.

“Have we missed something?” Fred asked .

“Damn right, you’re missing something!” Margo snapped. “You three strut through these halls like you own them-” Margo sneered, her hands shaking.

“We do not strut,” James rebuked stiffly, understanding the situation. 

“No,” Fred chimed in, trying to ease the tension. “James here prances.”

“Fred prefers the occasional shimmy,” Thomas added, following Fred’s lead.

“Would you shut up for once?!” Molly snapped, taking all three boys by surprise.

“But Margo asked for jokes…” Thomas said, growing more confused by the second.

“Does someone want to tell us what the hell is going on ?” Fred asked, suddenly realizing they couldn’t lighten the mood even with an atomic bomb.

“Don’t pretend like you haven’t read it already!” Margo yelled at them.

“Read what?” James asked calmly.

“Someone just outed Margo to the whole school-” Jac tried to explain.

“Not someone, you !” Margo insisted, shaking her wand back at Cressida.

She tried not to flinch at it.

“When you say outed?” Thomas asked innocently.

James looked at Cressida. Cressida glanced at Molly in retaliation.

“She was in love with Molly,” James realized then, catching up in record speed .

Margo turned her wand on him then. “Don’t say that!”

Fred stood between Margo and the rest of them with his hands up in surrender. “Let’s just calm down, yeah? No need to start throwing spells around-”

“ Don’t tell me to calm down!”

She lifted her wand to the three boys.

Felix stepped forward while her back was turned. “ Flipendo! ”

She got sent flying backwards past the trio of boys and landed on the floor with a cry of pain.  

Everyone went still. “Look,” Jac gasped. Beside Margo on the floor was suddenly the book, dog-eared on a specific page.

Molly got her wand for the first time. “ Accio b -”

“Finite Incantatem!” Margo counter-cursed, sweeping the book back into her hands instantaneously, rendering Molly’s spell useless.

Fred moved Jac behind him protectively, Thomas and Felix went about standing in front of the rest of them. James seemed frozen in place to the side, his hand still in his right-hand pocket.

Cressida stepped out of the line.

“What are you doing? She’s mental! ?” Felix whispered, trying to grab Cressida back behind him as she took a step forward.

Cressida shoved him off and pushed on, holding her hands up in the air.

She could feel all the eyes from behind her.

“Who gave you the book, Margo?” Cressida asked calmly.

Margo was on her feet again, the book and the wand in her hands like her only lifeline. Her fingertips were turning white from how hard she was gripping them in her hold. “Why does that matter?”

“Because all of this has been set up, can’t you see that?” Cressida went on. “The fake Chatterbox article, me being the only one who knew, you suddenly having that book. It’s all Arabella’s doing. She read your mind, just like she did mine. She knows our secrets. She knows how to use them against us. She’s been using you this entire time to get back at me.”

Margo’s sobs worsened. “No… please, no. She’s my only friend-”

“She was never your friend, Margo,” Molly said, trying to get around Felix to no avail. His arm was firmly in front of her to stop both of them being in danger.

Margo used her arm to wipe her tears, momentarily aiming her wand away. “But then… then I have no one. Not Arabella, not Vonce… not even you-”

“Just put your wand down and we can sort this out,” Molly offered.

“No,” Margo shook her head, defensive once again. “No, everyone knows now. Vonce laughed at me. I can’t come back from that.”

“Look at where you are, Margo. Look at who you’re against,” Cressida said. “You can’t fight us all.”

“I don’t need to fight you all…” she retorted with a sudden strange calmness, tears still streaking down her face. “Just you-”

Her wand was up within a breath for a second. Her thumb opened the pages of the book simultaneously.

“Sectumsempra!”

“NO!”

Cressida turned at the noise and briefly saw James flying through the air towards her. Then all she saw was a flash of white light as she crumbled to the floor.

Chapter 101: Fourth Year: Goodbye For Now

Monday 15th July 2019 

 

All she felt was pain. Pain in her chest. Pain in her stomach. Pain across her hands and arms.

She couldn’t remember what happened. How long had passed?

Her eyes blinked open to find faces towered over her.

“She’s awake,” McGonagall’s voice called out somewhere behind her. “Oh, thank Merlin, she’s awake,” she whispered quietly, patting down Cressida’s hair.

Then Madam Pomfrey’s face was above her.

Blinking felt like her eyelids were made of concrete. Keeping them open for longer than a few seconds was almost impossible.

“My wand…”

“Never you mind your wand,” Madam Pomfrey fussed her. “Just focus on keeping those pretty eyes open for me.”

Cressida swallowed hard, her head rolling back limply.

There was crying in the background, Cressida’s ears could only just register it.

She rolled her head to the side and forced her eyes open.

There was something red and sticky all around her. In her hair. On the ground.

Blood.

She was lying in her own blood.

Her eyes focused for only barely a second on what was in her field of hazy vision.

Another body lay limp beside her.

She couldn’t see a face. But the brown curls matted and mixed with the blood were unmistakable.

“Oh my god.” She coughed out a sob and felt like her insides were ripping apart from that small action. “Oh my god, James… James, wake up…” she begged, although she wasn’t sure if the words were even coming out. She tried to reach for him but McGonagall stopped her from moving.

“Miss Knightly, I need you to stay very still,” she said softly, using her old hands to move Cressida’s head forward again.

She felt her eyes filling with tears, threatening to drown her vision completely.

She tried to fight against McGonagall’s hold enough to see they were moving James’ body, limp and lifeless, onto a stretcher.

“They’ve lost a lot of blood, Minnie.” Cressida heard Madam Pomfrey say quietly.

“Do whatever it takes,” McGonagall replied. "I'll inform the parents once we have a better understanding of the damage caused." 

McGonagall gently removed her hands. Cressida let her head roll to the side again, unable to control how heavy it felt.

She could see how much blood had come from his own wounds now he was no longer lying in it. His began mixing with her own, making it impossible to tell where hers stopped and his began.

She could feel herself being moved next. Her body was numb and somehow throbbing all at once. Every breath felt like she was underwater, strangling and stuttering to get air into her lungs.

On the stretcher, she could see more of her surroundings. Her friends were being kept away from her by Slughorn and Longbottom. Fred was pacing up and down like a caged animal. Thomas stared blankly ahead. Felix had both Jac and Molly turned away from the mess in his embrace.

As she was moved past, she finally realized where the crying was coming from. Collapsed in on herself, backing herself into a corner and kicking away anyone who came near her, was Margo. “I didn’t know!” She was wailing. “Arabella told me it’d just shock them. I didn’t mean to, I swear. I didn’t know. She told me to. She promised me! I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! ”

Her eyes closed once more. This time she didn’t fight to open them.

 

Tuesday 16th July 2019

 

Her eyes opened to white ceilings.

Her mouth was dry.

Her body was stiff.

But she wasn’t in pain.

That was until she tried to sit up. Then a searing sharp pain writhed through her whole torso.

Biting her bottom lip through the pain, she looked down to see she was in the medical bay beds. Her hands were covered in bandages. She couldn’t see what was hidden underneath her bed covers. Based on the pain screaming out from that area, she didn’t think she wanted to.

Either way, her body fell limply back into a lying position, only strong enough to crane her neck to see what was going on around her.

“Hello!” She croaked, wondering already if it was pointless. “I’m awake! Is anyone there!?”

The curtains surrounding her were instantly pulled open.

Jac’s relieved face was the first Cressida saw.

“Oh, thank you, Merlin and any other magical being out there!” Jac prayed, rushing to the bedside and grabbing Cressida’s hand.

She hissed in pain and Jac dropped her hands instantly, stepping back.

“She’ll be in a lot of pain still,” Madam Pomfrey’s voice said, appearing briefly between the curtains. “I’m allowing you to see her for only a moment to put your minds at ease.”

Molly and Felix were joining Jac at her beside then. Their faces trying, and failing, to hide their concern at the state of Cressida.

“Well…” Felix said, breaking the tension as no one seemed to know what to say. “This puts a bit of a damper on our last week as Fourth Years-”

“Felix, how could you?!” Molly rounded on him.

“It’s fine,” Cressida tried to speak up.

“None of this is fine,” Jac sniffed, trying to hold back tears. “McGonagall wouldn’t let us see you. We thought maybe-”

“We thought the damage was too much,” Molly finished for her. “That you weren’t going to wake up.”

Cressida swallowed, trying to recall how she ended up here but her mind wouldn’t seem to let her. “What happened… exactly?”

“Margo happened,” Felix answered, not trying to hide his hatred for the name at that current moment.

“My Uncle’s book is what happened,” Molly said more diplomatically.

“Uncle…” Cressida repeated, her mind wandering back. It felt like she was waking up from a long sleep, her brain playing catch up with what happened in the past. “ James ! Where’s James?!”

She tried to sit up again and wailed in pain, her hands moving to hold her abdomen.

Madam Pomfrey rushed in and pulled back the bed sheets. Her whole stomach was wrapped in thick bandages and a weird green goo.

“You’ve ripped your stitches open again,” the medi-witch said, getting her wand and some more clothes from the table beside Cressida.

“Again?” She questioned watching as the red spot on her white bandages got bigger and bigger.

“In your sleep, between consciousness,” Madam Pomfrey seemed reluctant to explain. “You kept trying to get to your friend beside you.”

“James is here?!” She asked, moving again until Madam Pomfrey forced her to lie down. “Is he okay? Is he as bad as me?”

“You’d be a lot worse than this if it hadn’t been for him,” Madam Pomfrey admitted.

Cressida narrowed her brow in concern.

“He jumped in front of the spell as it hit you,” Molly explained. “Took half the damage with him.”

“Right. Out. The lot of you,” Madam Pomfrey ordered them, standing up straight after assessing the damage. “You don’t need to see this bit.”

“But we’ve only just been let in!” Jac protested.

“You can come back tomorrow when she’s all stitched up again,” she said gesturing for them to leave through the other side of the curtain.

Frowning, and offering their condolences as they went, they left through the opposite curtain, leaving it open behind them.

Through the gap, she could see another occupied bed.

Potter looked as though he was peacefully asleep in it.

Cressida looked back to Madam Pomfrey as she unwrapped the bloodied bandages on her stomach and chest. “Is he going to be okay?”

Madam Pomfrey pulled the curtain shut again, making James disappear from view. “Don’t worry about him right now. Focus on getting yourself better first.” She grabbed her wand and looked at her guiltily for a brief second. “Brace yourself, lovely. This might sting a tad.”

“What are you going to-”

Cressida didn’t get to finish her sentence due to the extreme pain at whatever Madam Pomfrey was doing to try and heal her wounds.

 

Wednesday 17th July 2019

 

Cressida had come to learn that the green goo being applied to her wounds every few hours was dittany. Longbottom had given a lesson on it before. She hadn’t paid much attention back then.

When she asked Madam Pomfrey about it, she said it was supposed to stop the scarring. In this case, however, it was about as much good as Sudocrem due to the dark nature of the spell that caused the wounds. "They're harder to fix with a simple spell," Madam Pomfrey had told her. "Sometimes they're not meant to be healed at all... Luckily for you, we got there fast. You might get away with some slight scarring."

Cressida didn’t dare to think about what her body would look like once it was fully healed- if it ever did.

Thankfully, the gashes on her hands seemed to be healing a lot quicker than the deeper slashes to her stomach and chest.

There was only one stubborn slash right through her left palm that seemed resistant to healing as fast as the others surrounding it.

Madam Pomfrey was adamant about keeping the curtain separating her and James closed. Clearly, she’d caused too much of a fuss at seeing him when they were first brought in that she now didn’t trust him to be seen by her.

Cressida wondered how bad his wounds were, whether he was in as much pain as she was.

Mostly, she just wanted to hear his voice.

Some semblance that he was awake or even alive in the bed next to her.

The only hint that she had was the one daily visit their friends were allowed.

Molly, Felix, and Jac came to see her while Thomas and Fred went to the opposing bedside.

“We asked if we can all see you both together,” Jac had told her during their visit, keeping her voice low in fear of being kicked out by Madam Pomfrey. “But they said we’re lucky to even be allowed in to see you at all.”

“I brought you a chocolate frog to try and cheer you up, though!” Felix said cheerfully, holding it out for her. “You can eat, can’t you? The hole in your stomach won’t just chuck it back out like a faulty coin?”

Molly, once again, went to reprimand his jokes and blunt humour but Cressida stopped her. She’s begun to like that most about their daily visits. He was the only one not scared to address the bloodied elephant in the room. Jac and Molly would ask how she was feeling firstly every time they came in and then didn’t acknowledge what happened again for the whole visit as though they were simply sitting on the green enjoying the sun.

“What are people saying out there about it?” Cressida asked curiously. It’d been a question whirring around in her brain since she woke up and had coherent thoughts again. Other than sleeping, being stuck stationary in bed, there wasn’t much else to do than think.

Mostly she thought about superficial things to try and not think about how it happened and the pain that shortly followed. She didn’t want to remember or think about the feeling of lying in her own blood beside James, unable to defend herself.

“A lot of rumours about what happened, as you can imagine,” Molly answered. “No one knows the real story but us though.”

“And Margo?” Cressida asked next. “What happened to her?”

They all glanced at each other unsurely.

"They took her somewhere," Felix whispered. "Haven't seen her anywhere in the castle since-"

Someone cleared their throat and McGonagall revealed herself behind the curtain.

“Hello, students,” she greeted them. “I’m sorry to interrupt your time, but I need to talk to Miss Knightly.”

The three of them got up to leave.

“Can’t they stay?” Cressida asked quickly. “I don’t remember much. They’ll know more than me.”

“I already know everything I need from them, Miss Knightly. Now, if you please?”

The stern headmistress gestured for them to continue leaving, and they obliged.

Cressida craned her neck to try and get her daily glimpse at James. He was still lying there, barely moving. Thomas and Fred were stood over his bedside. They looked worried still.

“Miss Knightly,” McGonagall regained her attention.

“Why can’t I see James?” She asked bluntly. “You’re hiding him from me. Why?”

McGonagall took a seat on the end of her bed. “It is crucial to your healing process that you have no distractions. The same applies to Mr Potter.”

“But he is okay?” She pressed.

McGonagall gave a small, tight smile. “He will be just fine in time, like yourself.”

Cressida reluctantly let her head rest on the pillow again, her eyes on the Headmistress apprehensively.

Sensing she was ready, and knowing Cressida’s disposition, McGonagall wasted no time with pleasantries and got right into the reason she’d paid a visit.

“When did you discover Miss Chauncey had the power of legilimens, Miss Knightly?” McGonagall asked.

“A couple of weeks ago, maybe a month,” Cressida admitted. She had been expecting questions about the accident, not what led up to it. “I just thought she was using it to find out people’s secrets- my secrets. I didn’t think she’d actually cause anyone to get hurt like this. I should've known better. This is all my fault-”

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this wrong-doing, Miss Knightly,” McGonagall said firmly. “Yes, you should’ve come to inform me or another Professor sooner, but you could never have foreseen this happening. Miss Chauncey and Miss Smithers alone shall face repercussions for this incident. As for the book as a whole- I’m sure I can decipher the true owner of it with little struggle. It shall be sent back to the Potter residence with strict rules for it to be destroyed as they see fit.”

“What’s going to happen to Margo?” Cressida asked.

McGonagall looked at her hands clasped neatly in her lap. “I’m afraid we haven’t come to a conclusive decision yet.”

“And Arabella?” She asked then. “She was in on it. She set the whole thing up. She wanted this to happen-”

“I’ve been in contact with her parents and they are heading over from France for a meeting in due time about their daughter’s behaviour and actions over the last year,” McGonagall said.

“Professor,” Cressida said slowly, avoiding eye contact. Her eyes focused on the unhealed gash in her hand, red and raw and painful still. “Am I going to look like a freak after this… with all these scars? I've heard Madam Pomfrey muttering when she thinks I'm asleep. They're not healing as well as she hoped.”

McGonagall gained a fond smile, reaching over and taking Cressida’s hand gently in hers. “I’ve never been one to believe that scars mean anything less about a person’s character. It just shows your resilience and willingness to survive unfortunate circumstances.”

“You mean like Lupin?” She asked knowingly. “At least he had the excuse of being a werewolf… it’s funny really, back a year or so ago, James and Fred thought Jac and I were secretly werewolves for a brief moment. Who would’ve guessed I’d eventually look the part.”

McGonagall tapped her hand, keeping any further comments on the matter to herself. “I’ll leave you rest.”

“Have you told my mum?” She asked before McGonagall could disappear. She knew there’d be no one else who could contact her. “Does she know I’m hurt?”

McGonagall gained a strange expression. “I managed to get through to her briefly, yes. We’ll arrange a safe way for you to return home when the time comes. Make it as easy for you as possible, given your current condition.”

Cressida knew she wasn’t telling her something. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure, Miss Knightly.”

With that, Cressida was alone again.

 

Thursday 18th July 2019

 

Cressida stirred in her sleep. Pain spreading and simmering through her whole upper body. White flashes blinded her vision even in sleep. James’ desperate cry as it happened. Margo’s whaling after.

It was too much.

She couldn’t fight back.

She couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t stop James-

“Cressida, you’re having a nightmare!”

Her eyes jolted awake to find a body restraining her. When her vision focused, she found it was Fred. It was dark. Clearly, past visiting hours.

She noticed the invisibility cloak in a pile at the end of her bed.

“You’re having a nightmare again,” Fred said, using a cloth from her bedside table to dab her forehead.

She’d broken out in a cold sweat.

“Again?” She questioned. “How do you know I’ve been having nightmares?”

Fred cautiously glanced around. “I’ve been sneaking in to visit you both. I’m sure Pomfrey knows but she’s allowing it for now. I just… I couldn’t sit around and do nothing. Not with you and Jamsie in this state. James took longer to wake up but you… every night you start having nightmares. I got Molly to brew a potion to help, a weaker version of sleeping draught, to stop them. Let you get some rest without hurting yourself. Madam Pomfrey probably knows I’m doing that as well.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my friend.”

Cressida tried to sit up as best she could. “You should be focusing on James. It’s my fault he’s even stuck here like this.”

Fred sighed looking at the bed curtain beyond. He’d left it open to give Cressida a clear view of James asleep in his bed. “He was in a bad way, Knightly. That spell… it was the whole reason Molly didn’t want us to have the book in Hogwarts. We all thought she was just being a worry-wart… guess we should’ve listened to her.”

“Is he awake?” Cressida asked cautiously. The whole time she’d been led in this bed, she had yet to hear a word or even a stutter out of James.

“Sometimes,” Fred answered. “He mainly just wants to be left alone to sleep. He won’t talk about what happened. Won’t tell us where the worst pain is. He won’t even let me give him some extra dittany to help.”

“He’s being stubborn.”

“Knightly, I’ve been meaning to ask you…” Fred started slowly. He was staring down at his hands. “What happened at the party?”

Cressida rolled her head to the side to avoid looking at him. “What makes you ask that?”

“Because I know something happened. James hasn’t been himself, even before all this.”

“He looked fine to me when I saw him,” Cressida answered.

“Then look harder,” Fred said firmly. “He’s not just my cousin, Knightly. He’s my best friend, practically my brother. I know when he’s keeping something from me. Ever since the party he’s been… off. Thomas and I couldn’t find him anywhere after the party. The next morning he turned up at breakfast, still in his party clothes and acted like he hadn’t just disappeared for hours. He wouldn’t tell us why he punched Declan, although, now in hindsight, I wish we’d done a lot more to that son of a bitch and his sister before they caused this mess-”

“Fred, just drop it… please,” Cressida asked of him.

“He didn’t even mention your name, Knightly,” Fred went on, looking at her now. “The boy can barely go an hour without bringing your name up somehow and then suddenly for a week straight it’s like you don’t exist. What did you say to him?”

Tears stung in her eyes and she looked away again, not wanting the tremble in her voice to give her away. This on top of her wounds… it was just too much. Too much she’d refused to let get to the forefront of her mind while she as stuck lying here.

She sniffed, forcing herself to look at him again, trying with every fiber of her strength to not cry in front of him. “It’s not what I said… it’s what I didn’t say.”

Fred seemed to come to a realization soon after. He shook his head, resting his elbows on his knees. “The stupid idiot told you then. How he felt…”

Cressida watched him closely. “How long did you know?”

“Since First Year.”

“Sod off-”

“It’s true. From the moment you tricked us on those stairs he wouldn’t shut up about you… he refused to admit it. He still wouldn’t, but I knew. I know my cousin better than anyone. You’re the only person I’ve seen rattle him, Knightly.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” She asked.

Fred was quiet for a long time. “I don’t like to see my cousin hurt, Knightly. I’m not saying it’s your fault, I know it's not… but he knew what that spell did and he still jumped in front of it trying to save you-”

“I didn’t want him to,” Cressida said instantly.

Fred put a hand on top of hers. “I know, Knightly. I know. I’m just saying… James is too loyal for his own good. He doesn’t stop to think properly when his heart is more involved than his head.”

“He never does anything by half,” she muttered to herself.

Fred frowned. “Where did you hear that?”

“Something Margo said once.” Cressida removed her hand from under his, fighting the urge to pick at the scabs forming over her palms. “I’m not good for him, am I?”

Fred took a moment to think. Cressida took that as his answer.

“Knightly, I think-”

“You should go be with James,” she cut him off, hiding her hand under the blanket. “He needs you more than me right now.”

Fred glanced at Potter through the curtains, almost guiltily, before looking back to her. “I’ll tell Jac you say hi.”

“She doesn't know, in case you were wondering,” Cressida said as he got to his feet. "I never told them... about me and James. That's what we were arguing about at the party."

"Oh," Fred said, coming to terms with it in his own mind. He lingered there for a moment. "Jac and I got a lot of shit when we came out as a couple... people not understanding. Thinking we had nothing in common. Judging us on our Houses and not as people... you were trying to protect him from that."

"I was trying to protect myself," Cressida replied quietly. "I wasn't strong enough."

Fred's eyes went to James again. "Maybe it just wasn't the right time for you two."

"Maybe it'll never be the right time," Cressida said dismally. "Rose said she could see it coming. Pain and tragedy in our future. Maybe we were never meant to end well."

"Maybe," Fred agreed. "Or maybe Rose got it wrong for once."

Cressida picked at the gash on her hand, not wanting to think about it any longer. "Be there for him... during summer. He might need someone to talk to."

"And what about you?" He asked. "Who have you got to be there for you?"

"I do just fine on my own."

With that, Cressida rolled over on her side, pulling her bed sheet up past her chin.

She listened as Fred grabbed the invisibility cloak and went to James’ side, pulling the curtain closed behind him.

She debated asking him to leave it open. So she could have more than a glimpse of him. To wake up in the morning and still be able to see his face instead of the white curtain. But then she thought that everyone only let her have a glance once a day because that’s all she deserved of him now. She was the reason he was there, after all. She was the reason he jumped. The reason he was in pain.

She didn’t deserve to have a full view of him anymore after what had happened. After he’d told her he loved her and she couldn’t even muster the courage to say it back.

James deserved better than that, she kept telling herself.

James Sirius Potter deserved someone bright and loving and full of life like him. He deserved someone who would always laugh at his jokes, even the terrible ones. He deserved someone who wasn’t afraid to let people in. Someone who could love him back fully, and love him the way he deserved to be loved.

That simply wasn’t Cressida.

And therefore James couldn’t be hers anymore, if he ever was.

She had to do the right thing by him. She had to make sure he’d never be in pain because of her again, even if it meant breaking her own heart.

 

Friday 19th July 2019

 

Her friends arrived later in the day than normal. By Cressida’s calculation, today was the last full day in the castle. Tomorrow everyone would be heading home to their families.

All except her and James, it seemed.

She hadn’t even noticed Fred and Thomas stop by. It struck her as odd, but she didn’t give it much thought before she heard familiar voices heading her way.

“McGonagall asked us to pack your trunk for you,” Molly greeted her, hoisting it into the chair beside her bed. “Everything’s in there that we could find, apart from Rasper. McGonagall’s looking after him until you go home.”

“But we thought you’d want these to travel home with,” Jac said. She placed her knitted jumper, her Vans trainers from Dayle, and wand on her lap.

Cressida ran the familiar itchy fabric of the jumper through her thumb and forefinger, grateful for the sense of comfort. “Thanks.”

“We leave first thing tomorrow morning,” Felix said. “Are you sure you can’t get on the train? We’ll take good care of you, I’ll carry you on and off if I have to.”

“McGonagall says it’s too risky. Apparently, arrangements are being made to send me straight to Conwell,” Cressida sighed.

“Can’t you come to Ireland with me instead?” He asked next, almost desperately. “I can’t bear thinking about you being all alone out there like this. Sure, my dad won’t mind. He thinks you're funny. We can make you stew and get dittany from the garden-”

“Felix,” Molly muttered, putting a hand on his wrist. An indication for him to stop offering things she knew wouldn’t happen. Reluctantly, he shut his mouth.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a liquorice wand and put it in her lap with the rest of her things to travel home with.

“Thanks, Finnigan,” Cressida smiled reassuringly at him. “Promise me you’ll write?”

“Try stopping us,” Molly replied with a slightly forced smile. Cressida could tell she had been worrying more than normal these days few days.

“And you have my number to text me,” Jac chimed in.

“Cheers,” Cressida said again. “Really, you don’t have to panic about me. I’ll be fine. It’s just six weeks. I’ve survived it before.”

Molly didn’t look convinced.

“Right, come on you lot!” Madam Pomfrey announced herself, appearing with a fresh bottle of dittany, ready to be applied. “I’m under strict instructions to make sure you lot are out of here and ready to go for tomorrow morning.”

“But we’ve already packed our stuff,” Molly objected. “Can’t we stay a bit longer?”

“Yeah, it’s our last chance to see her,” Felix added.

“I’m sorry,” Madam Pomfrey shut them down, and she truly did look sorry. “I have to run through with Cressida how to care for herself over the summer so her wounds heal properly without me there.”

Reluctantly, they all left, giving her tight hugs and slightly tearful goodbyes are they went.

It felt quiet once they’d gone this time. Final.

She turned to face Madam Pomfrey with a shaky breath. “What do I need to know?”

*

If Cressida was feeling hopeless about her summer before, she was borderline depressed now.

After Madam Pomfrey ran through how to care for herself over the summer without the help of magic, Cressida realised just how helpful her spells every now and again had been in subsiding her pain. Now, all she’d have was the bottle of dittany paste Madam Pomfrey had given her.

“If you’re careful, it should last you the whole summer,” Madam Pomfrey said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t give you more. Professor Longbottom didn’t know we’d have such high demand for it, what with two people in this state. It takes a while to grow and mature enough to be effective-”

“It’s fine,” Cressida said quickly, taking the bottle. “I can make do.”

Madam Pomfrey nodded understandingly. “Well, there’s some good news for you at least,” she perked up then.

“What’s that?” Cressida asked doubtfully. The bottle was barely the size of her hand. She’d seen Madam Pomfrey put double that on her stomach wound alone.

“You’re friend is well enough to sit up. It’s safe for you to see each other again.”

Cressida discarded the bottle onto the bedside table and pushed herself up into a sitting position. “James is awake?”

Madam Pomfrey nodded, doing one last check of her bandages before deciding they were tight enough. “I’ll leave the curtain open for you. Just try not to move too much or you’ll risk hurting yourself again.”

Cressida nodded, preparing herself to have a full view of James for the first time since she’d been in here.

Madam Pomfrey left, and as promised, left the curtain open behind her.

Cressida craned her neck to see him.

He was sitting up with the help of cushions. His eyes were still closed. If he was awake, he was pretending not to be.

Cressida rested her head back on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. She’d spent so long wishing to not have a barrier between them that now it was gone, she felt exposed.

it felt like an eternity had passed before he spoke.

“Knightly?”

His voice was coarse and raspy.

Cressida’s head snapped back to him instantly. “James,” she breathed, relieved.

He opened his eyes finally, rolling his head to the side to face her. “How bad is it on your end?”

Cressida lifted her hands. They were mostly healed now apart from that stubborn gash in the middle of her left palm. “Could’ve been worse…” She lowered her hands, staring at them guiltily. “I guess I have you to thank for that.”

James’ eyes closed again. He was still clearly in a lot of pain. “Don’t mention it.”

She risked looking at him again. “Where did it hit you?”

“My hands, arms and shoulder,” he answered. “Madam Pomfrey said I was lucky. If I’d been a second slower it would’ve caught my neck. There’d be no fixing that,” he laughed weakly.

Cressida felt tears welling in her eyes at the image of him being slashed into pieces because of her. “James, I’m so sorry-”

“Not your fault, Knightly.”

“No, this is all my fault,” she sniffed then, struggling to keep composure. “We keep accidentally hurting each other,"

He winced in pain while trying to sit up a bit more. “I think Smithers is to blame for this one.”

“No,” Cressida shook her head. “Before this... we kept messing up and then we had that big argument and now look at us.”

James rotated his shoulder uncomfortably. “Like you said, maybe it’s not meant to be easy,” he tried to joke.

She couldn’t bring herself to laugh. She still couldn't believe James had been caught in this mess because of her. “James, I can’t keep doing this to you. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t even be here.”

James glanced across at her understanding the meaning behind her statement. “No one forced me to jump in front of that spell. I just did-”

“Because of me,” she finished for him. She met his eyes. “I could’ve got you killed, Potter. How’re we supposed to just move on from that?”

“Maybe we just need to regroup,” he tried to reason.

“Where would we start?” She retorted, looking away again. “We haven’t even acknowledged what happened at the party.”

“Those things we said at the party-”

“It’s all true,” Cressida said bluntly. “And you know it too, otherwise you wouldn’t have said them.”

James went quiet for a moment. “What do you suggest we do? Go back to being just friends? Like we never happened?”

She chanced looking over at his big green eyes. “Do you think we can?”

James looked back, he looked tired. “Honestly... I don't know.”

Cressida chewed on her lip and looked away again. James followed suit. They sat in silence for a long time.

“We can’t keep doing this... can we?” James asked finally. “This is it?”

I don’t want to lose you. “I think it has to be.”

James nodded distantly. More silence. 

“I get it now... why you didn't want to tell people,” he said after a while. “Having to explain to the others- seeing their reactions. It would really suck... you were right to keep us a secret,” James said softly. Cressida looked at him again. He didn't look back this time. “Just promise me one thing, Knightly.”

“Anything.”

His jaw was clenched, his focus solely on the end of his bed. “Keep your distance for a while.” Cressida's stomach dropped. “If we're ever going to be friends again... I just- I'm going to need some time.”

Cressida swallowed the tears rising in the back of her throat. “Okay, Potter.”

James gave one final nod and then rolled over with his back to her under the covers.

Cressida turned her back on him too as she led down in her bed. She just hoped he was too busy with his own thoughts that he couldn't hear the tiny sob that escaped her body.

For the first time, she understood her mother.

She never wanted to feel this pain again.

 

Sunday 21st July 2019

 

Another year done.

Another summer in Conwell loomed upon her.

Everyone else had gone already. They’d stopped by briefly to give their farewells from the doorway before they were hurried to board the train to return to their homes for the next six weeks. Cressida tried not to dwell on the fact she wouldn’t see their faces or hear their voices again for six whole weeks.

McGonagall had stopped by momentarily to let Cressida know that arrangements had been made for her safe travel home and that she should be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice in a day or two.

Cressida felt selfish that she was glad about the extra day she had still at Hogwarts. She knew it was to heal her scars, not that they were healing particularly well despite Madame Pomfrey's best efforts, but she felt like it gave her more time to prepare. Prepare for what state her mum would be in. How she’d last without spells and potions to numb her pain.  How she’d last the summer back there alone.

Ironically, the only people left in Hogwarts this late were James and the two boys. God forbid they not be his side throughout everything. Although, she couldn’t complain about that. They offered a buffer from the awkwardness surrounding her and James now that Madam Pomfrey thought she was helping by having the curtain between them removed.

Late Sunday night, while the two boys were at James’ bedside, giving him the rundown of their plan to heal him ‘better than before’ over the summer, Cressida pretended to be asleep.

The two boys had tried to engage her in conversation whenever they stopped by. Thomas, especially, liked to ask how she was healing. She replied with slightly restrained answers. It only just dawned on her in these moments that if she lost James, she was losing them too.

She didn’t think she’d ever admit that she’d miss them when they were still in front of her, laughing and joking like nothing had fallen apart around her. They knew no different.

Fred occasionally glanced between her and James, trying to gauge whether they had made up or not. He never asked or mentioned it out loud. She doubted he’d even told James he knew. Fred was a good friend like that.

All the pain shown on their faces during their quick visits could be blamed on their wounds caused by Margo rather than the pain they’d caused each other.

“We’re going early tomorrow morning,” James called over from his own bed late Sunday night. It was the first time he’d addressed her directly since their conversation . “McGonagall’s going to send us to the Burrow by floo.”

“Aren’t you still hurting?” She asked. She didn’t want him to go so soon, even if they weren’t talking. Just having him a bed over offered her some comfort still. Let her know she wasn’t completely alone. Not yet anyway. She had the whole summer to feel that way.

“We have herbs and spells to help me back home. Pomfrey can’t really do any more for me here than my family can,” he shrugged, almost guilty.

“Right,” she said lamely. That was another thing she’d have to cope with on her own. Her pain. Not just the pain from her new wounds, either.

“How’re you getting back?” He asked then.

Cressida couldn’t bring herself to look at him anymore. “Hagrid, I think I heard McGonagall say. I wasn’t really listening, if I’m honest.”

“Oh,” was all James replied.

Their silence returned.

He still wouldn’t look at her directly.

“Potter,” she said, taking a shaky breath in. There was a plethora of things she could’ve said at that moment. She could’ve expressed how much she enjoyed being with him. How she didn’t know if she’d ever sleep through the night again without him next to her.  How much she’d miss him, both as her friend and more. “I hope you have a good summer,” she said instead.

He looked at her finally, except for the first time ever, it was like he was staring right past her. “Yeah. You too, Knightly.”

They didn’t say anything after that.

*

When she woke up the next morning, James’ bed was empty and stripped of its sheets.

She sat up and moved her legs out from under the blanket slowly. Any small movement or twist of her torso still gave her a dull aching pain.

Tentatively, she stood up. Taking small steps until she reached James’ empty bed.

She ran her fingers over the pillow that was left behind.

It was cold.

All evidence of him gone. Almost like he hadn’t been there in the first place.

“Good, you’re standing on your own, finally,” Madam Pomfrey’s voice called.

Cressida turned towards it. It was true this was the first time she didn’t need assistance getting up and down from her bed without crying out in pain.

“When did they leave?” She asked as the medi-witch trotted over to her.

“McGonagall came for them long before you woke up, dear,” she answered, using her wand to summon a box of bandages over to them. “She said to let you get all the rest you can. Didn’t see the point in waking you up for a quick goodbye.”

Cressida didn’t respond.

Madam Pomfrey could tell she was disappointed with that decision. “She’ll be along for you any moment now, I imagine,” she said as she went about putting the bandages and some other small bits and bobs into a box. “Best get yourself ready.”

She handed her the box of remedies before disappearing back into her office again.

Cressida turned back towards her own bed. Her trunk lay already packed on the chair where Molly had left it.

She threw the box on the bed and went about pulling on some joggers and then pulled the knitted jumper on for warmth.

Finally, once her Vans trainers were on her feet, she sat at the edge of her bed and waited.

*

McGonagall came nearly half an hour later.

She used her wand to levitate Cressida’s case to follow them as they made their way up to her office.

“How’s the pain this morning, Miss Knightly?” McGonagall had asked, making sure to walk slowly up the stairs for Cressida’s sake.

“Fine,” was all she answered.

McGonagall didn’t press the matter. Just gave a curt nod.

Once they were in her office, McGonagall gestured to her hobo bag she normally kept her school books in placed carefully on one of the chairs facing her desk. “I believe this is yours.”

Cressida made towards it. “Thanks.”

At the sound of Cressida’s voice, Rasper poked his head out from inside the back and rasped out a meow.

It brought a smile to Cressida’s face as her small cat came bounding towards her and nudged against her ankles.

She went to bend to pick him up until McGonagall placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

“Allow me,” she said, picking up Rasper between her bony hands and placing him gently into Cressida’s arms.

At the feel of Rasper’s soft fur against her face, she was grateful that at least she had this small mercy left. Her one constant companion.

“I’ve missed you, buddy,” she whispered lovingly, scratching him between his ears.

McGonagall smiled at the interaction before checking the time. “I’ll go see if Hagrid is ready. Wait one moment. Make yourself comfortable in the meantime.”

Cressida watched as McGonagall departed her office, leaving her standing in the center.

She glanced around the room, cradling Rasper in her arms still. She didn’t expect to be in this room and not be in trouble for something.

She especially didn’t expect to be left alone in this room again so soon after last time.

Her eyes found the portraits hanging over her. Most were still milling about, interested in their own fruitless activities. Some were dozing in a chair. Some popped in and out as if getting back from visiting old friends.

Dumbledore’s portrait, however, was simply watching her through his half-moon spectacles.

Snape’s hung beside him. He was pretending she wasn’t there, busying himself with staring out into the room like there was nothing of interest to him in it.

She didn't know the next time she'd get this opportunity. It was now or never. She had to have something to occupy her thoughts all summer. Something to work towards. Something to keep her mind off Potter. 

“You said Mundungus Fletcher would know something,” Cressida said to the portrait, hoping to get his attention. “How do I find him?”

Dumbledore’s eyes went slowly to Snape.

Snape didn’t even bother with turning in her direction. “I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re on about,” Snape said, backing out of his portrait without a glance back.

Cressida frowned deeply, turning her glare on Dumbledore. He had the nerve to look uninterested all of a sudden. “I know you two know something.” 

“Perhaps we do,” Dumbledore replied calmly. “But perhaps what we do know isn’t worth knowing at all. Perhaps you should consider that before you’re faced with the consequences of it,” he said mystically, casually strolling out of his portrait too.

“Right ‘en!” Hagrid’s choice boomed, entering the room with bike goggles over his eyes. “You ready ter go home, Cress?” He asked, holding out a helmet.

Rasper’s head jolted up, clearly unsure about what was the come next.

She began to wonder what the helmet was for. She forced down her nerves about returning to Conwell. Forced away the thoughts of her dad. Pushed down Dumbledore’s parting words.

“As I’ll ever be,” she lied.

Chapter 102: Summer 2019 (Part 1)

Notes:

TW: some implications and signs of domestic and physical abuse. Also, there's a small mention of a drug overdose.
It is not explicit but if this stuff affects you maybe read carefully <3
The next few chapters are much less intense so for those who are affected by these situations- feel free to skip this chapter if you'd feel happier!

Monday 22nd July 2019

Cressida had been delivered back to Conwell by Hagrid in the sidecar of an old motorbike that sputtered out black soot every now and again as they trailed along in the sky.

Hagrid had seemed so thrilled to be the one taking her home, Cressida didn’t have the heart to tell him how travel-sick she felt the entire time.

“Not long now, Cressida,” he’d said, shouting to be heard over the engine and the wind. “We’re over Wales now, by the looks.”

Cressida risked peeking over the edge of the sidecar. It was dark by now. It’d be impossible for Cressida to know if Hagrid was right or wrong. Most of Wales was fields, housing estates, and farmland apart from the few bigger towns like Cardiff and Newport. All she could see from this high up was the odd cluster of lights signalling life down below her.

Her stomach jolted as the car let out another spluttering of soot behind it. Cressida returned to sitting straight up, her eyes closed firmly and her hands wrapped around her stomach.

Rasper gave a shrill meow from inside the bag. He seemed about as thrilled as Cressida with their current mode of transportation.

“Hold on tight now,” Hagrid warned. “We’re going down!”

Cressida deducted going down was much, much worse than going up, but at least it meant it was coming to an end.

Hagrid came in for landing similar to an airplane and skidded along the road until it looked like a normal motorbike being ridden by an abnormally large man.

Finally, he parked it under the ‘No Balls’ sign opposite Cressida’s flat.

“Well,” Hagrid said, lifting the goggles onto the top of his head. “Here ye are. Safe and sound.”

Cressida was still fighting the urge to throw up as she clambered out of the sidecar. “Cheers, Hagrid.”

“Let’s get this trunk up to yer place, shall we?” He asked, grabbing the case and making for her front door.

Cressida moved to stand in front of him. “I can take it from here.”

“I’m under strict instruction from McGonagall to deliver you directly to your door, Miss Cressida. I can’t go against McGonagall’s instruction-”

“My mum will be sleeping,” Cressida thought quickly. “She’s a muggle, you see. She might get spooked… you know, it’s dark and you are rather large, Hagrid.”

“Oh,” he said, looking up at the flat building. “Right ye are, Cressida. I can see yer point. Might think she’s being attacked by a bear or somethin’, a big lad like me showing up at your doorstep when she’s half asleep.”

He held out her trunk for her to take.

Cleverly, Cressida grabbed onto it long enough to lower it to the floor. She turned to Hagrid again. He seemed reluctant to leave her still.

“You can tell McGonmagall you did a job well done,” she told him. “And thank you… for taking care of me. Making sure I got here safe and all.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Hagrid said bashfully. He rolled on the balls of his feet, rubbing his hands together. “Right ‘en. If you’re sure you don’t need me for anything, I best be headin’ back.”

Cressida stood and waved as Hagrid got back on his bike, placing the goggles back over his eyes.

With that, Hagrid started the bike up with a bang and a rumbling and off he went back down the road.

She waited outside just long enough to see a distinct silhouette of a large man on a motorbike flying through the air and into the night sky. If she had been a muggle, she might’ve assumed he was simply some sort of deformed bat or oddly shaped helicopter in the far-off distance. Her last glimpse of the wizarding world for the whole summer, disappeared into oblivion.

Rasper poked his head out from inside the bag curiously.

Cressida gave him a scratch under the chin. “Come on, buddy,” she sighed. “We can’t stand out here forever.”

*

Getting her trunk up the flights of stairs had nearly exhausted her. Her stomach wound pulled and strained every time she went up another step with it in her hand. Her chest wound grew tight and made her feel like she was on the verge of an asthma attack with every breath she took.

By the second floor, she debated giving up and leaving it there to go back for in the morning- but then she knew in these parts, anything left behind was free to take. She couldn’t risk all her stuff from Hogwarts going walkabout in Conwell.

Eventually, late into the night, she’d managed to drag herself and her trunk to her front door.

Her mother had seemingly left it unlocked. Cressida had assumed she’d remembered she was coming home, but when she pushed the door open and went inside, she knew that wasn’t the case.

She could smell the alcohol and cigarettes as soon as she stepped inside. The kitchen light was still on. She sniffed the air again. Something was burning. Cressida rushed in and opened the oven to find a pizza, black and charred beyond saving. She discarded it in the overflowing sink of dirty dishes and turned off the oven.

Wandering out into the living room, the only light source was the TV playing a random shopping channel. Her mother was asleep on the sofa, and a bottle of empty gin lay on the carpet underneath her.

Cressida wasn’t sure if she had tried waiting up for her to come home or just happened to fall asleep like this. Rasper padded over, sniffing at the gin bottle curiously.

With a sigh, she picked Rasper up into her arms, trying to ignore the throbbing coming from her whole abdomen again.

She turned the TV off with the remote, deciding to leave her mother lying there. She’d wake up in the morning when she was ready.

Making sure the front door was locked, she didn’t bother to try and move her trunk any further than just inside the entrance. That could wait until morning too.

Cradling Rasper in her arms, Cressida turned all the lights off and went to bed only to be met with nightmares once again.

*

Cressida woke up to Rasper pawing at her face.

She forced an eye open and glanced around her tiny room. Her mother hadn’t touched a thing since the last time she’d been home. It looked like she hadn’t touched anything since the last time she’d been home.

She sat up, reaching for the bottle of dittany from her hobo bag.

Her wounds had obviously reopened and wept from overexerting herself the previous night. It stung as she applied the green goo and fished for some fresh bandages Madam Pomfrey had given her.

Finally, once she had sorted herself out, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and went to stand up, only her feet hit something hard as she stumbled over it.

Her case had been moved to her bedside at some point, and Cressida had just knocked it over, spilling all of its contents onto the middle of her floor. That could only mean one thing. Her mother had woken up.

Kneeling down, Cressida started riffling through her trunk of belongings, grabbing her dirty uniforms and tattered clothes from home in a pile to be dealt with at a later date.

Then, right at the bottom, hidden under a scarf and her school books was a neatly folded grey checkered shirt. She recognized it as Felix’s. She’d seen him wear it a dozen times over the years. It even had Molly's stitching of his name on the inside of the collar after he'd gone through a spell of losing every object of clothing he owned. Cressida had been convinced at the time that the trio of Gryffindors had something to do with it, but she could never prove it and soon enough all Felix's clothes showed back up again so it was no harm done.

In the breast pocket, was a ripped bit of parchment with scratchy handwriting poking out.

It read: ‘So you’re not alone. See you in 6 weeks.’

Smiling gratefully, Cressida replaced her old top with Felix’s and did up the buttons over her bandages.

She neatly folded her knitted jumper and hid it under her pillow to wear to sleep at night, before stepping back out into her flat with Rasper in toe.

Cressida quickly deduced her mother wasn’t on the sofa anymore. Knowing there was nowhere else to really go in their tiny flat, she stepped into the kitchen.

Her mum was standing in the middle of it, staring at the mess surrounding the sink.

“Hi, mum.”

Alice jumped, clutching her heart as she realized Cressida was there. “You scared me,” she gasped. Her attention went back to the sink sadly. “I was going to have pizza ready for when you came home… went out and bought it special.” She turned to Cressida with a weak smile, her eyes blinking away tears. “Guess I fell asleep.”

Cressida moved to her, wrapping her arms around her in a hug. Alice seemed to put all her weight on Cressida as she held her. “It’s fine, mum. I wasn’t really hungry anyway.”

Alice sniffed, stroking back Cressida’s hair from her face. “Let me look at you,” she said, moving back and putting her hands on either side of Cressida’s face. “It’s been so long that sometimes it feels like I’ve forgotten what you look like.”

“I look like you,” Cressida replied. “Just look in the mirror next time you miss me.”

Alice nodded, fighting back tears still. She pulled Cressida into another hug, a tighter one this time, like she was scared Cressida would disappear again if she let go.

Cressida let her mum hold her as long as she needed. Maybe her mum was getting better, she hoped fleetingly. She hoped this summer wouldn’t be as bad as she thought.

“I missed you, Mum,” she said, burrowing her face into her mother’s dressing gown.

“I missed you too,” her mum whispered back.

 

Wednesday 7th August 2019 

‘Dear Cressida,

I was worried when I heard you wouldn’t be coming to James’ birthday party. In fact, everyone was asking where you were. Even Jac came for the day. She said you were in too much pain to come and that’s why you missed it. James looked a bit disappointed but if anyone can understand how you’re feeling, he can, so I wouldn’t worry about him being upset you weren’t here.

I don’t like to imagine you all the way in Wales in pain on your own. I hope you’re healing alright and it starts to feel better soon.

The start of the summer has been a rather bleak one. As you can imagine everyone is fussing over James and his wounds from the accident, especially considering he couldn’t dance at his own party. Grandmother Molly even lets him have the first pick of her cupcakes and he always picks my favourite- carrot - meaning I get stuck with vanilla or walnut.

Still, I can’t exactly be mad about him being hurt, I suppose. I do worry about him and feel bad when I see him wincing as he tries to keep up with Fred and Teddy in the garden. They’ve been spending a lot of time down in Grandpa Arthur’s old shed. Merlin only knows what they’re doing down there. It’s got nothing but cobwebs and old buckets in from what I remember, but it seems to be keeping James and the others out of trouble so no one’s complaining.

Aunt Ginny has banned him from getting on a broom until his scars turn white. Uncle Bill says that should be before the summer is over, so everyone’s hopeful he’ll be back to his usual full-on self soon. Thomas was thrilled that this misfortune wouldn’t derail his Quidditch team when we go back.

With any luck, you’ll be in the same boat. All right as rain to return for Fifth Year with the rest of us!

Summer only amplifies how much of a headache my cousins give me in such close proximity constantly, which means I miss you and the others terribly.

Felix and I have suggested we all meet up toward the end of summer for a look around Diagon Alley. We could get some new quills and matching parchment paper!

Either way, I thought I’d try and keep you in the loop as much as I can even though I imagine James has already told you all of this.

Hope to hear back from you soon. Take care of yourself and drink plenty of tea. Tea always helps.

Love from, Molly II’

Cressida placed Molly’s letter gently back on her nightstand. It was nearing three in the morning and she had yet to get a wink of sleep.

She rubbed her tired eyes and threw her hair up into a ponytail so it was off her neck. For once, summer actually came with a heatwave which made everything humid and sticky and uncomfortable.

It didn’t help that it made her bandages sweat and itch, irritating her already painful wounds underneath. It felt like every time she turned or tossed in her sleep she ripped her cuts back open by a hair’s width.

With a huff, Cressida got up from her bed and opened her window, hoping for some fresh air to waft in but there was nothing. Not a breeze in sight, just more warm air.

This was the third night in a row like this. She began to doubt even once the heatwave dispersed that she’d get a good night’s sleep soon.

It was tedious, sitting up and staring at her ceiling like this every night. At least back in Hogwarts, she could go out wandering or have James for company.

At the thought of him, she slammed the window shut again and led back down on her bed, rubbing her eyes again until she saw spots. She’d been trying everything under the sun to not think about him, but with his birthday just passing, and Molly’s letter constantly reminding her of him, it seemed impossible.

She hadn’t had a single letter from him. She’d expected as much. She tried to convince herself she didn’t even want a letter from him. There was nothing left to say between them anyway, it seemed. But still, the day a small brown owl tapped on her bedroom window, a small part of her couldn’t help but hope.

She was glad it had been Molly who wrote to her, anyway. Molly always reminded her to take care of herself properly back in Hogwarts and she felt like she needed that out in Conwell now as well.

Cressida had tried to keep as much of her pain hidden from her mum as she could. She had been thrilled to hear her mum had returned to working at the care home. It wasn’t as many hours as before. She suspected her mum’s breakdown when Dayle got taken away took its toll on her job performance, but at least she still had a job. It gave her mum something to do in the day other than smoke and drink herself silly. Cressida had been glad about that.

Alice had asked a few questions about Hogwarts when the two sat and shared a meal every other night. Cressida spoke at length about Molly and Felix and Jac. She decided to leave out the Gryffingang from her retellings. It was for the best, she reasoned with herself.

Jac had been a good distraction too, since being home. The two had been texting back and forth about the muggle things they had to catch up on since being away at school for most of the year. For Jac, this mainly consisted of finding what music she’d missed out on.

Cressida peered down at her abdomen, lifting her pyjama shirt to show the bandages. She’d bled through them again, but less than last time. Maybe she was healing, ever so slightly.

Sitting up, she grabbed the box of bandages from Madam Pomfrey and the small bottle of dittany. While she had enough bandages to last her until Christmas, her bottle of pain relief was already a quarter empty. That didn’t bode well, she thought fleetingly.

Still, she peeled back her old bandages revealing her stomach and chest wounds. While her hands were mostly healed, she couldn’t help but notice the white murky lines that now covered them. The gash in the center of her left palm was the worst. It had been the deepest and was the most obvious scar left behind. Her chest hardly bled anymore, but had a strange green-tinted crust over it now. She hoped that didn’t mean it was infected.

Her stomach was a different story. The edges of the gash were still red and raised and hot to the touch. The corners of it seemed to constantly weep and tear causing it to bleed if she moved too much without thinking.

She dipped her finger into the dittany and traced the outline of where it hurt the most on her stomach before re-wrapping it carefully. She couldn’t afford to waste any more dittany on the injuries that hardly hurt anymore. She had to save as much as she could to try and heal her stomach.

Lying back down, trying to ignore the throbbing from touching her gashes, she wished nothing more than to have some of Molly’s sleeping draught. She hadn’t realized it at the time, but Fred sneaking that into her helped massively in her getting at least an hour of proper sleep. Plus, it had helped stop the nightmares momentarily. Now that was all she saw when she closed her eyes. The white flash. James’ scream. The pain.

She couldn’t be stuck reliving it anymore. She had to find a way to sleep before she dropped dead from exhaustion.

Sitting up again, Cressida had a ridiculous idea- but at least it was something .

She kneeled in front of her trunk and started rummaging around in it, discarding things on the floor either side of her and scanning through books until she found what she was looking for.

Finally, Cressida put her hands on her copy of ‘Magical Drafts and Potions' and perched on the end of her bed.

Inside, contained the ingredients used to brew sleeping draught. She knew roughly how to do it. Slughorn had taught them a year or so ago which is how Molly knew what do to. It hadn’t seemed that complicated back then- of course, trying to brew it in Conwell without the help of any magical component would likely add its own set of challenges to the otherwise simple potion.

She flicked through to the right page and listed off the ingredients. Lavender, valerian sprigs, flubberworm mucus and standard ingredient, which was a mix of herbs Cressida had used in a multitude of potions. She looked up thoughtfully. The only thing that she couldn’t find would be flubberworm mucus. She silently cursed herself for not taking and keeping samples of everything like James and Molly did. Molly did it for some extra studying back in their common room. James, of course, did it for pranking reasons.

Although, she thought to herself, what was a flubberworm if not a big slug?

The thought of finding a random slug for her to drink its slime put her off the idea entirely.

She shut the book and discarded it to the bottom of her bed with a frustrated sigh.

There was nothing else for it. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t heal herself. She couldn’t stop the pain. She couldn’t stop her mind from wandering back to Potter and what he’d be up to right now, or how he was doing-

Resolutely, she stood up and paced the middle of her small bedroom.

She couldn’t sit there any longer. She felt like she had gone stir-crazy in a matter of two weeks.

Fred had said Molly had brewed a weaker version of the potion back in Hogwarts. Maybe Cressida could find a workaround. Maybe she didn’t need the flubberworm if she simply found the rest of the ingredients and made them stronger… like a really gross herbal tea.

She doubted it’d do much, or have any magical effect, but at least it’d be something, she reasoned with herself.

Pulling on Felix’s shirt, Cressida made for the door until Rasper meowed, crawling out from his nest of blankets under her bed.

She smoothed his head and tried to coax him back to sleep in the warm spot she had been a second ago.

When she went for the door again, she found Rasper trotting alongside at her heels.

Lifting him up to perch on her shoulder like when he was a kitten, Cressida left the flat and headed out into the night.

*

By the time the sun was coming up, Cressida’s pockets were overflowing with what looked like a random assortment of plants and weeds to any by passer.

To Cressida, however, she had hit the jackpot.

Lavender from a plant in someone’s front garden a few streets up where mostly old grannies lived. Herbs for the standard ingredient from the shitty allotment patch near the kiddie park. They looked half eaten by slugs, but she reasoned maybe it’d have a hint of whatever the flubberworm provided to the potion and tried not to think about it too much. Lastly, she found the valerian springs and some of its white-flowered bulbs in the forest backing onto the quarry.

In her mind, she’d done a job well done and rewarded herself with watching the sunrise from the flat concrete roof of the garages near her flat.

She used to do this all the time as a kid when she couldn’t sleep. A pile of discarded wooden pallets, a rickety old vine trellis, and random odds and ends gave easy access beside a metal fence to climb onto the roof.

It was harder than she remembered, what with her wounds on her stomach and hands holding her back slightly in her movements, but she eventually clambered her way up.

She sat herself down and examined her rewards from her scavenger hunt. Rasper wasted no time stretching himself out on the warm concrete to enjoy the light orange hue coming up all around them.

Content, she swooped all the plants back into various pockets, being careful not to squish or break any of them into tiny pieces. Then, thinking back to the instructions on what to do next according to the book, she led down on her back and closed her eyes, waiting for the pain of climbing up to subside before she risked jumping back down.

“Oh my days,” a voice called. Cressida sat bolt upright, straining her stomach painfully. “Do my eyes deceive me or is that you, Little Knightly!?”

Cressida peered down over the garage roof to find Kirk, lighting a cigarette as he swaggered over to her. He had a grey hood pulled up over his face, looking shifty even before the day had begun. “Isn’t it too early for you to be awake?”

Kirk laughed, exhaling. “Who says’ I’ve even been to sleep?” He shot back. “Was at a party at Albie’s. Only just regained consciousness. Thought I should head home before I got roped into the tidying up.”

“Is his dad home yet?” She asked curiously.

“Nah,” he answered, stubbing out his cigarette. “Social found his grandmother, but she’s a bit batty. Lets him do whatever he wants still as long as no one goes in her room in the attic. Never see the old bird. Think she might be dead, actually, now I think about it.”

Cressida hoped he was joking.

“So, what… are you a part of his gang now like everyone else around here?” She asked next.

He smirked up at her, shrugging with his hands in his pockets. “You could say that. I ain’t been initiated or anything like that but I’ve hung around ‘em a few times. Had a few drinks and whatnot.”

“And how’s that working out for you?”

“No complaints so far,” he answered with a grin. “You wanting company up there on your pedestal?”

Cressida shrugged in response. “Depends,” she called down to him. “Am I going to have to run from the police with you this time, because I really don't have the energy for that right now?”

“Nah. Not this early in the morning anyway.”

He pushed his hood down revealing his skinned head and climbed up onto the garage roof with ease. He rifled around in his pocket, pulling out his pack of cigarettes. “I take it you still don’t smoke?” He asked, waggling a fresh one in his mouth.

She declined. He lit up, covering the flame with his hand.

“Your accent got worse,” she told him bluntly. He sounded more like Albie now than before. The strong Welsh drawl to every word he said, taking easy shortcuts so he never had to finish a proper sentence anymore. Molly would probably have a stroke if she ever had to try and have a conversation with any of them.

He puffed a cloud of horrid smoke into the air between them. “Yours got better.” He inhaled again. “Hardly sound like the rest of ‘em around here anymore.”

“Yeah, well… trust me, you can still tell I’m from Conwell compared to my other friends.”

“English twats will make you feel that way. They can’t help it, it’s in their nature.” He puffed on his cigarette. “What happened to your hand?” He asked, jutting his chin towards them in her lap.

Cressida glanced down, pulling her shirt sleeves down to conceal them. Her foraging had left her hands covered in mud and soil, but the gash on her palm was still in plain view.

“Oh… just a fight back at my boarding school.”

“A fight?” Kirk smirked intrigued. “Didn’t know those posho kids over the water knew how to get dirty like that.”

“It was my fault, really,” she said dejectedly.

“What’d you do to piss 'em off?”

“I don’t know… pushed my luck, like I always do. Got on the wrong side of too many people. Dragged my friends down with me in the process.”

“Eh, fuck 'em.” Kirk stubbed out his cigarette. “Even if it was your fault, no point beating yourself up over something you can’t change now.”

Cressida shrugged in reply. She turned her face to the sun, fully risen in the sky by now. It looked like it was going to be another hot day.

“So,” he asked then, setting his eyes on her with a lazy grin. “You home for the whole summer or are you disappearing on us again without warning?”

She looked back at him. She couldn’t seem to match his smile. “Nah. Unfortunately, I’m not going anywhere this summer.”

“Alright then,” Kirk said, his smile growing. “I’ll see you around if you’re lucky.”

Cressida scoffed at his comment, watching as he got to his feet and placed a fresh cigarette between his teeth. “Who says I even want to see you around?”

“You do,” he said confidently. “There’s nothing else for you to do around this shit hole.”

Kirk gave Rasper a quick pat on the head before jumping from the roof of the garages, his hood back over his face.

Cressida watched him saunter down the rest of the street towards their block of flats.

Shaking her head, she found herself smiling ever so slightly. He was right. There was nothing else to do, and she still had a whole summer to get through.

She returned to feeling the sun on her face, and then, a cool breeze blew past her.

 

Monday 12th August 2019

Her homemade sleeping draught had been unsuccessful… not to mention gross.

Alice had walked in on her after work as Cressida was standing at the counter in the kitchen trying to ground up all the various plants and then boil them. Alice had given a concerned look but didn’t question it.

Once it was ‘brewed’ Cressida didn’t make it through one sip before spitting it out and swearing to never try this experiment again.

Luckily for her though, the temperature cooled down by the evening, ending the heatwave, and she fell asleep on the couch with the breeze from the window cooling her off.

Her sudden good four-hour sleep was short-lived, however, as any following night since then was spent staring at the ceiling or staring out her window in fear of nightmares or hurting herself in the small hours of sleep she did get.

She expected she looked like a zombie by this point, with how bad the bags under her eyes had gotten, but she simply couldn’t wake up having another nightmare. Two nights ago she’d even woken up Alice with her screaming, causing her mum to come rushing in thinking something was terribly wrong.

Cressida had managed to convince her to go back to sleep, and that everything was fine, but ever since Alice seemed to be watching her cautiously out the corner of her eye.

In fact, now she had been home over three weeks, she noticed her mum was acting strange about a lot of things- and not her usual strange.

She kept asking Cressida if she was okay and what she wanted for tea. Telling her she was going to be late home from work. That she was going out for lunch with friends. That they should try and keep on top of the housework so it isn’t messy.

Cressida even noticed she had cut back on her drinking.

This struck her as weird, but she couldn’t place why. She was glad her mum was acting more like her old self again. Pulling herself together and trying to keep on top of things. But the strangest thing that struck Cressida when she spent every night thinking about it, was the fact her mother had no friends. She never had. Cressida had never met a single person her mother referred to as a friend. She had acquaintances and neighbours… but never friends.

So who was she going for lunch with all of a sudden?

She’d tried asking about it at breakfast one morning. Her mother hadn’t rushed off before Cressida woke up and offered to do her some toast and jam.

“Mum,” she started, taking a small bite of her toast. “Who’s this friend you keep meeting for lunch?”

“Hm?” Her mother hummed, reading the newspaper and not paying much attention.

“This friend you keep meeting for lunches and after work,” Cressida repeated. “Who is it?”

“Oh… no one. Don’t worry about it just yet,” she brushed off.

Cressida fed her crusts to Rasper who had been relentlessly pawing at her to share. “Do I know them?” She pressed.

Alice folded up the newspaper and discarded it into the middle of the table. “Don’t worry about it, alright, Cress?” She huffed, getting up. “I have to go to work, can you sort the fish and chips for tonight?”

“Sure,” Cressida agreed.

“Great. Money’s on the side.” Alice kissed Cressida quickly on the cheek before she made to leave.

“Mum,” Cressida stopped her. Alice paused in the doorway a tad apprehensively. “If this friend is helping you feel more… yourself… I think you should maybe keep them around.”

Alice let out a sigh of relief, coming back in to hug Cressida tightly. “Thank you for saying that, Cress.”

Her mother kissed the top of her head before grabbing her bag and disappearing out of the flat completely.

Cressida remained sat at the table, turning her eyes to Rasper who was licking the crumbs from her plate while her back had been turned.

*

Cressida’s latest favourite spot to hang out and waste her days had been the garage roof, and so that made it incredibly easy for Kirk to find her when he thought necessary, which so far had been almost every other day. He never did much. Mainly asked her questions or offered to invite her some place or other. Mostly she declined. She liked her rooftop of solitude. It allowed her privacy to read through her school books to see if there was any sort of potion she could make herself that wouldn’t be a complete disaster if she brewed it without any magical ingredients. So far, she had been as unlucky as her first experiment.

“Oi!” He called up to her. “You got anything going on today or what?!”

She sat up, looking down at him. “Might do. What are you doing today?”

Kirk grinned at the sight of her, his hood pulled up and his hands in his pockets, doing all his gestures purely with the points of his elbow. “Heard there’s a gatherin’ down the quarry. Thought you might want to come.”

“I have to get the fish and chips for tea tonight,” she answered.

“Not good enough of an excuse!” He shot back.

Cressida rolled her eyes as he started climbing up to join her. She hid her book in her shorts back pocket for safekeeping.

“I’m not much of a party person,” she told him as he perched himself on the edge of the rooftop, his legs propping him up on the pallets below.

“Good, because this ain’t a party. It’s a gathering ,” he countered. She still didn’t look convinced. “Oh come on,” he complained. “You can be my date if you want. Show me off to all your old pals.”

Cressida turned away, frowning. “I don’t want to be your date.”

“Sure, you do. I’m a catch,” Kirk grinned cockily.

“I ain't interested,” Cressida said firmly.

“Oh, you got someone waiting on you?” He deducted surprised. "He ain't English, is he?"

She glared at him. “None of your business.”

He climbed onto the roof fully and sat opposite her. “Alright then. If you’re spoken for, how come loverboy ain’t here? It’s halfway through the summer and, so far, all I’ve seen you do is sit up here talking to your cat. That ain’t how someone who’s got a fella should be spending the summer if you ask me.”

Cressida sighed irritably. “Well, I ain’t asking you, so it doesn’t matter what you think.”

Kirk held his hands up in surrender. “Bit touchy for a taken woman, aren’t you? What’s the matter, he don’t treat you right or somethin'?”

“Piss off and go to this party alone, then. How about that?” She snapped, getting to her feet.

Kirk jumped up along with her. “Have some fun for once, will you, Cressida?” He mocked her. “We’ll be old or dead before we know it.”

Cressida glared back at him, pondering. Maybe a drink or two would help her sleep through the night or simply just take her mind off things. “Fine,” she agreed eventually. “But I’m only going to this fucking thing as your friend, got it?”

“Whatever gets you there, babe,” Kirk smirked back.

“And don’t call me babe,” she told him as she moved past him.

The two climbed down from the garages, Cressida going slower than Kirk who basically jumped from the roof straight down onto the concrete below, and started making their way towards the quarry.

She reached into her pocket and checked her phone. It was dead. She must’ve forgotten to charge it before heading out after messaging Jac all morning.

“Who’s going to be there, anyway?” Cressida asked, shoving her phone back into her pocket.

“Albie and his crew. A few boys from the next town over. The rugby boys,” Kirk listed.

“Any girls?”

“If we’re lucky, but probably not enough to go around.”

“Great, so all the rugby boys are going to be handsy then.”

“If only you’d shown up with a date,” he shrugged jokingly.

Cressida glared at him as they kept walking. She didn’t like how casually he joked about her being his date as if he even really knew her. It felt tainted. Ingenuine. It made her think of Potter again, and how if he and Kirk were put in a room together, Kirk wouldn’t even compare.

But the problem with that was, Kirk was here. Potter wasn’t.

“You’re lookin’ too serious for someone about to get shit-faced, you know that, right?” He commented as they walked.

Cressida sighed, pushing Potter out of her mind once again. “Just thinking about some stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

Cressida quirked an eyebrow. “Do you actually care?” Kirk gave a small shrug in response. She couldn’t tell him about her wounds, or about Potter, or about missing her friends, so she told him the only problem she could. “My mum’s suddenly got this friend she’s never mentioned before.”

“So?”

“So, it’s weird. My mum’s never had friends before.”

“Maybe it’s not a friend,” Kirk suggested then. “Maybe she got a fella for herself.”

Cressida’s head whipped around to him. “Fuck off. I mean, after the last one she went to absolute shit when he left. If she got another boyfriend after that, she’d be mental.”

“Maybe it’s not a new boyfriend, then. Maybe it’s the old one. He came back and so your mum isn’t in shit anymore. I knew whenever my dad was back with my mum because he suddenly cared when I'd be home before dark. He'd start cooking roasts again, too.”

"Where's your mum now?" She asked curiously.

"Died a few years back," Kirk admitted, kicking a bottle along the street in front of him. "Overdose."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"Is what it is," he shrugged.

Cressida had the sense to move the conversation along quickly. “You think that’s what happening with my mum?” She questioned then, a small selfish bubble of hope rising in her chest as Dayle sprung back into her mind. Maybe he was let out on good behaviour. Maybe he came back to them.

“I dunno,” Kirk replied. “I seen a bloke going into your flat before summer started. Might’ve just been a gas man though.”

“Was he wearing a boiler suit?” She asked eagerly. “A blue one?”

“Why the fuck would I notice that?” Kirk frowned. “All I know is your mum seemed to know him. Let him in without second guessing who he was.”

“Kirk, if you’re right, you may have just made my summer,” she smiled at him.

“Alright then,” he replied, shoving a cigarette between his teeth. “Feel free to repay the favour any time.”

“Don’t push your luck,” she warned him as they continued down the street.

*

Surprisingly, the party that wasn’t a party had been rather fun. She used a bit of the fish and chip money to buy a bottle of Smirnoff with the help of Kirk on the way and enjoyed sipping on it throughout the night. It wasn’t nice straight, but the only mixer available once she got there was beer or cider, and having tried it once before, didn’t fancy trying mixing the two together again any time soon.

Albie, as usual, was acting the hard man, trashing anything around him and doing wheelies on his dirt bike up and down the mud path surrounding the quarry. 

There was a Bluetooth speaker that was so old it sounded more like a tin can than music but Cressida didn’t mind that.

Kirk had been right about the rugby boys being in attendance but luckily most of them were busy with girls already there. Mostly everyone was preoccupied with dancing badly to ‘Bassline Junkie', smoking weed, and doing shots out of whatever bottle they had at hand.

Once it got dark, Butchy started a bonfire out of wood scraps in the middle of the quarry that everyone gathered around to throw more junk into and dare each other to poke the flames with their hands.

However, Cressida wasn’t completely in the clear from getting some attention. One of the boys had been bolder than the rest and came up to her while she was still standing with Kirk near the bonfire. By the looks of him, he’d already been here a while and had plenty to drink before the sun even went down.

“Hey, gorgeous. You fancy a dance or what?” He slurred, swaying as he stood in front of her.

Kirk pulled his hood down from over his skinned head. “Do you not see me standing here, mate?” He started.

Cressida rolled her eyes and went to defend herself when a voice rang out through the small gathering.

“Fuck off!” Cressida turned towards it to find a familiar face rushing up to her. Callie Powell, in all her glory, was shoving rugby boys indelicately out of the way to get to Cressida.

Cressida had to admit she was surprised to see Callie here after her departure to Bristol last summer. She was even more surprised to find she looked totally different. No longer resembling her unfortunate-looking mother, she had braces straightening out her crooked teeth. Her wire-like hair was flat ironed and went down to her waist. Even her acne was covered carefully with makeup, and false eyelashes did well to distract from her bulbous nose. Cressida even started to wonder if she’d had her lips plumped but couldn’t think of where she could get the money for something like that.

“Little Knightly, I was hoping you’d be here!” Callie greeted her, pulling her in for a hug Cressida wasn’t quite expecting.

“ Hello !” The rugby boy stepped in, irritably. “I was in the middle of a conversation-”

“Shove off, she ain’t interested,” she said to him, putting herself in between Cressida and the boy’s eye line. She turned her attention to Kirk. “Who the fuck are you?”

“He lives in your old flat,” Cressida answered for him.

“He belong to you?” She asked next.

“I’m trying to,” Kirk answered, pulling a fourth beer up to his lips.

“He just dragged me here,” Cressida explained.

“In that case, you can fuck off and all,” she told him bluntly. “We have some catching up to do.”

With that, Callie whisked Cressida away where the boys weren’t making as much of a ruckus.

“What’re you doing back here?” Cressida asked first, sipping on her Smirnoff.

“You see that one over there, with the mullet?” She started pointing to one of the boys sticking random things into the fire to see if they burned or not. “He’s my boyfriend. Knew the rugby boys and has a car. When we heard Albie was having a get-together we drove down to see what was happening.”

“How’s Bristol?” Cressida asked next, taking in her sudden change in appearance. She had to admit, if she saw Callie in the street now, she doubted she would think it was the same person. Apart from her accent. That never went away completely.

“Good,” she answered, drinking from a bottle of Echo Falls wine. “Mum’s new boyfriend didn’t turn out to be half bad. Has a niece that owns a beauty clinic and all.”

That explains the lip filler, ’ Cressida thought to herself.

“They’re on about getting married next year, or so they say,” Callie continued. “Got a nice house and the like. Even got a dog- some sort of mutt. It won’t go near my brother’s though, but they’re hardly home anymore anyway. Plenty of places for them to dwell and cause trouble in Bristol. Bit of a bigger pond than this place.”

“Do you miss it,” she asked. “Being here?”

Callie took a moment to answer, swirling her wine in the bottom of the bottle. “It’s a bit weird. I miss knowing everyone and everything. Who to trust, and who was all talk, you know. Conwell is as shit as it gets, yeah, but at least you knew where you stood. Out there, no one knew me.”

Cressida sipped her drink. “At least one of us made it out. Be glad about that.”

“Truth is, until this year, I’d lived in Conwell all my life and I always thought I’d probably die here, just like the rest of these dick-heads… but once you get out… I don’t know, you start to miss this place.”

“Being a Conwell kid isn’t exactly something to brag about,” Cressida replied.

“But it’s who we are,” Callie shot back. “No point trying to deny it… even if you do swan off to a fancy boarding school for most the year, you still got to come back at some point.”

Cressida didn’t have a response to that, so she took a gulp of her drink again.

“So, what’s the deal with you and this guy?” She asked then, jutting her chin out to Kirk who was using the fire to try and light his cigarette dangling out of his mouth. “He don’t seem half bad, and he clearly likes you.”

“He’s not my type,” Cressida answered.

“Are any of these boys your type?” She asked then, laughing. “I mean, fuck’s sake, you’re at a party and you ain’t showing any skin. If it had tits like yours they’d be in everyone's face. Plus, you haven’t danced once and everyone knows that’s how you get attention at a party, like.”

“I ain’t much of a dancer,” she replied, having another sip of her drink.

“You haven’t gone and got a stick up your arse, have you, Little Knightly?” Callie teased her. “I mean, you were running with Albie’s boys at twelve and now you’re standing on the outskirts of a party avoiding making eye contact with anyone here. What happened to you?”

Cressida hugged her stomach over Felix’s old shirt, glancing around at the party. “I dunno… just different now, I guess.”

“Yeah, well, I preferred the rough and tumble you,” Callie said honestly. “You know, by now I thought you’d be running this place. Whatever they did you at your fancy school ain’t right.”

Cressida watched her drain more of her wine. “Well, you’ve changed since leaving. How is that any different?”

Callie shrugged. “I realized people treated me differently once I started caring how I looked. Made me feel better about myself, you know. You’d be surprised how much changing one little thing, bit by bit, eventually changes who you are... how people see you. It’s like magic.”

Cressida choked on her drink, turning her eyes on the older girl. “Magic?”

“Fucking too right!” Callie embellished. “I mean, you know what I looked like before. I wasn’t exactly naturally gifted in the looks department. You are, and it pisses me off that you’re not flaunting that shit for all it’s worth.”

“I dyed my hair black once… it didn’t exactly work in my favour.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes it takes a couple of tries,” Callie scoffed. “Work with what you got already. A skimpy top here, a bit of makeup there… you’d get practically anything or anyone you wanted.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “What if I don’t want the attention?”

“Tell the ones you don’t like to sod off then,” Callie told her. “But don’t make yourself smaller for fuck’s sake. Stand out. Fuck anyone who doesn’t like it.” She finished her bottle of wine and threw it in a random direction, not caring where it landed. “Now. I’m going to go dance, want to join?”

Cressida pushed her hair back out of her face. “I should head home, mum’s waiting… I guess we won’t see each other again for a while now, huh?”

Callie smiled. “You know, I was thinking of hanging around for a day or two, crash at Albie’s or something. Soak up the stink before I leave again.”

Cressida smiled back. “You know where to find me, in that case.”

“Too right, I do,” Callie replied. “Now, I have a boyfriend to make out with so sod off,” she teased with a rude gesture before sauntering off to do so with her boyfriend near the speaker.

Cressida drained her last bit of vodka and sought out Kirk. He was having a go on Albie’s dirt bike, pissed out of his mind. She doubted he’d notice her departure if he lived long enough to notice.

Eventually, after a small detour, Cressida returned to her flat near midnight, suspecting worst case scenario, her mum would be passed out on the sofa. However, as she trudged up the stairs and opened her front door she was being bombarded.

“Where have you been?!” Alice rushed up to her, practically pulling her in through the door.

“Relax, I got us kebabs to eat on the way home-“ Cressida said breezily. Clearly, the bottle of vodka had taken effect more than she thought.

Upon her arrival back at the flat, Rasper jumped out from under the sofa and darted over her, scrambling his way up her legs until he was in her arms.

“I tried ringing you!” Her mother went on.

“Phone died,” Cressida replied, smoothing Rasper who seemed oddly agitated, though she couldn’t see why. She’d left him for this long before. “It’s alright, see… I’m in one piece and I brought food.”

Alice examined her closely. “Christ, Cressida, are you drunk?”

Cressida’s eyes went past her to the living room. A bottle of gin was half drunk on the side table. Clearly, Cressida hadn’t been the only one drinking the night away. “I was just with Albie down the quarry-” she told her mum slowly, moving forward. That was when she tripped over a pair of men’s work boots.

Alice started chewing on her fingernails. “Cress, maybe you should go to bed.”

Cressida looked from the men’s work boots to the kitchen. Kirk’s words ran rapidly through her mind. Could it be?

She clambered back to her feet, being careful to cover her bandages with Felix’s shirt again. Had Dayle really come back to them?

Was that why her mum was pulling herself together? Was he here to fix everything for them again?

The radio was on in the kitchen. She could hear music coming from there.

Her eyes welled up with hope, her chest rising and falling as she darted towards the music. She entered the kitchen with the biggest smile in months waiting to see him. To see him back cooking them food and singing along badly to the radio.

“Dayle!?” She called out, running in, ready to be hugged and greeted with a warm welcome back. To imagine her mum sitting at the table in the morning with a coffee and a smile knowing she didn't have to worry anymore. That they wouldn't be alone.

“Try again, sweetheart.”

Cressida stopped dead in her tracks. Her hope turned to fear.

Where she hoped to see Dayle's comforting silhouette, she saw Gareth's terrible, protruding stomach poking out the bottom of his once-white t-shirt. 

“That for us?” He asked, snatching the kebabs from her hands instantly. “Finally, you prove to be useful for something. I was starving waiting up for you with your mum.”

Her tears turned from joyful to distraught. She watched as Gareth ripped into the kebab she’d gotten for herself, dripping sauce and salad down his front and onto the floor without a care.

“What the fuck-” her voice was trembling, barely coming out as more than a whisper.

She felt Alice’s hand on her shoulder, trying to pull her back out of the kitchen. “Cress, just go to sleep, yeah? We’ll talk in the morning when no one’s tired,” Alice was whispering in her ear.

‘Drunk, you mean?’ Cressida thought to herself, meeting her mother’s desperate eyes.

She blinked the tears out of hers, unable to comprehend what she’d come home to.

“Why?” Was all she could manage as she stared at Alice.

“I was worried sick…” Alice replied pathetically. “I imagined you’d ended up in a ditch somewhere and I didn’t know what to do-”

Cressida shook her head, her chest concaving in on itself as her tear-filled eyes stared at the empty space around Alice’s frame. Alice kept trying to get into Cressida’s eyeline.

“You should eat,” Cressida said eventually, pointing vaguely over her shoulder to the bag Gareth had discarded onto the table. “If there’s anything left.”

“Cress…” Alice begged. For what, Cressida didn’t know.

She ignored her mother, pushing her hand away from her shoulder where she was still holding onto her, and moved slowly to her room.

She used all the strength she could muster to pull her dresser in front of her door to barricade her in, and then, she grabbed her wand tight in her hand and sat on her bed in the dark silence.

Rasper pawed at her from on her lap but she couldn’t bring herself to smooth him as the minutes passed by.

Then, without warning, Cressida hurled over and heaved onto the middle of her carpet.

 

Tuesday 13th August 2019

Cressida didn’t sleep a wink all night. All she could manage to do was stare at the barricaded door of her room, wondering if at some point someone would try and open it to get to her.

She knew it was mid-morning by this point. Her head was pounding, whether that be from exhaustion or the drink last night she didn’t know. Once again she found herself cursing Kirk. If he’d never dragged her to the quarry, she never would have come home late and maybe Gareth would have never been in the flat when she came home.

Cressida felt herself go into auto-pilot, going about her usual morning routine of lifting Felix’s shirt and tracing the edges of her scar as she changed her bandages. She’d strained herself moving the dresser last night, and she knew she’d strain herself again moving it back to get out. Her bottle of dittany was getting worryingly low considering she still had nearly three weeks before returning to Hogwarts.

Rasper stretched himself out on the bed and Cressida gave his chin some scratches, hoping he forgave her for ignoring his pleas for attention last night before he eventually curled up beside her and went to sleep.

After a moment of preparing herself, she knew she had to leave her bedroom. It had started to smell and she knew if she didn’t clean up her accident from last night, no one would.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to move the dresser again. She realized she wouldn’t have the strength to do this every night and accepted her fate of not being able to block herself in to make herself feel a bit less accessible to what was on the other side of the door.

She placed her wand safely back in her hobo bag at the end of her bed, wishing without hope that she could simply use magic to lock herself away- or maybe use it to disappear from the flat entirely. Unfortunately, she knew the reality of that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

Cradling Rasper safely in her arms, she pulled open her door and stepped out.

Her eyes found the work boots she’d tripped over last night immediately as she passed by to get to the kitchen. She could smell sausages cooking. 

When she walked in, her whole body tensed at the sight of Gareth standing in front of her again. She tried to convince herself it had been a bad dream last night, but no- he was still here in the flesh.

He was smoking, filling the room with a terrible stink, dropping flecks of ash into the sausages that he was now burning. 

Her eyes sought out her mum sitting at the kitchen table. She looked worse than when she went to bed last night. In her hands was a cup, but it wasn't filled with coffee or tea.

“Bet you weren't expecting me last night, were you?” Gareth chortled, dumping all the sausages onto one plate and sitting opposite Alice with them in front of him. Alice looked away, sipping from the cup silently. 

“No,” Cressida managed, her voice strangled. “I wasn't.”

“Well, get used to it,” Gareth went on, chomping down, dripping grease down his stubbly chin. “Your mum rang me last night in a terrible state, thinking you’d wandered off somewhere. Looks like she’s having trouble keeping you in check again, eh?”

“Keeping me in check?” Cressida repeated with a glare.

Her mum looked at her. “Cress, listen-”

“No, don’t start apologizin’, Alice. She was in the wrong, getting you in that state last night. Good thing I’m here, really, ain’t it? There’ll be no more of that now I’m back-”

“Back?” Cressida asked. “What do you mean back ?”

“Me and your mum got to talking while you were away, Cress. She was in a bad way, not that you cared. She needed someone around to help with the house and all. Keep her company. Keep her on track. We both agreed I ain't going anywhere again for a while. We were goin’ to wait until the end of summer to tell you but after last night it became apparent a strong hand was needed much sooner.”

Cressida's stomach dropped. Her stone walls came up tenfold. Her brain was already wrecking itself with ways to get money from him for herself and her mother to live on. To buy food for themselves. To buy what they needed. She thought back to all the ways she'd avoid him in the day and all the ways to sneak out in the morning and her old hiding places she hadn't needed since he left. Her survival instincts which should never have been there in the first place kicked back in within an instant. 

How could her mother do this? How could she invite him back? Didn't she realize how bad he was for them… for herself? Didn't she have a breakthrough when she kicked him out finally? Did all that mean nothing now? Had she forgiven him for everything he'd done to them in the past?

Well, if her mother had, Cressida sure as hell hadn't, and she was going to ensure Gareth knew it too.

As she stood there, practically frozen, she suddenly realized Gareth was on the move. He stood in front of her, sizing her up. Terrifyingly, he seemed bigger than she remembered.

Gareth tugged at the end of one of her braids she hadn’t taken out from yesterday. “Your hair's grown,” he commented as he kept moving past, bringing a beer bottle up to his mouth. “You look more like your mum than I remember.”

Cressida scowled at him in disgust. Then her glaring eyes shifted. Her mother remained sat at the table, watching silently.

“How could you?” She asked her furiously. “How could you bring him back here?”

Alice’s eyes glazed over. “I was going to wait until you were going back to school to bring him into the flat…”

“Never mind me going, why are you doing this to yourself again?!” She whispered frantically.

Alice ran her hands through her hair, tears welling in her eyes. “I needed help, Cress. He came back, found me as I was leaving for work one day. He apologized for everything, really, he did. He swore it wouldn’t happen again. He said he was going to take care of all the debt he left us. That he’s got a bricklaying job that pays well-”

“And you believed him?!”

“What choice did I have, Cressida?” Her mother asked resolutely. “You’re not here most of the year. You don’t know what it’s like.”

“So it’s my fault he’s back, that’s what you’re saying?”

“Cressida, just listen, I told him not to come over so soon-”

“Clearly, he didn’t fucking listen, did he?!” Cressida snapped, turning her back on her mother.

She stormed out into the hall, grabbed the work boots and threw them out the front door before storming into the bathroom and locking the door behind her.

In the bathroom, she paced back and forth, trying to control her breathing while Rasper watched from the rug below her. She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it but she was sure her scars were burning red all over her body and hands again, making it so she couldn’t breathe no matter how hard she tried.

She gripped the sides of the sink until her knuckles turned white and she thought she was going to throw up again.

The thought of him being sat out there on her sofa, ordering her mother around and spreading his ash and filth everywhere again made her feel sicker than a dog.

How dare he come back after what he did.

How dare he touch her!

Looking up at the toothpaste-stained mirror in front of her, Cressida met her own eyes. Wild and stormy and furious.

Her loose hair was in knots around her face, her messily done two braids falling down her chest. She couldn’t remember the last time she cut it.

Reaching into the cabinet, she grabbed the scissors and started hacking away at her hair at the exact point Garth had tugged on it, making it so he’d never be able to tug on her hair again.

Once she was done, it sat just below her chin, She met her eyes once again, her breathing had slowed down slightly.

Rasper had taken to pawing and playing with the strands of blonde hair that now lay around him.

The impromptu hair chop had led to a lot of uneven pieces falling every which way. The only way Cressida could see to rescue this in any way was to keep chopping- carefully this time, until it resembled very choppy layers and a fringe that covered her forehead and fell slightly in her eyes. It wasn’t terrible by the time she finished, in fact, she rather liked it.

Scissors still in hand, and hair covering the sink and the floor at her feet in clumps, she somehow felt lighter than before.

Maybe Callie’s words had taken root more than she realized. Change one thing, slowly change who you are.

It certainly felt like the closest thing to magic she could manage at that moment.

She certainly didn’t want to be herself anymore, especially the version of herself that Gareth knew. Small and young and weak.

No one was coming to whisk her away from this. No one was coming to save her and tell her it’d be alright. Not even her mum.

He still sat outside that door, waiting to antagonize her somehow. Threatening to take over everything good in their tiny flat once more, if there even was anything good left.

Her eyes scanned her surroundings again.

Alice’s collection of earrings lay in a dish on the tiny window shelf beside the sink. She couldn’t remember the last time Alice wore any of them. Cressida got more use out of them in her single lobe piercing before Hogwarts than her mother ever did. Now they just sat there collecting dust.

Cressida picked a silver stud up in between her fingers, looking at her reflection once more.

She could do it, she told herself. Change one more thing. Make herself look tougher. Make herself feel tougher... feel older… feel different.

She just had to be strong enough. Besides, with how much pain she was in already, would this even register?

Her eyes fell on a small bottle of gin hidden behind the mouthwash in the cabinet.

Thinking erratically, Cressida used the alcohol to sterilize what she could of the needle and the side of her nose and then, with a deep breath, she shoved the end of the piercing through her skin.

 

Friday 16th August 2019

Gareth hadn’t left since that one terrible morning.

For the first twenty-four hours, he was rather good at playing the doting boyfriend to Alice, but Cressida had seen that act before.

She tried to be out of the flat for as long as possible with Rasper, but eventually, she’d always have to go home to sleep and change her bandages.

She was spreading her dittany further than ever, between her wounds and now adding a tiny bit to her nose to stop the throbbing. In hindsight, shoving a needle through it on a whim wasn’t a great idea, but at the time it made her feel better. Plus, the change in her reflection was a welcome distraction.

It clearly took her mother and Gareth by surprise when she stepped out of the bathroom that morning, but she had taken Rasper and disappeared onto her garage roof before they could comment on it. When she returned that night, Gareth only sneered at her new appearance but made no comment on it. Clearly, she didn’t resemble her mum as much anymore with her short hair and half her face covered by a fringe.

She was glad about that, too. She refused to speak a word to her mum since that morning, and Alice knew it.

Cressida noticed that instead of drinking herself silly, now she joined Gareth in chain smoking most of the day when she wasn’t at work, filling the flat with a terrible cloud and stench.

Cressida had also come to assume Gareth’s promise of having a job was bullshit, as he hadn’t once attempted to get ready and go to it.

“It’s more of a weekend thing,” he’d waved away when Alice asked when he’d be going to it.

He caught Cressida’s eyes and he knew she knew the truth. She said nothing on the matter. There was no point.

By the second day of Gareth moving himself back into their lives, he returned to the man Cressida had come to despise. Demanding she go and fetch him stuff from the corner shop while he sat doing sod all. Using her mother as an excuse to get her to cook dinner just for Gareth to eat most of it before Alice even came home from work.

By the third day, they’d started arguing again- or, at least Gareth was.

Cressida returned later than normal after Gareth’s phony self-imposed curfew that she took no notice of. He’d yelled at Cressida about it the two days prior, but now he decided that Cressida not listening was Alice’s fault.

“You’ve got no fucking control over that girl, I’ve always told you that!” Gareth was yelling.

“She was only out in town, she wasn’t up to any harm,” Alice replied quietly.

“You don’t know that!” Gareth went on. “She could be up to anything, doing drugs and getting into trouble, and you wouldn’t know a thing!”

Cressida ignored his comments and went into her room to cradle Rasper in her arms and try and get some sleep.

An hour later, Cressida woke up to the sound of glass breaking.

Gareth was still shouting.

Rasper startled at all the noise, and Cressida smoothed him in her arms to keep him calm.

It was worse than she remembered it. Or maybe he’d always been this bad. This vicious.

That sounded more likely.

Her mum used to fight back before though. It would be in between pleas for him to stop for Cressida’s sake. But she’d still raise her voice. Call him names back. Try and stand up for herself just a little bit.

Now it sounded like Gareth was just shouting at a brick wall. Never getting a reply.  At this point, it sounded like he was just arguing with himself with empty space in front of him. But that’s all her mum was these days. Empty space. Not even bothering to put up a fight anymore.

Even Gareth, in his rage-induced temper, was telling her to fight back now. Provoking her in any way he could for a reaction. Calling her every name under the sun.

Cressida could’ve gone out there. Done the fighting for her mother. Yelled back for once instead of hiding away in these moments like when she was a child… but her mother was the one who brought him back into their home. She brought him back. If she couldn’t be bothered to fight him herself, why should Cressida?

But still, she couldn’t just sit there and listen to this.

Tucking Rasper under her duvet so he felt safe, Cressida got up and opened her bedroom door, stepping out into the hallway.

She could see her mum standing in the kitchen, tapping ash from her cigarette into an ashtray, her face blank. Gareth was there too, ranting and raving with his back to Cressida lingering in the kitchen doorway.

Cressida met her mum’s eyes. For a brief moment, they widened at the sight of her.

Gareth clearly hadn’t sensed Cressida’s presence behind him.

Alice, noticing this too, shook her head at Cressida, signaling for her to go back into her room.

Cressida refused to move for a moment, glaring daggers into the back of Gareth’s big, bald head. If she could use her wand outside of Hogwarts, she couldn’t even begin to dream of all the things she could do to him. Hang him from the ceiling by his ears. Freeze him in a block of ice and then shove him down the stairs. Make his tongue swell and his fingers turn to slugs so he could never say or do anything to either of them again.

Most of all, she wished she could use that wretched spell on him. If anyone deserved to feel the pain she and James did at the hands of Margo, it was someone like Gareth. To be ripped into pieces and have your insides turned inside out with no promise of ever healing.

Having felt that pain herself, she wished nothing more than to inflict it on him instead, and even then she didn’t think it would be enough punishment for everything he’d done over the years.

Her mother caught her eyes again, silently begging for her to turn around.

Shoving down her dark thoughts about all the ways she could hurt him, Cressida gave in to Alice’s pleas and retreated back into her bedroom.

Rasper instantly jumped back into her arms as she sat on her bed.

She put her headphones over her ears, turned the volume up as high as it would go, and pressed play. She could still faintly hear Gareth’s voice over her favourite album, but it drowned him out enough for her to pretend like he was far far away yelling those horrid things about her and her mother.

 

Saturday 17th August 2019

Cressida woke up to rain tapping loudly against her window pane. Groggily, she removed her headphones still blasting music from over her ears and checked Rasper was okay in her arms before going about her usual routine of checking her scars and wounds.

Looking at her alarm clock, she realized it was nearly three in the afternoon. Alice and Gareth shouting until the early hours of the morning must’ve taken its toll.

She decided to leave some ditty off her nose today in favour of having a bit extra on the large cut in her palm. It was mostly healed over now, luckily, but she was worried that’d change again based on how red the edges of it still were.

Once she was dressed, she ventured out into the rest of the flat. Surprisingly, she found her mother sitting alone at the kitchen table. She, too, had bags under her eyes now. Clearly, the ‘good’ effect Gareth was having on Alice before had worn off now he was back in the flat and didn’t have to try and stay in the good books anymore.

Cressida stepped into the kitchen to get Rasper’s breakfast. She emptied a can of tuna onto a plate, feeling her mother’s eyes on her.

“Are you alright?” She asked after a moment, putting the plate on the floor as Rasper came happily trotting over. Alice didn’t answer. Cressida tried to make eye contact. “Are there any bruises? I have something that can help if there are?” She asked quietly. She knew she was low on dittany, but surely only a tiny bit would be needed for just a bruise, and she would ration some out for her mum if she had to without question.

Alice shook her head. “No, nothing like that… but I think you should get out of the flat today as soon as you can, for as long as you can.”

Cressida furrowed her brow. “Why?”

Her mother grew nervous. “He-”

“You’re finally up then?” Gareth yawned, suddenly standing in the doorway, scratching his stubbly chin.

Rasper hissed and darted out of the kitchen at the sight of him, his meal half eaten.

Cressida and Alice both looked towards him as he stood there, taking up the whole doorway.

Cressida looked between her mum and Gareth, growing tense. “Do you need something?”

“Saying that, yeah. We’re out of milk but that can wait,” he dismissed the question, lighting up a cigarette. He didn’t move from the doorway. “Your mum and I had a chat last night.”

“I heard,” Cressida answered bluntly. “What’s it to do with me?”

He exhaled. “The chat was about you… and this boarding school of yours.” Cressida swallowed hard. “We think it’s time you came home, Cress. For good.”

“What?” She paled.

“Conwell Comp is a perfectly good school for around here. Got plenty of room. And then you’ll be around to look after your mum for once-”

Cressida laughed at the sheer notion, rapidly looking between Gareth and Alice as if waiting for one of them to start laughing too. “You’re kidding, right? You can’t just take me out of school.”

“We can, or at least your mother can,” Gareth went on. “We think it’s best-”

“Oh, we think, do we?!” She repeated mockingly, growing intensely angrier by the second. She turned on Alice. “Mum, you’re not seriously letting him do this, are you?”

“Don’t talk to your mother like that,” Gareth warned.

Cressida’s eyes burned into Alice as she sat there. “Mum?”

Alice’s tired eyes flitted between the two of them, as she shrunk slightly into her seat. “I just admitted I missed you while you were gone, that’s all-”

Her heart dropped, the thought suddenly real and soul-crushing. “No. No , you can’t take me away from Hogwarts. All my friends- I can’t- you can’t make me leave them-!”

“See, you’re too attached to it. It’s fogging up your brain. Making you forget what’s most important,” Gareth said, stubbing out his cigarette on the counter.

Cressida whipped around on him. “And what’s that? Running your dirty errands and cooking your food like a little maid while you stink up the place and spend all mum’s money?!” She snapped.

Gareth took a step forward, putting another cigarette between his yellowed teeth. “Watch your tone, missy. There’s nothing wrong with staying here, exactly where you belong. Get over it.” He rummaged around in his jogger's pockets for some loose change. “Go get that milk and I might be kind enough to cook you a sausage butty when you get back.”

“Get fucked!” Cressida snapped at him, swatting the change out of his extended hand. “I’m not going anywhere for you! Not until promise I can go back to school.”

Alice put her head in her hands, not bearing to watch what was coming next.

Gareth’s jaw clenched as his beady eyes honed in on her. “Clearly, this school’s made you defiant. Let you get away with too much without any competent adults around. Well, you can get that attitude out of your mind, right now! You ain’t going back to that school if I have anything to say about it-”

“You don’t have a say on it. You're not my dad! You shouldn’t have a say in anything to do with me!”

Gareth grasped her roughly by the arm, yanking her forward. “I'm the closest thing you got!”

Tears were streaming down her face. He was too strong, and without her wand, Cressida was basically defenseless.

Rasper came darting back into the kitchen, hissing and swiping at his ankles as he had hold of Cressida.

“Gareth, don’t!” Alice spoke up unexpectedly, rising out of the chair.

Gareth went from sneering in Cressida’s face to glaring at Alice behind her.

Reluctantly, he let go of her arm and Cressida stumbled back, clutching Felix’s shirt around her stomach. Rasper jumped up beside her on the counter, meowing and nudging her arm with his head.

She watched as Gareth took a few puffs on his dwindling cigarette, seeming to choose his next few words carefully to get what he wanted out of the situation.

“I know you hate the ground I walk on and you think you’re above all this here, but look at your mother… who do you think is going to be around when you go back to that place you love so much and forget about her, huh? You want her to be sat all alone drinking the days away until her ungrateful daughter comes back for a week at a time and pretends to care?”

“I do care!” Cressida argued.

“Then act like it!” Gareth sneered again, putting out his cigarette in Rasper’s water bowl. “You might not believe it, but I want what’s best for her. I love your mother, alright?”

Cressida scoffed at the word. The word that had haunted her and tormented her relentlessly her whole life. This had been what love had meant to her before. Pain and manipulation and bargaining. But not now. Now, she knew what real love was. She’s seen it and felt it, and ran from it enough to finally realize the truth.

She turned her glare on him, venom dripping from her words. “This isn’t love. It never was. You don’t know the meaning of the word love !”

Gareth straightened up, towering over her. “I’ve had just about enough of this disrespect! Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”

“You, you fat piece of shit!” She grabbed Rasper’s water bowl and hit it across Gareth’s big bald head.

Gareth clicked his jaw, his temper showing on his face immediately.

Cressida gulped, stumbling back. Now she’d done it.

Suddenly, she was seven again, being caught nicking the odd cigarette to pawn to Albie and his boys. She was small and fragile and oh so breakable. 

“Cressida, go,” her mother said anxiously.

“She’s staying right here,” Gareth said, throwing the dining chair out of the way to get to her faster. “She’ll be lucky if she even makes it out of this flat ever again!”

Her chest grew tight from how fast her heart was beating.

She was defenseless. Again.

How could she let herself be like this? Again .

“Cressida, get out now!” Her mother bellowed, breaking through her overwhelming thoughts.

Cressida finally found the courage to move. She grabbed Rasper from the counter and bolted out of the kitchen as fast as she could go. Her mother followed her using an umbrella to jam the handle of the kitchen door.

She grabbed Cressida by the shoulders and started pushing her to the door. “Go. Get out. Don’t come back!”

“Mum!” Cressida fought against her grip. Gareth was banging on the door. His anger would break it down by sheer force in mere moments. She’d seen him do it before. He was never held back for long. “Mum, come with me! We both know what he’ll do to you-!”

“I can’t. I have to stay,” she shook her head, tears falling from her eyes. She darted momentarily into Cressida’s room and then appeared back in front of her, shoving her bag and leather jacket into her hands.

Everything was happening so quickly, Cressida felt like her vision was spinning, and then before she knew it the front door was open and she was being pushed backwards out of it.

Then the kitchen door opened with a deafening crack. Gareth came storming out of it, red in the face and shouting every profanity under the sun.

“I love you, Cress,” Alice whispered, caressing her face and giving a faint smile of reassurance. "Remember that."

“Mum, NO- !”

The door shut in her face.

Cressida heard the sound of the deadlock.

She heard the sound of Gareth next.

Her heart beating out of her chest, she rummaged around in her bag for her phone, only to realize it was still inside the flat.

Thinking fast, she turned and started banging on the opposite door frantically until, after what felt like years, Kirk pulled it open.

“Shit, what’s going on with you-?”

“Ring the police!” She told him instantly. “Now! Ring them and tell them to go to my flat! They know Gareth’s name. He has a record already. Tell them it’s urgent!”

Kirk got his phone out of his pocket, clearly confused. His eyes lifted to her own front door at the sound of Gareth’s yelling and something being thrown around in the flat, hitting the wall. “Is that your mum in there?” He asked as he dialled.

“I can’t stay. Make sure they get her out too!”

“Yeah, yeah…” Kirk trailed off understandingly as he put the phone to his ear.

Cressida held on as long as she could until she heard the dial tone cut off and a voice answer his call.

Kirk nodded for her to go and she wasted no time forcing her feet to run down the stairs, clutching onto Rasper and her bag in her arms for dear life.

Her stomach already throbbed at how rapidly she was moving but she didn’t dare stop until she broke out the front door of the flat. Rain was slashing down on her from the moment she stepped outside. Her wounds felt like they were ripping at the seams all over again.

She went to the middle of the street, where she could see the view of her living room window.

The blinds were closed. She couldn’t see inside. She couldn’t see if her mum was okay. Rasper was crying, clawing for safety from the storm inside her bag.

She couldn’t bring herself to loosen her grip on him in her arms.

Not until she heard sirens getting closer in the distance. Only then did her brain let her move again.

She put Rasper safely in her bag out of the rain and then continued running as fast as her little legs could take her with her jacket held over her head.

*

She’d run through nearly half the village before she had to stop to catch her breath. She was soaked through to the skin, not having a proper coat. Poor Rasper was shivering inside her bag, she’d put the coat over the top of it to keep him as dry as she could at the expense of herself.

It must’ve been nearing seven in the evening by this point. If it hadn’t been for the storm raining down on her it’d still be light, but now everything felt grey and wet and hopeless.

Cars drove past her on the street as she aimlessly wandered, splashing puddles and more water onto her as she walked the pavement.

A car sped past her once more and then beeped loudly at her. Cressida shielded her face, lifting her eyes to see through the slashing rain if it was someone she knew. If it wasn’t, she knew she’d have to start running again.

Thankfully, Callie’s face hung out the passenger window as the car screeched to a halt just ahead of her. “Shitting hell, Knightly. What you doin’ out in this weather?!”

Cressida sniffed, hugging herself as she crossed the road to the car. “Are you guys heading somewhere?”

Callie’s smile faded at the sight of her up close. Even despite the water-logged appearance, she could tell something was deeply wrong. “We were just heading back to Bristol. Tommy has work tomorrow-”

“Can I get a lift?” Cressida asked quickly.

“To Bristol? You got a place to stay?” Callie asked concerned.

“I have an address,” Cressida said. She reached into her bag and, relieved, she put her hands on the letter Jac had scribbled her address on back at Hogwarts. She extended it to Tommy.

He craned his neck to read it and then nodded. “We pass Filton on the way. Hop in… just put my windbreaker down before you sit, yeah? I don’t want mould in the back.”

“Does your mum know you’re off?” Callie questioned as Cressida clambered in the backseat.

“Gareth’s back,” Cressida said bluntly.

Callie nodded, understanding instantly. “Drive, Tommy. Fast.”

Tommy obliged and the three of them sped out of Conwell as fast as Tommy’s shitty Corsa could go.

Chapter 103: Summer 2019 (Part 2)

It took an hour and a half before they crossed the Severn Bridge into the outskirts of Bristol.

“That address you gave me should be just up here somewhere,” Tommy said as they entered a series of cul de sacs fifteen minutes later.

Callie glanced at the passing houses with raised eyebrows. “Christ, Knightly. Is this friend of yours rich or something? These houses aren’t too shabby.”

“Her dad’s an anesthetist at a hospital. I think her mum’s a receptionist,” Cressida answered thinking back to what Jac had said previously. “Or was. She might’ve quit a few years ago… I can’t remember.”

The car came to a slow stop outside a semi-detached brownstone house with a bright yellow door. Cressida peered through the rain at it, unsure if this was even the right place, but it was all she had to go on.

She readjusted Rasper in her hobo bag and draped her jacket over her shoulders. “Cheers, Tommy. I owe you one.”

“Fuck off, no you don’t,” Callie jumped in. She turned and looked at Cressida in the back seat. “You sure you want us to leave you?”

Cressida nodded, forcing a smile. “Yeah, I’ll be fine from here.”

“Tommy works at the HMV in Cabot Circus, go there if you need anything, alright?” Callie told her.

“Why’ve I got to deal with her?” Tommy whispered until Callie swatted at him.

“I doubt I will. Anyway, thanks again,” Cressida said awkwardly, feeling like a burden by this point.

She pulled the handle and stepped out of the car into the rain once more, looking up at the house.

Tommy wasted no time speeding back up the road and leaving Cressida behind.

She hugged her arms to comfort herself slightly before biting the bullet and going up to the front door.

She knocked and waited with bated breath for someone to answer.

After a moment, someone she didn’t recognise appeared in front of her, but he was young and Indian. That boded well in Cressida’s opinion.

He looked incredibly confused to see Cressida standing there. “Can I help you?”

“Does Jaqueline Redwick live here?”

“Ah, bollocks. One moment.”

The door shut in her face again, and she fought off a shiver. Blood was seeping through her bandages, staining the front of Felix’s shirt. She cursed at it, knowing she probably looked insane or homeless at this point.

Rasper poked his head out of the bag and shook the droplets from his fur. Cressida lifted him into her arms for warmth, apologising to him softly.

The door opened once again and, thankfully, Jac’s had poked out.

“Oh my God! ” Jac gasped at the sight of Cressida soaked through to the skin, her leather jacket was propped up over the cat to shelter him from the thundering rain.

“I really messed up this time…” Cressida told her, no longer able to fight away the tears now she was safely standing in front of someone she trusted.

*

Finally, with the help of Jac’s older brother Nish as a distraction, Cressida managed to make it up into Jac’s bedroom on the third floor without being noticed.

She sat silently on the edge of Jac’s bed, drying herself with a towel as Jac paced the middle of her room, worried her mum would appear at any moment.

“I'm sorry for showing up like this,” Cressida told her, feeling guilty.

Jac paused, looking at her. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said instantly. “A small head’s up would’ve been nice though.”

“No phone,” Cressida shrugged. “I left in a bit of a hurry.”

Jac joined her on the edge of her bed, taking in her disheveled appearance again like she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Why did you run away again?”

Cressida took to smoothing Rasper’s fur to distract herself. “I just couldn’t stay there anymore.”

“Why, what happened?” Jac asked.

Despite being there nearly half an hour by this point, Cressida hadn’t gone into detail about her sudden appearance at Jac’s doorstep.

“Are you in some sort of trouble?” Jac went on. “Did you track down your dad-”

Cressida ran her hands through her hair and nearly forgot she’d chopped most of it off until she felt the short ends between her fingers. “No, the opposite, actually. Do you remember my mum’s old boyfriend?”

“The one that went to prison?”

“No. Gareth.”

“Oh. That one.” Jac frowned, realizing. “Oh no…”

“Yeah,” Cressida sighed staring straight ahead as if she was still there. “I just… I couldn’t take it. I lost it, and I fought back for once, and then I left my mum there all alone with him.”

Cressida let her head fall into her hands helplessly, fighting back more tears at the thought of it again.

Jac put a comforting arm around Cressida, thinking hard about what to do. “Are you going to go back?”

“No,” Cressida said firmly. She was careful not to raise her voice and alert her presence to the rest of the Redwick residence. “I can’t go back until that man is out of my flat.”

“But the police might’ve taken him away by now-”

“Jac, they’ve taken him away before and he always finds a way back. Besides, that’s the least of my worries right now.”

Jac paled. “What could possibly be worse?”

“He wanted to take me out of Hogwarts.”

“He can’t make you leave Hogwarts!” Jac shrieked, getting to her feet in protest.

“The worst part is, I think my mum wants me to come home. She basically said that was the whole reason Gareth wormed his way back in… because I’m not there to take care of things.”

Jac sat back down, hands clasped to her mouth. “I’m sure she didn’t mean it like that.”

“It sure felt that way,” Cressida frowned.

Jac went back to pacing her tiny bedroom. “Well, we can’t stay here. We’ve got to go.”

“Go?” Cressida repeated. “Go where?”

Jac thought hard for a moment. “To Devon. James and Fred will know what to do.”

Cressida jumped up. “Are you mad?!”

“But we can trust them-”

“But I came here . I can’t go there. Not this time. Not like this,” she said adamantly.

Jac looked at Cressida with an expression she couldn’t quite make out- perhaps, sympathy, pity… worry.

“It must have been scary to come all this way alone,” Jac said quietly after a moment.

Cressida scoffed. Of course it was scary, but she couldn’t take Gareth any longer. She just couldn’t.

Jac went quiet again, staring straight ahead as if she couldn’t believe this was really happening.

Cressida knew that it was a lot to expect Jac to just welcome her in during the middle of the night. If she was honest with herself, she knew it was a terribly thought-out plan, but in the moment it was all she could think to do.

It appeared there was no other option unless Cressida wanted to roam the streets until September 1st.

Taking an agonizing deep breath, she looked towards Jac. “How are we going to get to Devon?”

“We’ll have to go on the train first thing in the morning,” she replied, looking back at Cressida. “I’ll pack a bag big enough for the both of us and we can leave tonight. It’ll take us a while to walk to the station from here, but I’d rather face the cold than my mum once it’s past her bedtime.”

Cressida nodded, resigned to her fate. She couldn’t bear to imagine James’ face at the sight of her… if he’d even let her in… if he’d told all his family to hate her.

She cuddled Rasper closer to her chest, trying not to dwell on it.

Jac’s eyes were boring into her again. Her brow furrowed, despite Jac clearly trying not to show any negative emotion on her face.

“Is that… still painful?” She asked, nodding to her stomach.

Cressida put a hand over it to cover the small blood stain. “The pain comes and goes… dittany helps a bit, I guess.”

“And, um…” Jac paused. “The nose?”

“Oh… that was my own doing,” Cressida answered.

Jac moved closer and started maneuvering Cressida’s face with her hand to get a better look at it. “It’s infected.”

“Probably because there’s a gin-soaked earring shoved through it.”

Jac once again looked horrified. “Bloody hell, Cressie, I know you said you don’t do well in the summer holidays but this is extreme, even for you. For a fresh piercing, you need proper silver or gold-”

“Oh, I’ve got heaps of that lying about, clearly,” Cressida jabbed.

Jac took a step back, biting her lip thoughtfully. “Hang on. My mum has a gold nose ring from before she had me. She was keeping it as a heirloom to give me when I turned sixteen. I’ll see if I can find it-”

“I’m not taking your mum's gold. Shari doesn’t need another reason to hate me,” Cressida objected. “Plus, aren‘t you going to want it kept safe for yourself?”

“Cressida, I’m leaving my house in the middle of the night with no explanation. She’s going to disown both of us after this. A missing nose ring is going to be the least of her worries,” she said bluntly. “Besides, I‘ve never much fancied the idea of sticking a needle through my nostril… even less so now I’ve seen yours. No offence.”’

“None taken.”

An hour had passed with Cressida sitting in Jac's room alone. Jac had stepped out momentarily to explain what was going on to her brother. It turned out, based on the frantic whispers coming from outside the door, that Nish wasn't as supportive of the situation as Jac thought he'd be. Telling her brother she was leaving had taken all of ten minutes. The rest of the time she was gone was spent convincing him to let her go through with it. The longer it went on, the bigger the knot in Cressida's stomach felt, to the point where she nearly grabbed her bag and fled from Jac's as well to save her the trouble.

Just as Cressida stood up, resolute to gathering her things a second time in a hurry, Jac's head poked back into the room. "It's time," she whispered with a reassuring thumbs up.

A second later, armed only with a backpack and what Cressida arrived with, the two girls ventured down the stairs in the dark. Nish waited for them near the doorway pacing nervously.

Once he saw the two girls, he wasted no time swooping Jac to one side away from Cressida again, but with the quiet of the house, even their whispers felt loud.

“Jacqueline, are you sure this is safe?” Nish asked concerned for probably the tenth time. “Do you even know the way to the station from here, normally dad gives you a lift-”

“Nish, I have to go,” Jac replied, calming him down. “Are mum and papa asleep?”

Nish nodded. “He took his sleeping pill half an hour ago and mum’s got her soaps on. They’re probably already out like lights.” He glanced back over his shoulder at Cressida awkwardly lingering on the bottom step. “I don’t like this.”

“How many times did I cover for you during the holidays when you snuck out to see Chandler?” She asked pointedly. “Plus, if you’d actually learned how to drive at seventeen instead of going to the club, we wouldn’t have to get the train-”

“Don’t throw the driving thing back at me, I tried. The car was very confusing and there were a lot of different signs to memorize,” he bickered back. “And besides, that doesn’t change how I feel about this little situation you’ve gotten into.”

“Nish,” Jac said softly. “I need to go with Cressida. She came here for help and you know as well as I do if Mum finds her here, she’ll ship her right back to where she came from.”

Nish gave a heavy sigh before pulling his younger sister into a tight embrace. “Just… let me know when you get there safe. I’ll hold Mum back for as long as I can.”

“Thank you,” Jac smiled, patting his cheek.

She rejoined Cressida, adjusting her backpack. Nish stood, biting his nails, watching the two of them heading to the front door.

“Be back soon,” he called to Jac, being cautious not to be too loud. “And be safe!”

Cressida tried to ease some of the tension as Nish sized her up. “Nice to have finally met you,” she managed with a smile.

“Please don’t get my sister killed,” he replied as Jac pulled her out the door and shut it behind them.

*

Thanks to a hoodie provided by Jac, Cressida was only slightly less damp than when she first appeared on her doorstep. However, after an hour of walking in the pouring rain through various streets and cul de sacs and even, to Cressida’s surprise, one field, they finally came to a stop in a random underpass.

Jac removed her hood and sighed deeply, fumbling for her phone in her pocket.

“Are we going in the right direction?” Cressida asked.

“Um, maybe,” Jac answered, staring down at her phone.

“Maybe?”

“My phone died half an hour ago… but I’m pretty sure once we pass a primary school we’re close.”

“We’ve passed two of those already,” Cressida pointed out frustratedly.

“Oh.”

Cressida heaved a heavy sigh, looking out of the tunnel at the dark sky and thundering rain. “We’re completely lost, aren’t we?”

Jac disregarded her phone back into her backpack. “In fairness, I was never allowed out on my own to explore this far. I lived a rather sheltered life until I met you.”

Cressida opened her bag and pulled out Rasper, passing him to Jac.

“What’re you doing?” She asked, sheltering the shivering cat in her coat.

“Looking for my wand,” Cressida said. “I’m sure it’s in here somewhere, I made sure to always have it close, even at home-”

“But we can’t use magic outside of school!”

Cressida put her hand on her wand and felt a weight lift off her shoulders at the feeling of it. “I think this calls for a bend in the rules, don’t you?”

“What’re you planning to do with it?”

“I don’t know… a locating spell on the Burrow or something?”

“Are you really going to risk getting arrested by wizard police just because neither of us knows how to read street signs?” Jac asked concerned.

“Depends, will the wizard police take us to the Burrow or prison? Because right now I think I’ll risk either,” Cressida shot back waving her wand around frantically in her hand.

“They’d send you back to Conwell.”

Defeated and irritable by this point, Cressida put her wand away again, knowing Jac was right. “Fine. Let’s go back to wandering around looking for a sign to the station,” she said, heading back out into the rain.

Jac ran out behind her, making sure to keep Rasper as dry as she could. “Look, Cress. Maybe we should just go back to mine and I can hide you in the ironing cupboard or something-”  

“What’s that?” Cressida stopped them in their tracks as they came out onto the road again.

“What’s what?” Jac asked confused, struggling to see anything but the rain in her eyes.

“ That .”

Cressida pointed to a set of headlights ahead of them. Attached to the headlights was what Cressida swore, but couldn’t believe, to be a triple-decker bus in bright purple.

Cressida watched a regular car drive past the bus parked on the side of the road as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

A man, no older than twenty-one, appeared in the doorway of the bus, holding a lantern up over his head.

“Need a lift?! Eleven sickles for standard fair, thirteen for a hot beverage!” The man bellowed over to them in a thick cockney accent.

“Sickles!” Jac gasped. “Cressie, it’s a magic bus!”

Cressida, still bewildered, let Jac lead her up to him.

“Welcome to the Knight Bus, ladies,” the young-looking conductor said kindly once they were closer. “Need to hop on? You sure look like you can use a lift if you don’t mind me saying.”

“Where do you go?” Cressida asked skeptically.

“Anywhere you need. Bet your bottom dollar we can get you there before morning most the time, too.”

“How much did you say?” Jac asked next.

“Eleven each for standard fair. Thirteen for a hot chocolate but, personally, I wouldn’t risk it. For fifteen sickles, you can get a toothbrush. We used to do hot water bottles but we got too many burn complaints.”

Jac looked to Cressida with a disappointed frown. “I don’t think I have any wizard money on me.”

“I do,” Cressida said, rummaging around in the bottom of her bag. She was careful to keep what little of that she had close by too. She pulled out any loose change and started counting it in her palm.

“How much for the toothbrush, did you say?” She asked, looking up embarrassed.

The conductor looked at what Cressida had in her hands. “How much you got there, sweetheart?”

“Only twenty-three… and fifty pence in Muggle money.”

“Tell you what, I’m not heartless, you can both jump on for that and I’ll throw in the toothbrush for free, but it has to be an ugly colour no one ever picks… like brown.”

“I’m really not fussy,” Cressida replied gratefully.

The man swooped up the money and stepped aside for the two girls to get on.

To Cressida and Jac’s surprise, as they stepped inside the bus, they found beds lining the walkway instead of seats. Some of them seemed to be occupied by the usual odd occupants of the wizarding world. A goblin in one. A granny sat knitting in another with her cat hissing at anyone who passed at the end of her bed.

“You might want to sit down,” the conductor warned, holding on firmly to a grip handle descending from the ceiling. “Ernie’s getting on a bit, he doesn’t tend to care for all these high-rise buildings popping up everywhere nowadays.”

Before Jac or Cressida could question what he meant, the engine started and the bus lurched forward so fast that both girls were practically thrown onto the nearest bed. Along with that, all the beds on the bus seemed to go flying backwards at once, or whichever way to bus seemed to turn.

“Bloody hell, these things aren’t exactly bolted down, are they?” Jac commented as she tried to find her balance.

Cressida gripped the metal iron bedpost for her life, watching in horror as Bristol practically sped past them at the speed of light, and before they knew it, they were in the middle of the city centre. The bus veered violently left, throwing all the beds to the side along with it, and then to the right, having the opposite effect.

By the time it straightened up again, Cressida was struggling to not throw up the previous night’s dinner.

Then to make matters worse, the bus turned up a one-way street with parked cars on it and Cressida, assuming they couldn’t possibly fit through that gap, watched as the bus stretched and contorted itself to resolve the issue.

Regardless of the rollercoaster they seemed to be on, the goblin in the bed ahead let out a pleasant snore and snort.

Having seen enough, she drew the curtains and sat beside Jac gripping onto the bed frame for safety.

Both girls seemed utterly petrified for their lives and befuddled by the whole affair.

After a while, the bus must’ve reached the motorway and straightened up, making the throwing around much less frequent.

Neither girl had said anything for a while as they stared straight ahead, trying to gauge whether this was the right choice after all, or whether Ernie at the front was going to drive them to their imminent deaths before ever reaching Devon.

Cressida pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them instead, taking some deep breaths to calm her nauseous stomach.

Jac still remained gripping onto the bed frame for dear life despite the current smooth road they seemed to be on. “Did I mention I liked your hair before?” She asked breezily, greatly contrasting the horror-struck look on her face. “After everything that’s happened tonight, I think I forgot to mention it.”  

“You didn’t.”

“It’s nice.”

“Thanks.”

The conductor appeared in front of them then, balancing a tray of hot chocolate in one hand that threatened to spill everywhere even as he was holding it. “Here’s your toothbrush. We hope you’re enjoying your journey,” he smiled, dropping it into her lap before continuing on.

Cressida fought the urge to heave the contents of her stomach onto her lap along with her new brown coloured toothbrush.

 

Sunday 18th August 2019

Once the bus stopped at the bottom of the lane that led up to the Burrow, Cressida stood and blinked slowly for a moment, holding her new toothbrush in one hand and Rasper in the other, trying to recall the events of the last day without it feeling like a massive blur.

The two girls had eventually managed to get some sleep in between the chaos of the bus driving along the roads whichever way it fancied. Cressida wasn’t entirely sure how long they’d been on there, but when it came to a stop and the conductor called them for their stop, she and Jac took his word for it and clambered off the bed and out the door.

The sun was coming up over the hills in the distance. The rain was easing off. It was a new day.

Jac seemed to shake off the effect of the bus and re-braided her hair. “Come on,” she nudged her, already taking off ahead excitedly. “I bet Grandmother Molly will have some tea on by this time in the morning. They'll all be so excited to see you!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Cressida muttered to herself, following slowly behind Jac.

When the two girls made it to the front door of the rickety, misshapen house, Cressida made Jac knock. She debated hiding around the corner in the bushes, or living in the tool shed and having Jac sneak her out food and supplies, but she knew there was no privacy for anything in this place.

She’d have to face them. She’d have to face him .

Luckily, when the door was pulled open, the first face they saw was Fred’s. Tired and groggy from clearly just having woken up. His hair had grown over the summer, his tight afro-like curls falling around his slender face now.

It took him a moment to even register who was in front of him. Once he took a moment to blink his eyes into focus, he gave Jac a hug in record speed and then took in Cressida’s appearance, soaked-through and filthy.

“Had a busy summer have you, Knightly?” Fred asked as he let go of Jac.

Jac went about scolding him instantly. “This isn’t the time for jokes, Weasley.”

Thomas was there next, his shaggy mousey brown hair half tied back with a purple bobble obviously given to him by one of the younger cousins. “Bloody hell… what’re you two doing here?!” He asked elated, pushing Fred out of the way to greet the two girls himself. “You’re in luck, we were just about to get an early morning game of quidditch in if you want to join-”

“Who the bloody hell pops around at this time?” Teddy was in the doorway within seconds, interrupting Thomas’ offer. He stopped, staring at Cressida and Jac on their doorstep with a blank expression for a moment. “What on earth have you lot done now?” He asked, turning on the two boys.

“For once, we had nothing to do with this,” Fred said. He finally tore his eyes away from her appearance and met Cressida’s anxious expression. “But we do now. Come inside.”

Cressida took a deep breath and followed them all inside.

*

Cressida and Jac were led into the kitchen where Grandmother Molly was busy flitting about cooking breakfast with her back to them. Arthur sat at the dining table with his nose stuck in the Daily Prophet.

Molly II seemed to be the only other person in the room, and her head shot up at the sight of the group coming in.

“Great Godric!” She exclaimed, startling Snuffles who had been napping in the corner by Arthur’s feet. “What in Merlin's pants happened to you?!” She asked, looking at Cressida concerned.

The big black dog wasted no time coming bounding over and licking the two girls until he threatened to knock them over.

Rasper jumped out of the bag and took the dog’s attention as the two of them went darting out of the doggy door together to play.

That was when Grandmother Molly finally turned around, dropping her egg pan to the floor as her hands went to the side of her face in a gasp. “Oh my Merlin! Company! Arthur, dear, we have company!” She said, swatting at his paper.

Arthur looked up. “Oh yes,” he said conversationally. “How are we Cressida and uh… uh-”

“Jac, Grandad,” Fred reminded him.

“Yes, of course! The girlfriend. Right, you are,” he nodded. “Have a nice summer, did we?”

“Great, thanks,” Cressida answered with a smile. Jac's big brown eyes turning to her gave away that was a lie.

Grandmother Molly pounced on her then, pulling at Felix’s old shirt. “Cressida, dear, what on earth are you wearing? And you’ve been bleeding?! My goodness, you look like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards. Come on now, let’s get you all sorted- Molly, get the kettle on!”

“Already done,” Molly said, pouring out a cup of tea for each person in the room.

Cressida kindly stepped back as the elder woman fussed her. “Honestly, Mrs Weasley, I’m fine-”

“Nonsense, look at you. You’re practically skin and bones,” she wafted her comment away. “And I’ll be checking that wound of yours, oh yes. Don’t think I haven’t been filled in about all that from McGonagall. Wretched girl, I always knew she was trouble. Never got on with her mother, either.”

“Why don’t we let Jac and Cressida sit down for a bit first, Grandma?” Teddy asked pointedly.

“Right, of course, sorry girls. And Jac, look at you!” She exclaimed then, squeezing Jac’s cheeks. “As beautiful as ever, I see. Fred, take their bags up to where Molly’s staying. I’m assuming you're staying?” She asked then.

“If that’s okay…” Cressida said awkwardly.

“Stay as long as you need,” Grandmother Molly said, tapping Cressida’s cheek next. Fred disappeared with Cressida’s bag and Jac went with him, insisting she could carry her rucksack on her own. “I’ll start making a cake for tonight. Oh, James will be so thrilled to hear you’re here. He was ever so glum on his birthday when you couldn’t make it- Jamsie! James!” She started yelling up the stairs.

Cressida internally winced.

She came back in and practically forced Cressida into a seat with a tea in her hands.

“Thomas, dear, go and wake up the others. Breakfast will be ready soon and it’s first come, first serve. I’m now short on bacon rashers for everyone,” Molly instructed him next.

Thomas, too, disappeared out of the room. Molly II took a seat opposite across the table, trying to examine the extent of Cressida’s damage for herself while a sentient teaspoon added sugar to her cup. Cressida met her eyes and shook her head. That was a conversation for later on.

“You bellowed?” James yawned, coming into the kitchen half asleep.

Mrs Weasley gestured her spatula to Cressida sitting at the table. “Look who’s popped by for a visit!” She said excitedly. James’ eyes fell on her and she met them. His face fell, eyes widening. She felt knots in her stomach twist and turn every which way worse than when she was on the bus. He didn’t say anything. He barely even reacted. “Isn’t this nice?” She went on obliviously.

“Yeah,” James stuttered out. That was when he seemed to notice her less-than-desirable appearance. “You, uh- you been keeping okay?”

It was like talking to a stranger.

“Yeah, not too bad,” she replied.

“If that's you not bad, I'd hate to see what you count as catastrophic,” Teddy coughed, sipping his tea in the doorway.

“Right,” James said regardless ignoring his comment, rubbing the back of his neck. “Are you- um… are you staying long?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “It was a bit of an unplanned visit.”

“Right,” James said again distantly. “Well, I’ll go get ready for breakfast then, shall I?”

With that, he turned and left the kitchen as well.

Cressida watched him go with bated breath, unsure if this was worse than she imagined.

“Did you cut your hair, Cressida?” Arthur asked then as silence descended on the kitchen, putting down his paper slightly to get a better look. “It looks rather nice. Suits you.”

“Thank you,” she replied, forcing a smile. She sipped her tea so she had something to distract herself.

 

Tuesday 27th August 2019

It had been just over a week since Cressida arrived on the doorstep of the Burrow.

She couldn’t say she hadn’t missed this place, even if there was no peace in it. In fact, now she was here, she was reminded of all the reasons she loved the Burrow.

It was a bit less crowded than normal as Harry Potter and Ron were off on an Auror mission, or so Rose was telling the two girls after their arrival. “Bulgaria this time,” Rose had embellished over a slice of cottage pie at dinner. “Some big secret mission, apparently. Whispers of the old ways showing up overseas and they’ve been sent to stop any of those whisperings getting over our way. Aunt Hermione won’t be popping in, either… too wrapped up with some terrible wizardpox outbreak in the Cotswolds.”

Nothing more was said on the matter since Rose divulged that, but there was so much else going on that Cressida hardly noticed their lack of appearance. Although, Ginny did seem more stressed than normal whenever she stopped by to check on everyone, and there was more often than not a hushed phone call with Harry or Hermione at least once during her visit.

Grandmother Molly made a new cake or dessert to accompany a homecooked meal each night. Cousins, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters from all over popped in and out as they pleased.

Mornings were spent doing the crossword puzzle with Arthur. They spent evenings listening to records with Teddy and Victoire. On lazy afternoons after having fresh iced tea out in the garden, they’d all gather around the one ancient TV at the Burrow and watch old VHS tapes, which Arthur had insisted Mrs Weasley let him keep in the house after he found it at a car-boot sale. ‘Grease’ seemed to be the family favourite and by the end of the week, Cressida knew all the words to every song. She found listening to Hopelessly Devoted To You while being forced to stare at the back of James’ head in the blue-hued light of the TV slightly too ironic for her liking and so often excused herself for that part.

Luckily, most of the excitement of the Burrow was taken up by the fact it would be the first year at Hogwarts for Lily-Luna Potter, Roxanne Weasley and Hugo Granger-Weasley. It seemed impossible that the little kids Cressida had met at James’ party years ago could be starting Hogwarts with them. They still seemed so young, and then it struck how young Cressida and her friends had once been. How naive about what life had to offer. She was glad they had a better start to it than she’d had. She liked to think that, like most of the other members of the family, taking on Hogwarts would be easy knowing they had each other to rely on.

She couldn’t help but smile every time one of them expressed how excited they were to be sorted and make new friends, meet all the teachers and visit Hagrid’s hut in person.

She wished she was still that excited to go back every year, but after knowing she nearly missed on returning at all, she had a newfound sense of appreciation for the whole affair.

Cressida’s appearance had been greatly improved by a warm bath, fresh bandages and a proper nose ring. The dark circles under her eyes subsided slightly as she spent every night tucked under a cosy knitted blanket cramped into a big double bed beside Jac and Molly. The family had even banded together to find some spare clothes passed down from the many generations over the years to give Cressida something different to wear each day which she was incredibly grateful for, even if the denim jeans from Teddy were too big and she had to use one of Percy's thick, brown leather belts to keep them up.

Outwardly she almost looked completely normal again. In fact, once or twice throughout her week’s stay, Victoire had stopped by and taught Jac some new make-up tips that she had tried out on Cressida.

The three boys mainly stuck together, as expected, apart from Fred who occasionally broke away to spend some time with Jac. They both knew the fury of Shari Redwick would come on on them eventually once she figured out where Jac had gone. They all suspected Nish was having a nightmare back in Bristol trying to hold her off on his own.

Cressida’s own mum had made no attempt to check if she made it out of Conwell safely. She had used Arthur’s old dial-up phone to try and ring her mum to check she was okay but there was no answer. She debated asking Teddy to apparate her back briefly to check on her in person, but then she ran the risk of seeing Gareth still looming over her in the flat, and that was something she couldn’t face. Not while she had made it out to a safe place filled with love. If she had her way, maybe she’d never go back.

She just hoped he refrained from chucking out or destroying the stuff she’d left behind. The knitted jumper was safely tucked under her pillow and Alice hadn’t thought to grab it for her before she shut her out of the flat. Cressida didn’t know what she’d do if one day she went back and that wasn’t there anymore.

The only thing that confirmed she eventually had to go somewhere other than the Burrow   was James.

Since her arrival, he’d barely looked her way. Barely spoke more than one word to her. Sometimes, she’d catch him looking her way at breakfast or if Jac forced her out into the garden to watch them racing on their brooms, but that was it. No jokes. No questions. No hint they were even once friends or more than that.

It was mind-numbing, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. After all, he had asked for space and then she showed up on his doorstep in the middle of summer. If she was in his position, she’d have ignored his existence too.

She’d tried to play it off as best she could. She felt like she was succeeding in it too- until Fred decided to confront her about it finally.

Cressida and Fred had been tasked with cutting onions up ready for whatever stew Mrs Weasley had planned for later that evening.

She knew he’d say something eventually. She could see it on his face every now and again. In the moments they were all forced to be together through proximity, she would catch Fred watching her and James. Seeing if one would acknowledge the other, and every time he left with a disappointed roll of his eyes.

“So,” Fred said after they’d been chopping in silence for more than ten minutes. Cressida tensed, knowing what was about to come next. “Has James spoken to you yet?”

“No,” Cressida answered, knowing she couldn’t just leave until Grandmother Molly would be satisfied with the amount of onions. “Can’t say I’m surprised about it either.”

“He will,” Fred said surely. “Give him time.”

“How do you know?” Cressida asked, unconvinced.

“It’s James,” Fred scoffed. “He can’t help himself. Having you here is like putting a big red button in front of him and saying he can’t press it.”

Cressida gave no reply as she continued chopping.

“I've got to admit though, given the circumstances, I would’ve been running fifty miles in the opposite direction if I were you,” he continued on then. "Showing up here took some balls."

Cressida sighed. “Yeah, well… I didn’t exactly have anywhere else to go,” she answered stonily. “Besides, shouldn’t you be thrilled my tragic home life secured two more weeks with your lovely girlfriend?”

“Oh, I am thrilled,” Fred smiled. “About Jac, obviously. Not your home life. I know this must be torture for you.”

“I’m doing okay-“

“No you’re not,” he cut her off knowingly. “I know the three of us are usually emotionally inept, but even I can see you're hurting inside."

She paused in her chore and turned to Fred. He was already looking at her as she did so. “Have you spilled the beans to Jac yet?” She asked, trying to deflect the conversation slightly.

“No, have you?” He countered.

“No,” Cressida answered quickly. “You’re still the only one here that knows.”

“Exactly, so you don’t have to pretend if it’s just me standing in front of you.”

Cressida returned to chopping to give her hands something to do. “I can’t. If I let it slip…”

“You’ll give it away to everyone else,” he finished for her with an understanding nod. “Smart. But it won’t last forever.”

“It can last until summer is done with,” she pointed out.

“And then you go from being stuck in a house with him to being stuck in classes and a castle and-“

“Right. I get your point,” she cut him off annoyed. “But what do you expect me to do, Freddie? At the moment I can only manage to take one day at a time. If I try and think past that all I can see is a grey cloud of nothing.”

Her words hung in the air between them as Fred's eyes bore into her. “That’s bleak, even for you,” he said after a moment.

She discarded the knife, done with her half of the chore and made for the back door. “Yeah, well, I’m in a bit of a bleak mood lately.”

*

Fred said no more on the matter in the days that followed. He’d still watch the pair of them for any sign of interaction, or even reconciliation, but still nothing from either of them. Cressida thought she had been rather short with him during their conversation, so at supper time, she let him have her share of the cherry pie and ice cream, claiming that she didn’t have much of a sweet tooth that night. He was only trying to be a good friend to the pair of them after all. Cressida should’ve just been glad he didn’t take James’ side completely and shut her out like a stranger when she turned up at their doorstep.

Despite her small blip with Fred, everything else continued on as normal, that was until Tuesday morning.

Unfortunately,  it appeared as though Nish had run out of ways to keep Jac’s mother at bay and the old dial-up phone was ringing like crazy until Arthur was the unfortunate bystander who picked it up.

“Hullo,” he said into the phone, unsuspecting.

The three girls plus Hugo were gathered around the living room playing cards with one another while Grandmother Molly knitted in the rocking chair.

They could probably hear Shari’s voice yelling in the kitchen, causing Rose and Roxanne to poke their heads in curiously.

After a moment, Arthur covered the phone with his hand, gulping nervously. “Jac, I do believe it’s for you.”

Jac sighed knowingly, leaving the game to take the phone from Arthur. She winced as she put the phone to her ear but it was no use, even holding the phone at arm’s length they could make out her words clearly, and she was anything but happy.

“Why don’t we start prepping dinner?” Grandmother Molly said, ushering them all out of the room. “Let Jac have some privacy for a moment.”

*

“She wanted me to come home straight away,” Jac told them as they all sat around the dining table after dinner. “That I was in big, big trouble and that I was grounded for the rest of my life.”

“What did you say?” Fred asked.

“I said I was helping a friend and that we were safe and there was no need to yell.”

“And how’d she take that?” Cressida asked knowingly.

“She yelled at me some more,” Jac admitted. “But, I convinced her to let me speak to my dad and he said that it was all Nish’s fault for not stopping us.”

“So, what are you going to do now?” Molly II asked. “Do you have to go?”

“Well, he eventually put my mother back on the phone and I told her we were all here and that we were planning on meeting up with you all this coming weekend in Diagon Ally anyway, so I might as well stay here and meet her there instead. That way I can go home with her and have my punishment before September 1st comes.”

“And that worked?” Thomas asked shocked.

“Amazingly, yes,” Jac said, also confused about it. “I think she might be planning to kill me as soon as I’m back in Bristol though so if I’m not on that train, you know why.”

Cressida found it slightly ironic that Jac had the liberty to joke about something like that, knowing there was really no truth in it. Because at the end of the day, Jac knew her mother really loved her and would do right by her and her wishes. Although Shari Redwick was as strict as they came, Jac was never scared of her, just scared of disappointing her. 

She could only wish that was the only gap in the relationship between her and her own mother. Now, after Gareth’s return and Alice’s deteriorating mental state over the last year, that gap felt more like a chasm. Cressida could see no way to bridge it. There were no jokes to be made about that.

“Should we be expecting a call from your mother, Cressida?” Arthur asked, bringing Cressida out of her daze. The look on his face gave away he was asking out of fear at being on the receiving end of another disgruntled mum.

“I doubt it,” Cressida answered honestly. Arthur looked slightly relieved.

“What about your robes and school supplies, is she going to meet us in Diagon Ally as well?” Grandmother Molly asked, pouring them all a cup of tea.

Cressida grew tense, gripping her tea tightly. “Um, I’m not sure-”

“We can sort Cressida out,” Molly II jumped in then. “Dad always buys me double to make sure I’m well prepared. I’m sure he won’t mind sparing that on Cressida instead. I mean, we’re in the same room anyway.”

“Right!” Jac jumped in then. “What’s ours is yours, Cress. We can pile all our money together and just share.”

Grandmother Molly hummed quietly. “Maybe I should write to McGonagall. She can sort this out in a jiffy.”

“Honestly, I don’t want to be a burden-” Cressida tried to step in.

“Results are here!” Rose suddenly announced, coming rushing into the kitchen with her hands full of envelopes.

She dropped them in a pile on the table and everyone started sifting through for theirs.

Jac and Cressida were stunned to find even theirs were in the pile. Magic mail really was wonderful sometimes.

There was a moment of silence as they all took in their own results.

Cressida was surprised to find she’d done the best yet with only one D in Astronomy and mostly E’s apart from Charms and Potions in which she got O’s.

Everyone else seemed to be pleased with their own results as there were a lot of happy mutterings and pleased nods.

“I got an A in Care of Magical Creatures. How the Godric did I manage that?” Fred asked bemused.

“I got Prefect!” Molly announced happily, holding up the tiny badge.

“So did I…” Thomas said, slightly more horrified.

“You’re joking?!” Fred asked abashed, taking the tiny pin from him and examining it for himself. “What was that woman thinking making one of us a Prefect! She’s ruined us!”

“Hey, my dad was a Prefect when he was there,” Teddy pointed out, looking over Fred’s shoulder at the pin. “He still managed to get away with almost everything.”

“I want no funny business this year, Prefect or not, do you hear me?!” Grandmother Molly warned. “But nonetheless, I’m so pleased you two were chosen,” she gushed then, serving them a plate of whatever sweet treat she’d just taken out of the oven. “A Weasley always makes a good Prefect.”

From the corner, George gave a loud scoff as he shoved some of the dessert into his mouth straight from the pan. “We never saw the appeal. You’ll catch no child of mine being a Prefect.”

He passed Fred and the two high-fived in agreement before George left the room.

As George left, Albus came in. “I thought it would’ve been James,” he pointed out, only coming in to steal some of Molly’s fresh snickerdoodle cookies after the smell had wafted through the whole house. “He normally gets chosen for stuff like this despite being a total dimwit.”

“Speaking of, where is he?” Victoire asked, lacing her arms around Teddy’s torso as she usually did. “He hasn’t opened his results.”

“Out in that run-down old shed of Arthur’s, I imagine,” Grandmother Molly tutted. “What you three spend all your time doing in there I’ve no idea.”

“I’ll just run this out to him then, shall I?” Teddy offered, swooping it off the table and disappearing out the backdoor before Molly could go herself.

“I wonder who the boy Prefect for Slytherin is?” Molly II pondered out loud. “I hope it’s not someone incredibly dull or stupid. I have to spend so much time with them that I’d hate to want to kill them on day one.”

*

Cressida discovered that finding refuge in a house filled to the brim with people was difficult but her best bet was retreating to the bathroom near midnight when everyone else was asleep.

This was usually when she tended to her wounds and checked in on how they were healing.

Having run out of her dittany supply completely three days ago, and feeling too awkward to ask for more from anyone here, her wounds had taken a backwards step in their healing process. Unfortunately for her, leaving Conwell had taken a rather large strain on her stomach with all the running and walking and dampness that soaked through to her bones.

Not to mention, she’d developed a bad habit of picking at the edges of the scar on her left hand whenever she felt a knot in her stomach to distract herself from it, which was pretty much whenever she and James had to be in the same vicinity.

She’d just unbuttoned Felix’s shirt, which had quickly become her favourite sleeping shirt, to assess her damage when she heard a creak in the wood.

“You look different.”

She whipped around in surprise at the voice after not hearing it address her directly for so long.

James leaned in the doorway, hands concealed under his armpits.

Cressida took a moment to try and hide her surprise. She wasn’t sure why now, after over a week of nothing, he decided to finally talk. Did he follow her to the bathroom on purpose? Had Fred forced him to talk finally? Had he known she’d been coming here every night for at least ten minutes to gather herself? Was it simply an accident that he came to this bathroom at the she time she happened to be there?

“I felt like it was time for a change,” she admitted, covering her stomach back up quickly.

James gave no comment, just stared back at her, almost statue-like.

She felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle and the knot in her stomach tighten. She had to look away. “I can go if you need the bathroom-”

“Does it still hurt?” He cut her off as if he was sticking to a strict script.

She blinked, looking back at him again, trying to decipher the emotion on his face. “Uh- yeah,” she said eventually. “Mainly just my hand now. I keep picking at it.”

“Which one?”

Cressida held out her left hand hesitantly. James checked the corridor behind him before stepping into the bathroom with her. He approached slowly at first, as if cautious of getting too close.

He looked like he might turn and bolt at any moment.

“You don’t have to be here,” she told him quietly as he came to a stop. His eyes were examining the red raised scar on her hand. “I didn’t even want to come here-“

He looked up through strands of fallen hair. While Cressida had cut hers off, his had grown over the summer. Not as much as Fred’s, and not enough to be tied back like Thomas’, but just enough to warrant a mullet-like effect when he had to tuck strands behind his ears. Silently, he moved his right hand out beside hers.  

Where her scar stopped, James continued in one seamless line. One swift wound covered the pair of them simultaneously.

“Snap,” he muttered with a hint of a joke.

Cressida closed her fist and brought it to her side. She examined him lingering in front of her. She never had a good look at him in the hospital lying in that bed, but she could recall where most of his damage had been. “And the one on your shoulder … how’s that doing?”

James’ fingertips brushed against the nearly healed scar poking out from the neckline of his pyjama top. “Not too bad. Bill’s been a big help… had experience with healing scars and that.”

“I’m glad,” Cressida replied truthfully.

“And you?” He asked then. His eyes scanned her quickly. “I know I didn’t say much but you looked a bit of a state when you got here.”

She was glad all her wounds were covered completely from view. She didn’t want to admit her stomach had started bleeding again since running from her home.

“Getting there,” she nodded. “Can hardly feel it now.”

“You’re lying,” he shot back.

“Everyone else has believed me so far,” she gave in.

James glanced around again. Cressida assumed he was worried their voices would carry. It was hard to be truly alone in this house. 

“Let me see,” he said.

Cressida wrapped her arms around her stomach protectively. “I’m fine- honest.”

His eyes were dead set on her.

Reluctantly, knowing even in their current social predicament, James wouldn’t relent, she unfolded her arms. Her fingertips fumbled with undoing the buttons of Felix’s old shirt just enough so she could expose her stomach wound.

James shook his head, his eyes widening at the sight of it. “Merlin, Knightly. Did you even have it bandaged over the summer!?” He whispered furiously.

“I had other things on my mind,” she replied somewhat coldly.

James looked up at her, then back down to her wound. It was raised and red and ugly. “It’ll never heal in that state.”

“Pomfrey reckons it won’t heal at all. I heard her say so before I left.”

“That shouldn’t stop you from trying,” he countered.

She recovered her stomach, frowning. “I managed just fine with what I had at the time.”

James sighed, reaching into his pyjama pocket. “Here,” he said, pulling out a small vial. “Bill swears by it.”

“Potter, I’m fine-“

“You’re not!” He insisted, gesturing for her to show the wound to him again. “I haven’t asked why you showed up like you did, but I know whatever caused it likely wasn’t to do with magic… this I can help with. At least, for now.”

Reluctantly, she moved the shirt out of the way again.

James opened the vial and poured some of the thick liquid onto his fingertips before smearing it around the edges of her wound. 

The swelling and redness started going down almost immediately as the cool liquid seeped into her skin.

“You don’t have to do this,” she told him quietly, watching him as his simple touch brought all the memories she’d been shoving down since summer back to the surface.

“I didn’t dive in front of that spell for you to let it get infected,” he replied.

Cressida felt frozen as Potter performed his self-imposed task. His familiar scent hit her nose at having him so close and she could've fallen into him without a second thought. But it was like there was an invisible wall between them now preventing her from even reaching out to him.

“Do you regret it?” She asked after a moment, unable to stand the silence.

“Regret what?” He asked, keeping his attention on the task at hand, despite having traced the edges of her wound four or five times over by now.

She couldn’t help herself but ask. “Any of it?”

James paused. He removed his fingertips from her skin, leaving a chill at his departure. His hands went inside his pyjama pockets as he straightened back up. “Do you?”

Cressida couldn’t look away. How she’d missed those green eyes looking at her through the darkness. “I regret you getting hurt.”

“Yeah,” he replied, glancing down to his bare feet. “Me too.”

Cressida nodded guiltily, letting the fabric fall back over her wound.

James made for the door. Cressida thought that was it, the one small interaction over and done with like that before they went back to dancing around each other in the morning, but then he paused in the doorway. “I don’t regret jumping in front of that spell, though,” he said, his back to her still. “If I had to do it again, I would.” 

He was gone before Cressida could even look up.

Her hand went to retrace where James' fingertips had been on her stomach. How foolish she was to think she could ever move past him like it had meant nothing.

He had a hold over her. Deep and rooted and infectious. 

She wondered if that would ever go away... or if, like their scars, it was a permanent effect. 

Chapter 104: Fifth Year: Back to Witches and Wizards and Magical Feasts

Notes:

TW: mention of previous injury and bruising- nothing major :)

Friday 30th August 2019

James went back to avoiding Cressida at every turn for the next few days.

She convinced herself it was for the best. After having that one interaction in the bathroom play over and over in her mind whenever she allowed herself a free moment, she couldn’t even begin to think how much she’d unravel if they went back to their old selves pretending nothing had happened- good or bad.

Luckily, today would hopefully be free from worry about Potter as the whole lot of them were being taken to Diagon Ally by the Weasley clan, something Cressida had greatly looked forward to.

Despite Jac knowing her mother, and therefore her punishment, would be waiting for her, she and Cressida were both equally excited as Felix would be joining them.

“You’ll never guess what’s happened to me!” He expressed dramatically, waving a butterbeer around in his hand after they’d all gathered around a circular table together in the Leaky Cauldron. The adults had all split apart to visit the Magical Menagerie with the youngest of the clan to pick out pets for their First Year, and none of them had seen the trio of Gryffindors since arriving in the bustling street, which Cressida was silently glad about. “They’ve only gone and made me a bloody Prefect!” Felix told them.

Cressida and Jac burst out laughing as Molly’s face fell. “You?! They made you the boy prefect?!”

“Well, he does tend to get good grades and stay out of trouble,” Jac pointed out.

“As far as McGonagall knows, away,” Cressida continued to laugh. It was the first time she’d allowed herself to laugh since before the summer even started. “And you did say you didn’t want someone boring who you’d hate on the first day.”

“Yes, but not Felix!”

“And what’s wrong with me?!” He asked, offended.

“You won’t do any of the work!” Molly exclaimed.

“Of course not,” Felix agreed, lounging back in his chair. “That’s why you’re there, isn’t it?”

Cressida and Jac’s fit of laughter got worse as Molly started turning red in the face.

Then, unfortunately, their laughter and enjoyment of Molly’s misfortune were cut short as Shari Redwick dawned in the doorway. Even despite wizards and witches of all ages shoving past with various manners and apologies thrown her way, one thing was clear- she was not in a laughing mood, and therefore, neither could Jac.

The girls’ eyes went to Jac immediately as she shrank down in her chair.

“Christ,” Felix said obliviously, throwing peanuts into his mouth. “Your mam looks right pissed off. Did she get a gone-off Butterbeer? That happened to Dean once- the foam came out of his nose in awful green bubbles after one sip. Got free drinks for the rest of the night though, so Dad was well pleased.”

“Felix,” Molly cut him off as Shari started moving forward. “Do us all a favour and vacate this table… now.”

“Why?” He asked cluelessly. “What’ve I missed?”

“Everything,” Cressida muttered, lowering down in her chair alongside Jac as Shari got closer.

“Girls,” Shari greeted them calmly, her hands clasped neatly in front of her. 

Felix was too confused by the tension to be annoyed about being left out once again.

Jac gulped apprehensively. “Hi, Mum.”

Shari, to everyone’s surprise, didn’t acknowledge Jac, but instead sat down at the table with them.

The teenagers all looked to one another, unsure of what to do… or say… or if they could breathe.

“So,” Shari addressed the table pointedly after a moment of tense-filled silence. “Shall we have a drink?”

“Of course, how rude of us!” Molly jumped in quickly to try and save face, but it was no use. Shari started talking once again.

“You see, the reason I am sitting here is because I am waiting to see exactly what Jacqueline thought was worth disobeying me for,” she went on, still with a tight smile on her lips so that any passer-by would think they were simply having a pleasant conversation. “And so far, I must say, I’m not quite enthralled by the situation or company.”

Jac rose in her chair defensively. “Mum, they’re my friends-”

“Yes, well, we shall see about that,” Shari replied, turning her eyes onto Cressida, who sat awkwardly beside Jac. She could see Shari's dark eyes clocking the nose ring attached to her face and felt the need to shrink down like Jac to avoid the look on her face.

“Cressida!” Molly spoke up, almost urgently. “Why don’t you go and get us some Butterbeer?” She asked, practically throwing the money at her across the table. “Felix, why don’t you tell Mrs Redwick about your summer back in Ireland? You know, the story you wrote to me about your dad having that stray gnome in your shed.”

Clearly, Molly was still under the impression she could rectify Shari’s less-than-desirable opinion of them all and decided Cressida was the weakest link in the situation, even with Felix still sitting there obliviously.

Cressida, feeling as though that was true, was glad for an out and happily obliged, scooping the various coins Molly had given her into her hands and disappearing towards the bar.

However, to add on to Cressida’s string of unfortunate situations, as the crowd in front of her cleared, she was met with the trio of Gryffindors, waiting to order themselves.

“Knightly!” Fred greeted her happily. Based on their overflowing pockets and the chocolate smeared across Thomas’ mouth, they’d obviously spent most of the day at George’s joke shop, no doubt getting plenty of pranking supplies and snacks to last the whole of Fifth Year.

“We wondered when we’d find you,” Thomas said, holding out a paper bag. “Fancy a bonbon? They’re lemon and lime flavoured- but be careful, some of them have traces of truth spell in them.”

“Why on earth would they have truth spell in them?” She questioned, pulling a face.

“Well, they’re called Truth Bomb-Bons, you see,” Fred explained. “James and I came up with the idea a few years ago, and Dad’s just debuted them in the shop, so we got half his stock before anyone else could scoop it up for themselves.”

“What can I get you?” A young-looking barmaid with bright red hair asked.

“Seven Butterbeers please,” James said immediately. Cressida assumed he wanted to get this interaction over with as quickly as possible, so as not to be forced to acknowledge her standing in front of them.

“Oh, I wouldn’t join us over there if I were you,” Cressida tried to warn them. “Jac’s mum just arrived and she’s less than pleased.”

Fred craned his neck to get a glimpse for himself and then straightened out his denim jacket. “Finally. I’ve been pestering Jac to introduce me to her mum all year!”

“Honestly, Freddie, now isn’t a good time. She’s really not happy about Jac running away because of me-”

“Nonsense, once she meets me, I’m sure she’ll love me. Plus, even if she doesn’t, it’ll take some of the slack off you, right, Knightly?” He asked, nudging her playfully with his elbow.

“She can’t be that mad about two things at once,” Thomas said logically. “She’ll have to decide either to kill you or Freddie- but one of you should come out looking better in her eyes.”

All Cressida could do was blankly stare back in return, unsure if that was a blessing or just making an already sinking ship worse and taking Jac further down with it.

Fred clapped James on he shoulder. “You’ve got this right, Jamsie? Cress can help you carry the drinks.”

And before James could argue, Fred had dragged Thomas off to go and introduce himself to Shari Redwick, despite Jac’s mortified look as they approached.

Meanwhile, James and Cressida were left standing together, awkwardly trying not to make eye contact with one another.

“Here’s your change, dear,” the barmaid said.

“I can pay for half,” Cressida tried to hand over Molly’s money.

“We’ve got it covered, Knightly,” James said unexpectedly. His eyes were still firmly forward.

“It’s not even my money, it’s Molly’s,” she tried to object. “Here,” she said, turning to the barmaid. “Take some of this, give him more change back.”

The barmaid took the money and walked off with a perplexed expression on who to give change.

 James huffed, clearly annoyed by her insistence, but still, despite his annoyance, wouldn’t look her way.

Cressida narrowed her brow, growing more and more confused about James’ strategy for ignoring her one moment and not the next. “You know, I'm not exactly thrilled about our situation either, but I don't bite... You can still at least look at me."

His head angled slightly towards her, his eyes on his hands resting themselves on the bar in front of them. “I-”

“I think this is the right change,” the barmaid appeared again, interrupting whatever James was about to say. “Hey, aren’t you Harry Potter’s kid?” She asked then, intrigued, as she slid the money across for them to take as they wanted between them.

Cressida rolled her eyes as she reached for a couple of coins out of the pile to return to Molly. “Yeah… you’re in my younger sister’s year- Clover Macmillan!” The barmaid went on, not giving James a chance to talk once again. “She spoke about you a bit this summer. From what I hear, you’re a bit of a ladies' man around school. She says everyone has a crush on you… I think she secretly does too, but she’d never admit it to me. She says I’m too much of a blabbermouth.”

“Can’t see why she’d say that,” Cressida chimed in sarcastically.

James ignored both comments seemingly as he politely scooped up the remainder of the change and grabbed the tray of drinks. “Tell her I say hi.”

“Will do!” The barmaid waved as James departed, leaving Cressida standing there.

Clearly, the barmaid didn’t appreciate Cressida’s comment as she pulled a sour face at her before disappearing to serve more waiting customers.

Feeling rather huffy herself now, she turned to look at the table she had previously sat at. It appeared that Fred had taken over telling a story while Jac buried her head in her hands and Molly was glaring daggers at Felix for whatever he’d said beforehand. Shari looked less and less amused by their antics by the second, and to top it all off, the only spare seat was the one nestled closely in next to James.

Deciding she’d rather face a rogue boggart than sit herself at that table currently, she turned for the door instead.

Once out in the open, she took a moment to take in the fresh air.

Cressida picked at the scar on her palm, her eyes trailing the bustling crowds coming and going in front of her. Some faces she recognized from various years at Hogwarts. Some were clearly just there for a day out. She thought she saw a very lost and confused Muggle with his daschund who had accidentally taken a wrong turn into the wizarding world. And then she saw clusters that were clearly bewildered Muggle-Borns with clueless parents like she had once been.

She leaned back against the stone cobbled wall and couldn’t help but wonder what Alice was up to at that precise moment. The last time she’d been in this alley, her mum had been with her- now she couldn’t be further away.

Then, taking her attention completely, she saw Valentina, Goyle and Thane heading through the crowd in a line, forcing people to move out of their way like schools of fish as they moved forward unfazed. Thane, having a sixth sense for when eyes were on him, met her gaze. Clearly, the other two were unaware of Cressida standing there as Valentina was moaning about something to Goyle, who politely nodded along. That was when Thane gestured with his head for her to follow them.

Cressida frowned, confused. But seemingly, that was all the hint Thane was giving her as he turned around and continued walking as if he’d never even seen her either.

But then, watching as they got further and further away, it seemed as though they were heading somewhere with a purpose, and Thane didn't gesture for her to follow for no reason... Thane never did anything for no reason... and she had nothing better to do than stand there looking lost.

Curiosity taking over, she pushed herself up off the wall before she lost sight of them.

Following behind them at a safe distance, she walked the winding cobblestone paths of Diagon Alley until the three Slytherins turned off into a side street.

Cressida, still following behind, suddenly got a bad feeling. Upon turning into this alley, it seemed to have grown darker, despite it still being afternoon, and the dark windowed shops loomed over her taller than out in the main street, giving a foreboding feeling of being watched by things unknown.

However, if Cressida was put off by the gloomy side street, the three ahead of her remained unfazed. She still remained a distance behind, not sure if Valentina would approve of Thane leading her down there with them, but she felt like she was in too deep to turn back now.

Then, Thane came to a sudden stop, getting a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it. “What do you say about popping into Burkes?” He asked the others, exhaling the smoke.

Valentina turned to him, and Cressida had to duck behind a corner to avoid being spotted, leading her to stand in something vaguely black and slime-like that she didn’t want to imagine the origin of.

“What on earth would we want in there?” Valentina asked, disapprovingly.

Thane gave a shrug.  “He might have some new stock in… or some information.”

“Information on who?” Valentina scoffed. “If we need to know anything about anyone interesting, we can just ask our parents. Don’t be such a dolt, Thane. You don’t need another shrunken head trinket for your wall back home.”

“Fair enough,” Thane gave in easily, discarding his cigarette butt at the shop in question’s doorstep. “Just thought I’d put it out there.”

He glanced back over his shoulder nonchalantly to check Cressida had got the message before shoving his hands in his pockets and obediently following Valentina as she walked ahead with Goyle in tow.

Cressida, hearing the message loud and clear, but still slightly unsure of her surroundings, waited a few minutes to make sure she wouldn’t run into anyone she shouldn’t before stepping back out into the alley.

Finding Thane’s cigarette butt, she identified the shop he was hinting at as ‘Borgin and Burkes’. Putting on the ruse that she knew what she was doing, she pushed the door open into the shop.

The first thing that hit her was the smell. Something putrid and old and dusty all mixed together and tied with a slightly acidic bow. The next thing to hit her was the amount of oddities displayed haphazardly in front of her. Sure, the shops in Diagon Ally were eccentric, but in a fun way. A way that made you want to explore and have fun and poke around. This place had the opposite effect. She felt as if she made one wrong move, something would come alive and try to eat her hand.

“What d’you want?” A gruff and unpleasant voice asked from somewhere behind a stack of shelves.

Cressida took a deep breath in, trying to recall Thane's words precisely. She figured if she said the wrong thing, this could turn as sour as that barmaid's face rather quickly. “I was told you give out information?”

An elderly but tough and hard-done-by man hobbled out into her view, doubled over on a cane that looked like it was partly made of a human leg bone. Cressida tried not to gag at the thought of it. “Information? Well, that depends. Information on what… or who?” The shopkeeper asked, plonking down indelicately on a stool behind a counter off to the side with a terrible wheeze and a cough.

Cressida forced herself to walk up to him. She’d made it this far; she wasn’t about to give up her one chance at a clue now. “Mundungus Fletcher.”

“Mundugus Fletcher. Haven’t heard that name in a long time,” the shopkeeper repeated with a wickedly dark chortle. “Now, what would a nice little girl like you want with a lowlife like that?”

Cressida kept her face firm. “He has information I need.”

“Is that so?” He asked, humoured by her. “And what information is that, exactly?”

“He knows something about someone by the name of Castillo. A rumour, maybe?”

“If there is a rumour going around, I ain’t never heard it around here.” The shopkeeper shook his head. “You sure you got the right name?”

“Positive.”

“Well, can’t say I’m much help to you,” he said resolutely. “Tell you what, though, you buy something and I can tell you whereabouts you might find Fletcher.”

She cursed herself for handing over all the spare sickles she had on that blasted Knight Bus.

“I haven’t got money to waste on something from here,” Cressida said, trying to sound tough.

“I guess this information isn’t that important to you then, is it?” He countered with a throaty chuckle.

Irked, Cressida dug around in her pockets for loose change from the Butterbeer Molly had given her. She’d had every intention of returning it to Molly, but she’d have to find another way to make it up to her now. She put it on the counter. “What can I get for this?”

The shopkeeper looked almost insulted. “For this, you’re lucky to get troll spit on your boots.”

Cressida‘s jaw clenched, and she went to snatch the money back when the shopkeeper slammed his bone cane on top of her hand. Cressida froze, glaring at him warningly. He was bordering on fifty. She could outrun him if she had to-

“Now, don’t look like that,” he said, sensing her stiffen up. “I ain’t going to hurt a delicate little thing like you.”

He removed his cane. As she pulled her hand back to her side, the money from the counter had disappeared.

“In fact, I’m rather intrigued by you, miss. And you got nice eyes. Ones that would go for a pretty penny in a jar. For that, I’ll give you this one hint.” He waited for Cressida to acknowledge his kindness. She did no such thing. He sat back in his stool, readjusting his position to look down at her through his nose. “Once a year, Mundungus resurfaces for a week or so at the Hog’s Head Inn. Drinks himself silly, makes silly deals. Once these deals catch up to him from the last time he was there, he’s gone again.”

“The Hog’s Head,” Cressida repeated thoughtfully. “That’s in Hogsmeade, right? When will he be there?”

“I ain’t giving everything away for free,” he said gruffly, getting up from his stool with some difficulty. “Now, I know you ain’t got any money, so you best be off before someone you don’t want to meet finds a little thing like you poking her nose where it don’t belong.”

Cressida nodded, not needing a second warning, before turning and leaving out the door back into the cold and dark street.

After she practically ran the whole way back until she was once again in the warmth and overcrowded street of Diagon Ally, she took a moment to gather her thoughts.

Of Thane leading her there, knowing what she’d be walking into.

Of what the man said about Mundungus Fletcher.

The disturbing comment about her eyes in a jar, and knowing it rang true based on similar ones stored on the shelves surrounding her.

A small part of her wanted to throw up the more she thought about that horrid shop with that creepy man lurking inside, but one thing was for certain- he had given her the information she wanted, despite it being as little help as possible.

When she seemed to come back up for air, her eyes found a familiar face staring back at her through the crowds of people going about their day.

James stood there. Alone. His eyes found her like he’d been looking specifically.

She couldn’t bring herself to move as his face tightened. By the looks of it, James knew exactly where she had just paid a visit to, and he wasn’t happy about it.

Cressida waited a moment, wondering if he’d question her, reprimand her, maybe even finish what he was about to say in the pub. He could even go back and tattle on her to the others and make it a whole group affair on how idiotic it had been for her to even go down that dark street.

Instead, however, James turned his back on her, wandering up the cobbled street like she was a stranger standing in front of him.

She debated running after him. Try to explain… but then, did he care anymore?

Would he understand if she admitted it was the closest lead to her dad she had, and she’d been sitting on it since before their argument-before everything turned sour between them?

Deciding there was nothing she could say that would change anything, she too turned her back on the dark street and continued on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

 

Sunday 1st September 2019

Waiting on platform 9 3/4 was agony.

Returning to Hogwarts on a Sunday meant no uniform was required past the opening ceremony for the new First Years, and so under her robe, Cressida was adorned in her second-hand clothing from the Weasleys. Baggy shorts tied with a thick black belt, a Hollyhead Harpies top that had once belonged to Rose but also fit Cressida, and her trainers that Grandmother Molly had insisted on washing before she returned to school, Cressida felt slightly ridiculous.

Plus, she noticed, due to the nature of time and general ware and tare, her hobo bag was starting to get a significant rip in it’s seam, making her worried about storing Rasper in there in case it tore completely, meaning her beloved cat would be perched on her shoulder for the duration of the travelling process, which he didn’t seem to mind apart from the random owl catching his attention and Cressida had to hold him in her arms until it passed out of Rasper’s eyeline.

Despite all this, they were not the reasons why this platform was becoming torturous.

Cressida stood slightly away from Weasley Clan, letting them get their fusses and goodbyes over with, knowing it usually took half an hour longer due to how many of them there were. She could vaguely hear Lily-Luna complaining to Ginny, upset that Harry hadn’t made it back in time to see her off on the train. Neither had Ron, but Hermione and Rose seemed to make up for his absence by fussing over him enough that he didn’t get a chance to realize Ron wasn’t there to likely give him a small nod and a good-luck slap on the back before boarding the train. All three of them were adorned with their new pets they’d bought in Diagon Ally the weekend before. Lily-Luna with a brown tabby cat she’d named Ducky adorned in a wicker basket. Roxanne carried a matching basket with a small ginger tomcat inside instead. She was calling it Felis. Hugo simply had a box with a lumpy toad in it. He’d called it Wart Jr and was very proud of his new responsibility.

Molly, not having a sibling of her own to worry about, broke away and joined Cressida on the outskirts. “Any sign of her?” She asked.

Cressida shook her head, beginning to get worried. One of her worst fears was becoming true- just not for her.

Felix appeared then, breaking away from his Dad immediately in favour of finding the two girls. “Why are there only two of you? How come Redwick's not with you? It's nearly time to get on the train.”

“She's not here yet,” Molly answered. “Based on Shari's opinion of us and Hogwarts, I wouldn't be surprised if she's not here at all.”

“No,” Felix argued. “Don't say that. She'll be here. Her mum can't do that to her anyway- It’s against the law!”

“Technically, it’s not,” Molly corrected him. “But still, I am starting to wonder how Jac will convince her mum to ever let her out of her sight again after this summer.”

Cressida decided to keep quiet. Apparently, while she was off venturing down Knockturn Alley, things back in The Leaky Cauldron had gone from bad to worse. Felix’s anecdote about his summer had somehow led into a story about how Jac had joined Felix and herself on a hunt in the middle of the night, leading to a detention. Then, once Fred announced himself as Jac’s long-term boyfriend- something else Shari Redwick had explicitly banned Jac from doing- she blew her lid, claiming Hogwarts had turned her daughter into a delinquent, that Jac was grounded, and that there would be a serious discussion with her father when she got home about her schooling as she stormed Jac out of the pub, not to be seen again.

Molly grew more and more anxious about Jac’s presence, the longer they waited.

It didn’t help that none of them had received a letter from her in the two days since either.

“She’s got to be here somewhere… right?” Molly asked, beginning to chew on her thumbnail nervously. “She can’t just not show up for the train.”

Cressida didn’t answer, but she knew this did not bode well. But surely, surely, Shari knew what was best for Jac. That she loved the wizarding world, and that at some point, she couldn’t be coddled anymore. That there would be boyfriends and friends that her mother wouldn’t approve of.

She couldn’t help but find it slightly ironic, though, that at the beginning of summer, Gareth had threatened to not let Cressida return to Hogwarts, and now Jac was potentially in a similar position. Maybe Muggles just didn’t see how much better Hogwarts was. Maybe the adults didn’t like how much the children they once knew grew up while they were away there, being their own person. Either way, she knew this was likely only a problem for people who came from Muggle families. You’d never find a Weasley or a Lupin complaining about Hogwarts and what goes on there.

Fred walked up to them then, looking rather confused. “Anyone seen Jac? She never answered any of my letters on what time she’d be getting in.”

“Not yet,” Molly answered him. “But there’s still a whole five minutes before-”

The whistle blew. People were starting to be loaded onto the train.

That was when it set in fully. They might be returning to Hogwarts without Jac alongside them.

“I know it’s not the time, but you know who else isn’t anywhere to be seen?” Felix asked, his voice low.

It didn’t need to be said. Cressida picked at her scar on her palm.

Neither Margo nor the Chauncy siblings had shown their faces on the platform the whole time Cressida had been staring at the entrance, waiting for Jac.

“Oi, you lot!” Teddy bellowed over to them from beside the fussing mothers and cousins of the family. Hugo, Lily-Luna, and Roxanne were all being spit-polished by Grandmother Molly and having their fresh new robes straightened out by Ginny and Victoire, preparing for their first train ride to the school. “Isn’t that your friend down there getting on the train?!” He asked them.

They all nearly snapped their necks looking in the direction Teddy was alluding to. By some miracle, there stood Jac, climbing into a carriage down the other end of the platform, under the watchful eye of Shari Redwick, who stood amongst the parents lovingly waving goodbye.

Molly and Felix took off at lightning speed, but even then they weren’t faster than Fred, who’d made it down half the platform within two seconds of seeing her. Cressida held back, her own thoughts swirling around in her head. She knew Jac was in this position because of her. She had to do everything she could to try and help Jac's reputation with her own mother.

Reaching her hand up to her nose and slipping out the golden hoop, keeping it tight in her hand, she followed after them.

When they had all finally caught up to Fred, he was already on the train where Jac had seemingly disappeared into a carriage ready to depart.

The three of them came to a stop in front of Shari herself. The look of her face was indistinguishable. No sterner than normal, but her body language was clear. She didn’t want any of them anywhere near her daughter.

“Sod this,” Felix muttered, ignoring her glare and going in after Jac. Molly debated on what to do for mere seconds before following after Felix with a tiny regretful squeak at disobeying an adult so openly.

That left Cressida on the platform alone.

Shari turned her glare full force on her as she stood there.

Cressida could’ve got on the train. She could have made a point to Shari that they were Jac’s friends, whether she liked it or not, but she had a feeling Shari knew that already. “Thank you,” she said instead, after a moment. “For letting her come back.”

Shari glanced around the platform, seemingly disinterested. “Jaqueline and I managed to come to a reasonable compromise in the end,” she said. Cressida remained standing there, and Shari took that opportunity to let her know exactly how she felt. “But that doesn’t change the fact I think you are a terrible influence on my daughter, who, before you and this school, was a model student and respectful child who wouldn’t dare disobey rules put in place to keep her out of harm's way. If I had my way, she would have nothing more to do with any of you, or this ridiculous world and ways of yours.”

“She’s a good friend,” Cressida replied calmly. She tried not to show how much that comment stung on her face. “My best friend.”

“It is a shame that you seem to involve her in your troublesome ways, then… wouldn’t you agree? Is that something a good friend does where you come from?” Shari questioned tightly in return.

Cressida took a moment to gather her thoughts. “My own mother isn’t even here,” she started. For what reason, she didn’t know. She just kept talking without knowing what was coming out of her mouth next. “When I showed up at your door, she didn’t know where I had gone, only that she threw me out the door for my own good and told me not to go back. She doesn’t know where I’ve been this whole time, either. Hasn’t even tried to find out.”

Shari side-eyed her, clearly uncomfortable with the admission. “I wasn't aware... I’m sorry to hear that.”

Cressida gave a pathetic shrug in response.

“Anyway,” she said then, extending her hand. “Jac lent me this, trying to help, but I figured they should stay in the family. I’d feel bad keeping it.”

Shari slowly took the nose ring from Cressida’s palm, trying to hide her surprise at the action.

“And she prefers to be called Jac,” Cressida went on. Shari's dark eyes lifted to her once more. “She only goes by Jacqueline to keep you happy. She does everything she can to try and keep you happy... That's why she doesn't tell you about what happens at school or why she didn't tell you about Fred. None of this or what you've heard is her fault. She's just trying to be a good friend and keep us safe, like you kept her safe... She's a good person. A better person than I could ever hope to be.”

Shari seemed rendered silent for a moment, simply staring back at Cressida with an undistinguishable expression. “That was very honest… Thank you.”

Cressida nodded, unsure if anything else could be said to change Shari Redwick’s opinion of her. The whistle blew again as a last warning to board the train.

Just as she turned her back, Shari spoke up once last time.

“I just want what’s best for my daughter,” she said. Cressida looked back over her shoulder. “She feels so far away from me in this world. I just want to know she’s still safe, even when I can't be there.”

“Doesn’t every good mother?” Cressida questioned back.

Shari said no more on the matter.

Conversation done with, the older woman bowed slightly before she turned and left.

Cressida remained standing there watching her go, trying to decipher if she stood any better or worse in Shari’s opinion.

Still undecided, she turned and got on the train to face Jac.

*

Felix and Molly had been whisked away to a separate carriage on the train due to Prefect duties. It appeared that, due to Thomas having the same fate, James was forced to sit in the same compartment as Fred, Jac and Cressida- which made for a very long and awkward journey.

This time, however, it wasn’t due to James and Cressida being within the same vicinity.

It appeared as though Jac was the problem this time. Since getting on the train, she hardly spoke a word despite Fred’s best efforts and relentless questioning.

“What’s the matter?”

“What did your mum say when you got back to Bristol?”

“Have I done something to upset you?”

“It’s only been twenty minutes. I can’t have done something to annoy you already!”

“Have you got a headache?”

“That vein’s poking out of your temple, so something’s obviously wrong.”

“Are you feeling sick?”

“Do you miss Molly and Finnigan being here with us?”

“Do you want a pumpkin pasty?”

“Why were you at the other end of the platform when we got to the station?”

“Did your mum say something before we spotted you?”

Finally, at that last question, Jac seemed to snap.

“Leave it, Fred, will you?!”

Everyone in the carriage seemed surprised by her response. Jac wasn't one to usually snap.

Fred frowned deeply. “Merlin, what has gotten into you this morning?”

Jac seemed to recompose herself, adjusting herself in her seat to be more comfortable. “Sorry, it’s just… I don’t feel very well.”

Fred wasn’t buying it. Neither were James and Cressida.

A moment passed in silence where they thought Fred was actually going to drop the conversation.

They were wrong.

“This is about your mum, isn’t it?” He asked.

“She’s not very happy with me right now,” Jac answered tightly, very much resembling her mum in an odd way she never had before. Cressida started picking at her palm scar guiltily. “And she didn’t like you very much,” she continued, looking at Fred finally. “In fact, she made both points abundantly clear since I went home.”

Fred looked offended. “Why doesn’t she like me? I’m a hoot.”

“You’re a bit of a twat by mum standards, Freddie,” James told him sympathetically. “We all are.”

Cressida didn’t disagree.

Fred ignored James and focused on Jac. “So, you’re mad at me because your mum doesn’t like me?”

Jac rolled her eyes, frustrated. “I never said I was mad at you.”

“You sure look it!” Fred retaliated. “I didn’t even get a kiss hello, and normally you can’t wait to kiss me!”

“Too much information,” Cressida cringed.

“I’m not mad at you because my mum doesn’t like you. I’m mad at you because you never listen to me when I tell you something!” Jac shot back over Cressida’s comment.

“What haven’t I listened to you about?” Fred asked, confused.

“Fred- I told you for months, don’t introduce yourself to my mother, it won’t end well!”

Fred sat back defensively. “Yeah, well, I had to meet her at some point-”

“Yeah, but there was going to be a plan that made sure she’d see what I see in you. But no, someone had to come over acting like a big man and professing his undying love for me in front of her when I’m not even supposed to be dating yet!” She shot back, folding her arms. "She told my dad and for the first time in years they actually agreed on something! That’s how dire the situation is!"

”What did they agree on?” Fred asked.

”That you’re stupid and I shouldn’t date you,” she shot back. “Except they didn’t call you stupid, that’s all me.”

Cressida and James couldn’t do more to blend into the upholstery to avoid being dragged into it by either party.

“So, what? You’re never going to talk to me again because I messed up meeting your mum?” Fred asked, highly offended.

“She’s an old-fashioned mum, Fred. She hates the idea of me dating as it is.”

Fred scoffed. “You’re fifteen, Jac. You’re not exactly a nun-”

“And you won’t ever speak of that to my mother!” Jac jumped in firmly. “If she knew the truth about you and me, she would send me off to a nunnery…. or worse, back to India with my grandparents!”

“That would be a very long train ride to Hogwarts every September,” James joked under his breath.

“Oh, belt up, Jamsie,” Fred huffed. “Now isn’t the time for jokes. I just got rejected by my girlfriend’s bloody mother.”

“Maybe she’ll come around,” Cressida tried to comfort him.

“Come around?” He repeated aghast. “Come around?! The only way that woman will apparently come around is if I superglued her to a merry-go-round!”

“I tried to warn you in that sodding pub not to come over,” Jac reminded him much like a lecturing mother herself. “But no, you and your inflated ego thought you were God’s gift to women and had to introduce yourself! Between finding out about you and me running away with Cressie, she nearly didn’t let me get back on this train at all!”

“Not let you back?!” Fred repeated aghast. “Where’d she even get a bloody stupid idea like that?”

“I tried to explain why Cress showed up at my door-” Jac started.

“You nearly didn’t come back to Hogwarts?” James sat upright then, acknowledging Cressida’s presence opposite him for the first time in two hours.

Cressida glared at Jac, ignoring Potter’s expression. “I didn’t tell anyone about that.”

Jac frowned. “You didn't tell them? But you tell them everything.”

“Why wouldn't you tell us that, Knightly?” Fred asked, his anger suddenly shifting from Jac’s mother to Cressida’s situation. “That sounds like a pretty crucial part of information to leave out this summer, don't you think?”

“What do you mean you nearly weren't coming back?” James asked again more urgently, his eyes focused on her intently.

Cressida tried to wave their concerns away, unable to hold James' stare. “I'm here now, aren't I? Crisis averted.”

“Is that why you ran away?” Fred asked next. "Does Grandmother Molly know?”

Cressida blew her fringe out of her face and got to her feet, picking her bag and Rasper up as she went. “I need some air,” she said, not letting any of them bombard her with more questions before she slid the compartment door shut firmly behind her as she left.

Realizing she was on a train and had basically nowhere to go, she wandered up the thin hall of the carriages aimlessly. After about five minutes of her storming out, however, she ran into the trolley lady coming up the other direction and had to duck into the nearest compartment to avoid getting run over by her.

“Fancy seein’ you here,” a voice greeted her as she stood there.

Cressida spun around, surprised. “Teddy?”

Teddy smirked, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back comfortably. “The one and only.”

Cressida began to panic. “Lupin, you’re not supposed to be on here! The Trolley Lady will kick you off. I don’t know why, but even James and Freddie are scared of her! They say she can give Pince a run for her money-”

“Oh, she can be terrifying,” Teddy said breezily. “Once a kid who’d graduated tried to hop on to see his younger girlfriend. They reckon she chucked him off over a bridge. Rather nasty ordeal, honestly, but the rest of us didn’t act up for about two years after hearing that rumour.”

“Anything from the trolley, dears?” A frail old voice asked, appearing in the doorway.

Cressida prepared herself to body block Teddy from the old woman. Teddy, however, poked his head around Cressida stood in front of him. “Two pumpkin pasties and a chocolate wand please, love.”

The Trolley Lady obliged and exchanged money with Teddy before continuing on with her crone for people to come and purchase her goods.

Cressida stood there dumbfounded, watching as Teddy offered her the second pumpkin pasty without question.

“Why aren’t you being thrown over a bridge?” She asked, plonking down next to him.

Teddy shrugged, taking a bite out of his own pasty. “Guess that’s because I’m supposed to be here.”

“But-”

“They invited me back as a tutor for the year,” Teddy went on to explain. “It looks good on my resume for future jobs… once I figure out what I actually want to do.”

Cressida’s brow narrowed. “But-”

“The others don’t know,” he answered before she could ask. “Never told them. Thought I’d be a funny surprise.”

“Oh,” Cressida replied dumbly. She took a bite out of her pasty, staring straight ahead, trying to comprehend what this meant for the year ahead. Whether McGonagall would finally have that heart attack she’d been promising them all she’d have with Teddy back for another year.

“Where’d your nose ring go?” He asked after a moment of them munching in silence.

“I gave it back to Jac’s mum,” she answered, feeding a bit of the filling to Rasper sitting on her lap. “I’ll probably have to find another earring to shove through it now.”

Teddy reached into the breast pocket of his denim jacket. “Here.” Holding his half-eaten pasty in his mouth, he grabbed a safety pin in one hand and his wand in the other. With a muffled “Vera Verto”, the paperclip turned into a silver hoop.

Teddy discarded his wand back into his belt loop and threw her the freshly transformed nose ring. “That should do it, don’t you think?”

Cressida struggled to slip it into her badly pierced nose, but even she had to admit that was a good use of magic. “Cheers.”

Teddy finished off the last of his pasty, dusting the crumbs from his tweed trousers. “Victoire went through a phase of having one of those through her septum like a bull. She was always transforming random bits into jewelry because Fleur refused to let her buy real stuff. Speaking of Victoire…” He reached back into his pocket. “She told me to give you this.”

He passed her a black liquid eyeliner. “Why?” She questioned, taking it gratefully.

Teddy shrugged. “No bloody idea. I thought it was a pen at first, but she told me it’s charmed to never run out. She said it suits your facial harmony... whatever that means.”

*

Cressida remained seated with Teddy for the remainder of the train ride. He didn’t seem to mind though. He told Cressida about how he convinced McGonagall this arrangement was a good idea, and about how he and Victoire were on about moving in together as soon as Teddy got a proper job- they were adamant on buying their first place by themselves and not with their family’s money.

She reluctantly told Teddy about what happened before summer. Apparently, James didn’t want to talk about it much, which Teddy thought was strange. “I’ve never known him not to gloat about a battle scar of some kind,” he’d said to Cressida. “When he was five and scraped his knee, he made us all admire how big the bruise and cut left behind was for ages. He was so disappointed it didn’t leave a gnarly scar… and now he actually has a scar worth talking about; it’s like he doesn’t even care!”

Cressida had to admit, she thought James would have milked the scar at least a little bit- but then maybe how it happened was too real… too raw to talk about. Madam Pomfrey reminded them constantly how much worse it could’ve been if they hadn’t taken the hit of that spell together. Maybe that was the part James didn’t want to speak about. Or maybe he’d grown up a tiny bit in the face of it all. Maybe having a scar worth talking about wasn’t all he cracked it up to be in his head.

Either way, Cressida and Teddy passed the long train journey in pleasant conversation and then, before she knew it, she had dozed off while Teddy was busy entertaining Rasper with a laser coming out of the tip of his wand.

Finally, Teddy nudged her legs for her to wake up.

“Up you get, sleepy-head,” he said, pulling an old leather trunk down from the overhead railing. “Time for another fun-filled year of learning!”

Cressida gave a grin at his sarcastic tone before she gathered her own things. She was slightly glad Teddy would be in Hogwarts again. It reminded her of First Year. She didn’t expect that to be such a comfort.

Stepping off the train, Teddy and Cressida saw Molly, Felix and Thomas up ahead, having had their Prefect rundown on things in preparation for the year ahead.

Molly wore her pin proudly in the middle of her robe. The two boys, however, seemed less thrilled to show off their new pins.

“Do I really have to wear this at all times?” Felix complained, holding the bit of silver to the sun for proper examination.

“Yes!” Molly said instantly, taking it and pinning it to his robes for him.

“But it doesn’t match my outfits,” Felix said dryly. “I’m clearly a warm autumn.”

Molly glared up at him as she straightened out his robes next. “Exactly how many jokes in protest should I expect for the first few months of this?”

“I was thinking of starting a joke book to keep them all in,” he replied.

“At least Thomas is more on board,” she huffed, turning her back on Felix.

“No, I’m not!” Thomas contradicted quickly. “I plan on handing this back to McGonagall first chance I get.”

“But why?” Molly questioned, offended on behalf of the pin and its meaning.

Thomas frowned, shoving the pin into his pocket and out of sight. “If I’m going to be Quidditch Captain this year, I can’t be wasting time keeping people- and more importantly, our lot- in check. I hardly get my seven hours of sleep as it is, and I need those hours if I’m going to be on top form!”

Just as Teddy and Cressida went up to the three of them, Jac, Fred, and James stepped off not far behind them. Based on their expressions, the conversation didn’t get any better once she’d abandoned their compartment, and Fred still looked rather put out about the whole Shari affair.

“Merlin, you two look like you’ve just come back from a funeral!” Teddy shouted at the sight of them. “Who died on the train?”

“My ego, mate. Too much trouble, apparently!” Fred said melodramatically, not even registering that Teddy was in front of them. Then he did a double-take. “Hang the fuck on-!”

James’ face dropped in shock, realizing much quicker than Fred had. “What the bloody hell are you doing here?!”

Teddy shrugged, much in the nonchalant way he was with Cressida when she had a similar reaction. “Oh, you know… thought I’d hop on to relive my glory days.”

“Do the adults know?” Fred asked doubtfully.

“Does McGonagall know?!” Thomas asked, petrified on his behalf.

Teddy, with a wide grin, turned himself into McGonagall effortlessly. “Now, now, students. Don’t get yourself in a tizzy. Mr Lupin is a top-notch student of the highest variety.” He turned back into himself and held his arms out for showmanship. A group of fresh new First Years passed by, mouths agape and eyes wider than the moon as they watched Teddy transform right in front of them. Then, one fainted into a heap on the floor- obviously a muggle, Cressida deduced. Teddy, looking down at the crumbled eleven-year-old, nodded self-satisfied. “I believe my job here is off to a swimming start.”

“TEDDY!”

That was when the trio of new Weasley Clan arrived on the scene. Lily-Luna, Roxanne and Hugo came bounding over in their smart new uniforms and faces full of excitement, all unable to be corralled by Hagrid, who now seemed more concerned with the First Year on the floor.

“Did you know Teddy was on the train?” Molly asked Cressida now that Teddy had been otherwise abducted by the First Years.

“Probably,” James muttered before Cressida had a chance. “Who knows what Knightly keeps to herself these days.”

He didn’t hang around long enough for Cressida to reply before he sulked off and got into a Thestral-drawn carriage.

The group all glanced around at each other with varying degrees of confusion, apart from Felix, who looked knowingly at Cressida, and Fred, who looked similarly at James.

“Come on, let’s just get to the castle,” Molly said then, moving the group along from the awkward silence.

*

The group loaded onto two separate carriages. James, Thomas, Teddy and Fred in one. The Slytherins in the other.

Molly could sense the tension between both Jac and Fred, and Cressida and James, silently wondering to herself what happened on the train while she was gone. Felix, in his usual fashion, didn’t seem to care much for what had happened and continued to complain about his upcoming duties the entire ride to the castle.

They all assumed their usual positions in the hall, knowing the opening ceremony routine off by heart now.

At least this year, there were people of note to pay attention to during it. That always made it seem a bit less tedious if you knew someone who was being sorted.

Lily-Luna had gotten Gryffindor- naturally. Roxanne was surprised to be taken in by Hufflepuff, and precious little Hugo beamed as he went over to the Ravenclaw table. Two boys who Molly explained were the Scamander twins, their mother being Luna Lovegood herself, were sorted differently from each other. Lorcan got Ravenclaw along with Hugo, while Lysander got Gryffindor and sat down proudly beside Lily-Luna, who was nearly standing on the benches cheering for them as they took their seats.

“I guess we’re really spreading out into every house now,” Molly commented once the final child had been sorted.

“Well, there’s enough of you to,” Felix scoffed. “If you’d all got put in Gryffindor, they’d have to build a second tower.”

As usual, McGonagall gave her beginning-of-year speech, stood at the owl podium once everyone was seated, talking of being kind to one another and how to lean on each witch and wizard around them for support. “And of course,” McGonagall continued. “Some of the more keen-eyed students among you may have noticed a fresh face sitting up here with my fellow Professors of Hogwarts this year.” She braced herself with a heavy sigh. “Mr Teddy Lupin has… graciously… agreed to return to Hogwarts as a student teacher, assisting in classes of the Defense Against the Dark Arts variety. We hope you treat him with as much respect and esteem as your other teachers. He is a great asset to have here indeed.”

With that, McGonagall extended her hand out to Teddy, who stood and bowed to the round of applause that followed. None louder than Hagrid, sitting to the side of Teddy, who proudly slapped him on the back so hard, Teddy nearly fell forward into his roast dinner.

Once the opening ceremony was done, Molly and Felix were instructed to help guide the new Slytherin First Years to the dungeon, and Cressida was surprised that she was requested to pay a visit to the medical bay.

“I wanted to check how you were healing,” Madam Pomfrey said as she did her usual assessment of Cressida’s wounds. Based on the noises and tuts the old medi-witch made, Cressida knew she was less than pleased with her progress. “I heard Mrs Weasley was present to check over your wounds towards the end of summer,” she hinted as she worked.

“Oh. She wasn’t, actually. I wouldn’t let her,” Cressida admitted guiltily as Madam Pomfrey continued maneuvering her around to check for signs of pain. “I told her I was fine and that I didn’t need a fuss. She did try though… I guess she’s just nice like that.”

Madam Pomfrey paused in her assessment. “And are you fine?”

Cressida looked at her. “I feel fine.”

Madam Pomfrey hummed dubiously. “Any new bruising or swelling?”

“Not that I know of,” Cressida shrugged.

Madam Pomfrey held out Cressida’s arm. Her fingers gently tapped on a fading bruise on her forearm. “May I ask where this came from?”

Cressida pulled her arm back to her side, covering the mark with her other hand. “I just must’ve bumped into something. It doesn’t hurt, honest. Didn’t even know it was there,” she answered quickly.

Truth was, she hadn’t realized there was a suspiciously hand-shaped bruise on her forearm. She’d been so focused on her stomach wound, she didn’t think to look anywhere else… but then she remembered the night she left Conwell. How Gareth had yanked her arm. She’d always bruised easily. This one had nearly completely faded. It had been so long since that night. Another week gone, and there would have been no sign of it whatsoever.

Madam Pomfrey didn’t look convinced by her answer.

“My chest one is nearly completely healed now, though, right?” Cressida tried to be positive and change the subject back to one she was somewhat comfortable with. “And my stomach barely rips open anymore.”

“It looks like the summer took its toll on your healing,” Madam Pomfrey said, looking up from her various wounds with great sympathy. She didn’t look convinced by Cressida’s talk of it being healed either. “Did you have enough pain relief?”

“I made do, I guess,” Cressida replied. “I ran low on the dittany quite quickly, but the worst part was trying to sleep. I got so desperate in the end, I tried making a sleeping draught out of Muggle ingredients from my town.”

The medi-witch raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Oh?”

“I didn’t work very well,” Cressida admitted. “It was really gross, actually.”

“Still,” Madam Pomfrey said, going back to addressing the worst sections of her wounds. “That takes some initiative. A lot of people wouldn’t think to find a way to brew it themselves without magic.”

Cressida shrugged. It hadn’t made much of a difference in the end. “It took my mind off things at least… doing all the foraging for ingredients and trying to find alternatives I thought would work.”

Madam Pomfrey dusted off her hands and stood up straight again. “Maybe there’s a secret medi-witch in you somewhere. They often say it’s a calling, not a choice.”

“I don’t think so,” Cressida sighed. “I don’t think I’ve got the smarts for that kind of thing.”

“Well, you never know what the future holds.”

‘Rose often does,’ Cressida thought fleetingly. ‘Maybe I should ask her.’

“So am I healed enough to go around as normal now?” She asked next, recovering her abdomen once Madam Pomfrey was finished with her examination.

“I suppose so, but I’d like you to pop in again in two weeks, just to be on the safe side. And I’m supplying you with more dittany, should you need it on bad days. Just in case.”

“Right,” Cressida agreed, taking the vile off the medi-witch gratefully. “Cheers.”

Cressida gathered her things and headed out the door, only to bump into Potter on his way in.

He paused when he saw the dittany in her hand, a deep frown appearing on his face. “She’s still giving you dittany-?”

Cressida ignored his question and instead fought the urge to pin him to the wall by his throat. “Oh, now you want to talk? What the fuck was that comment back at the train, huh?”

James’ jaw clenched as his eyes stared forward again. “It was a long train ride-”

“Bullshit,” she called him out, stepping forward.

James huffed, not backing down either. “You just-”

He was cut short by Madam Pomfrey beckoning him into the room for his examination.

He met her eyes finally. “I should’ve known.”

Cressida scoffed. “Known what?”

“All of it!” He snapped back. “Any of it!”

“Come on, Potter. I haven’t got all night!” Madam Pomfrey called again.

If he was going to say anything further, he decided to keep his mouth firmly shut as he moved past her and through the doorway.

Cressida spun around, watching him go, chest tight, fingernails digging into her left palm.

She debated lingering outside the hospital wing for him to come out again- to finish the argument they were clearly brewing- but then what was the point?

Arguing with Potter wouldn’t solve anything. In fairness, he had the upper hand. If he hated her secrets beforehand, he would clearly hate them now too, and she felt like he’d caught her out on more in the last two days than all of last year. Between Knockturn Alley and now Jac’s slip-up on the train, she didn’t have a leg to stand on where secrets were concerned.

With one last glance over her shoulder as Madam Pomfrey exclaimed how well his neck scar had healed, she trudged her way down to the dungeons for the night, putting space between her and James that she intended to keep.

 

Notes:

Shoutout to princedaehwi on Tumblr for the suggestion about Teddy returning for Fifth year. Very much appreciated, I hope I do your idea justice :)

Chapter 105: Fifth Year: So... How Was Your Summer?

Monday 2nd September 2019

The first few days at Hogwarts had been less than ideal. It took less than an hour for the rain and dreariness from the middle of summer to return, hovering over Cressida and the castle like a dark cloud,  seeping in through the walls and making everyone’s moods dampen for the year ahead. Or maybe Cressida was imagining it.

Cressida herself seemed in a mood she couldn’t quite shake despite her best efforts. She thought being back in Hogwarts would make her feel better- safer, somehow- like every year before. Except this time, she seemed riddled with bad memories, or what used to be good memories that now made her feel nothing but bad.

Returning to her dorm room for the first night had been an especially sombre experience.

The absence of Margo was very apparent, her former bed left unmade and abandoned in the corner of the room. Molly seemed the most bothered by this. Even though she didn’t voice it out loud, Cressida could see it on her face every time she found her glancing towards it with a deep-set frown as she flitted about the room.

Felix, however, thought the fact that there was an empty bed instead of an empty space on the rug for him to take up residency was a massive bonus to the beginning of the year. “I could get used to this, you know,” he yawned, kicking his shoes off and lounging on the empty mattress.

Molly had just finished using her wand to drape string lights delicately over their vanity mirror. “Would you get off that bed?!” She snapped at him. “You have things to unpack before our first patrol.”

Felix flung himself backwards dramatically. “It’s the first bloody night! Who even needs patrolling on the first night?!”

“I did,” Cressida pointed out, emptying all her spare clothes from the Weasleys’ she’d managed to pack onto her bed to sort through. “Teddy found me on his way to a party.”

Felix lifted his head back up and glared at her. “Yeah, but you’re an anomaly.”

“Besides, Felix,” Jac started then, setting up her new makeup and stack of magazines she’d been gifted from Victoire over the summer. “Shouldn’t you be setting up in your own dorm? Jeremiah Voce is probably going to think he’s got the room all to himself.”

“Let him,” Felix huffed grumpily. “Never got on with the pompous git anyway.”

“What about your other two roommates?” Cressida questioned. She knew there were four boys in Felix’s dorm; however, he very rarely spoke about the other two. They just had more annoying run-ins with Vonce than them over the years.

Felix shrugged, sitting up properly to face the room again. “They’re twins. Jaylin and Marcus, I think, are their names. Only ever talk to each other.”

“Triplets, actually,” Jac corrected him. “The third one’s called Ovie. He got sorted into Ravenclaw.”

“How the fuck do you know that?” Cressida asked.

“I helped them with a Herbology project once, and Ovie is on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team,” she answered.

"Oh, I know him," Molly chimed in. “They were supposed to go to Uagadou , apparently- which Africa's wizarding school- but something went wrong and they ended up coming here instead. They’re only half Nigerian, you see. Their mum’s from Barnsley… or so they told me.”

Felix stared at them in disbelief for a moment. “Does everyone suddenly know these fellas apart from me?"

"I don't," Cressida spoke up. "But I try to avoid most people, so that checks out."

“More importantly, how have you been roommates with them for four years and never had a conversation with either of them?” Molly asked judgmentally.

Felix led back down comfortably. “They don't bother me, I don't bother them. It's a nice system I don't want to change.”

There was a delicate knock at their door, and all eyes turned to the sound, confused. Felix even counted everyone in the room to make sure they weren’t missing someone.

Cressida wondered for a mere moment if it was one of the Gryffin-gang, but it would be very unlike them to knock. Or possibly Margo, returning later than everyone else, so it didn’t cause a scene on the train.

Molly crossed the room and opened the door, only to see Valentina standing on the other side, already looking impatient. “It’s curfew in five minutes. You two have to start patrolling, or I get the blame if you mess it up.”

Felix groaned loudly in the background. Molly forced a reassuring smile towards Valentina. “We’ll be out in a minute.”

Valentina turned to the side, admiring her black nail polish. “Also, boys aren’t allowed to mix in the girls’ dormitory. Get him out, or I’ll have to report him for misconduct.”

“It’s only Felix,” Jac spoke up. Valentina quirked an eyebrow at her for speaking out. Jac shrank down in her stance a little under her glare. “He’s no harm to anyone.”

“Besides, we all bend the rules from time to time, right, Valentina?” Cressida asked pointedly, coming to Jac’s rescue before Valentina got her manicured claws in the poor girl.

Valentina chewed the inside of her cheek, her eyes scanning Cressida up and down. She knew Valentina could hardly be on her high horse with the number of times she’d caught her coming and going from Thane’s room, which also wasn’t permitted. “Fine,” she gave in, somewhat reluctantly. “Just don’t let Slughorn catch him, or get him a long blonde wig, I don’t honestly care.”

With that, Valentina sauntered off, and Molly practically grabbed Felix by the scruff of his shirt to follow her out to perform their duties, warning him not to mess this up for her.

*

It turned out the night had only made Cressida’s mood worsen as the next day approached. While all her friends seemed to disappear behind bed curtains with pleasant snores, happy to be back, Cressida sat in the middle of her bed in the dark, hugging her knees, unable to sleep.

All she could seem to do was stare at her pillow, inviting and freshly pressed and pearly white. Except, she couldn’t bring herself to lie down on it… because she knew as soon as she did, she’d feel it.

The lack of a body led next to her, sharing that pillow. The warmth of his touch making even the coldest night down in the dungeon feel like a summer’s day.

She could handle it back in Conwell. He’d never set foot there. He hadn’t infected that part of her life. But this bed- the one they’d spent endless nights talking and laughing and cuddling and kissing in- that stung being in it alone now in the wake of it all.

It made her resent him that little bit more with every second that passed, that he wasn’t there to help her sleep. It made her resent herself for missing it, too.

Wiping the tears she didn’t realise were trailing down her cheeks in small droplets, she removed herself from the bed completely and crossed the room until she was at Jac’s bed opposite her own. Except when she pulled open the curtain, expecting to find Jac lying there sound asleep, she instead found nothing but crumbled up sheets and an empty mattress.

Frowning deeply, Cressida let the curtains fall shut again, concealing Jac’s mysterious disappearance. She knew she couldn’t wake Molly in the middle of the night; she’d spend more time worrying why Cressida had gone to her than just letting her be like Jac would. And Felix had apparently been banished to his own dorm room by Molly after their patrol.

Glancing around the room at a loss, she found Rasper perched on the chair in the corner, calling for her in the dark.

Swooping the cat up in her arms, Cressida wandered out into the common room to find the fire still burning from earlier in the evening to keep the damp weather away.

Finding comfort in its green-hued flames, she settled down in their little alcove from years prior and pulled Rasper close. Before she knew it, she found herself drifting off from sheer exhaustion.

When she woke up in the morning, slumped over on the sofa, she found Rasper to have also abandoned her sometime in the night, but suspiciously, a thick, snake-embellished blanket had appeared draped over her body.

Forcing her aching body to come to life, she stretched her hands above her head. She must've had barely two hours' sleep, but it would have to be enough for the day. She noticed Regulus was poised in his frame above her, reading a book she was sure she’d seen Remus reading last year.

“What time is it?” She asked the portrait.

Regulus huffed, annoyed by her intrusion as he turned a page. “How should I know? I’m made of ink and therefore do not possess a watch.”

She rolled her eyes as she got to her feet, not missing his candour one bit. “A pleasure as always, Reggie.”

Regulus turned red in the face- if that was even possible for a portrait. “Who told you to call me that?!” He asked, rattled, discarding his book. “Was it Sirius? I know he has a portrait in this Godric forsaken castle now. Is he telling people to call me that?”

“How should I know?” Cressida shrugged sarcastically, backing away from the portrait, leaving the blanket folded up on the arm of the sofa for whoever it belonged to come back and get it.

She saw Regulus pick his book back up, but his expression was far more disgruntled than before, and she could see him muttering to himself in French under his breath.

When she reentered her room, Jac was sitting on her bed as if she’d been there all night, while Felix had appeared in the chair, still half dressed in a school shirt which didn’t match his bright purple pyjama bottoms. Molly was already fully dressed and ready for the day, packing her bag, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

“Where have you been?” Molly asked as Cressida made way to the bathroom.

“Couldn’t sleep,” she answered bluntly, shutting the bathroom door behind her, only for it to be pulled open not a second later.

“Are you in pain?” Molly asked, concerned, standing in the doorframe so Cressida couldn’t lock her out. “Are your scars still playing up?”

"Good thing she's not a Potter, otherwise that would mean the end of the world again!" Felix joked, seemingly only amusing himself, as Molly saw it as no laughing matter.

Molly ignored Felix completely, keeping her worried eyes on Cressida. "What did Madam Pomfrey say to you yesterday about your healing?"

Cressida started brushing her teeth with the horrid brown toothbrush she still possessed from the Knight Bus to buy herself a second before having to answer Molly’s grilling.

Felix appeared then, shoving himself in shoulder-to-shoulder with Molly in the doorframe. “You had a delivery while you were gone, by the way,” he started, talking over Molly’s question again. “A house elf poofed into existence and scared the shit out of me.”

Cressida, glad for a change of topic, spat out her toothpaste and made the other two move backwards so she could reenter the bedroom again. Sure enough, on her bed was a case that unclasped and popped open as she approached.

The four Slytherins all gathered around, peering in.

“It’s school stuff,” Cressida said, confused, sifting through the various pieces of uniform, school supplies and new books for the year.

“McGonagall must have sent them,” Molly spoke up. “Grandmother Molly and Aunt Ginny did say they were having tea with her before we came back- maybe she mentioned your situation.”

Cressida huffed as she moved the pile into her trunk for safekeeping. She couldn’t be ungrateful for it; they were likely second-hand, and she did desperately need new uniforms and books, but she still didn’t like a free handout. Luckily for her, though, one thing that stuck out to her in her pile of new apparatus for the year was a portable cauldron.

“I shrunk mine onto a keyring so I always have it with me,” Jac had said, showing off the tiny object hanging from a chain on her school bag. “It was Fred’s idea last year because he and James kept losing theirs.”

“Do you reckon you can do that with my wand?” Felix asked. “I’m always losing that sodding thing.”

“I don’t recommend poking a hole through your wand to put a chain, no,” Molly said diplomatically as she started flitting about the room again, finishing packing her school bag to the brim in preparation. “And you'd better hurry up and get dressed, breakfast starts in twenty minutes. I’m not being late to lessons on my first day back.” Her eyes went to Cressida again, trying to assess for herself whether Cressida was in pain or not after her lack of an answer. “And I think we all deserve a nice cup of tea to start the day off right, don’t you?”

Cressida gave nothing away, not even acknowledging the fact that Molly seemed adamant on fixing every issue in their lives by shoving tea down everyone’s throats. Since being back at Hogwarts alone, Molly had summoned a pot of tea from the tip of her wand at least once every hour and a half whenever there was a lull in conversation.

Sensing staring would get her nowhere, Molly finally looked away and wandered off into the bathroom to try and tame her unruly curls into some semblance of a ponytail.

Felix rolled his eyes, uninterested in the idea of getting dressed or facing more cups of tea. “I miss summer.”

Jac sighed longingly. “Me too.”

Cressida remained standing over her case of supplies as the two others broke off to finish getting dressed themselves. She didn’t miss summer one bit.

And she didn’t want any more fucking tea.

*

Cressida had adorned herself with her new uniform, which, by some miracle unlike years passed, actually fit her. She’d even tried putting on some of the eyeliner Teddy had given her from Victoire, but she hadn’t quite got the hang of the sharp edges yet, so it came out a bit smudged. When Jac had borrowed it, however, she got it effortlessly perfect on her first try- as she did with every inch of make-up she smeared on her perfect complexion. This, despite knowing it wasn’t Jac’s fault, prompted Cressida to pile more foundation and powder onto her face to try and match the porcelain effect Jac had naturally, covering any imperfection or pimple she could see until even her freckles were covered.

Piling her heavy books into her bag for the day, she followed behind her friends and tried to ignore the rain slashing down on every window throughout the castle as they made their way to lessons for the morning.

History of Magic , Charms and Astromy were rather low effort first lessons of the week, which Cressida was glad about. It was mainly an introduction to the syllabus for the year ahead, but not having much to do other than listen to the professor's ramblings for the hour gave way to easy distractions.

Cressida found herself drifting off into thoughts, staring at the back of Potter’s head in Charms while Professor Flitwick demonstrated a summoning charm. He didn’t turn around once to look at her. She couldn't help but notice the faded red tip of the scar pointing out the top of his white collar. Morbid curiosity made her wonder just how bad Potter's scar actually was. He'd at least seen hers and all its unbridled ugliness.

“Hey, you okay?” Felix whispered from beside her, bringing her out of her thoughts. “You seem a bit… thoughtful.”

Cressida sat back in her chair, forcing her eyes to focus on something, anything , else. She found Jac and Molly sat across the room from them, as per their seating plan, which Flitwick still insisted on since First Year. Jac had made a paper fortune teller out of parchment and was engaging Molly in her so-called future. She looked away again.“Yeah, just tired, I guess.”

“Didn’t you sleep at all?”

She met his eyes. “Don’t you start. It’s bad enough I have to keep Molly at bay about my sleep.”

“She’s just worried,” Felix replied. “It’s all she spoke about while we were on our ridiculous patrol last night. I told her you’re fine , obviously . It’ll take a lot more than a few scratches here and there to bring down a tough old bird like you, is what I said.”

Cressida’s mouth tugged into a smile. Sometimes she wondered what life looked like through Felix's oblivious eyes. She felt like she couldn’t take many more scratches before there was nothing left of her to sew back together. “Is that so?”

Felix nodded resolutely. “Sure is. But…” His demeanour wavered slightly. “She did mention you showed up a bit worse for wear in the summer. She also said you won’t talk about it-”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she stopped him.

Felix took the hint surprisingly well. “Right. ‘Course there isn’t… so I’ll just keep telling her you’re fine then… if you are fine, that is.”

“I’m fine,” Cressida confirmed firmly.

Flitwick was calling for a volunteer, and the conversation was left at that.

At lunch time, Felix and Molly were once again taken away for a Prefect meeting. Apparently, there were some kinks to work out, mainly the fact that Hufflepuff had thrown a huge party the first night back and none of the Prefects had noticed. Felix was gutted; if he had known, he said he would’ve joined in. Plus, no one really expected Hufflepuff to break the mould the first night back… maybe having Teddy back in the castle was already taking effect. He’d always loved a good party.

That left Jac and Cressida to have their lunch by themselves. Similarly, Thomas was missing from the Gryffindor trio on the table at the other end of the hall, but their time was mainly taken up by Lily-Luna talking their ears off.

“So,” Cressida started, biting into her sandwich. “Where did you go last night?”

Jac looked up from her lunch, surprised. “How did you know I was gone?”

Cressida shrugged. “Intuition,” she lied.

Jac put her sandwich on the plate and pushed it away, seemingly not having much of an appetite. “I was down in the kitchens with the house elves.”

Cressida pulled a face. That wasn’t like Jac at all. “Why?”

“I wanted a chocolate trifle. I’d been craving one ever since leaving the Burrow… and I had some things to think about.”

“Like what?” Cressida asked.

Jac sighed, undoing and redoing her braid to keep her hands busy. “Like… breaking up with Fred.”

“ What ?!” Cressida nearly spat out her bite of sandwich in surprise.

Jac’s face filled with sorrow. “I know, it’s horrid to even say.”

“Why would you do that?” Cressida questioned. “Did your mum say you had to?”

“Not exactly. She implied it, though… She thinks that if I’m to have a boyfriend, it should be a boyfriend of substance , as she put it. When she started calling Fred an ego-filled Icarus who only wants to have fun all his life, I started to see her point a bit. I mean… Fred’s not exactly the type to be a doctor or have a normal job-”

“Does he have to be?” Cressida cut in at his defence. “Since when do you care about that sort of stuff?”

“I don’t,” Jac agreed. “But… we’re going to be sixteen this year, Cressie. Mum says I need to start thinking about my future- whether that be in the wizarding world or not. And let’s face it, we both know Fred’s going to take over his dad’s joke shop… I don’t know what I’m going to do yet! Mum says how will I ever figure it out if all my time and mind is taken up by a boy I probably won’t even marry …" Jac reiterated in a thicker Indian accent reminiscent of Shari. She stared down at her sandwich with a defeated sigh. "I suppose it just got me thinking about things, and then when she said I could only come back if I promised to get top grades and stop getting in trouble… I just- I couldn’t not come back to Hogwarts, so it seemed like the only choice.”

“But…” Cressida started, at a loss. “But you two are supposed to love each other. You're the only two people I actually believe when they say that.”

“Maybe that’s not enough anymore,” Jac said forlornly. Cressida’s eyes found the Gryffindor table again. Fred and James were trying to sneak Roxanne over under all the tables to sit with Lily-Luna despite her being in a different House to them. “He never listens to me , really . We don’t have many interests in common. He never tells me when he’s going to do something stupid. He doesn’t think about the future at all. ”

Cressida’s eyes looked back at Jac. “So that’s it? You’re just going to break up with him because he doesn’t have a future? In that case, you should drop me as well. I sure as hell don’t have a future-”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Cress. That’s not why I’m doing it,” Jac said. “I’m just thinking maybe my mum had some points I need to think about… I can’t have another year just dicking about. There aren’t many years left in this place now we’re Fifth Years. It’ll all be over before we know it.”

She tried not to dwell on the fact that she was right about running out of time before Hogwarts was a long-gone thing in her life. “Have you told him any of this?” She asked instead.

Jac shook her head. “I wanted to make up my mind first. I don’t even know if I can bring myself to go through with it… and you never know, Fred might grow up a bit this year. I think I’m just waiting for a sign on which way it’ll go.”

Cressida discarded what was left of her sandwich, having lost her appetite as well. “I need the bathroom,” she said, grabbing her bag. Jac’s eyes followed her as she got up. “Your mum’s not always right, you know,” she said, lingering there just a second longer. She looked over to the Gryffindor table. A crowd had gathered around Fred and James now. There was Rose, and Roxanne ducking down beside Lily-Luna, and Teddy stood over them like a messiah, and God knows who else, all taking up space on the bench, laughing and talking over one another about nonsense. She forced herself to look away again, turning back to Jac. “Sometimes you don’t realize how much you need something until you can’t get it back.”

Jac seemed confused by that statement as Cressida hastily left, disappearing into the halls of the castle.

Without much thought on who would be in there, Cressida barged into the girls’ bathroom and nearly took Penelope McFadden off her feet as she was coming out.

“Oh! Sorry!” The Hufflepuff girl apologized instantly. When she realized it was Cressida, she straightened up slightly. “Cressida! Merlin, you look…”

“Save it, Penelope. I know what you girls say about me,” Cressida said, making to push past her, remembering the harsh comments from last year in an instant.

“No, no, you have the wrong idea!” Penelope stopped her, reaching out and grabbing her hand. “I was going to say you looked nice. Short hair suits you.”

Cressida was still skeptical, but then she remembered Penelope had never been a massive problem for her. In fact, she always thought she was rather alright.

Penelope's eyes glanced down at her hand wrapped around Cressida's left hand, noticing the scars. Cressida pulled back her hand and tucked it under her folded arms protectively, fruitlessly trying to hide what had already been seen.

Penelope stood there chewing her lip thoughtfully, obviously gearing up to say something on her mind. “I heard about what happened with Margo Smithers before the summer. Nobody seems to know the ins and outs, but rumour was that it was quite nasty and that you were in the hospital wing for a long time after. You didn’t deserve that.”

Cressida swallowed hard, trying not to misplace her anger at- well… everything and everyone. “Thanks.”

“But, hey, I bet you’re glad to be back, right?” She chirped up then. “Did you have a good summer, at least?”

Cressida’s nails dug into her palm until it bled. “Yeah… it was great. Look, I really need the bathroom, so-”

“Oh, of course! Silly me, rambling on,” she laughed. “Well, see you around.”

Penelope gave her a cheery wave as she moved out of the way, finally allowing Cressida to escape into the bathroom for some much-needed solitude.

When she made it to the tap, she splashed some cold water onto her face to try to snap her out of her own thoughts. It was only when she looked up and saw her reflection, make-up getting more smudged by the minute and water dropping from the tip of her pierced nose, allowing her freckles to peek through the thick layer she’d put on that morning, did she realize how much those summer months had changed her since leaving Fourth Year. For better or for worse, she wasn’t sure.

She patted her face dry, tucked her short ends behind her ears, and left her reflection behind shortly after that.

*

By the time lessons were done with, Cressida found herself completely and utterly drained. Physically and mentally.

Carrying her heavy bookbag around on her shoulder tugged annoyingly at her scars, especially when climbing the copious amount of stairs to get to and fro. Not to mention, she felt as if she had to answer one more question about her summer, she might start screaming in people’s faces.

They were only being nice, she could see that. People like Penelope and Fabian Farley and even Scorpius, who she’d passed in the hall momentarily long enough for him to utter the dreaded question, didn’t see the harm in such a common conversation starter… if only they knew what they were really asking.

Not to mention, since Jac’s confession at lunch, she could barely look at Fred without wanting to warn him what might be coming. That wasn’t that much of an issue, though, as in typical James fashion, as soon as he saw her coming up the hall towards them, he somehow found a way to steer them in a different direction so they never crossed paths.

He might not be able to avoid being in her proximity for long, however, as after lessons were done with, the group of Slytherins had been mysteriously summoned to McGonagall’s office with no further information. That usually meant one thing- someone had caused trouble somewhere, and they were all getting the blame.

“What have they done now?!” Molly asked accusingly, pacing outside the griffon statue, waiting to go up. “It’s the first bloody day, when do they find the time to concoct something to get us in trouble this quick?!”

“It might not be to do with them,” Jac said, remaining hopeful.

“It’s usually to do with them,” Felix shot her down. “You watch, I bet they’ll be coming around that corner any moment now.”

They waited in silence for a moment, awaiting just that. Then it became apparent that either they were incredibly late to the impromptu meeting, or they weren’t involved.

“Are you sure you two don’t know what this is about?” Molly asked again,  turning to Jac and Cressida.

“Fred wouldn't tell me even if he had done something, ” Jac said, fiddling with the end of her braid to avoid looking at any of them.

Their eyes turned to Cressida, who gave an unhelpful shrug in reply. “I don’t know nothing.”

“That’s a contradictory sentence, but I’ll let it slide,” Molly mumbled as the stairs to go up to McGonagall’s office opened up.

“I guess it’s just us then,” Felix said as they all stared at the opening. Taking charge, he was the one to lead the way, letting the other three girls follow behind him.

Once the group was standing in front of the Head Mistress, poised behind her ornate desk, it became clear they weren’t in trouble- but something much worse in Molly’s case.

“Unfortunately, due to the issue we had at the end of last semester, I’ve been forced to shut down any student-run newspapers,” McGonagall started after pleasantries were out of the way.

“What!?” Molly shrieked. “But it was my first year running it! I can’t be to blame for it being run into the ground!”

“It wasn’t you that was the final nail, as it were, Miss Weasley,” McGonagall explained. “It was Miss Chauncey and her surprise issue, but for me to prevent it from ever happening again, I had to ban all newspapers. I’m sure you understand.”

Molly huffed but argued no further.

When it became clear that was all they were called up there for, Cressida’s mind took over her mouth.

“What happened to them?” Cressida asked before McGonagall could excuse them.

She seemed surprised by the question. Everyone else just seemed uncomfortable that Cressida had even asked it.

“Neither of them is obviously here this year,” Cressida went on, ignoring their faces. “So what happened?”

McGonagall clasped her hands neatly in front of her on the desk, taking a moment to think how to phrase whatever was about to come out of her mouth. “Miss Chauncey’s parents contacted me during the summer to inform me that Arabella would be transferring to Beauxbatons from September and to arrange to have her schoolwork sent over immediately in preparation. However, Hermione was informed of the misuse of legilimency, and Miss Chauncey was put on a strict warning that if she continues to use the skill without the proper training or identification with the Ministry, she will face severe consequences once she ages out of school. Her brother, Declan, has decided to remain and finish his schooling in Hogwarts-”

Felix scoffed, disgusted. “He was just as bad as her!”

“He didn’t have the skill to read people’s thoughts,” McGonagall pointed out. “Although he was complicit, I have a feeling now he’s alone and in the wake of his sister’s actions, he’ll think twice about terrorizing anyone again. If he does, believe me, I have a plan in place to stop anything and everything getting out of hand to that extent again.”

“And Margo?” Jac asked cautiously. Molly's attention snapped up instantly, despite her trying her best to look unbiased. “Is she coming back?”

McGonagall sighed heavily. “After the incident, Miss Smithers was inconsolable about what she had done. She had to be sedated and, of course, we couldn’t keep her in the medical bay alongside Cressida and Mr Potter, so she was escorted out of the castle for everyone’s safety.”

“Where did they take her?” Molly asked then, her shoulders tight. Nobody was sure if it was worry, or empathy, or hatred on Molly’s face, but it was something reminiscent of hurt and betrayal to some degree. “I saw her mother arrive when Cressida was unconscious. I watched her be taken away in restraints…. Do you know where she was taken?”

McGonagall didn’t answer straight away. “Yes,” she said finally. “But I am not at liberty to say under doctor’s orders-”

A hand went to Molly’s mouth with a small gasp. “They took her there ? Is she ever going to be let out again?”

“What?” Cressida asked, growing concerned despite what Margo had done to her. “Where did they take her?”

“The loony bin,” Felix muttered, and even he managed some sort of sympathy for her at the thought. “There’s a special ward at St Mungo’s for people who’ve lost it.”

“I think our meeting here is done,” McGonagall said firmly, rising out of her seat. Everyone noticed that was neither a yes nor a no to Molly and Felix’s suspicions. “I shall see you all bright and early tomorrow for our Transfiguration lesson.”

Just as the group of Slytherins turned to leave in tow, McGonagall’s voice spoke up again. “Miss Knightly, would you mind staying behind a moment? I have some things I would like to discuss with you.”

They all paused, looking to one another as Cressida met McGonagall’s eyes. “Can’t they stay too?” She asked.

McGonagall gave a soft shake of her head. “I’m afraid not.”

With that clear dismissal of everyone but her, Molly gave Cressida’s hand a reassuring squeeze before leading the others out of the office, leaving Cressida standing there alone in front of the Head Mistress.

“Please,” McGonagall said, gesturing to the padded seats in front of her desk as she sat back down herself. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Cressida eyed up the portraits watching her from the walls above. As usual, Dumbledore was watching on through his half-moon spectacles with a pleasant, neither-here-nor-there smile. It also didn’t escape her notice that Snape’s portrait was vacant.

Slowly, she lowered herself into a chair and faced McGonagall.

“Tea?” She asked pleasantly.

“ Actually, Professor, I’ve been offered a lot of tea lately… I’m rather sick of it,” Cressida answered honestly.

“Biscuits it is then,” she redirected, summoning a plate of various flavoured biscuits between them both on the desk.

Politely, Cressida took one that tasted rather lemony.

“How was your summer, Miss Knightly?” McGonagall asked while Cressida munched contentedly on her second biscuit.

“My summer?” Cressida repeated , almost like it was comical at this point. She wiped the crumbs from her chin, trying to keep her expression neutral. “Fine, I guess.”

“And your mother?” McGonagall went on conversationally. “How is she keeping?”

“She’s working again,” Cressida said, sticking to the truth at least a little bit. Then she began to grow suspicious. McGonagall wouldn’t ask her to stay behind just to engage in small talk. “Why do you ask?”

McGonagall took a deep breath in, sensing the jig was up, as it were. “I was informed of your arrival at the Burrow… Mrs Weasley seemed quite concerned about the reason behind your sudden appearance at her door.”

“I didn’t want to worry anyone with the details. They gave up asking after a few days.” Cressida waved away, refusing a third biscuit. “I made it there in one piece. That’s all they needed to know.”

McGonagall could see Cressida’s unwillingness to tell even her the gory details of her summer before reaching the Burrow. “Your friends have also come to me with concerns.”

She sat up a little straighter. “Molly’s just a worry-wart. She thinks I’m still in pain.”

“It wasn’t Miss Weasley,” McGonagall admitted. “Madam Pomfrey’s assessment of your return to Hogwarts also included mention of some bruising that wasn’t there before-”

“Please, Professor,” Cressida stopped her desperately. “The bruise was nothing. I’m here now. That’s all that matters.”

McGonagall’s eyes turned soft as she looked at Cressida sitting opposite her. “Cressida, I’ve been a teacher for a very long time. I’ve had students with less than desirable home lives in the past-”

“This wasn’t my mum’s fault,” Cressida stepped in defensively.

“I never implied it was,” McGonagall countered calmly. “I just called you here to let you know if there was ever a time you wished to talk… or even find an alternative to suit you better during the time students are permitted to return to their homes… my door is always open.”

“Thank you, Professor. But honestly, I’ve got it handled.”

McGonagall seemed disheartened by her answer. “You’re a bright young witch, Cressida, who’s been dealt a difficult hand so far… I’d hate to see your potential dampened because you think accepting a helping hand is a weakness.”

Cressida sat there in the weight of McGonagall’s words.

After a while, once it was clear neither had anything more to say on the matter, Cressida excused herself and left the office.

Stepping back out into the halls, a deafening crack of thunder rang out over the castle, putting a chill in her bones.

And then, as she looked up, there stood James at the end of the hall. Alone.

He was looking right at her.

Cressida remained standing firmly in place, wondering silently if James had been waiting for her, or if by some small chance he had something to say to her after avoiding her like the plague all day.

Then she heard voices coming from the end of the hall. Within seconds, James had been whisked away in a crowd of red-clad robes with faces she hardly even recognized from years past with Teddy and Thomas at the helm, like he had never been standing there in the first place.

She tried to fight the lump growing in her throat, adjusting her bag hanging from her shoulder, trying to shake the feeling off- only for the bottom of her bag to finally give way and rip open, spilling her day’s worth of work all over the floor.

Before she could react, there was a body beside her, picking up her books for her and arranging them in a neat pile.

She watched as Thane, having seemingly snuck up on her from behind, held her books out for her to take back. “You look like you’ve had a shittier day than most,” he said honestly.

Cressida took the books back, trying to ignore how heavy they felt in her arms. “Yeah, well-” she heaved a long sigh, her eyes still staring ahead at where Potter had been mere seconds ago. “Shit happens.”

He narrowed his brow. “You okay?”

“No,” Cressida admitted finally, her eyes stinging from the tears about to come pouring out of her. “I’m not okay .”

Thane wasted no time taking the heavy books back out of her grip, shouldering the weight for himself. “Hold it together,” he said quietly, checking no one else was in the hall. “Don’t break down here where they can see you.”

Thane’s other arm went around Cressida’s shoulders, taking control of her movements, leading her through the halls and back down towards the dungeons without question.

*

Thane had concealed Cressida all the way into the dungeons and, even then, managed to sneak her through the middle of the common room where her friends seemed to be waiting for her in the alcove, until she found herself in his personal dorm room.

She sat down on an ottoman at the end of a four-poster bed at Thane’s instruction. Goyle, who had previously been reading a book, sat up at the desk in the corner. He looked to Thane, puzzled by her appearance in their room.

“Give her some grace, Goyle,” Thane answered his expression, dumping her pile of books on his bed alongside his own schoolbag. “She needs a moment. Can you keep Val at bay somewhere else?”

Goyle nodded understandingly, disregarding whatever her was doing and getting to his feet. He came to a stop in front of her, wringing his hands somewhat awkwardly. Then, he reached into a trunk behind him and pulled out a blanket. One that suspiciously matched the one that had been draped around her that very morning.

“Thank you,” Cressida said gratefully, taking the soft fabric into her hands and pulling it around her.

Goyle, as usual, said nothing further as he followed Thane’s orders and left the room.

Thane lingered in the middle of the room, seemingly waiting for Cressida to decide what happened next.

She glanced around the room. She had to admit it was nicer than when she’d seen Felix’s dorm room. And this was far cleaner.

She met Thane’s eyes again as he was trying to decipher her emotions. She sniffed, regaining some control of her emotions once again.

“I’m not going to cry in front of you,” she told him bluntly, pulling the blanket tighter around her.

“I’d expect nothing less,” he smirked at her, moving forward to take up residency on the desk chair Goyle had just vacated.

“And you didn’t have to tell Goyle to leave,” she said then. “ Actually, I rather like him. He can’t bullshit people if he doesn’t speak.”

Thane twisted a chunky silver ring around his pinky finger. “You want to talk about it?”

“No,” Cressida answered firmly.

Thane held his hands up in surrender, accepting her answer without question once again. He turned his back, rifling around on his vanity for something. “Drink?”

She frowned. “If you’re about to offer me tea-”

Thane turned back to face her with a silver flask, shaking it in his hand proudly. Cressida eyed it up immediately. “Tea won’t fix whatever the fuck’s going on with you,” he said honestly, throwing it through the air for her to catch.

She indelicately wiped her nose with the back of her hand before unscrewing the cap and taking a swig. It was only fire whiskey, but the familiar burning sensation in her throat eased her mood a little.

“You shouldn’t have brought me here,” she said after a moment, trying to avoid the heavy silence Thane seemed to relish in. “Valentina will lose her shit.”

“Let her,” Thane waved her comment away. “She can never stay mad at me for long.”

“Is that right?” Cressida scoffed in response.

“What can I say?” Thane embellished, watching her take another swig. “I have a way with the ladies. Especially, the ones that claim to hate me.”

Cressida allowed herself a small laugh as she removed the flask from her lips. Thane seemed to be happy about that, despite trying not to show it on his face.

“So,” he said then, leaning back in his chair. “You going to tell me what happened in Borgin and Burke’s, or are you not talking about that either?”

Cressida rolled her eyes, but was glad for something somewhat neutral to talk about. “Nothing really… but the creepy, old bastard did tell me where Fletcher might show up at some point this year. I just don’t know when… or how I’m even going to get there myself without getting in some sort of trouble.”

“Tricky one,” Thane hummed.

“Tricky situation,” Cressida countered. “I knew none of this would be easy, but sometimes I wonder if this is all worth it-”

“Nothing worth having is ever easy,” Thane stepped in. “You’ll get your answers somehow.”

“How do you know?” Cressida asked doubtfully.

“I don’t,” he replied truthfully. “But I know you don't tend to give up on what you want easily. Question is, how far are you willing to go to get it?”

Cressida sighed, thinking about his question carefully. “Honestly… I don’t know.”

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing for free,” he said, getting a pack of cigarettes out of a drawer in the desk. “You won’t get very far in this state.” She watched as he created a small tornado out of the tip of his upright wand, sucking up the cigarette smoke without issue. “You've got to find a way to pull yourself together… because if you do come across Fletcher, it’s not going to be easy to get what you want out of him. You’ve got to be on your A-game. He’ll spin you in a web and come out with a profit if you’re not careful.”

She nodded, trying to convince even herself more than anyone with the words coming out of her mouth. She took one final swig, emptying the flask. “I’ll be ready.”

Thane smirked, waving his hand through the tiny tornado, making it disappear completely. “That’s more like it.”

The door opened as Goyle’s figure took up the doorframe. He looked guilty.

“Time’s up, blondie,” Thane said, jumping up from his seat, deciphering Goyle’s expression in an instant. “We’re about to have very unpleasant company.”

Before she could think for herself, Thane grabbed her by the hand as he rushed past her, dragging her to the door, where Goyle moved out of the way.

Both boys remained inside the room as she basically got chucked out in the darkening hallway. “Wait, Thane!” She called, stopping him from shutting the door promptly. Thane and Goyle poked their heads out through the gap once more. She held out the now-empty flask still in her hand toward him. “I owe you one.”

Thane concealed a smirk behind a badly refrained roll of his eyes as he took the object back. “Piss off back to your real friends before you get caught, will you?”

Thane disappeared back behind the door. Goyle gave her a smile and a small wave goodbye before gently shutting the door.

Cressida turned and rushed up the hall until she broke out into the common room again. Valentina was heading her way, just barely missing seeing her coming out of Thane’s direction.

The older girl eyed her up as they crossed paths in opposite directions. “Curfew was ten minutes ago,” she scolded. “I just had to warn your friends to go their separate ways.”

“Heading to my dorm now,” Cressida replied, holding her hands up in surrender.

Valentina continued on , taking Cressida’s word for it as she disappeared in the direction of the boy's dorms.

Cressida kept moving forward until she bypassed her own dorm room completely and left the common room into the dark of night.

Chapter 106: Fifth Year: Fragmented

Summary:

Bit of a slower chapter as Cressida is in limbo trying to get herself back together, hope that’s okay :)

Notes:

TW- brief mention of social services being involved in the past, nothing major.

Monday 9th September 2019

Since her chat with Thane, Cressida had conjured a plan to get herself back on track before the time came to face Fletcher. All she had to do was push down any emotion she could possibly feel and ignore the constant state of exhaustion she felt.

Her first point of call had been stitching her bag back together using some of her leftover magical thread she’d had off Potter for her birthday the year prior. With the amount of time she’d used it to sew her leather coat back together, and the odd woolen hat, and her favourite pair of socks, it was running rather low, and she knew she wouldn’t be getting another gift like that anytime soon. But she had enough for now, so she tried not to think too far ahead.

As the second week drew on, luckily for her, the dreaded summer questions wore off as everyone settled back into their routines. Unluckily for her, however, the rain still persisted throughout the castle, making the grounds boggy and wet to the point where all of Filch’s time was spent mopping up muddy footprints and tiny puddles plastered throughout the school.

It also appeared as though Cressida wasn’t the only one on a mission now that the first week was out of the way.

Molly, who knew she was getting nowhere despite her persistent questioning of Cressida, was instead redirecting her focus to trying to get Felix to understand his role as Prefect and take his responsibilities seriously. Felix was on a mission to void Molly’s mission completely. James continued his already determined pattern of avoiding Cressida at every turn- which, with how many lessons they shared, was becoming increasingly more difficult as the days passed. Thomas was relentlessly going on a rant about fitting being a Prefect in around the upcoming Quidditch tryouts, in which, if he made Captain, there’d also be no time to fit patrolling around practice, pranking, and schoolwork- in that order.

Jac was still on a mission to get Fred to prove himself as someone who at least thinks about a future of some description. Meanwhile, Fred was completely unaware of this ticking time bomb and was instead trying to bring some fun back into the castle to lift everyone’s moods.

Cressida couldn’t help but sit back and watch it all unfold, unsure which mission would come to fruition first. It felt like everyone had unknowingly become disjointed, like they were never a close-knit group of friends.

So, to avoid this problem, and her Potter problem, and her problem of Jac moaning about Fred not understanding why she was upset at him, and Molly moaning about Felix’s disposition to being a Prefect with her, Cressida took to hiding herself away in the secret room for the most part. Luckily, with everyone off arguing with each other, no one had even attempted to pay a visit to their comfy hangout as the second week rolled in.

This gave Cressida a chance to finally do what she’d been attempting all summer. Brew a sleeping draught for herself. Enough to put down a rhino, in her case. It was the only thing that would help, she reasoned.

But she had to be smart about it. She couldn’t let Longbottom catch her stealing his ingredients from the greenhouse, or Slughorn catch her nicking his jar of standard ingredient from his classroom during Potions. Or Valentina or any other Prefect catch her out past curfew.

It was a balancing act, she realized. But a necessary one.

If she could somehow fix her own shit first, then she could start thinking about everyone else’s.

The first hurdle, surprisingly, hadn’t been getting what she needed from Longbottom on Monday evening. Due to the terrible weather taking over the castle, Longbottom had taken to doing his clippings and gardening mostly inside, which she thought would have made her little mission very difficult. However, as she popped up in the greenhouses looking for the required valerian springs and lavender, she found Neville sitting over a mud-stained potting table, having a cup of tea with Jac.

Unfortunately, Jac spotted Cressida’s face straight away. “Cress!” She beckoned her over before she could make her hasty escape. “Professor Longbottom and I were just talking about the self-fertilizing shrubs we’ll be studying this year!”

“Interesting stuff, I’m sure,” Cressida smiled, coming into the room against her will.

“Good evening, Miss Knightly,” Neville smiled at her. “I heard from Ginny you ended up at the Burrow after all. Did you have a nice time?”

Cressida forced the polite smile to stay on her face to hide her discomfort at the question. “Yeah, it was alright.”

“Lana was so upset she couldn’t spend the whole summer with Rose, but her mum wanted to spend some time with her as well. I get to see Lana all year, so sometimes she feels a bit left out, you know. During the holidays is the only time we get to have the four of us together as a family,” Neville went on.

“Four?” Cressida questioned. She had been under the impression that Lana was his only child.

“Oh, Lana has an older sister- Alice. We decided against enrolling her in Hogwarts after she expressed wanting to stay close to home. Trying to get around this place in a wheelchair can be quite tedious, and plus, her magic hasn’t exactly presented itself yet… but she doesn’t seem to mind that,” Neville explained. Cressida and Jac were slightly surprised by this information. “Can I interest you in a cup of tea?” He asked then.

Cressida nodded, swallowing down her sudden hatred of tea as she took a seat, wondering more about Alice but deciding against asking imposing questions.

“Longbottom is thinking about starting up a gardening club this year!” Jac jumped in to keep the conversation moving along. “Isn’t that exciting?!”

An idea sprang into Cressida’s head immediately as she slid into a seat. “A gardening club? Would that mean growing your own magical plants and stuff?”

Longbottom seemed pleased to offer Cressida an enamel cup full of warm tea with a strange pink-ish hue as she sat down. “I suppose so. Depends if there’s interest, I know not everyone finds plants interesting-”

“Actually, professor, that’s the reason I came down,” Cressida started. “I was wondering if I could borrow some plants to get ahead on my studies for Potions.”

Neville looked enthralled to be able to help. “Of course! What do you need?” He asked, getting on his feet and going to admire his various pots and plants scattered around them. “I’m afraid the sprouts have only just come in for a lot of them. Slughorn’s already taken his matured supply, you see, so the start of the year is always a bit barren while I get everything established.”

Jac set her eyes on Cressida, confused at her sudden interest in plants. She also knew Cressida never liked to get ahead on her studies, giving away that she was up to something immediately.

Cressida ignored Jac’s questioning look and focused on Neville as he pulled on his gardening gloves, ready to pick whatever she wanted. A small part of her felt bad for using Neville’s kindness and sincerity like this, so she promised that if he did start a gardening club, she’d at least consider joining or popping in from time to time to help him keep his pots in order and clean.

“Um, just some valerian sprig, if you have any,” she answered. “And Molly mentioned wanting some lavender as well, to take the damp smell out of our room.”

Jac didn’t look any less confused by Cressida’s request. Potions was never her strongest subject.

Thankfully, Neville produced Cressida with a handful of the required ingredients before she could take a sip of her tea.

“Sorry, the roots are so small on the spring,” he apologized. “Like I said, they’re still coming in and they don’t like the cold very much.”

Cressida placed the plants into her bag gratefully. “Cheers, Longbottom. And thank you for the tea.”

“Anytime,” Longbottom smiled. “It’s a herbal blend I made myself. McGonagall loves the stuff.”

Cressida wasn’t surprised to find Jac hot on her heels as she left the greenhouses.

“What are you up to?” She whispered as the girls made their way back through the castle. “I meant it when I said, really don’t want to get a detention-”

“Relax, would you?” Cressida stopped her. “It’s not anything bad, it’s just the ingredients for a sleeping draught.”

“Sleeping draught?” Jac repeated. “Why do you need that?”

“Gee, Jac, I wonder,” Cressida replied sarcastically. “Maybe because this year I’d actually like to get a good night’s sleep.”

“You’re still having trouble?” She frowned. “But you told Mol-”

“I couldn’t stand any more tea and worried looks from her,” Cressida answered.

“You could’ve come to me,” she said, slightly offended.

Cressida turned her eyes on her. She couldn’t stand having to help Jac decide whether to dump Fred or not after everything he’d done to be a good friend to her over the summer. “I didn’t want to interrupt your beauty sleep.”

Jac sighed, looking forward again. “Well… Do you need any help with your potion, at least?”

They reached the stairs leading down to the dungeons. “You could keep tabs on Longbottom’s gardening club for me... that might come in handy,” Cressida answered. Jac perked up at being involved, meaning her promise of staying out of trouble this year was only skin-deep to some agree. “And don’t tell Molly. I don’t want her worrying.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” she said, holding out her pinky finger. Cressida locked her pinky around Jac’s and smiled at the childish action. “Besides,” Jac said as they joined the staircase, changing direction. “I was hoping to join a new club since the newspaper went out the window. I was thinking about auditioning for Frog Choir, but maybe I could do both-”

“Frog Choir?” Cressida echoed distastefully. “You want to join the wizard glee club?”

Jac shrugged, taking no offence. “Music is music in this place.”

*

By Tuesday, Cressida decided it was time to try and get around Slughorn to finish getting what she needed for her brewing process. Normally, she would’ve coerced the Gryffindors into helping her get it- knowing they somehow had a knack for getting ingredients under their belts without consequence or detection. But she thought getting them on their own to ask would be unlikely, given the current circumstances, so she had to think for herself.

However, when she walked in and saw what Slughorn had written on the blackboard, she knew this wasn’t going to be as simple as it had been when paying Longbottom a visit.

“Properties of Moonstone?” Cressida groaned as she sat beside Jac and Felix at a table. “How is that ever going to be useful?!”

“Well,” Molly started joining them at the table with her cauldron. Cressida put her head down on the table, awaiting the oncoming lesson that she hadn’t really wanted in the first place. “Crushed moonstone can be used in a lot of potions. I read about it last year. It’s what goes into the love potion and Draught of Peace- both of which are in the syllabus this year.”

“How is it you’re constantly a year ahead compared to the rest of us?” Felix asked her.

“Because I put in the work instead of loafing around,” she shot back.

Cressida lifted her head to watch Felix’s face contort into one of great offence. “I do not loaf!” He replied. “I lounge, because I’m an easy-going, relaxed person. There’s a difference!”

“Felix, you’re the smartest boy in the year, and yet you complain about doing homework that would take you five seconds compared to the rest of us,” Jac pointed out.

“Yeah, well, it’s about the principal,” he huffed, folding his arms. “I don’t believe in homework and therefore shouldn’t have to do it.”

Molly stared at him for a long time. “You are a ridiculous human being, Finnigan.”

Felix grinned like he’d received a compliment instead of an insult, leaning back on his stool proudly. “Thank you very much.”

Cressida was still staring at the board in defeat, trying to think of a way to get her hands on some Flubberworm mucus and standard ingredient without looking suspicious.

Slughorn gathered everyone around the front of the classroom to give them the debrief of going about turning the moonstone into a powder without damaging the quality and then called for them all to get into mixed groups of two.

Naturally, out of habit, the Slytherins turned to face the Gryffin-gang.

“Hey, Jamsie, isn’t moonstone what Dad used in his love potion in the shop?” Fred whispered to his two counterparts. “Reckon if we got our hands on that-”

“I choose Fred!” Cressida announced, cutting his scheme short before Jac could hear.

Everyone looked confused.

“You know we don’t have the book anymore, right?” Thomas questioned.

“I know.”

“And you still chose Fred?” Molly jumped in.

Fred momentarily looked offended.

“Yep,” Cressida confirmed.

With that, she grabbed Fred by the elbow and dragged him to a table away from the others, leaving them to fight between themselves over who went with whom.

As she started setting up, Fred lingered beside her, growing increasingly concerned. “Um… what have I done?”

Cressida was flipping through the textbook to the right page. She had to admit, she’d find it strange not having the answers written out properly for her anymore. It meant she’d actually have to put in some work to get a good grade at the end of the year. “What do you mean?”

“Well, normally you pick James-”

Cressida glared up at him. “You’re one of the only people who knows why I didn’t.”

“I think he thought you would still pick him,” Fred whispered, leaning down on the table to be the same height as her. He jutted his head to the side to show Potter beside Felix- a duo set up for disaster from the get-go. Cressida turned her eyes on them and was surprised to find Potter looking her way as Felix poked at their moonstone with his wand curiously.

When she caught him looking, James quickly turned away, pretending like he didn’t see her at all.

“Plus, I was rather hoping to be with Jac… considering she’s my girlfriend and all,” Fred went on, looking over at her who stood beside Thomas at a table on the other end of the room. “Or at least, she’s supposed to be.”

Cressida fought to keep her face neutral, cursing Jac for ever telling her what she was thinking when it came to their relationship. “She still not talking to you?”

“No, she is,” Fred answered, turning back to the task at hand. “The problem is she’s only talking about how much her mum hates me and nothing else.”

“Her family gets in her head sometimes,” Cressida tried to comfort him. “Puts a lot of expectations on her to be perfect. If it helps, they hate me too.”

“Why do I have to be perfect, though?” Fred asked haughtily. “I don’t see why she’s so fixated on it, honestly… it’d be alright if she’d still snog me in between telling me I’m a half-wit, but she won’t even act like we’re still boyfriend and girlfriend at the moment.”

Cressida didn’t have the heart to tell him that the longer he refused to understand why Jac was upset, the longer this draught they were going through would last. “Maybe you should talk to her… You know, about where you see you two being in a year’s time.”

Fred rolled his eyes. “Next year is ages away, you can never guess what shit will be like by that point in time, so why bother?” Cressida silently nodded in agreement, while simultaneously knowing that this point of view didn’t help Fred’s case in the slightest. “One good thing is, now I don’t have to worry about spending most of my free time with Jac because she’s in a mood, I can get a head start on our pranks for this year,” Fred went on.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” Cressida advised, still, despite her best efforts, trying to help him stop a sinking ship.

Fred frowned deeply. “Come on, Knightly, you should be more up for some fun than anyone, right now. James sure as hell isn’t coming up with any ideas. All he seems to do lately is trail around the castle looking lost, and poor Tommo has all the Prefect pin shit going on. If someone doesn’t do something soon, we’ll all turn into a bunch of swots that only do homework in our spare time.”

Cressida gnawed on the inside of her cheek. She wanted to save Fred’s relationship, she really did, but she couldn’t stop who he was at his core. “Why don’t you do something harmless just for you three instead of the whole castle?”

Fred scoffed. “There’s no spectacle in that, Knightly. I’m going to need something big to knock James out of his funk and get Tommo released from his Prefect duties.”

Knowing there was no talking Fred out of it, she grabbed the pestle and mortar and started crushing up tiny bits of stone to look busy as Slughorn flitted to and fro, checking on students’ progress. “Anyway, forget all that. I need a favour from you,” she said, changing the subject away from Jac.

Fred raised an eyebrow. “Knew you didn’t pair up with me for no reason. What do you need?”

“How do you get your supply of Flubberworm from Slughorn without him noticing?” She asked.

“We don’t go to Slughorn. We go to the source itself,” he answered.

Cressida hit herself on the head. It was so obvious now he’d said it. “Hagrid, of course!”

Fred sprinkled some more rocks into the mixture. “What do you need Flubberworm for?”

“Just a potion I want to try brewing-”

“Sleeping draught?” He guessed quickly. 

“No,” Cressida lied defensively.

Fred raised his eyebrow again, catching her out. “Does Molly know?”

“No.”

“Good. She’d only worry. I’ve heard her call it a gateway drug before,” Fred said. “She only made it for you at the end of last year because I convinced her it was the one thing she could do to help.”

Cressida fought back a laugh. “Christ, she’d never survive in Conwell.”

Fred grinned in reply, taking the pestle from her to do some of the work for himself. “My lips are sealed about your operation,” Fred agreed. “By the way, Slughorn sometimes harvests standard ingredients fresh from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Look for the track in the dirt and you’ll spot it no problem. We’ve been nicking it for years, and he hasn’t noticed yet.”

“Cheers, Freddie.”

“Now, because I helped you, can you please convince my girlfriend to get over this mum thing?” He asked desperately.

“I’ll try my best,” Cressida replied honestly.

*

By Wednesday afternoon, Cressida felt a desperate need for the sleeping draught now more than ever. But as she knelt over her cauldron in the hexagonal room late into the night, she knew there were still a few more ingredients to get before she could properly start brewing some semblance of a potion to help her. The most annoying thing was she knew where she had to go to get them, but every night once darkness hit, she found herself standing staring out at the dark rain slashing down over the grounds and couldn’t bring herself to step out into it on her own. Every time, for one reason or another, she found herself retreating back into the dryness of the castle, hiding out in her hexagonal room until sunrise came.

Rain never used to bother her that much, but since the summer, she had a new, strong aversion to being out in it, which made things difficult until it finally stopped, which didn’t seem to be any time soon.

She was mulling over her plan silently in her head during dinner in the hall. Felix and Molly had once again been whisked away to deal with some troublesome Slytherin Second Years, causing trouble in the dungeons after lessons. Jac had been sitting by her side for most of the meal, but then she had disappeared out of the hall alongside Fred- seemingly in another hushed bickering fest about Fred getting a detention in Astronomy earlier that morning.

As she was absent-mindedly pushing her peas around her plate, her eyes couldn’t help but glance over to the Gryffindor table again. Thomas and James were still finishing their meals, engaging each other in casual conversation. As if feeling her eyes on him, James' head turned towards her, seeing her sitting there alone.

She looked away again, blowing her fringe out of her face, when someone took up residency beside her.

“So,” Thane said, picking one of the peas from her plate and flicking it into his mouth nonchalantly. “I take it you made it past Valentina alright the other night… considering she hasn’t cursed your name and bloodline yet.”

Cressida lifted her grey eyes to him, sitting on her hands to stop her nails digging into her palms. “She’s not as scary as she thinks she is.”

Thane smirked. “I’ll leave that up for debate,” he replied, pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice. “How goes the plan for information domination on Fletcher?”

“Getting a good night’s sleep is the current plan.” 

Thane looked concerned for her. “That wasn’t what I had in mind when I told you to get it together.”

“It’s the best I've got.”

Thane finished his juice. “In that case, I hope your sweet dreams give you a better plan, because you’ll need one.” Cressida watched his eyes fall in the opposite direction of the hall. Knowing what was about to come, she shuffled back slightly away from Thane and took sudden interest in her half-eaten dinner. "Potter seems less doe-eyed than normal. He got a cold or something?"

Cressida didn't answer, refusing to look up at Thane or over towards Potter.

Despite that, she could practically feel Thane's smirk growing as he put two and two together. "Don't tell me you and lover-boy are on the outs? That wouldn't have anything to do with your heightened emotions that we're not talking about from the other night, would it?"

"Try not to look so happy about it," she glared at him.

Thane quirked his eyebrow, cleverly keeping his thoughts to himself as he got to his feet, leaning over the table one last time to steal another pea. “I'm not usually one to care, but... even if you and Potter aren't a dynamic duo anymore, something tells me you might want to move quietly if you’re going to pull this off without righteous lectures,” he went on. “Eyes are still watching.”

He jutted his chin across the hall as he departed. Cressida turned her attention back to the Gryffindor table, where James was still staring over at her, clearly ignoring whatever Thomas was still talking about beside him.

It didn’t take a genius to decipher that James wouldn’t like the idea of pinning down Mundungus Fletcher for information. She couldn’t risk him or any of her friends trying to stop her. Thane was right about that.

Ignoring the look on his face, Cressida grabbed her bag and left the hall shortly after Thane.

*

That night, deciding the comfort of her bed would be preferable over the hardwood floors of the secret room for a change, Cressida lay on her stomach reading by wand light through a ‘Healing Plants and Fauna’ book she’d checked out from the library out of curiosity, when her curtain twitched.

She looked up, dog-earing the book preemptively, wondering who it could be.

Whoever it was seemed hesitant to reveal themselves, as the curtain twitched two more times until Cressida bit the bullet and pulled them back herself, only to find Jac there fighting with her braid.

“Oh, good. I was worried you might be asleep,” Jac whispered, clambering in through the curtains, taking Cressida’s face as an invitation.

Cressida tried to hide her small amount of disappointment as she made room for her on the bed. “No, I’m still working on the solution to that problem, unfortunately.”

“I’m starting to have a similar problem,” Jac sighed, making herself comfy as she performed the silencing charm so they could talk freely without waking Molly in her own bed and Felix, who was snoring loudly on the chaise lounge in the corner of the room with Rasper tucked contentedly at his side for warmth.

“I saw you and Freddie arguing again earlier,” Cressida said, sensing the underlying issue.

“He just can’t seem to help himself sometimes,” Jac huffed, staring up at the cloth ceiling. “He doesn’t understand where I’m trying to come from about being more sensible this year. He just keeps joking that I’ve been spending too much time with Mol.”

Cressida decided against offering her opinion. If Jac was going to make this decision, she had to do it on her own.

Jac glanced over at Cressida’s lap when she didn’t say anything. “What are you reading?”

Cressida realized she was still holding the book and discarded it onto the growing pile on her nightstand. “Nothing interesting, just some healing books.”

“Is the dittany not helping anymore?” Jac asked worried. “Molly says that’s really bad if that stops-”

“No, it’s not that,” Cressida stopped her before she began to panic. “It’s just during summer Potter was using something else to heal his scars, something stronger. I’m trying to figure out what it was.”

“Why not just ask him?” Jac asked logically.

Cressida shrugged, pushing her hair back out of her face. “Was there something you wanted?” She asked, dodging Jac’s question entirely.

“Yes, actually,” Jac perked up, forgetting she’d even asked anything a second ago. “I was wondering if you wanted to help me with something?”

“Oh?” Cressida asked, intrigued.

“It’s near Hagrid’s-”

“Fuck off. It’s chucking it down out there!” Cressida interrupted her.

“Oh, come on, please? I sneak out with you when you need something all the time!” Jac reminded her. “It’s important… and I can show you how to do that umbrella spell to keep us both dry. Fred taught me it last year, it’s dead easy.”

She mulled it over. She still wasn’t thrilled about the rain aspect, but having Jac as company would make it a bit less daunting to take on her own reason for being out there.

“Fine,” Cressida agreed, throwing her legs over the side of the bed to pull on her trainers. “But if I catch a cold from all this rain, I’m going to curse you in your sleep.”

“Don’t forget your wand,” Jac whispered, pulling on shoes for herself and a hooded coat. “You’re going to need it.”

Begrudgingly, Cressida trudged her way through the rain and the mud behind Jac, her wand pointed up, causing an invisible umbrella over the pair of them as they went, doing a very bad job of keeping them dry.

“Why did you even want to come out here?” Cressida asked through the miserable weather and darkness.

“To get Groot,” Jac answered over her shoulder, using her own wand for some light to guide them.

“We came out in this for your pet stick?! I thought you took him home with you at the end of last year?”

“I decided to leave him here with his family during the summer,” Jac explained, ducking under a branch. “Good thing really, with everything that happened. If Mum had found a secret magical stick latched onto my bag everywhere I went, she’d probably have put him out with the hedge trimmings by accident. I was hoping to come and get him once it was dry, but now I’m getting worried this storm will flood the castle and they’ll move further into the forest to keep dry.”

They came to the spot Hagrid had shown them last year, where the bowtruckles took up residency in a thick Wiggentree tree. Jac put out her wand light in fear of startling the group, as they could be quite nasty to fight off if they thought you were a threat to their precious tree-home.

Looking at the bowtruckles scampering about the foliage in front of them, every single green stick looked the same. “How will you know which one is Groot?” Cressida questioned. “Try and pick up the wrong one and you’ll lose your finger.”

Jac hummed thoughtfully. “Well, I was hoping he’d remember me. Hagrid said they have brains, although small, which means they can form bonds and remember familiar things.”

Cressida looked unconvinced. Most of the bowtruckles backed away as they approached closer, hiding themselves and blending in with the regular leaves. “If you say so.”

Jac slowly held out her hand flat, palm up, with a juicy worm wriggling on it, to the lowest branches. Again, the tiny creatures continued to scurry away and hide, although a few showed interest in the worm being offered to them.

Then, to Cressida’s surprise, a tiny face popped out curiously from a hole in the tree.

“That’s him!” Jac beamed.

“How can you tell?” Cressida frowned, still doubtful.

They both watched as a bowtruckle flung itself out of the hole, knocking some fellow bowtruckles out of his way, as he scampered down to Jac’s hand, where he immediately wrapped his tiny twig hands around her fingers in some sort of embrace before digging into the worm meal for himself like he’d won the lottery.

“See,” Jac smiled. “Told you he’d remember me.”

Cressida relented, reaching out a finger and bopping Groot on his tiny leaf head by way of hello. “I take it back. Your twig does have a brain.”

“Shall we head back in the warm now?” Jac asked then. “I can summon us some hot chocolate.”

“Actually, now we’re out here, I need something from just up ahead in the forest,” Cressida said, figuring the rain really wasn’t as bad now she had Jac by her side with a guiding light.

Jac attached Groot to the end of her braid, where he likes to swing before grabbing her wand. “Alright,” she agreed, lighting up her wand again. “But we’re definitely getting something hot and chocolatey when we get back in. I’m practically soaked through!”

*

Thursday Morning, despite her midnight escapades with Jac the night prior, Cressida was forcing herself to act a bit more alive than she felt as the group was all anxiously awaiting having their first Defence Against The Dark Arts class run by Teddy.

Whimbrel had given them too lowdown of their subjects and topics for the year in their first week back, and he’d said every other lesson from there on out would be led by Mr Lupin.

Cressida had to admit, she’d find it hard seeing Teddy as ‘Mr Lupin’. Even McGonagall seemed hesitant to call him by such a name, as every time the Headmistress passed him in the hall or mentioned him, she simply still called him Teddy.

“I saw him talking to his dad the other day,” Molly mentioned to them on their way to the aforementioned class. “Asking for some tips on how to be a good teacher… I think that’s the whole reason he’s even doing this. So he can feel closer to his dad in some sense.”

“Must be hard,” Jac agreed. “But does Teddy strike anyone as the teaching type? I mean… he used to get into loads of trouble when he was here in our First Year, never mind what he got up to around the Burrow during the summers. I’m surprised McGonagall let him set foot back in her precious castle.”

“I think he’ll be alright,” Cressida spoke up, chewing on a liquorice wand Felix had given her half of.

“I think the class will be on fire within the hour,” Felix joked in reply.

“Ten sickles says you’re all wrong,” Cressida said confidently.

“I’ll take that bet,” Felix grinned, shaking hands with her instantly. “Like taking knuts from a Niffler.”

The group hushed as they reached the door.

Every year before now, Cressida dreaded this lesson. She was never exactly skilled in the topics at hand, and at every turn, before she had Arabella sneering in her ear.

But when she walked into the classroom and saw Teddy sitting on a wooden stool in front of the blackboard with the word ‘Counter jinxes’ on it, she had a feeling this year would be different.

Whimbrel went about giving the usual basic introduction to the topic, including some harrowing story of how he fought off a giant with the use of a knock-back jinx one time, before he handed over centre stage to Teddy.

He got up from his wooden stool and almost looked right at home as he used his wand as a pointing stick. “Counter jinxes,” he started, tapping the board dramatically. “Not really a thing, in technical terms. It’s basically just one jinx cancelling out another jinx, which means a counter jinx could be anything you wanted. How many of you here are in the Dualling Club?”

Only two hands from Ravenclaw went up, and, surprisingly, Jeremiah Vonce’s hand from Slytherin.

“Tell me your favourite jinx,” Teddy asked of them.

“The tickling spell,” one of the Ravenclaws threw out there.

“Bat bogey hex,” Jeremiah said next.

“Ouch, that’s a nasty one,” Teddy cringed in reply to Jeremiah. Cressida had to agree, having seen it performed only once, she sure wasn’t a fan of it ever happening to her. “So… say you had someone out to get you,” he said, starting to parade around the front of the classroom, twirling his wand in his hand. “Someone very handy with jinxes, shall we say?” He stopped suddenly, raising his wand. “Levicorpus!”

Felix was suddenly yanked upwards, hanging upside down a foot off the ground.

“Hmm, nicely done,” Whimbrel commented off to the side.

The class erupted into laughter as Felix hung there in midair, his arms folded and an angry pout on his face.

“I thought teachers were banned from using students for demonstration?” Molly spoke up, concerned.

Teddy shrugged, coming closer to them. “It’s only Felix.”

“Why me?” Felix asked Teddy as he began to slowly rotate in a circle.

“Because I need someone to tell me the counter jinx before all the blood rushes to your head,” Teddy grinned, poking Felix so he spun slightly faster. “Better make it quick, too. He’ll start going purple soon.”

“Liberacorpus!” Cressida performed the spell easily, sending Felix back to the ground in a crumbled heap.

Teddy nodded proudly. “Knew one of you would know it.”

Felix stood up and dusted off his robes. “Alright then, when do we get to throw you up in the air?”

Teddy extended his arms out. “Be my guest.”

“Wait, really?” Jac asked like she was waiting for the punchline to a joke.

“Sure,” Teddy smiled at them. “I want you in two lines, side by side. One of you will send me up, one of you will bring me down again.”

With a wave of his wand, Teddy poofed a pile of pillows into existence for him to land on.

All the students looked to Whimbrel, watching on as he scratched at his stubbly beard. “Well, what are you waiting for? You heard to wee mad lad. Get to jinxing!”

Everyone rushed to get into their two lines excitedly.

Cressida held out her hand expectantly.

“Alright, fine, I guess he is rather good.” Felix rummaged around in his robes and produced the required amount of sickles.

“Like taking knuts from a Niffler,” Cressida repeated smugly, pocketing the money for herself. She’d put the money in Molly’s bag when she wasn’t looking to pay her back for the butterbeer fiasco from summer, but she was more than happy to make Felix think he’d lost a bet in the meantime.

*

By Friday afternoon, Cressida had compiled all the necessary ingredients for her potion. She’d stopped by Hagrid’s first thing in the morning, only by a stroke of luck, to find him preparing the flubberworm for the current Third Years.

“Ye alrigh’, Cressida?” He greeted her with a happy wave as he squelched over in the rain. “Shouldn’t be comin’ down in this weather. It’s raining kneazels and hinkypunks out here!”

“Molly sent me to ask when you were free for a visit from us?” She told him, using her hand to cover her eyes from the rain. It wasn’t exactly a lie. Molly had expressed the day before that she’d like to find time to pop down and see Hagrid; she figured she’d kill two birds with one stone.

“Well, I just had James’ lot here yesterday. I got Roxanne and Lily-Luna stopping by tomorrow morning with little Hugo. I’m sure Rose will be by some point today, she said…” Hagrid laughed once he’d listed them off. “Blimey, I got so many people coming to see me now, it’s hard to keep track! Tell yer what, I should have a batch of rock cakes ready on Sunday if yer want to swing by then.”

Cressida tried to ignore the thought of breaking a tooth on another batch of Hagrid’s rock cakes. “I’ll let her know.” She watched him plonk down a bucket full of goo outside of the allocated pen for the flubberworms. “Is that from the worms, Hagrid?”

“It’s their mucus, it is,” he confirmed. “Making buckets of it at the minute because of the weather. They love the wet and humid days.”

“Do you want me to run that up to Slughorn for you?” She offered. “I’m heading that way anyway.”

“That’d be mighty helpful, if yer don’t mind!” Hagrid lit up, hoisting the bucket over the pen to drop it at her feet. “Stay there a sec, I got another two in the hut you can take with you an’ all.”

Cressida tried not to gag at the amount of goo being bestowed upon her under the guise of a favour, but at least it meant she wouldn’t be in short supply of the stuff.

After a brief stop at the hexagonal room to decant some of the goo into two bottles for herself under the curious eyes of Sirius’ portrait, Cressida fulfilled her promise of delivering the rest of the flubberworm mucus to Slughorn, who seemed thrilled to receive such a gift.

Wizards were strange people, Cressida deduced for herself as she made her way to her next lesson of Transfiguration. When she appeared at the door where everyone was waiting to go in, Molly frowned at her.

“What the fuck have you got on your uniform?” Felix asked before Molly got a chance.

Cressida glanced down to see a big blob of mucus on her skirt. “Shit, does anyone remember the cleaning spell?”

“Scourgify,” James said as he and the two boys came up to join the Slytherins.

Cressida tried to hide her surprise that James was the one who answered. “Thanks,” she muttered, producing her wand and performing the spell quietly.

“Care to explain why you have some sort of substance on your clothes this early in the morning?” Molly questioned.

“I was doing a delivery for Hagrid,” she answered honestly for once. “He can see us on Sunday, by the way.”

“Oh, lovely,” Molly perked up. “Are you lot going to join?” She asked the Gryffindors.

“We just went,” Thomas said. “My teeth need a break to recover before I risk heading down again.”

“Actually, we were thinking of changing Minnie’s mind about Thomas’ badge on Sunday anyway,” Fred admitted, clapping Thomas on the shoulder.

“By doing what?” Jac asked nervously.

“Proving he’s not Prefect worthy,” Fred elaborated like it were obvious.

“Quidditch Captain tryouts are next week, and I need all the energy I can muster to ace it,” Thomas explained. “Which means I can’t waste precious training time wandering the halls looking for straggling First Years.”

“Can you lump me in with that plan?” Felix asked.

“No, he cannot!” Molly said firmly. “And Thomas isn’t getting out of being a Prefect either! McGonagall picked you for a reason. It’s an honour-”

“Oh, give in, Mol,” James stopped her rant. “It’s a phoney responsibility to keep people out of trouble, which is the opposite of our life’s purpose. If Tommo doesn’t want to do it, she’ll get some other poor, soft-headed sod to do it instead.”

The door up ahead opened, and McGonagall appeared in the doorway with a tight smile. “Good morning, students,” she greeted them.

For a small moment, Cressida wondered if she’d heard their conversation, but as she started letting students into the classroom, she assumed they were in the clear.

“Oh, and Wood,” she called out as everyone filed in. “If you didn’t want to be Prefect this badly due to Quidditch, you should’ve just said. Being a potential Quidditch Captain is a good enough reason and enough responsibility to pass the buck, as it were, on this occasion.”

“Really?” Thomas asked, elated. Cressida narrowed her brow, knowing this seemed uncharacteristic for McGonagall

“Of course,” the Headmistress replied, going to sit behind her desk. There was a beat of silence. “Pass it on to Potter.”

“WHAT?!” James snapped around as the group all tried, and failed, to hide their laughter at his expense. “Why me? I could be Quidditch Captain too!”

“Alright then. Whichever one of you two gets Quidditch Captain, if one of you does… the other shall take on the role of Prefect,” McGonagall bargained with them.

“That’s so unfair!” James complained.

“Done!” Thomas agreed on behalf of both of them.

Fred ruffled James’ hair. “Unlucky, Jamsie. Everyone knows Wood’s going to get Captain. It’s basically his birthright.”

James stood there dumbfounded by how he just got stitched up, and was incredibly annoyed about it- which Felix found incredibly funny.

“Good luck keeping everyone out of trouble now, Potter!” He laughed as they all started taking their seats.

“Yeah, Cress gives you enough trouble as it is, never mind the whole castle,” Jac joined in on the joke.  

James plonked down into his seat with a vexed sigh. “I’ll take my chances with the castle.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cressida asked, leaning around Thomas to face James as they sat down.

“It means, clearly, I’m not the right person to keep you out of trouble anymore,” James replied, looking around Fred from the other end of the table. “If I ever was…”

“And what trouble am I in, exactly?” She asked haughtily.

McGonagall appeared in front of their desk, clearing her throat pointedly. “I’m about to begin my lesson, so if you could keep your brewing argument until the end of the class, I’d be very grateful,” she instructed quietly as she passed.

Cressida turned away from James, sitting back in her chair with her arms crossed, cursing his name a million different ways. Fred and Thomas gave each other an uncomfortable look at being situated between the pair, but there was nothing that could be done about that now. McGonagall had started her lesson on the theory of vanishing spells.

*

Cressida had decided to cool off in the secret room alone for the rest of the afternoon after Potter’s comment. Fortunately for her, having all the ingredients in her possession finally meant she could start brewing her sleeping draught, and following the instructions from her potions book gave her a good distraction until curfew hit.

Once she had spooned the liquid into a little vial to test its effectiveness and placed it safely in her pocket, she rushed back down towards her dorm room before Valentina- or worse, Molly- started their patrol.

Cressida made it down the numerous stairs and turned the corner only to see a body blocking her path.

James stood beside the stairway leading down to the dungeons, clearly waiting for her. He straightened up as she approached, not slowing down in her rampage as she gained on him.

“What, you lurk around corners to take jabs at me now?” She chided, trying to shove past him, unsure if he was even going to say anything or just stare at her like he had been for the last two weeks.

“I’m sorry about what I said,” he stopped her.

She paused, against her better judgment, meeting his eyes. “Which time?”

He sighed, clenching his jaw. “Look, I didn’t come here to argue-”

“Then why are you here, James?” She asked, frustratedly.

“Because I need the truth.”

Cressida scowled. “About what?”

“Why were you in Knockturn Ally, for starters?” He said tightly.

Her back went up. “Took you long enough to say something.”

“Took me this long because I’ve spent all this time wondering what you could possibly need in that place.”

Cressida rolled her eyes. “Maybe it doesn’t concern you anymore. Have you thought about that?”

“Was it to do with your dad?” He asked bluntly.

Cressida looked away, poking her tongue in cheek. “So what if it was? It clearly didn’t give me anything useful.”

James made a step forward. “Knightly, you shouldn’t have gone snooping around there alone-”

“Why, because it’s dangerous?” She asked mockingly. “Walking into a shop for two seconds was hardly top of the list for dangerous things to happen to me as of late.”

“That’s the other thing,” James embellished with rising vexation. “I need to know what happened to you in summer.”

She took a step back, shaking her head. “Fucking Christ, Potter. Can’t you let one thing go?”

“No, actually, I can’t!” He snapped back. “Seeing you every day. You showing up in the summer like you did. Not knowing what happened to you… I just- I’m trying to keep you at arm's length, but it seems impossible. I gave you your space at the Burrow, I thought you’d go to someone even if it wasn’t me… and then I hear from Jac that you might not have even been on that train last week!”

“Thought you might’ve preferred that, honestly-”

“Just because we’re not together anymore doesn’t mean I magically stopped caring, Cressida!” He told her loudly. “If you hadn’t been on that train, I think I would’ve lost my mind. I did lose my mind the whole summer thinking of you stuck in Wales on your own. I heard Madam Pomfrey before we left, too. I knew you weren’t in a fit state to not be around people who could help you get better-”

“I had my mum,” she snapped defensively.

“Fat lot of good she did for you, clearly!”

Cressida’s eyes grew cold. “What do you want me to say, Potter? What has to come out of my mouth for you people to stop asking questions about my summer, huh? Because I’ll say them. I’ll do the whole song and dance if it means I get to not answer anymore phony questions on how my summer was!”

“You haven’t answered any questions about your summer!” James countered frantically.

“Because it’s none of your business!”

“Well, it needs to be someone’s business!”

Cressida paused, a puzzle clicking into place in her brain. “Oh my god. You’re the one who went to McGonagall, aren’t you?”

James averted his eyes slightly. “I had to. You wouldn’t tell anyone what happened.”

“For good reason, James!” She yelled at him as if he were clueless.

“What the fuck happened to you in Conwell, Cressida?” James pressed on desperately. “Just tell me one thing! Tell me why you showed up at my door! Tell me why you looked like you went through hell-!”

“Because I did go through hell!” She snapped back before he could finish. “Gareth came back. He made us miserable just like before. He threatened to keep me trapped in Conwell to be his little maid, and I knew I had to get myself out of there! So that’s what I did. I did. No one was coming to save me. Not even you!”

He ignored her rising temper. “You could’ve said something-”

“You wouldn’t even look at me when I arrived!”

James moved forward. “If I had known, I would’ve understood.”

“How could you possibly understand?! Besides, it wouldn’t have changed anything! What, you wanted me to come crying on your shoulder so you can be the big hero that fixes everything and tells me it’s okay again? Well, guess what- it wouldn’t have worked, because he’s still in my home with my mother, who for some fucking reason has lost her damn mind! How are you going to fix that, magic man?”

“You could’ve come to us sooner,” he pointed out.

“I didn’t want to come to you at all!” She admitted. “You think I wanted you, any of you, to see me like that. Like some weak little girl who couldn’t handle it-”

“Cress-“

“Don’t you dare ‘Cress’ me!” She stopped him. “I didn’t tell you, not because you didn’t ask, but because I didn’t want you to know.”

“But why?!” He asked again.

“Because what if they take me away from her?!” Cressida choked out. Tears of anger and hurt swelled in her eyes despite her best efforts to keep herself together. James stared back at her. “It nearly happened before… when I was little. They tried to take me away from my mum. I don’t remember much, but I know she got it together enough to keep me. She fought to keep me, James. She loves me… if I go and start telling anyone and everyone what happened, they might blame her and take me away, and I can’t let that happen. She needs me. I’m all she’s got.”

“Cressida-”

“No, don’t, James,” she stopped him, wiping her eyes furiously. “Don’t try and make everything sound okay because it isn’t. None of what happened was okay! Not between me and mum. Not between us. None of it. None of it is fair!”

She sniffed, unable to stop the tears at the thought of it all coming to the surface again.

James remained standing in front of her, seeming to fight back glassy eyes himself. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” he muttered after a while.

“But it is,” she argued back, laughing through her tears despite it being far from funny. “And I have to live with that, so do us both a favour and stop lurking around corners and looking at me like you do… because I can only feel this much pain about one thing at a time and seeing you… Having you here, in front of me, and not being able to figure out if you hate me or not, it’s tearing me apart more than anything else.”

James’ own cheeks had tear stains running down them as he tried to hide his expression behind fidgeting and looking down. “I don’t know how I feel about you anymore, Knightly. I can’t love you. I can’t be your friend… I can’t pretend you’re nothing.” Cressida couldn’t bring herself to reply, only stare back into his tear-stained eyes through her own. “For some reason, I convinced myself that if I could finally get the truth out of you, it would put my mind at ease and I could stop worrying about it and go back to keeping my distance… turns out, it’s much worse knowing than not knowing.”

“Yeah, well,” she sniffed, finally looking away. “Sometimes the truth ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

Cressida, feeling like there was nothing left to say, turned and slowly started descending the stairs to the dungeon, leaving James behind in the warm glow of the hallway above her.